Critical SEO Errors of an E-commerce Website

Every year, a lot of online ventures are started but most of them end up as a failure. The reason of the failure is that they were not being found by the target audience on the search engines due to the SEO errors they have done. If you have also faced the same error and are disappointed by the way your e-retail shop is performing, then this blog is for you.

So, here we go, knowing the most common errors made by the marketers needed to be corrected while performing SEO for online retail sites.

Product description doesn’t get attention as much as needed

This mistake is generally committed by the e-commerce sites with so many short articles. In hurry for posting as many articles as you can, they end up paying no attention to the product descriptions. The product pages with no product description are not displayed in the search results and fail in the search game.

The product description should not cross the word limit and also pay attention to the word limit of the key words and phrase you use in Meta description, footer, sidebar, navigation, etc and what’s more important is to keep these things in mind while creating such content:

•    The content should be of high quality and should help the customers in deciding what they exactly wanted
•    Say no to plagiarism otherwise get ready to be penalized

Product Descriptions used as given by manufacturers

Plagiarism is not only checked in the site content, but also in the product pages. The description should not be the same as of the product company. The story should be the same, but presented in a different way.

If you are using the same product description provided by the distributor, then the whole SEO process will end up doing nothing. If you are not in a situation to write a separate and unique description for the product pages, then go for NO INDEX Meta tag.

Not giving importance to product reviews

For an online retail site, it is very important to know what others are saying about the brand online. It helps the prospective customers in making a decision whether to buy or not. It has been observed by the e-commerce giants that almost 70 percent of the customers search for reviews before buying anything. If you don’t have a review section, then you are definitely missing a huge chunk of potential customers.

Also, the product reviews rank quickly on the search engines and it can be good as well as bad for the brand’s reputation. And you are getting fresh content for free, isn’t it great from SEO perspective!

Product pages not optimized on search demand basis

Whenever you decide to get the site in the front of customer, the demand of the product matters a lot. Using relevant keywords, you can easily attract the customers looking for that particular product. Say no to promote something that no one is looking for. If you are doing so, then it is a death guarantee for your site.

Here are some points to remember:

•    Always give a model number in the H1 tag and title tag
•    Just like other tags, the image tag is equally important as it tells the search engines what the image is all about
•    Say no to keyword stuffing, it is no more in trend
•    If you are using iframes for displaying the content, then immediately stop doing so.

Inclusion of copied / unoriginal titles

When we talk about the e-retail websites, then plagiarism is a very big issue. The same products are being displayed on so many sites and it becomes very tough to come up with a unique title tag. But it is very important as duplicated title tags can lead to weaken you site by search algorithms.

Same keywords are being used again and again in the articles. Therefore just pay attention on making unique key phrases. Search engines know this and these also look at the later. You can add the words model, brand, item and other in the phrases.

Missing well-structured / ‘to-the-point’ URLs

The structure is important everywhere. When we talk about the URL structure, then being specific is even more important. Always follow the top to bottom rule in case of URL structure. For example if you are writing URL for a gift for men’s then write:

http://www.********.com/products/gifts/for-him.html

It is explaining each and every step taken before clicking on the product.

The takeaway

The most important element for a website to rank on the top and the SEO to work the best is the usability of the website. No search engine optimization service provider has a magic want that can make you earn millions overnight. When you have made usability of anything you offer to your target audience a priority, half the battle of SEO is won.

Do let us know if you are not able to rectify the errors mentioned above. We at Sites Simply are Search Engine Optimization service providing company with happy clients all over the world.