Top SEO tips for your e-commerce site to be successful

When it comes to search engine optimisation, most websites will find this a difficult challenge to master. However, if your site is an e-commerce website then that challenge is much more difficult as you need to work a little harder on your SEO strategy.

We have compiled a list of some of the top SEO tips which we think will help you overcome these challenges to ensure your e-commerce site ranks high in the search engines as well as ensuring your set gets more traffic and revenue.

#1.  Make sure each product and category page has unique content

Content which is interesting and engaging will tell the major search engines that your site is worth indexing and is a valuable asset helping your pages rank higher. Content is king so if it is engaging and well written it is more than likely that your visitors will put their hands in their pockets.

When creating product description always write your own unique content instead of copying the manufacturers description. Google is always making changes to its algorithm and the last Panda update in early 2011 looked closely at content to check how unique it is,  the more unique content the more valuable.

#2.  Research to see what shoppers are looking for

When it comes to writing content about what you are selling you need to know what people are typing in the search engines to find products. An invaluable way of doing this is by doing some keyword research. There are many keyword research tools available and they tell you how many searches are being carried out for a particular word or phrase. The free Google keyword checker tool also tells you the numbers for local searches.

#3.  People search using broad keywords so create category pages

People search in different ways. Some people may search for a specific product name such as 'Panasonic Viera'. However, people tend to search using broad phrases such as 'Panasonic LCD TV' or 'LCD TV'.

If you create specific category pages for these broad search terms and product specific pages in each category then  you are boosting your SEO for your site. Not only that you are also helping to draw in a bigger target audience who are searching for the products that you sell. By creating category pages on the broad search terms people will find your products quicker and turn from searchers into buyers.

#4. Good anchor text should be used to interlink pages on your site

Use good anchor text on your site to link to other products and categories on your site. It is imperative that you use appropriate keywords for the anchor text you create. Good relevant anchor text will help the search engines quickly find your pages and index them enabling people who are searching to find them. Good anchor text links will also improve and boost your pages with linked SEO resulting in your pages getting ranked higher. Top tip: By creating clickable links on your site you are allowing people to click on these links to take them to other products on your website which means they are staying on your site and not moving to another site.

#5. Use social sharing widgets to share your content

Nearly everyone is using Facebook and Twitter as well as a host of other social networking sites. Having social sharing widgets on your site make it easy for people to share your products across social networks.  Social sharing buttons are available for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linked In and social bookmarking sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon.  Strategically placing them on product pages makes it easy for people to share the product.

#6. Backlinks must be of value

When a search engine is deciding on how it will rank your website, one of the most important factors it takes into consideration is the quality and number of back links you have. Back link credibility has always been a high priority for search engines but it is never easy to get back links.

The first step in getting some good back links is by providing some interesting and engaging content that is not related to your products. A great example of this is a blog where you can add content on a wide range of topics and subjects relating to your business and what you sell.  Here the content can be funny, interesting and even quirky as this is what will grab the attention of your readers. Having a blog is one of the best methods of generating content which is link worthy.

#7. Duplicate content is a no no

Most e-commerce websites always give the option to visitors of viewing products by a certain criteria. For example by price, product reviews or popularity.  As visitors we love the sorting option but for SEO it is not such a great benefit.  SEO is based on content and if you have these options it means you are creating duplicate content but in a different order.  When search engines crawl your site all they see is pages with duplicate content so don't regard them as valuable as pages with unique content. What this does is negate the SEO of these pages.  Google Webmaster tools offer more information on overcoming duplicate content.

#8. URLs must be descriptive

URLs are perhaps the biggest boost you can give your SEO strategy. If you have a page about LCD televisions with a page URL of http://www.example.com/LCD-televisions, you are telling the search engine that your page is about LCD televisions and this is the page shat should show up in the search results when the keywords 'LCD televisions' is entered.

If the URL is meaningless such as http://www.example.com/page?id=123456789, the search engines will not understand what the page is about as it doesn't mean anything.  When searching people often take a look at the URL so it is good practice to have a URL that is informing the person.

#9. User reviews are important

If it is unique content you need then there is nothing more unique then a user review which is unique content and the search engine will love it.  The other advantage of having user reviews is to persuade visitors to your site to put their hands in their pockets and make a purchase.

#10. Want Google to find all your pages, then have a site map in place

When Google crawls your site it is always looking for fresh and valuable content. When it comes across such a page which it deems valuable it will index that page immediately. What this means is the page will start showing up in the search engines.

#11. Content is king so update it regularly

In November 2011 Google  updated its algorithm and pushed out the 'Google Freshness Update' This update was very important for small business as it started searching for websites that had the freshest content. Try and tweak your website content regularly and if you have a blog add new and interesting content at least once or twice a week.  For example if you sell televisions you can write a blog post about new technology that has been introduced.

Another great way of keeping your content fresh is allowing visitors to post their own reviews as this is minimal work from you but a great way to get some fresh regular content.