On-Page SEO Guide for E-commerce Websites

Maximizing the website reach is critical, especially for managing online stores. Fret not. This is possible with an advanced On-page SEO strategy.

What will you get from using the on-page SEO for your e-commerce website?

According to studies, the total value of online sales was $1.3 trillion in 2014, but by 2022, it had soared to a massive $5.7 trillion.

• With on-page SEO, you’ll grow in the online shopping world.
• You’ll maximize your sales as more people shop online.
• Search engines will easily find your website.
• Your online store will be more likely for potential customers to discover and buy your products.

Tips for On-Page SEO Optimization for E-commerce Websites

SEO for e-commerce is not easy, as millions of stores are online, making the task hard, and you might find it difficult to make your store visible online.

Implementing a well-thought-out and effective strategy is the key to ensuring your store achieves optimal ranking and indexing.

Let’s look at some of the key ideas for enhancing on-page SEO and obtaining worthwhile organic traffic

1-Keyword Research and Optimization

Keywords are short and long-tail phrases buyers use while searching for their desired products.

• You should know these keywords to understand buyers’ desire to use the right product.
• Search for keywords using tools like SEMrush, Google Keyword Planner, etc.
• Search in your SERP on the section ‘People also Ask’ to understand what buyers are looking for.
• Incorporating well-researched keywords enhances your website’s visibility and encourages buyers to buy products from your website.

Related: How to Do Keyword Research for An ecommerce Website?

Keyword Intent

Understanding keyword intent is essential to use the right keywords for your ecommerce business sales growth.

There are 4 different types of keyword intent:

1. Informational Intent: Users seek information or answers to a specific question or topic.

Example: “How to bake a chocolate cake”

Strategy: Create informative content that comprehensively answers the user’s query. This could include step-by-step guides, tutorials, blog posts, or articles.

2. Navigational Intent: Users look for a specific website or page.

For example, searching for “Facebook login” indicates a navigational intent to access the Facebook website.

Strategy: Optimize the title tags, and meta description. Claim your brand online. Update NAP (your business name, address, and phone number).

3. Transactional Intent: Users are interested in purchasing or taking a specific action.

Example: “Buy iPhone 13 online”

Strategy: Optimize product pages, create compelling CTAs, and provide clear information about products or services. Implement e-commerce SEO techniques for online stores.

Related: Step-by-Step Guide: SEO Best Practices for Ecommerce Websites 

4. Commercial (Investigational) Intent: Users research to compare different products or services before deciding.

Example: “Best digital cameras 2024”

Strategy: Create in-depth buying guides, product comparisons, and reviews. Include pricing information, pros, and cons to help users make informed choices.

To effectively target keyword intent in SEO, conduct keyword research to identify relevant keywords for your industry or niche.

Related: 5 SEO Concepts to Master in 2024 

Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz can help you discover keyword ideas and understand the search volume and competition for each keyword.

Once you’ve identified relevant keywords, create high-quality content that aligns with the user’s intent behind those keywords.

This will improve your website’s chances of ranking higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more targeted traffic to your site.

Image Source- FasterCapital

2- Optimize Your Ecommerce Product and Category Pages

a) Optimizing your eCommerce product and category pages includes heading tags, meta descriptions, and the structure of your website – all of which are part of on-page SEO.

b) Enhance the content of your product description:

By listing your product well, you can convince customers to buy your products. Also, the content helps the SERP rank your website accordingly.

For better results, remember these points.

1. Which elements on the page are vital?
2. How can you enhance visibility by using these elements?
3. How do you use the information to write effective product descriptions?

These questions can help you write customer-specific content, encouraging them to buy the product on your website.

Also, when writing the description, use the following elements:

• High-quality and high-resolution images
• Product-specific information
• Includes Calls to action (CTA)
• Including testimonials

c) High-quality Images

Adding the usual image can sometimes decrease the cutlers’ interest in buying the product. So, add original, high-resolution images to enhance audience interest.

Also, not using many images can confuse and irritate your buyers. Remember these points when optimizing your image.

1. Use ALT tags in the caption.
2. Keep image quality high by using it in a small size
3. Make use of keywords in file names

Image Source- Search Engine Journal

3. Make Sure Your Site Is User-Friendly

User experience, or UX, is important for good customer satisfaction. When creating your store page, ensure it fulfills the user’s needs. The website should also be structured to make users’ purchase journeys easy and effective.

In addition, this can help you sell your product easily.

Do not run after the beauty of the page, but look for the work. This can be done only by:

1. Optimizing your website page
2. Making it easy to navigate
3. The overall structure of the page.

Your page should also load faster. If it is slow, buyers may get irritated and leave the page.

Ensure all pages are informative and include the details of what the customers want.

The other point that affects the user experience is interfering with ads. So, make sure no ads interfere with your site.

Additional points to make the website user-friendly

1. Check how much time the user spends on your E-commerce website
2. Which page do the users spend more time on?
3. Is the CTA working well?
4. Regularly check the user’s feedback.

Analyzing these points can give you an accurate analysis of your page, allowing you to set the page structure and others accordingly.

Image Source- FasterCapital

4. Keyword Optimized URL Structure

The well-structured URL helps buyers open the web page easily with no hurdles. This increases the trafficking of the website and attracts new customers.

Does the URL help boost sales?

YES.

It directly links to your E-commerce page, which customers can see with a single click.

When you structure URLs well, you can get benefits such as trafficking, new customers, and overall growth for your E-commerce business.

The URL contains a domain name, protocol, and path.

Image Source- Design Power

• In the image above, the protocol is the first element, and it helps the SERP to get the information on the web page.
• The second is the subdomain; it is added according to the content of your page. You can keep any subdomain as you want.
• Domain is the name for the actual location of your website.
• The TDLs are- com, net, org, and many others.
• The slug defines the actual category of the page.
• And the last, permalink refers to the page’s exact address in formats such as files and documents.

Check the below table that contains quality of URLs, descriptions, examples and counter examples. All these points can help you build a perfect URL for your prominent buyers.

Quality	Description	Example	Counter-Example
Clarity & Readability	Use descriptive words and phrases	/women/shoes/sandals/leather-wedge-heels	/product/12345
	Short and concise	/men/hats/fedora	/men/hats/black-wool-felt-fedora-with-adjustable-band
	Use hyphens to separate words	/womens-swimwear/one-piece	/womens_swimwear/onepiece
SEO Friendliness	Include relevant keywords	/running-shoes/trail-running/waterproof	/shoes/runners/waterproof
	Reflect website hierarchy	/clothing/dresses/cocktail/sequined-black-midi	/dresses/sequined-black-midi
	Use static, persistent URLs	/jeans/skinny-blue	/jeans/skinny-blue?id=789&color=blue
User Experience	Consistent structure throughout the website	/category/subcategory/product	/products/shirts/blue/button-down/linen
	Memorable and easy to type	/sunglasses/aviator/polarized	/sunglasses/style-a123
	Mobile-friendly and readable on small screens	/phone-cases/iphone-14/floral	/phonecases/iphone14/flowery

According to Backlinko, pages with well-structured URLs rank slightly higher than those without (correlation analysis).

5. Write an Engaging Meta Title & Description

• Meta title: Also known as the title tag, a meta title is an HTML element that specifies a web page’s title. It is displayed as the main headline in search engine results and in the title bar of a web browser when a user visits the page. The ideal length of a meta title is about 60 characters.
• Meta description: This HTML element provides a brief summary or description of the content on a web page. It is displayed beneath the meta title in search engine results. The ideal length of a meta description is 155 to 160 characters.

For better results, make sure to write effective meta tags, as this can attract your customers and encourage them to click on your page URL.

A proper meta description helps your page rank well, as the search engine optimizes it cleverly.

Also, the meta tags help to increase the CTR (click-through rate).

Meta tags placed properly on mobile and other devices help to generate interest in the audience while searching the products.

Writing Meta Title and Meta Descriptions

Meta Titles	Meta Descriptions
Include relevant keywords early (under 60 characters).	Keep it under 160 characters for full visibility.
Clearly convey the page’s purpose briefly.	Naturally, incorporate relevant keywords.
Showcase unique selling points for differentiation.	Emphasize product benefits and user needs.
Prioritize keywords or emphasize the brand if a selling point.	Include a compelling call-to-action for engagement.
Use words that prompt action for a sense of urgency.	Ensure concise, impactful descriptions for mobile users.
	Add location-based info for a local presence.
	Regularly analyze performance and refine content.

6. Use Reviews to Improve Your On-Page E-commerce SEO

According to Google, e-commerce businesses that respond to reviews and set up their web pages accordingly can gain greater credibility than others. Moreover, the reviews help customers decide whether to purchase the product.

To get good customer reviews, follow these steps,

• Change the web page content regularly if you are not getting good reviews. This can help you get good reviews from new buyers.
• Provide exceptional customer service. This helps the audience build trust with your brand and helps your webpage to rank at the top.
• Make the review process simple so buyers can share their thoughts easily with no hassle.
• Offer incentives for good reviews. This can help you get positive reviews for your E-commerce page.
• Engage on social media. Excessive advertising increases the chance that people will click on your link and buy your product.
• Use a thank-you page. After a successful product purchase, create a thank-you page that encourages customers to leave good reviews.

Image Source- Tagembed

7- Build Internal links

According to user behavior studies, visitors are more likely to convert into customers when they can easily navigate a website.

So, internal links strategically placed within product descriptions, related items, or categories can guide users seamlessly, increasing engagement and conversion rates.

Internal linking aids in transferring PageRank, or authority, to other website pages.

In addition, Google utilizes a formula called PageRank to determine how important a webpage is in ranking.

Image Source- Seobility

How can internal linking help customers during their purchase journey?

Here are several ways in which internal linking can be beneficial:

Navigation and User Experience:

• Internal links can guide customers through your website, helping them easily navigate from one page to another. This ensures a smoother and more enjoyable user experience. Using descriptive anchor text in internal links helps customers understand where the link will take them, improving clarity and reducing frustration.
• Linking product pages to customer reviews or testimonials builds trust and provides additional information, helping customers make more informed purchasing decisions.
• Internal links connect related products or services, encouraging customers to explore additional options and potentially increasing their purchase value.
• If you have educational content related to your products, internal links can guide customers to this material, helping them better understand your products and how to use them.
• Strategically placed internal links guide customers toward conversion points, such as the shopping cart or checkout page. This can help streamline the purchasing process.

Moreover, strong internal linking tactics boost conversion rates by 15%, claims SEMrush.

As a result, you can improve the likelihood that users will complete a desired action by directing them to pertinent product pages, related articles, and helpful resources.

8- Improve Core Web Vitals

Optimizing core web vitals is the best practice for a good ranking of your e-commerce and user-friendliness.

For Largest Contentful Paint (LCP):

• Preload key resources: ensure the big element of your page, such as (hero images) and make sure to focus on their loading by using the <link rel=”preload”> tag.
• Optimize images: For better results, ensure the image file is compressed and resized, by choosing the proper format. (JPEG for photos, WebP for graphics).
• Minimize third-party scripts: If non-essential scripts interfere with rendering, delay or remove them.
• Reduce HTTP requests by Minimizing code, combining CSS and JavaScript files, and considering Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).

For First Input Delay (FID):

• Minimize JavaScript execution: Avoid non-essential scripts, use fewer JS libraries, and consider dividing the code.
• Optimize resource loading: To improve the performance of your e-commerce site, use browser caching techniques such as Service Workers and identify the critical rendering path resources.
• Upgrade your hosting: Invest in a dependable hosting company with quick server responses.

For Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS):

• Set image dimensions: Images play an important role in any e-commerce site, so make sure the width and height of the pictures and videos are adjusted and that layout shifts are prevented during loading.
• Use CSS containment: The contain attribute reduces how much an element’s modifications affect the content around it.
• Avoid dynamic content insertions: To avoid layout leaps, consider how you add new material to the page.

Additional Tips:

• Examine and follow your CWVs: Use tools such as PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, and WebPageTest to monitor your website’s performance and areas for improvement.
• Mobile-first approach: prioritize mobile devices like Google now uses mobile-first indexing.
• Consider user experience beyond CWVs: Identify the page load times, visual stability, and interactivity, which can make your further process easy.

E-commerce-Specific Tips:

• Optimize product images: Show several product views while avoiding excessive image sizes.
• Lazy load product listings: Only load additional products as the user scrolls down the page.
• Use a fast and lightweight e-commerce platform: Select a mobile-responsive and performance-optimized platform.

Note that CWV improvement is a continuous process. So, by using the pointers given above, you can easily track your progress and make adjustments as needed to improve the functionality and user experience of your e-commerce website over time.

9- Use Schema Markup

According to a study by Ahrefs, pages with Schema Markup have a 35% higher CTR in search results. This increase is attributed to the more informative and visually appealing Rich Snippets that stand out from traditional results.

Types of Schema

• Product: Product schema provides detailed information about your products, such as name, description, price, brand, reviews, ratings, availability, and images.
• Offer: This schema specifies the currency, price, and availability of a specific product offering.
• Breadcrumb: Breadcrumb schema helps users navigate your website easily by showing their location within the site hierarchy.
• LocalBusiness: If you have a physical store, use local business schema to provide your address, opening hours, contact information, and more.

Let’s explain one example:

When customers find your e-commerce page in the SERP, the schema markup allows them to get additional information for your page.

This can improve the search engine ranking of the website page.

See the below results:

Image Source- Semrush

The steps to make schema markups are:

• Go to the Google Structures data markup tool and select the correct data size.
• Choose the correct data from the list below.

Image Source- Semrush

• The next step is to paste your URL or HTML and click on start tagging.

• On this page, you can see your page on the left side and the data set on the right side.
• Now, select the pick you want to mark up first on the left.
• When you highlight an article’s title, a menu will appear; select the “Name” data item.
• Once finished, select “Create HTML” from the menu in the upper right corner of the screen.
• After obtaining your code, incorporate it into the <head> portion of your webpage’s HTML.
• Now check the Schema tag.  Google recommends using its Rich Results Test tool to test your schema markup.

Click to learn 7 Important Ecommerce Schema Markups in 2024

Conclusion

Effective On-Page SEO is crucial for the success of E-commerce websites, especially in a rapidly growing online market. By implementing strategies such as keyword optimization, user-friendly design, and well-structured URLs, you can enhance your website’s visibility and attract more potential customers.

Engaging meta titles and descriptions, utilizing customer reviews, and building internal links contribute to improved user experience and higher conversion rates.

Additionally, paying attention to Core Web Vitals, reducing page load times, and using schema markup is essential for staying competitive and maintaining a strong online presence.