As a business owner in Newcastle, Australia, you understand the importance of having an online presence and reaching customers through the internet. One of the most effective ways to do this is through search engine optimisation (SEO), which helps your website rank higher in search results and attract more qualified traffic.
At Jezweb SEO Newcastle, our experienced strategists have helped many businesses like yours improve their online visibility and drive more sales through SEO. In this guide, we will provide you with a comprehensive overview of how to optimise your e-commerce website for search engines and improve its ranking for product-related keywords.
By following the best practices outlined in this guide, you can increase the chances of your website appearing at the top of search results and attract more potential customers. Let’s get started!
Technical SEO refers to the behind-the-scenes aspects of your website that can impact its ability to rank in search results. Ensuring that your website is technically sound is a crucial aspect of SEO, and there are several key factors to consider in this area.
One of the first things that search engines look at when ranking websites is how fast they load. A slow-loading website can lead to a poor user experience and may cause search engines to penalise your ranking. To improve your site's speed, you can optimise images, minify CSS and JavaScript, and reduce the number of redirects.
More and more people are using their phones to browse the internet, so it's essential that your website is optimised for mobile devices. This includes ensuring that the layout and design are responsive, and that the website loads quickly on mobile devices.
Search engines use algorithms called "crawlers" to discover and index new pages on the internet. If your website is not easily crawlable, it may not be fully indexed, which can impact its ranking in search results. To improve crawlability, you can use tools like Google Search Console and XML sitemaps to help search engines find and index your pages.
An SSL certificate is a security protocol that encrypts data sent between your website and users' browsers. Having an SSL certificate is not only important for security purposes, but it can also improve your search ranking. Google has stated that websites with SSL certificates may receive a slight ranking boost.
Structured data and schema markup are code snippets that help search engines better understand the content on your website. By adding this markup, you can give search engines more context about your products and services, which can improve your ranking in search results. By focusing on these technical SEO factors, you can improve the overall health and performance of your website, which can lead to better search engine rankings.
Off-page optimisation refers to activities that take place outside of your website that can impact its ranking in search results. While on-page optimisation focuses on the content and structure of your website, off-page optimisation focuses on external factors that can influence your search ranking.
One of the most important off-page optimisation strategies is link building, or the process of acquiring links from other websites to your own. Search engines view links from other reputable websites as a vote of confidence in the quality of your website. As a result, the more high-quality links you have pointing to your website, the higher it is likely to rank in search results. There are several ways to build links, including outreach and partnerships, local citations and directories, and social media marketing.
Your online reputation, or the way that your business is perceived online, can also impact your search ranking. Positive reviews and ratings from customers can improve your reputation and increase your chances of ranking higher in search results. Managing your online reputation involves monitoring and responding to customer reviews, as well as building a strong presence on social media. By focusing on link building and online reputation management, you can improve the credibility and authority of your website, which can lead to better search engine rankings.
To fully understand the effectiveness of your SEO efforts and identify areas for improvement, it’s essential to track and analyse your performance. There are several tools and strategies you can use to do this.
Google Analytics is a free and comprehensive tool that helps you track and analyse your website traffic. To set it up, you'll need to create an account and add a tracking code to your website. Once it's set up, you can track a wide range of metrics, such as the number of visitors to your website, the pages they visit, and the sources of their traffic.
In addition to tracking website traffic, it's also important to track conversions, or the actions that you want visitors to take on your website (e.g., making a purchase, filling out a form). To do this, you'll need to set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics or another tool. This will allow you to see how many conversions your website is generating, and which channels are driving the most conversions.
Once you have set up tracking and analytics tools, you can start measuring and analysing your performance. This involves looking at key metrics, such as traffic and conversion rates, and identifying trends and areas for improvement. You can also use tools like Google Search Console to get a better understanding of how your website is performing in search results. By tracking and analysing your performance, you can get a better understanding of what's working and what's not and make informed decisions about your SEO strategy.
SEO is not a one-time effort; it requires ongoing optimisation and maintenance to ensure that your website continues to rank well in search results. Here are a few key areas to focus on as part of your ongoing SEO strategy.
One of the best ways to keep your website relevant and fresh in the eyes of search engines is to regularly update and add new content. This can be in the form of blog posts, product pages, or other types of content that provide value to your users. By adding new content, you can attract more visitors to your website and improve your search ranking.
As mentioned previously, it's essential to track and analyse your performance to understand what's working and what's not. This should be an ongoing process to ensure that you are making the most of your SEO efforts.
Technical issues can arise at any time, and it's essential to identify and fix them as quickly as possible. This can include issues like broken links, crawl errors, and other issues that can impact your website's performance.
SEO is an ever-evolving field, and it's important to stay up to date with the latest best practices and trends. This can include new technologies, algorithm updates, and changes in consumer behaviour. By staying informed, you can ensure that your SEO strategy is current and effective. By following these best practices and focusing on ongoing optimisation and maintenance, you can keep your website ranking well in search results and attract more qualified traffic.
Keyword research is an essential part of SEO, and it’s important to choose keywords that are relevant to your products and services and have a reasonable level of search volume. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner can help you identify the best keywords to target.
There are several key elements to consider when optimising your product pages for SEO, including title tags and meta descriptions, product descriptions and content, images and alt tags, internal linking, and URL structure.
A blog can be a valuable tool for e-commerce websites as it allows you to regularly add new, keyword-rich content to your website, which can help improve your search ranking. A blog can also provide a platform for external linking and social media marketing.
Link building is an essential part of off-page optimisation, and there are several ways to acquire high-quality links, including outreach and partnerships, local citations and directories, and social media marketing. It’s important to focus on acquiring links from reputable websites that are related to your industry.
There are several strategies you can use to improve your website’s performance and speed, including optimising images, minifying CSS and JavaScript, reducing the number of redirects, and ensuring that your website is mobile optimised.
Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console can help you track and analyse your website’s performance, including metrics like traffic and conversion rates. It’s important to regularly review this data and identify areas for improvement.
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