Search engine optimization (aka SEO) is the way Google knows how to rank different web pages for different keywords. SEO is essentially your way of speaking Google’s language so that it knows what each page is all about and telling Google that your page deserves to rank better.
While SEO is extremely important for eCommerce stores to compete and succeed it can also be very complicated and competitive. There are many marketers that purely specialize in SEO alone as their full time job, which should tell you just how deep this rabbit hole can go.
There is definitely a technical aspect to SEO but not all areas of SEO are as complicated. There are a few simple things that you can do to optimize every page on your website in order to improve the overall ranking. This is called on-page optimization and there are no technical skills required!
Pick Your Keyword First
The first thing to keep in mind when doing on-page optimization is that it’s best have the end in mind from the beginning. One of the biggest mistakes I see many people make when they’re just starting to learn and practice SEO is trying to go back and optimize a page after it’s already been written. Retrofitting a page to a keyword likely won’t get you the results you’re looking for.
Google’s customer is the person doing the searching and they want that person to get the best answer to their query. If you want to make a page stand out for a particular keyword then you have to make sure that you’re providing the best answer.
If you’re trying to get a page to rank for anti-aging skin care but that page is really about hair oil, no matter how much optimization you do you’ll never rank for anti-aging skin care. You can’t trick Google’s search engines, those days are over. Now you can simply try to give Google the right signals about what keyword you should rank for.
Here are a few different ways to come up with the right keywords.
Ask the Right Question
When you know your customer you can predict what types of questions they might search for. It’s up to you to figure out what those questions. For example if you’re selling weight loss supplements these questions could include:
- Best weight loss supplement
- Best weight loss program
- How to lose weight
- Why can’t I lose weight
- Healthy recipes
These aren’t all questions about weight loss supplements but the people you want to reach are asking these questions so it’s a good idea to try to answer them.
Research Your Competitors
Another way to figure out which keywords you should be targeting is by looking at what keywords your competition is already ranking for. There are many SEO tools out there that can help you do this. Once you know what keywords they’re ranking for you too can create content that fits that keyword. Just make sure you do it better.
Use What’s Trending
If there is something trending in your niche or your industry go after that but in a way that avoids the competition. SEMRush and Google AdWord both have a tools that you can use to research keywords and get an idea of how hard it will be to rank them. It will also give you suggestions for other, similar keywords.
These related keywords are often long tail keywords meaning they have less traffic. Just because these keywords have less traffic doesn’t mean they’re bad, it does mean however that they’ll be less competitive and more targeted. Pick the keyword with the most traffic and mid to low competition. This is where the money is.
Building an Optimized Web Page
There are a few different places that your keyword needs to be in order for Google to understand what your content is about. These places are:
- Headline
- Permalink
- Intro and Body Copy
- Alt Text of the First Image
- Meta Title and Description
- One H1 Heading
Headline
This one seems pretty easy at first glance but can be a little tricky when you get down to it. This is why it’s important to take some time to come up with a great title. You want a title that will draw the reader in and also has the keyword.
It’s better for the headline to be interesting and attention grabbing than to have the keyword. Google is advanced enough to rank search results without the keyword in the headline. Ideally it will be both, it might take time but it’ll be worth it.
Permalink
The permalink is the part of the URL that changes from page to page. This usually follows some version of the headline and shouldn’t stray too far from that. If your headline is super long though you can tweak it and shorten it a bit, just make sure you keep the keyword in there somewhere.
I also recommend not including numbers or dates in the permalink. If you ever decide you want to update that old blog or product page it’s much easier and less confusing when the url and the headline agree. Adding the number or date backs you into a corner where you can’t update or change it.
Intro and Body Copy
After you’ve come up with your keyword the next step is to build a page around that keyword. This can be a landing page, product page, blog post, whatever you need it to be. Be sure that you focus on “answering” the question implied in the search. Just because a keyword isn’t phrased as a question doesn’t mean it isn’t one.
When you successfully give a searcher the right answer or the one that they were looking for Google will see that you’re onto something. How do they know? If people stay on your site for a long time instead of exiting immediately or if they click through, Google will know that they’re getting what they wanted.
By picking your keyword first and creating the page around it, your keyword should pop up naturally through out. Don’t worry about having the keyword show up a certain number of times, SEO has moved on since the times of having a magic number.
Alt Text of the First Image
When you add an image to a page there are a few different things to fill out when editing the picture. In WordPress there’s the title, caption, alt text and description. The title is for you so that when you search you can find it in the media library and the alt text is for search engines.
Google can’t see images so it relies on the alt text to tell it what’s going on in that image. This alt text is also for people that are vision impaired and can’t see the image so it should be a good description of the image as well.
Often the first image on a blog (the hero image) or a web page has words on it that relate to the title or the title itself so that makes writing image alt text that is both descriptive and contains the keyword easy.
Meta Title and Description
The meta title and description are what show up in Google’s search results. The meta title is usually just the title. You can also add the name of your company after the article too but only if you have enough room.
Meta descriptions should give the searcher a good idea of what your page will tell them. This is also your chance to draw them in. Including you keyword here is important because some people (like me) scan the descriptions to see if the keyword is actually included.
One H1 Heading
There should only be one H1 heading on any given page. The H1 tag says to Google this is the most important and there can only be one thing that is the most important. Heading tags aren’t just for looking pretty but they do make a page easier to consume which is always a good thing.
Make sure to include multiple headings and subheadings throughout your page to break things up and keep your readers engaged. One big block of text can feel overwhelming and turn visitors away.
The Takeaway
Not all of SEO is complicated and technical. There are many ways that you can improve your rankings that are simple and effective. While it might seem easier not to put the time and effort into creating pages that rank, it’s not. Don’t waste your time creating pages that have no chance of ranking, instead put in the effort.
It will be better for your rankings and your customer experience too. Better rankings means more organic traffic and that means more money!
Follow us on Facebook for more business and ecommerce tips, tricks and advice.