SEO For ECommerce Websites: Ranking Factors You Didn’t Know
According to Google’s John Mueller, Google does not rank websites, but instead the webpages. This shakes up the very foundation of many SEO pros, but unfortunately, it’s true.
Why are we discussing it? Well, to understand why eCommerce websites should use SEO, it is necessary to understand how Google ranks results in SERPs.
In simple words, Google treats every indexed web page in the digital universe equally. It means, if any of the pages are indexed, they stand an equal chance of competing with the top rankers, given that its SEO is done properly.
SEO pros suggest that instead of considering on-page, off-page, and technical SEOs as separate entities, it is more convenient to look into individual webpages.
And to help gain insights into a webpage’s SEO-bility three key factors hold a very high position.
- Content
- Web Page Design
- Backlinks (Authority)
Let’s dig a little deeper into these factors.
Content
When it comes to eCommerce websites, the content, as it may seem, holds very little importance. However, that is not true at all.
Content, no matter what, still holds a prime position when it comes to SEO. Or perhaps, it is very well said that content is the king. Not only for on-page but also off-page strategies. eCommerce businesses need authoritative content but perhaps, often lack the time needed to invest in it. As a result, white label SEO agencies come to the rescue. They not only create content but handover the intellectual property rights to the website administrators. Thus, building a very good authority for the editors.
Besides, some experts also believe that including user-generated content also helps with the ranking. The user-generated content helps improve engagement on the page, which we all know is a crucial ranking signal.
Web Page Design
I’ve been asked this before, and I’d gladly be answering it again- your webpage’s design plays an important role in its ranking.
To put this into perspective, consider a website that is clumsy and has no justified content. Obviously, users don’t want to go through content that is not well organized. Besides, if it is too difficult to navigate within web pages, it can further shoo away the users.
You can, for example, use better images for the products, create an indexable layout and improve navigation within your website.
Backlinks (Authority)
Lastly, coming to the backlinks that a website has. Correction- a webpage has.
SEO pros usually do not share this fact, but to your surprise, the results ranking in SERPs depend least on their parent domain’s authority. As already mentioned, Google treats every indexable page online equally, regardless of the domain they belong to.
It means the authority that Google considers for ranking, also belongs to the particular web pages. And not the domain. Perhaps, link building for e-commerce SEO should be focused more on product pages, and less on home pages. Subsequently, helping the products rank better in search results.
SEO for eCommerce is not much different than for any other online entity. However, the strategies are more focused on lead generation and revenue generation through sales. After all, the primary aim of an eCommerce platform is to sell products online. And likewise, the SEO must also be more focused on specific web pages rather than the entire website as a whole.
