10 Tips for Successful Ecommerce SEO

Ecommerce websites can be difficult to optimize but utilizing a few key SEO tips for ecommerce websites can help you increase your site’s rankings on relevant, targeted keywords.

1. Use Only Original Content - Read: don’t use the manufacturer’s product descriptions. Original content is imperative for high search rankings so distinguish your website from the competition by writing original content and product descriptions

2. Eliminate Repetitive Content - On that note, make sure you have distinct, unique copy for each and every product, even those that are similar.

3. Create a Site Map - A site map will not only help users easily navigate your website, it can also be the perfect place to optimize your keywords. For example, instead of using niche product names, use your top targeted keywords.

4. Optimize New Products - As soon as they are added, optimize new products by creating unique, relevant title tags, meta tags, and meta keywords.

5. Consider Allowing Product Reviews - A great (and free!) way to garner unique, original content is to allow customers to post product reviews. This can also foster trust and repute with prospective customers.

6. Optimize Site Images - SEO doesn’t have to end with text and HTML. Most ecommerce websites are brimming with product images so leverage those to help increase your search engine rankings. Make sure each has unique, relevant alt tags and an optimized caption.

7. Make Sure the Homepage Redirects - Make sure your homepage properly redirects when users fail to put the "www" before your domain. In other words "yourdomain.com" and "www.yourdomain.com" should send visitors to the exact same page.

8. Don’t Keyword Stuff - Avoiding stuffing keywords in your content; it’s tacky, ruins your content, and can actually hurt your rankings.

9. Interlink Pages - Interlink relevant pages of your websites; this can not only help drive traffic to certain pages but it can also help improve the rankings of those pages.

10. Use Ecommerce SEO Software - You don’t have to be an Internet marketing pro to implement and perform effective ecommerce SEO for your website. There are a myriad of software programs (both downloadable and web-based) designed specifically to help ecommerce websites perform their own SEO without any prior knowledge or experience.