Essential tips for a better online shop

There is a lot you can do to optimize your eCommerce site. Here is a fantastic checklist to help you work through the process.

Be aware this isn’t an exhaustive list. But they are the must-do SEO tips to follow. If you do these, you will be doing a better job than before and most other online eCommerce sites.

18 Must-Do SEO tips

1. Brand Consistency

The first thing you should be doing is always be consistent with your branding. Make sure your brand or logo is clear and visible on your homepage. This crucial point will not only help build trust but promote your business. It’s well established that proper branding helps to trigger recognition in search engine results.

2. Nail your Call to Action

Your landing pages, product pages, and even your home page require a compelling call to action. It may change over time to promote different products, but you need to make sure it’s easily visible and meets your visitors’ needs and expectations.

3. Featured Products

Reserve the most prominent spot on your homepage for featured products. This action alone will provide an immediate trigger for visitors while showing them if they have landed on the right online shop for them.

4. Search Option

Every online store with multiple products should have a search option. This option needs to be in a prominent place as it will usually be your visitor’s first choice of navigation to find the product they need.

5. About Us Page

People like to know about the company and the people they’re purchasing from. Adding this information will help build a connection between your company and your customers. If they realize they share similar values and beliefs, they are more likely to return to the shop and buy again!

6. Visible Shopping Cart

In most cases, when you own an eCommerce store, your main goal is to make money, and that money is made through the shopping cart. The shopping cart always needs to be quickly available and visible. You should also be able to see the number of products in the cart. This helps people to remember if they have already added products to the cart during their browsing.

7. Multimedia Engagement

Social media and newsletters the easiest ways to repeat customers. Ensure you attract attention to your social media profiles and newsletter signup throughout the journey of your website. The least you should do is put your social profiles at the footer of your website.

8. Product Thumbnails

Your product images will speak a thousand words. Adding a stunning thumbnail image will encourage more clicks to the page. Attractive thumbnail images make it easier for visitors to choose from a wide variety of products in a category or search result pages.

9. Product Description

If you need your product page to rank, invest time, and effort into optimizing your product descriptions on the page.

10.Be Clear About Pricing

Don’t surprise your customers with hidden costs like shipping or taxes later in the checkout process. This tactic will backfire, and shoppers will abandon their purchase. It is a major turnoff and now illegal in the EU. Be clear about these additional costs right from the start. You can even leverage these extra costs by offering free shipping on orders of more than a specific value.

11. Create Trust

Trust is created when you offer genuine product reviews. You should add these near your call to action for the best results.

12.Related Products

When you’ve got their interest, you should leverage it. If someone buys one product from your site, then chances are they’ll buy another. Having a section for ‘related products’ or ‘other customers have also bought section’ on your product pages will trigger upsells.

13. Call to Action is Clear

Do not hide the ‘Add to Cart’ button. Make sure it stands out. This is especially true when you have a secondary call to action like ‘Add to Wish List.’. Ensure the ‘Add to Cart’ button stands out and is the largest and first significant button on your product page. There is plenty of research available online to indicate the type of button and language to use for many circumstances.

14. Payment Option

You should display your accepted payment methods to customers before they get to the checkout. There is nothing more frustrating than desperately wanting a product and about to purchase, only to find they don’t have your preferred payment option.

15. SSL and Security Seals

If your website has an SSL certificate, your site will have a nice green padlock in your visitors’ browser address bar, letting them know they are shopping in a safe environment. This extra layer of security eases anxiety around providing personal information and credit card details.

16. Mobile Friendly

With record numbers of people using smartphones, now is the time to make sure your eCommerce store is mobile friendly. Perfect for those times when people are searching the internet while they are waiting. Don’t make the mistake of having your online shop only workable for those on a desktop.

17. Up your Speed

People have short attention spans. They want everything to happen NOW. Ensure your site is free of any extra plugins and applications that slow your shop’s load time.

18. Meta Description

These serve a fundamental purpose, and just because they are last doesn’t mean they are the least important. Don’t forget to include a product-focused meta description to your product pages. This tactic prevents Google from using the wrong text in search results.

As mentioned at the start, this is not in any way a complete list on how to improve your eCommerce shop. But they are the solid start for must-do SEO tips.

If you can work your way through these SEO tips, you will be well on your way to making a more significant impact on the Google search engine machine.