Introduction
SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it’s one of the most important things to do for your WordPress eCommerce website.
It can be tricky to get right, but if you optimize your eCommerce site correctly, then you’ll be able to rank higher in search results and get more traffic from people searching online.
In this article, we are going to give you some tips on how to optimize your WordPress eCommerce website for SEO so that it ranks higher on Google and other search engines like Bing.
Stay tuned!
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What is SEO?
SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines by increasing the number of quality links pointing to it.
There are many ways to improve your SEO, but one thing is for sure: SEO isn’t an overnight success.
It takes time and effort to build your presence on search engines, so you need to be patient and persistent—but there are also some easy ways you can get started right now which we are about to share.
Why is SEO Important?
SEO is important because it helps you reach a larger audience (which means more people who might want what you have). This can be great for businesses or individuals who want their message out there and are willing to put in the time and effort of creating good content that’s optimized for search engines. Not to mention, getting your products and services in front of the right target audience.
Ultimately, good SEO will help your website rank higher in search engines, which means more people can see it and increase sales.
So, let’s dive into 10 tips for optimizing your WordPress eCommerce website for SEO;
Create High-Quality Content
You may have heard that content is king, but you can’t just write any old thing and expect it to rank well. You need high-quality, useful content that will help you achieve your business goals.
You should focus on creating unique pieces of text that are tailored to the audience you’re trying to reach—not just long-form blog posts with a lot of fluff. Google loves to put websites that offer value to the top of the search engine results page (SERP).
Update Content Regularly
Make sure that your content is up-to-date and relevant. Make it a point to update your eCommerce website regularly, with new blog posts, website copy and images.
You can do this by creating a monthly or weekly publishing schedule for yourself and sticking to it religiously. This will keep both Google and your visitors happy.
The last thing you want is for your visitors to be turned off your website because of obsolete information.
Longer Content Tends to Rank Better
“But how can you write long-form content if you don’t have much time?” we hear you saying.
Well, the great thing about optimizing your website content for SEO is that it’s easy to get started and build momentum with this habit.
All you need is a simple goal of adding at least 100 words each day (in total across all your blog posts). That might seem like a lot right now, but once you start doing it regularly, it won’t feel like such an insurmountable challenge.
To create great content, here are some other points to consider:
- Use a keyword tool like Google’s Keyword Planner or HubSpot’s Keyword Tool & Niche Finder to find relevant words and phrases for your niche.
- Write in a conversational tone and make sure it’s easy to read by avoiding jargon and industry terms when possible (unless you plan on targeting people within your field).
- Include images and videos whenever possible because they increase engagement time for visitors looking at your site.
- Be sure your articles are well organized by using headers (h1 tags), subheadings (h2 tags), bullet points or numbered lists when appropriate. Doing so will allow users to easily scan through them while still getting all the information they need from each section without having too much noise thrown at them all at once!
Optimize your Images
Use the Alt Attribute
If you have images on your site, make sure that they have an alt tag. This is what shows up when someone hovers over the image. It helps Google figure out what your pages are about and can help boost search rankings because it helps people see what the page is about without actually having to click through itself.
Alt attributes should be unique and descriptive, not an identical copy of the image title. They should be 50 to 70 characters long (including spaces). Keep them relevant to the image and include keywords related to what is in the image.
For example, if your eCommerce website sells garden furniture, ensure you have great quality images with alt text so they are accessible to everyone, and Google will favor them too.
It’s also important not to use alt attributes as placeholders for when you forget what you were going to write – this will result in Google penalizing you for duplicate content!
Choose the Right File Format for your Image
You want to use a file format that supports transparency and compression so you can keep file sizes as small as possible.
Resize Images Before Uploading Them
Use a plugin (or do this manually) to optimize all of your existing images by resizing them and optimizing their quality based on their length of time on-site as well as other factors like how many times they’ve been viewed by users.
Don’t Forget About Vector Graphics
If you’re using any vector graphics—like icons or certain logos—make sure you’re using optimized versions or convert them into rasterized files first before uploading them to your site. This will help keep file sizes down and make them easier for Google to crawl, index and rank.
Remove Metadata
When you take a picture with a digital camera, it records information about the photo such as when it was taken, where it was taken and other information about the camera itself. Make sure to remove this data if it appears, to make your images more professional and favored by Google.
Make your Site Mobile-Friendly
If you want to make sure your site is optimized for search engines, you have to make it mobile-friendly. Your site needs to load quickly and be easy to read on small screens.
Choose a Responsive Theme for your WordPress Website
Responsive themes adapt the layout of websites and web apps so that they are optimized for viewing across multiple devices (such as computers, tablets or mobiles). This means that your visitors can enjoy an optimal browsing experience regardless of what device they’re using to access your website.
Check your Site with Google’s PageSpeed Insights
Check how fast your website loads on mobile devices by using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. The tool will tell you whether any part of the page takes too long to load and whether there are any problems with page speed overall, which will help ensure that Google recommends the site when someone searches from their phone or tablet device.
Use the Yoast SEO Plugin
Yoast SEO plugin is one of the most popular plugins available, and it’s free. It can be installed in just a few clicks and will provide you with helpful information about how Google sees your site and what needs to be changed to improve rankings.
Use Relevant Keywords in your Content
The most important thing you can do to optimize your eCommerce WordPress website for SEO is to use relevant keywords in your content. This means that if you’re writing about how to make a delicious chocolate cake on a bakery eCommerce site for example, it’s not enough just to mention something about chocolate or cakes in general. You’ll need to include specific terms like “sugar” and “eggs.”
Thankfully, WordPress makes this simple with its built-in keyword research tool. Simply type in some keywords related to your site’s topic (you may want to use Google’s Keyword Planner), then click on “Get Search Volume” and review the results list.
Do this several times until you find some topic areas with higher search volumes—these will be better suited for injecting into your content because they tend not only to attract more reader attention but also rank higher on SERPs thanks largely due to their popularity among users who happen across them online!
Add a Sitemap to your Site
The sitemap is a listing of all the pages on your website that search engines can use to index your site. A sitemap lets you provide a list of links to all the places that are important for search engine spiders to visit and index.
It’s not just important for SEO purposes; it’s also helpful if you ever need to change or add new links or pages to the site, such as an updated blog post. You can keep track of these changes by adding them in one place instead of having them scattered around several different pages.
Creating one is easy. There are plenty of tools online that can help you with this process, including Google Search Console Tools, XML sitemaps plugin for WordPress, Yoast SEO Plugin, and so on.
Set Up Breadcrumbs for Easy Navigation
Breadcrumbs are a navigational aid that allows users to easily find their way back to previous pages. Breadcrumbs also help search engines index your site more efficiently by allowing them to get an overview of the website’s structure.
In large websites with lots of content, breadcrumbs are a must for providing users with an easy way to navigate through all the pages on your site. Setting up breadcrumbs in WordPress is easy—you just need a bit of PHP knowledge and some JavaScript skills.
This will help customers find products easily, making the buying process as hassle-free as possible.
Link Back to Older Blogs
In the same way that you should be linking out to other websites and blogs, it’s important to link back from your current blog posts to previous ones.
This helps build up your blog’s authority as a source of information, making it more likely for search engines to index your content better. It also makes it easier for readers to find relevant information quickly without needing to go back through old posts or pages.
You can use the “Insert Related Posts” option found under the “Add Media” tab in WordPress, which allows you to create links automatically based on keywords included in each post or page.
Use a Caching Plugin
Caching is a way to speed up your website by storing static versions of the pages you create. This means that when people visit your website, they won’t need to load all that code again if they’ve already visited your site before. The WordPress caching plugins will automatically save a version of each page and post it on your website so that it can be accessed at any time without having to wait for new content to load.
Choose a WordPress Theme Optimized for Speed and SEO
As you start to look for a theme for your eCommerce website, make sure it’s optimized for speed and SEO. That means the theme will be fast to load, and it’ll have been built with search engines in mind.
The best way to find an optimized WordPress theme is by looking at the features of different themes before choosing one that’s right for your site. If you need some help deciding which features are important for your site, check out this article.
If you’re not sure what to look for in a theme, here are some things to consider:
- Is it responsive?
Your site should look good on all devices, from desktop computers to tablets and smartphones. Remember, over 90% of the population use their mobile phones to access the internet! Nowadays, customers like to have access to products and services at the palm of their hand, so having a responsive eCommerce site is super important.
- Is it SEO optimized?
This means keywords and metadata will be added automatically when you publish new content or create new pages.
- Is it fast?
As we’ve previously mentioned, you don’t want any slowdowns in loading times, which can happen with lots of images or too many plugins. Having the website as fast as popular will result in happy customers.
- Is the theme easy to use?
This is especially important if you’re not familiar with coding languages such as HTML and CSS. Using a no-code theme means you can easily edit your website, keeping it fresh and up-to-date for SEO purposes.
- Does it have a clean design?
You’ll want something easy on the eyes, and not cluttered with too many features. This is to allow for a user-friendly experience which encourages repeat visits to your website.
Choose the Right Permalink Structure
Permalink structure is the most crucial SEO element to get right because it’s your URL that users will remember and link to.
The good news is that WordPress makes it easy for you to set up a static permalink structure, which means that every post or page on your site will have a unique URL. This can be done by going into the Settings menu under Permalinks in WordPress and choosing “Custom Structure” from the dropdown menu. Then simply fill in your preferred structure using dashes or underscores between words or phrases.
Conclusion
SEO is a complex subject, but it doesn’t need to be intimidating. With these tips in mind and your knowledge of your site, you can optimize your WordPress website for SEO.
Best of luck with creating your SEO-optimized website.
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