Search engine optimization is the bread and butter of a successful website and ecommerce SEO differs very little in concept. Basically, search engine optimization is the process in which a website is made “search friendly” for both search engines and potential visitors to the website. Knowing how to make a website friendly takes some practice, and unethical practices or mistakes can cause a lot of potential harm.

What is considered important when it comes to ecommerce SEO?

The main goal of any search engine optimization campaign is to target a specific set of keywords and make those keywords matter for Google or other search engines. Doing this is usually going to breakdown into three categories:

  1. On-page optimization – Easy to control
  2. Complete sit optimization – Controllable with experience
  3. Off-site optimization – difficult to control

On-page ecommerce SEO is all about finding out how potential visitors will find the website. Good focus on specific keywords can help improve the popularity of the page. However, the results do not happen overnight. Good keyword usage builds a slow but steady climb of page popularity.

Want some useful tips for on-page optimization?

  1. Concentrate on only one or two keywords for the page.
  2. Use the chosen keywords in the page title using either a H1 or H2 tag.
  3. Do not overuse the keywords!
  4. Insure the content is actually high-quality, readable, and informative.
  5. Remember that links, alt tags, and unseen coding can use keyword modification as well.

Complete website optimization is extremely powerful, and is easily controllable. However, someone new to ecommerce SEO may need to hire a professional to maximize the potential. Each page needs to be optimized, but the website as a whole may need certain modifications.

Want some useful tips for site wide optimization?

  1. There is a difference between “www.mydomain.com” and “mydomain.com”. Choose the one best suited to the need and stick to it. Search engines will see those two addresses as different websites.
  2. Each page should have friendly addresses.
    Bad: www.mydomain.com/board.php?subject=211345
    Good: www.mydomain.com/keyword.html
  3. Be cautious of links pointing to external websites. Google and other search engines are going to take that link as a sort of vote that a website is supporting and likes the external website. A single link to a blacklisted website could potentially ruin a young website.
  4. Insure ALL links are live. Dead links and irrelevant links can count negatively towards a website’s ranking with search engines.
  5. Make sure people can read the content and links. A website with a white background and white text is not only going to be unreadable by potential clients, but search engines do not like this practice.

Off-site optimization starts with acquiring high quality inbound links that are specific to the keywords. This does not happen by simply wishing it possible (tried and tested; does not work). Instead, webpages need to carefully select websites that are willing to provide those inbound links.

There are numerous tricks and tips that help with an ecommerce SEO and SEM campaign. Whether one chooses optimizing onsite or offsite content, knowing how to appeal to that potential customer means first appealing to the good graces of the popular search engines of today if a website is to be successful in the future.