4 Tricks To Make Google LOVE Your eCommerce Store

If you are an eCommerce brand wanting to improve your sales, increase your website traffic and basically make your store hum but don’t know where to start, then the first step is to make Google love your store! How do you do this? By using SEO tricks and methods. The best way to do this is to hire an SEO Agency; however, if you want to try it yourself, it is important to have a few tricks up your sleeve to get you on the right path.

While SEO can be a complicated process as a beginner, with the help of this article and a few SEO activities, you can not only get the ball rolling; you can be on your way to a better-performing eCommerce store that brings those sales you are hungry for.

Optimise your product pages with transactional keywords

One method that eCommerce brands often overlook is the use of transactional keywords on their product pages. Transactional keywords are key phrases that indicate that the searcher is looking to make a purchase. For example, adding ‘buy’ or ‘purchase’ in front of what they are searching for.

If you can include transactional keywords on your product pages, you are more likely to appear in SERPs (search engine results pages) for people further down the purchasing funnel and thus more likely to convert. Not only that, but by including transactional keywords, you can also improve your click-through rate, which is a ranking factor for Google. A higher CTR means better rankings, so it’s a win-win!

To do this, when you are conducting keyword research on any available tool, i.e. Semrush, Uber Suggest or Ahrefs, be sure to not only focus on search volume but also look at the transactional keywords being searched for.

For example, if you are an online store that sells shoes, your transactional keyword research might look something like this:

buy shoes online
purchase shoes online
order shoes online
buy sneakers online etc.

Once you have your transactional keywords, sprinkle them throughout your product page copy, including the title, metadata, product descriptions and even image file names. But beware, too many transactional keywords will result in keyword stuffing, which is when a web page cram too many keywords onto the page in an attempt to manipulate SERP rankings. You definitely want to avoid this, as it will result in Google penalising your site. A good rule of thumb is to use transactional keywords sparingly and only where they make sense.

Minimise your load time

Did you know that Google considers your website’s load time when determining your rankings? A slow-loading website is not only a deterrent for potential customers but also for Google. In fact, in 2012, Google announced that site speed was officially a ranking factor, and since then, they have continued to reiterate the importance of page speed, with recent studies finding that as many as 40% of people will abandon a website that takes longer than three seconds to load.

Not only that, a user that doesn’t have good cell service or is trying to access your website in an area with a poor internet connection will also have a hard time accessing a site that takes too long to load.

So, if you want Google (and your potential customers) to stick around, it is essential to make sure your site loads quickly. The good news is that there are a number of ways you can do this.

The first step is to run your website through Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to see where you need improvement. This will give you a report with actionable items that you can take to improve your speed. Some common recommendations include:

• Minimising your HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• Optimising your images
• Leveraging browser caching
• Reducing your redirects
• Enabling compression

Use Google Merchant Center

If you want Google to fall in love with your eCommerce store, then you need to make it as easy as possible for them to list your products. And the best way to do that is by using Google Merchant Center.

Google Merchant Center is a tool that allows you to upload your product data feed, which includes things like your product name, image, price, availability and more. This allows Google to easily list your products on their shopping pages as well as in relevant search results.

To get started, simply create a Merchant Center account and then follow the instructions to upload your product data feed. Once your products have been approved, they will begin appearing in relevant search results and shopping pages. Be sure to keep your feed up-to-date with any changes or additions so that Google always has the most accurate information. You can do this by resubmitting your feed on a regular basis or by setting up automatic feed updates.

Create Relevant URL Structures

Having relevant and keyword-rich URL structures is vital for two reasons: first, it helps Google understand what your page is about, which can impact your rankings, and second, it can help improve your click-through rate (CTR) as users can quickly see what the page is about before they even click.

A good URL structure is short, descriptive and uses keywords whenever possible. For example:

• Bad: yourdomain.com/products?id=1234
• Good: yourdomain.com/women/clothing/dresses/green-dress

In addition to using keywords, it is also important to use hyphens (-) to separate words in your URL, as Google sees this as a more user-friendly format.

There you have it! By following these four tips, you can make Google fall in love with your eCommerce store and help improve your rankings in the process. Just remember to keep your transactional keywords to a minimum, reduce your load time, use Google Merchant Center and create relevant URL structures. Of course, if you want to save yourself time so you can concentrate on the more important things like running your business, you can always hire an SEO Company to do the work for you.

If you have any questions or need help getting started with SEO, feel free to contact us. Our expert team is well versed in specialised eCommerce SEO and is always happy to help!