It is a common misconception that if you list hundreds or thousands of products on your eCommerce site, then the traffic will automatically increase. The truth is your job is not done just by putting up the products. There are many other factors that need attention, such as optimizing eCommerce websites for SEO, which is much harder to do than blogs. Many problems are created because the product pages are shuffling on and off-site which makes SEO for an eCommerce website much difficult.
One thing that all eCommerce website owners must strive for is customer satisfaction. Your customers need to be happy about their shopping experience and their interaction with your website. We will list five common SEO errors found on an eCommerce website that can help you if you are also planning to build your own online store.
1. Lack Of Description
If you have an eCommerce website, then you are probably selling a large variety of products. A common mistake of many eCommerce websites is not providing a product description and even when they do, it is not enough. Using just a product picture is not going to be enough to attract your customers. You have to convince your customers that they need your product and it is exactly what they are looking for.
How are people going to buy a product if they don’t even know what it is? Many websites make the mistake of giving too little detail about the product and not enough pictures. Half the visitors on your site will leave before you can blink, just because there is no information about the product they are interested in.
What you should do is upload high-quality pictures of the product from different angles so the customers can see what they are buying and then post them. Since the customer is watching the product on a screen, it can be hard to judge the material of your product. Give a description of the product that is short and descriptive at the same time and also mentions the material, size, etc. I have also experienced this inconvenience numerous times when I wanted to buy a product: either the manufacturing material of the product was not mentioned, or the size was not explicitly shown. Apart from that, having little or no description will make search engine optimization confused and blindfolded.
2. Duplicate Content
Duplicated content is a massive hindrance is your website’s SEO. Duplicate content has an adverse effect on the SEO standings that your website will be showing. It also affects the amount of money you will bring in every single week. If the search engine cannot properly index your eCommerce website, there won’t be much traffic flowing in from the search results. This is why removing duplicate content is a necessity.
An underrated problem that eCommerce websites often encounter is that most sites use plagiarized content. Websites use the same descriptions as some other companies, and that leads to plagiarized content which then prevents the site from being at the top of the search engine rankings. Mostly it occurs from the product manufacturer that does not create a good image. Sometimes the content is brief, and it does not contain the necessary information. Your content should always be original and unique that convinces the customer to buy the product. If you have authentic information on your products, the rankings of your website will increase along with your earnings.
3. URLs
It is not a surprise for many of the shopping engines to present the product pages with URLs that are unreadable for both the users and the search engines. Most of them are like that when the system was developed, the programmers found it easier to build the URLs using that pattern, without taking SEO into consideration. It would be a blessing if the platform you are using allows you to change the URL to something that is more meaningful.
4. Design
When you are interacting with a customer in the virtual world, every tiny detail matters because in this case, a customer forms their opinion. Make sure that your website presents who you are. Your website design should not be boring. Most people consider this to be a small aspect, and this ends up costing them a lot. When you are online, your image matters to the person on the other side of the screen. If you fail to get your customers through your website, it will cause you a problem, and your rankings can take a dive. While you are designing or redesigning your eCommerce website, keep SEO in mind. Research has proved that a company can suffer the loss of 75 percent of its traffic just because of its redesign.
5. Lack Of /No Customer Reviews
What does a person do when one visits a product on a website? One reads the comments of customers and their reviews of the products. If there are no customer reviews, a person will hesitate to purchase that item because of the lack of trust. What the customer has to say about your product can take a while to determine what others may think of your site. According to Spiegel Research Center, customer reviews are among the top three factors that affect the increase in sales. However, a common mistake that most websites make is either they don't have customer reviews, or they only post filtered posts. This fact will not grant the product the needed authenticity. You should post a review in which the customers have reported a problem and the company was able to solve it. This will build a level of trust for the customer.
Make your online store useful and convenient for your customers in order to achieve its respect. Google values its customers and prefers what the people prefer.
Author bio: Melissa Stanley is a veteran tech writer and editor who has worked in several eCommerce companies so far. She has been covering technology online for over five years. She regularly posts at PCGT - PunchOut Catalogs.