A webshop that appears higher in search results is of course what every webshop wants to achieve. A higher SEO score ensures more reach and more conversion. But how do you get your website to appear higher in the search engine results page (SERP)? In this article you will find 8 tips that can help your website achieve a higher SEO score.
1: Structure the webshop
A structured site is not only ideal for the user experience, it also benefits your SEO score. But what exactly do we mean by the structure of a site? Because by structure, we mean much more than just the menu and titles. When we think of structure, we also think of internal linking, categories and page layout. How do you structure your website?
Actually, from the very beginning of setting up your site, you should be thinking about the SEO score. Think about a site where people can easily find their way around and where they can easily find the right content/products.
Structure your menu with relevant keywords
Look at the customer journey and figure out what your customers are looking for. Use relevant keywords for your site and structure the menus in a way that both your customer and Google can see what you are selling and where. Relevant keywords can be found by doing good keyword research.
Provide a good internal linking structure
Google crawls your site to see what content is there. During crawling, it looks at the most important pages on your site. The more links a page has, the more important it is. Therefore, make sure you link to the right pages. Do you have relevant products or categories you want to show customers (and Google)? Link these. This is also important for content writing. If there is a clear structure in the construction of pages and links, you will not struggle with your own content.
Categorize your products
Make sure you properly categorize your products. A good category listing makes your site more organized and allows you to set up redirects for category pages. This, in turn, makes it easier for search engines to see what you offer. When creating categories, keep synonyms in mind which can be used. You can read how to set this up on your website here.
2: Use the right SEO URLs
Using the right URLs is crucial for search engines. After all, these URLs allow a search engine to “read” what a page is about. Here are some tips for optimizing your URLs:
- Make the URLs readable (no numbers or incomprehensible words)
- Do not use capitals
- Use as many of your relevant keywords as possible
- Use an SSL certificate (identified by the “https”)
3: Optimize your site for mobile use
More than 40% of the Dutch population completes their purchase on mobile phones these days. That’s too large a percentage not to take into account when optimizing your site. Google also takes this into account when calculating your SEO score. In fact, Google uses a “Mobile-first” index, where sites that are mobile-friendly are ranked better than others. Therefore, make sure your site is easy to read, accessible and fast for mobile users. This is not difficult for the Magento platform 2, for example, as it has included a lot of mobile-oriented improvements since Magento 1.
4: Use the right descriptions and meta tags
Besides a good categorization on your webshop, the product description is also very important. We understand that this is difficult if you offer a large range of products. Nevertheless, we recommend following the following tips:
Use a proprietary description
Many suppliers provide a manufacturer’s description of products. Try as much as possible to give your own description to these products and not copy the standard description. This prevents duplicate content and gives you the opportunity to capitalize on the keywords that work well for your site. It also allows you to capitalize on commonly used synonyms.
Make use of meta tags
The use of meta tags is also very important. This applies not only to products but to all images you include on the site. More and more people are finding products by image. Being easily found in Google Images is therefore very important. Here again: use the right keywords.
5: Make sure your webshop is fast
It sounds easier said than done but a fast site can ensure that the SEO score increases. There are several ways to make a site faster including using caching, optimizing images and avoiding redirect-chains. These are improvements you can make on your own site. To help you do this, Google has the PageSpeed Insights tool. Here you can see what your pagespeed score is and what can be improved. However, there is one aspect that is often overlooked: hosting.
Your webshop has enormous advantages when choosing the right hosting. Therefore, always choose a party with the right experience. In our blog series Cloud hosting & Hardware hosting, you can read more about the best hosting solution.
At Savvii, the speed of your shop is very important and we will always advise you in making your site faster.
6: Content is King
Relevant content ensures that search engines see that the website is a good fit for the keywords you are writing about. For example, if you have a sports store and write a lot of blogs about sports; then the search engines will see that your site is relevant to search terms about sports. Here are some tips for writing relevant content:
Work in a structured way
Work with a content calendar, for example, so you can plan exactly which topics you cover and when. This is also a good way to start working on the internal link structure between pages and to avoid duplicate content.
Make smart use of keywords
We will keep saying it: use keywords and use the right ones. To do this, first do some keyword research. You can read how to do this here. When writing content, use keyword phrases and synonyms to let the search engines know what your pieces of text are about. Use the right ones and use them sufficiently. Just be sure to keep the text readable for your visitors and don’t overuse keywords.
Avoid duplicate content
Duplicate content can destroy your own keywords by competing with your own blogs. Try to use different keywords for each blog to avoid pages trying to outrank one another. You can avoid this by implementing a clear blog structure through content planning.
7: Optimize images for SEO
We just briefly mentioned that optimizing images can help make your shop faster. Not only is this useful for speed, it can also make a difference for findability. Therefore, we give you some tips on how you can apply this to all the images on your site: Both in blog pages and product pages.
Use the right format
Images come in different formats; JPEG, PNG, SVG etc. Perhaps you have a “go-to” format that you like to use, but did you know that there are different uses for each format? For example, it’s better to post your product photos in JPEG format and your graphic design better in PNG. And for optimal image compression, it’s best to use WebP. Before installing a plug-in, always check what is the best option for your shop and see the effects first in a staging environment.
Make use of tags
With images, it is also important to make use of meta tags. As we mentioned earlier, nowadays it is an advantage to be findable in Google Images with your products. Not only for this reason it is useful to use tags; the overall SEO score for the page goes up when using relevant keywords in the meta tags of your images. This is because the search engines can then see that you are using images that fit within the context on that webshop or blog page.
Pay attention to the size of your images
We understand that you want the best quality image on your site. But perhaps it is not necessary to use an image of 3000 pixels wide. Large images can slow down your site drastically. Choosing the right format can reduce the file size of your image quite a bit, but to help you along here are a few pointers:
- An image does not have to be wider than 2500 pixels if you want to display it across the width of your site.
- An image need not be wider than 1500 pixels if you are using it as a regular image.
- Make sure the images you use are no larger than 500 Kb. The smaller the better, provided the quality does not suffer.
8: Leverage Social Media
Google obviously doesn’t only consider a good internal link structure. Google also factors in enough outgoing and incoming links: links from your site to other sites and vice versa. This way, the search engines see that you are also relevant to other sites, which is good for your SEO score. A good basis for this is social media. Not only does linking your site to socials allow you to add external links, it can also increase traffic.
Many apps today offer a shop option to offer your products. Take Instagram as an example. You can link your shop and direct people to your shop via Instagram. You can also start small with a social platform by sharing success stories of satisfied customers.
In short
There are many different things you can do to make your site as “SEO-friendly” as possible. Hopefully after reading this article you have a better idea of how to achieve this and you can get started with your own webshop.
Are you curious about how Savvii can make a webshop faster and more stable? Read our customer cases or view our packages and contact our team for more information.
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