eCommerce SEO Mistakes - How To Rank in Google
SEO Common Mistakes for Ecommerce Sites
Google does not read images, so by just displaying images of your stock items without text means that your page is invisible to Google.
Zero textual content on your home page – missing H1 / H2 & H3 Headers, all of these are so common I decided to write this blog post.
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Why Is My Ecommerce Website Not Ranking?
Size does matter! If your website doesn’t have a blog, or less than 20 pages of products and categories, you’ll have to invest in an SEO Copywriter before SEO work begins.
Alt tags on images are a great start to add keywords as a content backup, but you can’t approach this task willy nilly without training. Avoid using your brand name, or brand terms specific to your company. You have to imagine that Google is blindfolded to your images if they don’t have Alt tags optimised.
Google Can’t Read Images – SEO Content is Key
Textual Content Case Study – Ranking Before and After Adding Text. Read my SEO Lady Case Study – Google page 1 results that you can check online today to verify that the websites are still ranking in Google from work carried out back in 2016 and they are still ranking today.Fix On Page SEO Google Ranking Content – What Content Do I need To Write?
The good news is that if you have a WordPress, Shopify or Magento website then that’s perfect for SEO. The bad news is that your website desperately needs written content on the home page and landing category pages (including your keywords!) as you may have **zero** Google indicates 350 words MINIMUM for the home page and 250 words MINIMUM for each landing page so you’ve got to invest time in your website like your competitors have.- Would you be writing the content?
- Do you need to pay someone to write content?
- Skyscraper Content of 1,000 words or more is excellent Google food
- Would you be able to write more than the minimum number of words per page and produce Skyscraper Content?
How Many SEO Errors Are You Guilty Of?
One of the most common mistakes is to say on your homepage “WELCOME TO MY WEBSITE”.
Why is this bad?
Google is ranking your homepage for the 4 words ‘welcome to my website’ which is totally irrelevant if you are selling goods online isn’t it?
Use your Homepage H1 to describe exactly what you are selling. Cut out the fluff and stick to facts.
What product are you selling? Candles? Chocolates? You’re not selling “Welcome To My Website” so tweak your H1 Header today.
BRAND NAME – If people Google search your brand name, the likelyhood is that you’re going to be Google page 1, position 1 – correct?
The entire point of SEO is to bring people to your website who are not aware of your brand.
If you are a start up then this also applies to you.
Common Category Landing Page SEO Errors
Total lack of content, poor meta titles and zero meta descriptions. From a marketing perspective having the meta login for WordPress on the right hand menu does not look professional on https://www.[DOMAIN].co.uk/brands/
- Pages such as https://www.[DOMAIN].co.uk/wallets/ have a lack of textual content and no images.
- Non SEO friendly SEO URLs e.g. https://www.[DOMAIN].co.uk/product/fulton-bees-tiny/ – where is the keyword ‘Umbrella’ in the URL? Google does not know that bees-tiny is an umbrella.
- The image of this product https://www.[DOMAIN].co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/I_274413683_01_20170812.jpeg is not SEO friendly, the Alt tag should be keyword rich.
There Are No Quick Wins Or Shortcuts
Trust me, on-page content is favoured more than 500 backlinks you have purchased from an online seller. So which underrated SEO tactic should you focus on? Content and Alt tags on images, and Video SEO (VSEO)
Improving content quality and quantity of words, as opposed to building backlinks. Taking the time to write skyscraper content and renaming images from stock titles (CAMERA DC009833 for example) to include your keywords / services / items / geographical areas.
Renaming your images and uploading to your website adding an ALT tag on every single image. Yes, it’s tedious, but how else do image-led websites rank in Google? Any photography website is usually guilty of not adding text and instead using images to show off their skills. As previously mentioned, images are invisible to Google.
How To Create A Page or Blog Post That Grabs Google’s Attention to Rank
1 – Before you start to write, decide what phrase you want to target and keyword order (most important first)
2 – Your home page should have 300-400 words MINIMUM more if possible, you can split the content into 2 blocks. Google takes more notice of text when it’s towards the top of the page instead of an afterthought and slapping it at the bottom of the page. All category/blog/landing pages should have 250-350 words MINIMUM, again write 500-1,000 words if you can.
3 – URL / Page Title / H1 header should have keywords first as Google views the keywords at the beginning of the Title Tag and Header as the most important. Remember not to include your brand name as it’s irrelevant. Avoid using your brand name – the point of SEO is to attract people to your site who don’t know your company. If they do know your brand they will find you anyway.
- The page title – and the URL www.seolady.co.uk/small-business-seo/seo-training-somerset. This is referred to as an SEO-friendly URL with the most important keywords first
- Best practises say your Meta Title should be 70 characters or less in length
- Your H1 Heading should be no longer than 70 characters in length
Your meta description is between 150 and 160 characters in length for optimal SERPs and should be written in a sales and enticing manner - A headline and sub headers – H1, H2, and more
- Use Alt tags on images – Alt tags should have keywords first and brand name last – in order of importance
- Keyword rich text – Content is King, write for readers, not Google, avoid repeating keywords
Hire Me – SEO Freelance Consultant UK – Send an enquiry today
- How old is the domain?
- How long ago was the website first launched?
- Have you had any previous SEO work carried out?
- When people use Google, what search phrases would you like clients to use to find your website?
- Do you rank in Google already for any of these search phrases?
- What top 3 geographical areas are you wanting to target?
UK freelancer since 2009 on People Per Hour with 5 ☆☆☆☆☆ star reviews
Google Analytics and Adwords certified since 2013.
This 1 hour taster package is is suitable for brand new UK websites or stagnating established websites
► I’ll request to view your Google Analytics and Search Console data in advance
► I will create a Google Drive cloud document so we can both view/edit at the same time
► Analysis of visitor data
► Keywords discussion based on your initial ideas, DIY SEO tips and content writing tutoring
► 60 minutes of my time (15 mins Google audit + 45 mins consultation)
24 Hour Follow on Support Included 60 minutes of my time plus a 24 hour Q&A follow on support over email.