ecommerce seo checklist

Opening an eCommerce website is challenging, but it’s just the beginning. Your next destination, SEO optimization, is a tough journey, requiring you to handle several things. In that case, a checklist will help. 

So, I’ve created this eCommerce SEO checklist that contains almost everything you need to optimize your online shop for search engines. Following this list will increase your ranking for many keywords. If you’re looking for an eCommerce SEO guide, this checklist is what you need. So, save it and follow it accordingly. 

Let’s start optimizing. 

Ecommerce SEO Checklist to Rank Higher

Research Keywords

Keyword research is the primary action in any SEO approach, as you want to rank for suitable keywords. 

Use a keyword research tool. Google Keyword Planner is an outstanding free tool for keyword research. If possible, pick a paid tool because paid ones offer more insights. 

Search for keywords related to your products. Use synonyms too. For example- besides ‘cheap fitness tracker’, look for ‘reasonable health tracker’. 

Pick low competitive keywords with high search volume. Low competitive keywords with low search volume are also suitable. Pick one focus keyword and 3-4 related long-tail ones. 

You must see whether the keywords are for local or global searches. If you serve local customers only, global keywords won’t help. Also, you must pick buying intent keywords. For example- ‘red sneakers’ is not a buying intent keyword, but ‘best red sneakers’ is. 

Create Quality Content

High-quality content is a must if you want your website to rank for a long time. For eCommerce websites, high-quality content means content that attracts, educates, and drives traffic to buy the product. 

Your product page content should include the product title, complete product description, special features, product specification, images from different angles, user reviews, frequently asked questions, etc. 

Ensure the images are high-quality and give an idea about the product’s physical dimensions. 

Optimize Written Content

You must put the keywords in the content naturally. Use the focus keyword in the title, description, and other parts multiple times. Also, use long-tail keywords where relevant. 

Instead of pushing a keyword in an irrelevant position, try to write in a way where you can insert keywords naturally. 

In a product page, the focus keyword should appear 4-5 times. 

Maintain a clean structure. Content with titles, subtitles, bullet points, and a proper mix of short and lengthy paragraphs is easier to read. If you offer visitors comfort, they’ll stay on your site for a long time. 

Optimize for On-page SEO

Putting keywords here and there 4-5 times won’t help you to rank if you don’t optimize other parts. 

Make the title interesting enough to make your target audience click. For example- instead of just writing ‘eCommerce SEO checklist’, I’ve added ‘A Comprehensive Guide to Increase Ranking!’ to make it more descriptive and understandable. 

Insert the keyword into the URL, too. 

Use light images with a proper name. ‘IMG0284032385.jpg’ is not a good name. Instead, use ‘white sneaker top view.jpg’. While uploading images, add alt texts that describe them. Insert keyword in alt texts. Some online tools are there to help reduce image size without hurting quality. 

Don’t forget to write a meta description using the focus keyword once. 

Create a Blog

There is no rule of thumb that eCommerce websites can’t have a blog. Blog helps you rank for informational keywords that bring your buyers. 

So, build a blog section and write anything related to your product. Brainstorm topics and look for keywords. Whenever you find a quality keyword, write a blog. Also, you can write a blog based on the frequently asked questions about a product. 

Use content marketing strategies to get more visitors to your website. 

Edit Robots.txt File

Robots.txt ensures whether search engines can crawl your site or not. If you don’t allow them to crawl your site, your website pages won’t be indexed. So, you must check and edit your robots.txt file. 

If there is no such file, create one first. Using Robots.txt, allow search engines to crawl your product pages, blog posts, etc. However, pages like checkout, terms of use, privacy policy, etc., are not necessary to crawl. You can block search engines on such pages using robots.txt.

Submit Sitemap

Sitemap is the guide that makes crawling easier for search engines. The easier the crawling, the faster your site gets indexed. So, adding a sitemap is a must-have point in this eCommerce SEO checklist. 

Several tools and plugins are available to create and submit a sitemap in various search engines. Find a good one and follow the process to build and submit sitemap. Don’t just opt for Google. Submit it to search engines like Bing, Yahoo Search, etc. 

Remove Duplicate Content

Publishing content copied from other sites is a big NO regarding SEO. Search engine crawlers are clever enough to identify such content. 

To avoid duplicate content, you can try using a premium plagiarism checker that finds the portion of an article that seems similar to any already published content. If you don’t have any choice but to write the same content, use different words to make your content unique. 

If there is duplicate content on your site already, remove that. 

Focus on Internal Linking

Internal linking is a great way to show search engines that your webpages are relevant to each other. Also, it helps crawlers crawl through your site easily. It is helpful for the visitors too. 

So, try to create relevant internal links with different anchor keywords. Don’t use your focus keyword to link internal pages. Connect your blogs with product pages through internal linking. Also, you can pair your products to introduce a better offer. 

Make It Mobile-friendly

As most people use mobile devices to browse things, search engines love sites that have a mobile-friendly version. So, keep your site adaptable to mobile devices. A mobile-friendly theme will help you with this. 

Also, don’t use heavy plugins. Most of them don’t support mobile devices. Install plugins carefully. 

Improve Page Speed

Page speed is an important ranking factor. So, it must have a place in this eCommerce SEO checklist. 

Light images help your site load faster. Besides, you must edit your JavaScript and CSS codes to make them lighter. Check your hosting speed, as it affects website speed. Change hosting provider or jump to a faster package if required. 

Google PageSpeed Insights will give you an idea about the page speed and the necessary changes. 

Build Backlinks

Backlinks are the references that other sites trust you. Search engines love backlinks. So, start building links from the very beginning of your site. Instead of making 100-150 monthly links, start with 5-10 links. 

Keep the links relevant to your website content. Irrelevant and cheap links from unrelated sources don’t work. Instead, they hurt your site. If possible, conduct a backlink audit once every two months to find out and remove bad backlinks. 

Final Verdict

The eCommerce SEO checklist here is good SEO support for new eCommerce businesses. Start working on your site today, and you’ll find it ranking up within a month if you follow these steps correctly. 

With the growth of your business and site, you should take care of a few more things. SEO becomes hectic in that phase. 

In that case, you can try our services. We offer complete SEO support for eCommerce and other websites. Also, if you need support in a specific part, we can help you. Communicate with us without any hesitation.