You’ve come up with a great idea for an online store and have done hours of research about how to set things up. From naming your business to product pricing and choosing a hosting plan with an ecommerce website builder, there are so many details to consider in order to start your business off on the right foot. One thing you may not have thought about is the importance of search engine optimization, or SEO, in the success of your shop. Read on to learn more about search engine optimization and some SEO tips for your ecommerce site that you can use to bring more visitors to your online store.

Have a Strategy

In the online world, they say that content is king. This is as true for e-commerce, as it is for any other medium. Having unique content with keywords that relate to your product will increase your rank in the search engines, making it easier for customers to find you when they’re in search of your store’s particular offering. Adding new content regularly is another method that’s good for SEO. It also provides valuable information to your customers. One way to do this is to incorporate a blog into your site and update it regularly with relevant posts about your products, sales and general industry news.

Create Unique Product Descriptions

One of the most time-consuming aspects of setting up your website can be inserting product descriptions into a database. Avoid using pre-written manufacturer descriptions in an effort to save time. These summaries are generic and probably don’t contain the keywords customers are searching for. In addition, these very same words are likely used elsewhere across the internet, which is bad for SEO. With that being said, it’s crucial that you take steps to avoid using duplicate content on your own site. Each description, introduction and list should be unique. Take care to write your own website content in order to optimize it for keywords and to ensure its uniqueness.

Make It Relevant

While keywords are important, they should be used with your audience in mind, rather than concentrating on the search engines. Using keywords solely in an attempt to rank highly is not a productive strategy. Every page of your site should have its own separate meta description in order to tell search engines what is being presented. In addition, your product images need to also be optimized individually for SEO purposes. This doesn’t have to be a complicated process. Short phrasing and relevant keywords will go far when it comes to your search engine optimization.

Optimizing your online shop for the search engines may seem overwhelming at first. You’ll find that the time investment is well worth it when it comes to the return you’ll see in site visitors. SEO is simply another aspect of a successful sales and marketing strategy.

By Kar

Dr. Kar works in the interface of digital transformation and data science. Professionally a professor in one of the top B-Schools of Asia and an alumni of XLRI, he has extensive experience in teaching, training, consultancy and research in reputed institutes. He is a regular contributor of Business Fundas and a frequent author in research platforms. He is widely cited as a researcher. Note: The articles authored in this blog are his personal views and does not reflect that of his affiliations.