Even if you're not an SEO expert, you probably know that search engine optimization can be the difference between your site being invisible or the first result on Google (or its AI summary).
The concept of SEO is a major backbone of the internet, and for some ecommerce businesses, a huge success factor. It’s also a massive topic, so for this piece, we’ll focus on SEO for ecommerce businesses.
We’ll look at core concepts of SEO for ecommerce websites, including keyword research, how to write better content, and how to optimize the backend of your site. Let's do this.
What Is Ecommerce SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the art and science of optimizing a site to make it more visible and higher ranking in search engine results for organic, unpaid traffic. The basic idea is to make a site more appealing to users and search engines through a variety of practices, including creating better content, improving structure, and finding ways to showcase more authority.
The key here is that SEO rankings are organic, which means you're not paying for them through Google Ads or any other advertising platform.
The fun part of SEO is that search engine companies don't tell us exactly what algorithms, formulas, and criteria they use to decide who gets what ranking. So while there's a lot that we know about SEO, there's still a whole lot we don't know.
One thing's for sure: You definitely want to be on the first page of a search result for items that you sell in your store. Research indicates that an extremely small percentage of users venture beyond the initial search results page. And now with AI summaries, many people don’t even click on pages at all.
At its core, good SEO means having an awesome website with a smooth, simple, and engaging experience for all of your visitors. It's no coincidence that when you improve this experience, your SEO rankings will improve.
Here are the core ecommerce SEO best practice tips:
Checklist: 9 Tips to Improve Ecommerce SEO
1. Do Some Good Old-Fashioned Keyword Research
The purpose of keyword research for ecommerce sites is to make sure that your website includes the terms that shoppers type in when they're looking for specific items or are ready to buy.
A big part of keywords is intent. You need to make sure that your keywords align with what the shopper truly wants, even if that's not super obvious from the words they type.
Then, when you know the right terms, you can include them all over your site, like in your product names and descriptions, and in the metadata of your pages. We'll get into that soon.
Here are a few options to do some quick, free ecommerce keyword research:
- Google Trends
- Google Search Suggestions
- Ahrefs Keyword Generator
- Ubersuggest
- Answer the Public
- Keyword Sheeter
Type in what you're selling, and these tools will spit out related terms that other people search for. Many tools will also tell you how many people search those terms, and how easy it might be for you to rank if you include them in your ecommerce SEO strategy (called "keyword difficulty").
When conducting keyword research, pay attention to whether terms are broad or specific. Longer, more detailed phrases typically face less competition and convert better because they match precisely what customers need. Balance your strategy between high-volume terms and these more targeted options.
Don't forget to explore autocomplete suggestions from major platforms. When you begin typing in a search bar, the system offers completion ideas based on popular queries. This works on both Google and Amazon, giving you insight into what real shoppers are looking for.
2. Optimize On-Page SEO for Ecommerce Product Pages
For product pages, you should pay attention to the on-page SEO elements. The three key elements of on page SEO are:
- Page titles: The top blue line that shows up in each Google search result. This line should have an intuitive name for your potential customers, while also fitting in a keyword or two where you can. Your title should be around 70 characters long.
- Meta descriptions: The text underneath the page title. For a product page, consider this a preview of what they'll see when they click. Again, add your keywords in a natural way. Keep this to 320 characters long.
- Images: Believe it or not, what you name your images before you upload them to your site makes a difference. Search engines crawl this information and use the data for ranking, archiving, and to deliver results on image search pages. Name your images with keywords when possible, and include descriptive details like styles and colors.
Use a dash between each word, like "mens-brown-leather-moto-jacket.jpg". When you upload the image, fill in the alt text with the same description. Alt text stands for "alternative text," which is designed to show if the user's device fails to load the image for some reason.
When writing product descriptions, avoid copying text from manufacturers or other sources. Create original, detailed content that gives search engines more context about what you're selling. Longer descriptions with helpful information tend to perform better in rankings and provide more value to shoppers.
3. Organize Your Website in a Simple, Logical Way
Another important aspect of ecommerce SEO optimization is the site architecture.
The way you organize all the pages of your store is called "architecture." This is a really important tip to improve ecommerce SEO while also improving the user experience of your potential customers. An ideal website architecture has a clear, logical structure for how everything is organized.
Consider a store that sells shoes. They might break the shoes up into three categories: sneakers, formal, and sandals. From there, they have subcategories. And then the products.
This is a clean site architecture because it's predictable, balanced, and easy to follow.
An added benefit to this doubles as another one of our best ecommerce SEO practices: keeping your page URLs tight and clean.
As you build your architecture and name your pages from category down to product, only include a few descriptive terms, and leave out unimportant words like "the, a, of." Search engines crawl URLs too, so make them count.
Your most valuable pages should be easily accessible from your homepage. The further away a page sits from your main navigation, the less authority it carries. Link your primary collections from your main menu, and ensure every product connects to at least one parent collection.
4. Have a Mobile-Friendly Site
People love shopping on their phones, so this should be integral to any SEO strategy for an ecommerce website. According to mobile commerce statistics, shopping via smartphones continues to dominate ecommerce, representing a massive portion of all online purchases.
It's a good idea to carefully scroll through every one of your web pages on your own phone (and a tablet, if you have access to one) to make sure that your site is fully responsive. This means that it automatically adjusts to the user's device so that the experience can stay smooth and seamless no matter what tool they're using to shop in your store.
This shouldn't be a major nuisance, as most Shopify themes are optimized for mobile. But just to double-check, run your URL through Google's mobile-friendly test tool.
To up your game, sign your website up for Google Search Console, where you'll be able to get comprehensive insights about your store's SEO performance and learn how to keep climbing to the first page.
5. Start a Link-Building Strategy
Backlinks, also called incoming or inbound links, are a powerhouse for stores looking to improve their search engine rank. Generally speaking, the more times your site is linked by other sites, the better it will be for your SEO rankings.
But there's a huge caveat: It's critical to make sure that you're building quality links from other credible, high-ranking websites. Google will know if you're running a shady backlink operation (and punish you accordingly).
Here are some ideas for your new link-building strategy:
- Write guest blogs on other websites in related niches, where your audiences can cross-mingle.
- Start an influencer marketing campaign where you get shoutouts and reviews from bloggers.
- Email related websites and ask them to link to a specific page on your site in exchange for a link to theirs.
- Register your website on various types of directories and listing websites.
- Reach out to journalists and reporters who are seeking expert sources for their articles.
- Develop partnerships with complementary businesses that serve similar audiences.
6. Run an SEO Audit to See Where You Stand Now
If your site is already up and running, there are plenty of free and paid online tools you can use to run a quick ecommerce SEO audit.
Even with the free versions, you'll be able to learn a lot about how your website is performing. And you'll walk away with a good idea of the most important things you can fix.
One of our favorite free ecommerce SEO audit tools is Ubersuggest's SEO Analyzer.
It shows you scores for different SEO elements, plus a rating scale to show you how good that score is.
As you scroll down, you'll see a site health checker that shows you critical errors, warnings, and recommendations.
And below that, you'll see how fast your pages are loading and the top SEO issues you should fix. Conveniently, it shows you a rating of how tough or time-consuming it might be for you to fix them, as well as how high of an impact that issue has on your rankings.
Some other handy ecommerce SEO audit tools include Raven, Woorank, SEO Site Checkup, and SEOptimer.
And while we're on the topic of tools, use an ecommerce SEO checklist, like the ones from Shopify to make sure you're covering all your bases.
7. Redirect Broken Pages
When doing technical SEO for ecommerce, don't forget to create redirects for broken pages. These could be pages with content problems, poor URL structure, or missing products.
Broken pages might display a "404" in the page title or elsewhere on the page or load a placeholder message saying "page not found."
Although most store owners will be advised to take down such pages, doing so can result in crawl-related errors that could take some time to fix.
So why add to your work when you can redirect a URL to a new, functional page?
In Shopify, you can create URL redirects by going to your admin, choosing Online Store and then Navigation, clicking URL Redirects followed by Add URL redirect, entering the old URL in Redirect from, and finally inserting the new URL in Redirect to.
8. Speed Up Your Website
Just a 1 second delay in site load time can reduce conversions by 7 percent. That's a big loss when you're generating $10,000 or upwards in revenue each month.
To improve your website speed, start by checking its current performance. Tools like Pingdom and GTmetrix work well for testing site load time.
If your ecommerce store takes more than 10 seconds to load, it's a signal that your site requires some speed optimization.
Here are some ways to improve your website's speed:
- Compress your product images: If the product pictures on your site are not optimized, they might weigh down your loading speed. Fortunately, the Shopify app store has several apps that help with image optimization and compression. Here's a popular one.
- Use a simple website theme: It's typical for stores that use a simple theme to load faster than stores using flashy animations, complicated layouts, and other elements. So when choosing a theme for your storefront, be sure to prioritize minimalist design over fancy appearance.
- Consider lazy loading: If your online store relies on product videos and images heavily, then it can benefit from lazy loading. This is where your site doesn't load all visual elements at once, but only downloads what's visible on a visitor's screen. When the visitor scrolls down, the site loads visuals that are now on display. An app like Lazify can help you implement lazy loading.
9. Submit your product feed to Google Merchant Center
Getting your products visible in Google Shopping can drive significant traffic to your store. To make this happen, you need to verify your product information through Google Merchant Center.
This verification confirms that details like item names, descriptions, pricing, and availability are accurate and meet platform requirements. Here's how to get started:
- Confirm ownership of your domain. This may happen automatically if you already use other Google services. Manual verification options include email confirmation, platform integration, tag manager, or adding code to your site. Once verified, claim your store's URL to establish the connection.
- Upload your product data. Send your product information using a supported format such as a spreadsheet or XML file. Make sure your data includes all required attributes and follows Google's specifications.
- Check your feed status. Monitor your feed's condition in your dashboard. Google will review your data for policy compliance, which usually takes up to three business days.
- Fix any problems. If errors or disapprovals occur, Google will provide details. Common issues include mismatched availability, incorrect pricing, or missing identifiers. You can find problems that need correction in the Needs attention tab. Address these quickly to ensure your products are eligible to appear.
Maintaining a properly validated data feed helps shoppers find what you're selling, strengthens your ranking position in relevant searches, and creates a better overall buying journey for your audience.
Mastering SEO Tips for Ecommerce Websites
When you implement core ecommerce SEO tips, you're not just working on boosting your visibility in search engines. You're also making your website and your customers' user experience better.
In summary, here are the nine best practices for improving SEO of your ecommerce website:
- Identify the right keywords to include in your product pages.
- Give your page titles, meta descriptions, and images some love.
- Organize your store's website in a simple, logical way.
- Make your website mobile-friendly.
- Create a link-building strategy to drive organic visits.
- Run an SEO audit to address errors and warnings.
- Redirect broken landing and product pages.
- Reduce page load time to speed up your site.
- Submit your product feed to Google Merchant Center.
We guarantee you that taking these steps will translate into more sales and happier customers, so don't skimp on these strategies.
Ecommerce SEO for Beginners FAQ
What Is SEO in Ecommerce?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is how you optimize a site to make it more visible and higher ranking in search engine results for organic, unpaid traffic. It’s about making a site or ecommerce store more appealing to users and search engines through content, structure, and authority optimizations.
What Are the Best Practices for Improving SEO in Ecommerce?
There are so many ways to improve your ecommerce store’s ranking and overall performance, but there are several steps you can always take to maximize improvement. These include identifying the right keywords for your product pages, using those keywords intelligently across titles, meta descriptions, and alt texts for images, and crafting the most logical and simple site architecture. You also want to make your store as mobile-friendly as possible and run audits to catch broken links and 404 errors. One of the biggest improvements you can make for online shoppers is make your sites speedier to reduce the chance of churn.
How Do You Optimize a Product Page?
The three key elements of on-page SEO are page titles, meta descriptions, and images. Page titles show up prominently on Google, so you want them to be intuitive and be useful for shoppers. You also want to add the most important keyword or several, and not cross 70 characters in length. Meta descriptions are also important, so remember to add keywords strategically and keep them 320 characters long or shorter. It’s easy to forget image texts, but Google definitely crawls that information as well. Write your image descriptions with a lot of descriptive detail and target keywords.
Is SEO Important for Ecommerce?
The short answer is: yes, SEO is still important for ecommerce. You definitely want to be on the first page of a search result for items that you sell in your store, as well as in AI summaries when applicable. Online shoppers tend to click on the pages that appear on a search engine’s first page, and not venture further than that. Attracting shoppers means being displayed prominently where people go to search for products, and that means mastering SEO, as well as AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization).