12 Aug 2024
How can a SEO specialist improve your eCommerce?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a crucial tool for global marketing and for the success of online businesses. Good SEO not only increases domain authority and online visibility, but also attracts qualified traffic. For eCommerce businesses facing fierce competition, benefiting from ongoing SEO support is often what makes the difference.
This article aims to provide you with some important steps to consider in improving your eCommerce SEO. Whether you’re just launching or in the midst of a major overhaul, this list will guide you through the essential steps to maximize your search engine visibility and improve your overall performance.
Analyze and define SEO objectives
Search engine optimization is not a science that can be improvised. On the contrary, SEO takes time to bear fruit. Through a series of preliminary stages, an entire strategy is built up to ensure success.
SWOT analysis of current site
The SWOT (Strenghts, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is a first approach to the site and the brand. The aim is to quickly identify the following components:
- Strengths: What the site already has in terms of SEO assets;
- Weaknesses: Areas where there is potential for SEO improvement;
- Opportunities: SEO market trends that can be used;
- Threats: SEO challenges to overcome in order to get the site where you want it to be.
Definition of SEO objectives in line with corporate goals
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the site and the brand, it’s time to link SEO objectives with your business goals. This may well be an increase in organic traffic, an improvement in conversion rate, an increase in click-through rate, a decrease in bounce rate, etc.
Keyword research and identification of main themes
As search engine optimization is largely a matter of content, a keyword analysis is an essential step in setting up SEO objectives. Using a variety of tools, we identify the main themes and isolate corporate requests from more secondary keywords. To do this, we analyze various indicators:
- Search intent: The stage in the user’s buying journey;
- Volume: The number of searches associated with this query;
- Relevance: The exact and precise meaning of the query;
- Competition: The number and quality of competitors for this query.
360° SEO audit of existing site
Whether you’re creating, redesigning or optimizing an online business, a SEO audit is an essential step in the process. It represents a snapshot of the site at a given point in its life, both technically, on-site and off-site. It also serves as a guideline and specification. With this analysis, it is possible to identify areas for improvement, the teams to be appointed and the efforts to be made.
Creating the detailed project plan
Armed with a 360° SEO audit, a thorough keyword research and knowledge of the brand’s business objectives, all that remains is to create a detailed project plan. This takes a number of forms, not least that of a project specification, listing milestones, priorities, team management and delivery dates for all SEO actions. This is an essential document for personalized support.
SEO support during the development phase
It’s a good idea to call on a SEO specialist to support you during the development phase. In fact, this resource person will be involved at every stage of your eCommerce project’s development: from mock-up design to Web development, including the configuration of specific tools.
If you’re in the process of redesigning or optimizing your eCommerce, Novatize offers valuable advice to help you choose the best option for your situation.
SEO optimization of wireframes
The UX/UI design of the mock-ups must meet certain SEO requirements, such as category nomenclature, menu management and overall navigation structure. This is a strategic stage, during which it is advisable to be accompanied by a SEO expert. The considerations he or she makes at the start of the project will save time during the subsequent development phase.
Technical SEO advice for development
Once the site is up and running, it’s time to keep an eye on SEO throughout the process. Working in close collaboration with front-end and back-end developers, the SEO specialist will be involved in a number of areas:
- URL structure;
- Structured data markup;
- Setting ALT tags for images;
- Setting HTML tags (title, meta descriptions, Hn);
- Setting canonical tags;
- Etc.
Planning the migration of existing URLs
Of course, whether you’re dealing with end-of-life URLs or redesigning an eCommerce site, it’s vitally important to retain all your SEO assets. The aim, especially when changing URL nomenclature, is to create a redirection plan that will coordinate the old URLs with the new ones. This mission, both sensitive and strategic, is the only way to prevent the loss of site positioning and traffic.
Crawling URL structure
Once the project is well advanced and the data has been set up, it’s time for a quick initial check. To do this, we use a “crawl” tool that imitates search engine robots. At this stage, the aim is simply to verify the consistency and hierarchy of the information as specified in the project plan.
Pre-launch SEO testing
Bringing in a SEO expert just before an eCommerce site goes live is never a waste of resources. On the contrary, this key, high-stakes stage offers many opportunities to validate the latest SEO optimizations.
Content review for keyword optimization
A few weeks, even days, before going live, it’s important to review the content imported or created on the site. In addition to the content, it’s especially important to check that keywords are integrated naturally and that SEO copywriting best practices are followed. After all, search engines reward quality, relevant content far more than quantity. Once again, the advice of a SEO specialist is recommended to ensure that your efforts bear fruit.
Testing redirects
Setting up a redirection plan is one thing. Checking that it’s working properly is quite another. Quite often, changing URL structure is synonymous with 404 errors when the site goes online. But with an effective redirection plan, tested in advance, these errors should no longer occur.
Technical audit of the staging version
A few days before going live, we recommend a new audit of the version still in staging. More technically oriented, this audit will serve as a back-up, enabling you to quickly optimize elements that are still faulty. This involves checking the following elements:
- Loading speed;
- Internal links;
- Canonical tags;
- Redirection rules;
- Orphan pages;
- Etc.
SEO technical support during launch
Once the site is online, the SEO expert provides essential support to the development teams, in particular by monitoring the site in real time. In fact, it’s only when the site is finally online that it’s a good idea to test the following strategic elements:
- Redirect validation;
- External link monitoring;
- Server problems;
- Indexing errors;
- Performance monitoring.
Post-launch SEO monitoring
Don’t think that going live is the end of the story. Admittedly, it’s an important step in an ecommerce site’s marketing strategy. But SEO is a marathon that never really stops. The aim, when you have a perfectly optimized site for search engines, is to maintain what you’ve already achieved, while continually adapting to new requirements.
Post-launch audit
It’s very important to continue auditing your site on a regular basis. The health of the site is an essential element in natural referencing. It’s important to make sure that everything is still green one month, three months, six months or a year after going online. This includes :
- The site’s technical structure;
- Keyword positioning;
- Quality of backlinks;
- Update of identified SEO patches on an ongoing basis;
- etc.
SEO performance monitoring
SEO is as much about techniques as it is about performance metrics. Constant monitoring of performance indicators is the key to success for all eCommerce stores. To identify, improve and adapt your SEO strategy, you need to put several things in place:
- Produce a performance report after one month to analyze results achieved against the SEO project plan objectives;
- Compare metrics after six months to analyze traffic, conversions and post-launch positioning in relation to previous data;
- Identify corrective actions and plan next steps for ongoing site optimization;
- Plan SEO support to establish an onsite content strategy, optimize existing content, establish an offsite content strategy, etc;
- Set up dashboards to be consulted regularly to keep abreast of site health;
- Plan site crawls to ensure technical hygiene;
- Monitor new SEO trends and algorithm updates.
With their 360° expertise, SEO specialists are just as much at your service for optimization mandates as for the creation or redesign of your eCommerce site. Thanks to data analysis and keyword research, he or she can build an effective SEO strategy in line with your eCommerce business objectives.
Would you like to invite tenders for your eCommerce redesign and ensure its success? Discover the important elements to include in your RFP.
It’s also necessary to be accompanied by a SEO specialist throughout the project, in order to adapt best practices and monitor the technical health of your eCommerce site. However, their involvement in an eCommerce redesign is all the more strategic. Investing in this resource at these key moments means you can look forward to going online much more serenely.
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