12 Tips to Improve SEO for E-commerce Success

Why E-commerce SEO Matters for Your Store's Growth

Summary

• E-commerce SEO focuses on optimizing online stores for search engine visibility, driving targeted organic traffic and sales.
• Effective strategies include precise keyword research, logical site architecture, and comprehensive on-page optimization for product and category pages.
• Technical SEO elements such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, and secure connections (HTTPS) are fundamental for ranking and user experience.
• Content marketing and strategic backlink building improve brand authority and attract customers across various stages of the buying journey.
• Continuous monitoring and data analysis using tools like Google Analytics and Search Console are essential for refining SEO strategies over time.

E-commerce SEO best practices are the strategies that help your online store rank higher in search results to attract customers who are ready to buy. Since most online shopping journeys begin on a search engine, appearing on the first page is critical—it captures over 90% of all traffic. For an e-commerce business, this visibility translates directly to revenue. Unlike paid ads, organic traffic from SEO is a sustainable, cost-effective way to grow your customer base.

The challenge is that competition is intense, with total e-commerce sales expected to reach $8 trillion by 2027. Modern SEO requires more than just keywords; search engines now reward sites that show expertise and provide a good user experience through factors like page speed, mobile design, and security. They penalize sites with poor user experience or those that try to manipulate rankings.

When done correctly, SEO builds a foundation for consistent, long-term growth. In fact, 82% of marketers report that SEO positively impacts their marketing performance. It helps you reach customers at every stage of their journey, from initial research to the final purchase.

I'm Steve Pogson, founder of First Pier, and over the past two decades, I've helped e-commerce businesses use E-commerce SEO best practices that drive measurable growth. In this guide, I'll share the specific strategies we use to help our clients rank higher and convert more visitors into customers.

Laying the Foundation: Keyword Research & Site Architecture

A solid SEO plan for e-commerce starts with understanding how customers search for products and structuring your site to make them easy to find. This combination of keyword research and logical site architecture is the foundation of a successful strategy.

E-commerce Keyword Research: Understanding Customer Intent

Unlike general SEO, e-commerce keyword research focuses on attracting buyers. This means targeting commercial intent keywords—phrases people use when they are ready to buy. For example, "how to clean running shoes" is informational, while "buy red sneakers online" shows clear transactional intent. These keywords often include modifiers like "deals," "discounts," or "free shipping."

I start by looking for long-tail keywords. These three- or four-word phrases often have higher conversion rates because they are more specific. For a new store, targeting keywords with low competition (a score under 30 is a good start) can help gain initial traction.

To find these keywords, I use a mix of tools:

• Google Keyword Planner: A great free tool for finding keywords, search volume, and competition data.
• Ahrefs and SEMrush: These paid tools let me perform a deeper analysis of competitor keyword strategies to find missed opportunities.
• Google and Amazon Search Features: Autocomplete suggestions and related searches show what real consumers are typing into search bars.
• Reddit: This platform is a goldmine for understanding how people talk about products and their pain points, which provides great long-tail keyword ideas.

Designing a Scalable Site Architecture

Your site's structure affects both user experience and search engine crawling. A logical architecture helps Google find and index all your pages efficiently, while a confusing one can cause important pages to be missed.

My goal is a "flat" architecture, where any product is reachable from the homepage in three clicks or less. This helps distribute link equity from your homepage throughout the site, signaling the importance of your product pages to search engines.

Here’s how I design a scalable site architecture:

• Homepage Linking: The homepage should link clearly to main category pages.
• Category Pages: Each category page links to its subcategories and product pages.
• Simple Navigation: The main navigation should be intuitive. Breadcrumbs are essential for showing users their location and helping search engines understand your site's structure.
• Clean URLs: A simple URL structure improves user experience and SEO. I recommend using keywords in URLs and avoiding stop words like "the" or "and." Google also offers advice on improving URL structure.
• Hub and Spoke Model: For Shopify sites, I often use a Hub and Spoke structure. This organizes content around core category pages ("hubs") that link to related subcategory and product pages ("spokes"), which reinforces topical authority. You can learn more about how we approach this with our Shopify development services.

This upfront planning makes sure that as your product catalog grows, your SEO foundation remains strong.

On-Page Optimization for Products & Categories

With a solid foundation, the next step is to optimize individual pages. On-page SEO involves refining the content and HTML of a page. For an e-commerce store, product and category pages are the most important because that is where sales happen.

Essential On-Page Elements for E-commerce SEO Best Practices

• Title Tags: A title tag should be under 60 characters, include the primary keyword, and encourage clicks. I often add modifiers like "buy online" to signal transactional intent.
• Meta Descriptions: While not a direct ranking factor, a good meta description increases click-through rate (CTR). I write them to be around 105 characters, summarizing the page and including a call to action.
• H1 Headings: Use one H1 tag for the main page topic, usually the product or category name. Use H2 and H3 tags to organize the rest of the content for readability.
• Unique Product Descriptions: Do not copy manufacturer descriptions, which creates duplicate content. Write unique, detailed descriptions that explain benefits, answer questions, and include keywords. Huel does this well by using green ticks for benefits and links for more information.
• Image Alt Text: Search engines read alt text to understand images. I make sure all product images have descriptive alt text with keywords to help them rank in Google Images and improve accessibility.
• Descriptive File Names: Image file names should be descriptive, like "mens-leather-jacket-brown.jpg" instead of "IMG_001.jpg."
• Image Compression: Large images slow down your site. I make sure images are compressed without losing quality, using modern formats like WebP when possible.
• Internal Linking: Link to related products, categories, or blog posts to guide visitors, distribute page authority, and keep users engaged.

Optimizing these elements creates a better experience for both customers and search engines. For more on creating a conversion-focused experience, see our insights on e-commerce UX design.

Using Schema Markup and Customer Reviews

Schema markup is code that helps search engines understand your content. For e-commerce, it can create "rich snippets" that show product details like price and availability directly in search results, which can increase visibility and CTR.

• Product Schema: I use product markup to tag details like product name, price, availability, brand, and SKU. This helps Google display this information in search results.
• Review Schema: Since 90% of consumers consider reviews when buying, this is critical. Review schema allows star ratings to appear in search results, providing social proof. Nike's website is a good example of how to integrate reviews.
• Rich Snippets: Good schema implementation results in rich snippets. These improved search results can include star ratings, price, and stock status, which helps your listings get attention. You can test your schema with Google's Schema Markup Validator or Rich Results Test.

I also recommend sending follow-up emails to encourage customer reviews. They provide fresh content for your site and build trust with new buyers.

Mastering Technical SEO for a High-Performing Store

Technical SEO makes sure search engines can crawl, understand, and index your website efficiently. For e-commerce sites with thousands of pages, a strong technical foundation is essential for ranking.

Core Technical Health Factors

These factors directly affect user experience and search rankings. A slow, insecure, or mobile-unfriendly site will struggle to rank.

• Mobile-First Indexing and Responsive Design: Since most people shop on mobile, your site must be mobile-friendly. Google uses mobile-first indexing, so the mobile version of your site is what it uses for ranking. I recommend responsive design, which adapts your site's layout to any screen size for a consistent user experience.
• Page Speed and Core Web Vitals: Slow sites lose visitors and rank poorly. 53% of people will leave a page that takes more than two to three seconds to load. Page speed is a ranking factor, and Google's Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS) are key metrics for user experience. I use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to find speed issues caused by large images, uncompressed code, or a slow hosting provider.
• Site Security (HTTPS): An SSL certificate encrypts data between your site and visitors, which builds trust and is a confirmed Google ranking factor. It gives customers confidence when they shop on your site.

These technical elements directly influence how users and search engines judge your site. For help making sure your Shopify store meets accessibility and compliance standards, which overlap with technical SEO, you can see our Shopify accessibility and data compliance services.

Crawlability, Indexing, and Content Management

Managing how search engines access your content is key to preventing duplicate content issues and making sure important pages are found.

• XML Sitemaps: An XML sitemap is a roadmap that tells search engines which pages to crawl. I make sure my clients' sitemaps are updated and submitted to Google Search Console.
• Robots.txt File: This file tells search engines which pages to avoid crawling. It's useful for keeping low-value or duplicate content out of the index and saving your crawl budget.
• 404 Errors and 301 Redirects: I use 301 redirects for discontinued products or changed URLs to send users and search engines to a relevant new page. I monitor 404 errors in Google Search Console and fix them with redirects.
• Canonical Tags: To fix duplicate content issues from product variants or filtered navigation, I use canonical tags. They tell search engines which version of a page is the "master" copy to index.
• Faceted Navigation Issues: Filters for size, color, or brand can create thousands of similar URLs, causing duplicate content and wasting crawl budget. I handle this by using canonical tags to point filtered URLs to the main category page.

Building Authority with Content and Backlinks

Your site's authority is based on your content quality and the number of reputable sites that link to you. These elements build trust with search engines and customers.

Leveraging Content Marketing for E-commerce SEO Best Practices

Content marketing improves SEO by offering value to your audience. It helps attract customers at different stages of their buying journey.

• Blogging: Write blog posts that solve customer problems or explain how to use your products. A clothing store could write "How to Choose the Perfect Winter Coat" and link to relevant coats. This attracts people in the research phase.
• Buying Guides and How-To Articles: These are great for targeting informational keywords and positioning your brand as an expert. A guide is more likely to be shared and linked to than a product page.
• Funnel-Based Content: I create content for different buying stages. Top-of-funnel content (like blog posts) attracts new users, while bottom-of-funnel content (like product comparisons) targets those ready to buy.

Fresh content signals activity to search engines and creates assets that can earn backlinks. Integrating content with your other marketing creates a better customer experience. Learn how we help clients with our email and SMS marketing services.

Strategies for Building High-Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are a key ranking factor. Links from reputable sites tell Google your website is credible. Earning these links can be hard but is very valuable.

Here are some methods I use to build quality backlinks:

• Guest Blogging: Writing for relevant, high-authority websites in your niche can earn backlinks and introduce your brand to a new audience.
• Influencer Outreach: Working with influencers who review your products can lead to natural links.
• Supplier & Partner Links: Ask suppliers or manufacturers to link to your product pages.
• Unlinked Brand Mentions: Find where your brand is mentioned online without a link and ask for one to be added.
• Digital PR: Create content like data studies or infographics that can attract media attention and earn links. Services like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) can connect you with journalists.

Always build links ethically. Here are tactics to avoid:

• Buying links that violate Google’s guidelines
• Participating in link schemes
• Excessive link exchanges

Building a good backlink profile is a long-term investment in your site's SEO.

Optimizing for Local SEO

If your e-commerce business has a physical store, local SEO is essential for attracting nearby customers. As a company in Portland, ME, we know how important local visibility is.

• Google Business Profile: Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile listing to appear in local search and Google Maps. I make sure all information is accurate, including hours and photos.
• Local Citations: Make sure your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) are consistent across all online directories like Yelp.
• Geo-Specific Keywords: Use location-based keywords in your content, such as "hiking boots Portland ME."
• In-Store Pickup: If you offer in-store pickup, highlight it on your product pages and Google Business Profile.

Local SEO connects your online store with your physical location to attract local customers.

Frequently Asked Questions about E-commerce SEO

Here are answers to common questions I get from e-commerce business owners.

What is the difference between e-commerce SEO and regular SEO?

While they share the same principles, e-commerce SEO is focused on commercial and transactional keywords. The goal is to rank product and category pages for terms that show a clear intent to buy. This requires specific tactics like using product schema and managing faceted navigation to drive sales.

How long does it take for e-commerce SEO to show results?

SEO is a long-term effort. Minor improvements might appear in a few weeks, but significant results, like a noticeable increase in organic traffic and sales, typically take 4 to 12 months. The timeline depends on your site's age, industry competition, and the quality of your SEO work.

How should I handle out-of-stock or discontinued product pages?

This is a common issue. Here is my advice:

• Temporarily Out-of-Stock: Keep the page live. Mark the product as out of stock and offer an email notification for when it returns. This preserves the page's SEO value.
• Permanently Discontinued: Do not delete the page, as you will lose any backlinks and search visibility it has earned. Instead, use a 301 redirect to send users and search engines to a similar product or a relevant category page. This maintains a good user experience and preserves SEO value.

Monitoring Performance and Refining Your Strategy

SEO is not a one-time task; it is an ongoing process of monitoring and adjustment. Measuring performance helps you understand what is working so you can refine your strategy for consistent growth.

Here are the main tools and metrics I use to monitor SEO performance:

• Google Analytics: This tool tracks organic traffic, bounce rates, and conversion rates. I use it to understand user behavior and see how organic search contributes to sales.
• Google Search Console: This tool is essential for any e-commerce site. It monitors keyword rankings, search visibility, and crawl errors. I use it to track impressions, clicks, and average keyword positions.
• Keyword Rankings: I regularly track target keyword rankings to measure progress.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): A low CTR may mean your title tags or meta descriptions need improvement.
• Conversion Rate: I monitor the conversion rate from organic traffic to see how well the site turns visitors into customers.
• Bounce Rate: A high bounce rate can mean the page content is not meeting user expectations.

Here at First Pier, a successful strategy is a cycle of implementation, measurement, and refinement. We use these tools and metrics to make informed decisions and improve your store's performance. If you need expert help with your e-commerce SEO, learn more about our SEO services and how we can help your business grow.