Ecommerce businesses, perhaps more than any other, are well-suited to SEO. Consider this: whereas a local law firm can place a billboard or purchase ad space in a regional newspaper in addition to SEO, eCommerce businesses essentially have one resource available to them: the internet.
That’s where they do all of their business, and it’s where they’ll get the customers they want. As a result, eCommerce businesses should devote a significant amount of time to perfecting their SEO. One critical way to accomplish this is to optimize your site so that it appears in Google’s various SERP features.
There are numerous ways to inform users about your company even before they visit your website, right from the SERP. And the data you provide could mean the difference between capturing your ideal traffic and losing it to competition.
As a result, to present yourself in the best possible light to all potential customers searching for your products, you must optimize your website specifically for the SERP features that drive conversions.
How do you go about it? Here are four of the most important Google SERP features for which you should optimize the SEO of your eCommerce business.
Read 7 Top WooCommerce WordPress Themes and What Makes Them Great.
1. Rich cards
Google introduced a new mobile SERP feature called rich cards in 2016. SEOs can make a company’s results “richer,” that is, more visually appealing, clickable, and thus more likely to generate an organic click, by using structured data.
When you search for a specific type of product, results marked with the appropriate language instruct Google to display the product along with an image that can help users decide if they want to explore further. Users can view more items by simply swiping.
So, why am I recommending a 2016 SERP feature?
It’s because mobile traffic accounted for nearly 55 percent of global online traffic in the first quarter of 2021, and that figure is only expected to rise. In other words, mobile search results are more relevant today than they were in 2016.
In light of this, how can you optimize your eCommerce products for rich cards?
You must mark up your products using the JSON-LD method. You can then put your work through its paces using Google’s free rich results tools.
2. Google Images results
The need for eCommerce businesses to optimize their content for Google Images results is related to rich cards. Relevant images will appear before organic results at the top of a SERP.
A good product description is important, but don’t forget to think simply: if customers can see clear, high-quality images of your products, it will help your credibility and thus drive conversions.
How do you optimize for Google Images? Because Google does not read images the same way it reads text, it all comes down to how you prepare your images on the back end.
First and foremost, make certain that your images are your originals. You don’t stand a chance if you try to rank for stock photos.
Next, give your photos descriptive file names that correspond to the pages where they will appear. In the case of eCommerce, because you’ll almost certainly have a series of photos for each product, give the image files titles that reflect the product, separated by hyphens.
Here’s an illustration: unisex-sneakers-blue -brand name-yoursitename
Also, don’t forget to include descriptive alt text for each image in case it can’t be loaded and seen.
Finally, avoid uploading large image files that will slow down a website. Compress them as much as possible to allow your site to breathe while still ensuring the images show what you need them to show. Check out this in-depth guide to image optimization.
3. Rich snippets
You might be thinking, “Wait a minute, why are you talking about both rich cards and rich snippets?”
Rich cards will stop you in your tracks when it comes to eCommerce products. You can take it a step further for relevant products by optimizing for rich snippets.
Rich snippets provide additional information about your products. These appear within your search results, beneath the meta title and above the meta description.
You’ll use structured data to get rich snippets on your product results, just like you did for rich cards. You can choose which information to enter based on what will specifically catch the attention of your potential customers and satisfy their search queries.
It makes the most sense for eCommerce businesses to optimize their rich-snippet products for prices, in-stock status, sales, different brands, customer reviews, and star ratings.
Consider each of these characteristics. Isn’t it natural for a customer looking for this type of product to want to see this information from your online store?
Rich snippets are a great way to reach out to users with additional information without requiring them to click on your result. You’re taking the most concentrated bits of information about your product offerings and hurling them at the user via the SERPs.
You can, of course, choose not to do this for your products. But, if your competitors are, who do you believe has a better chance of attracting a click and converting it into a sale?
Simply put, rich snippets are good eCommerce SEO.
4. Sitelinks
Finally, try to optimize your site for SERP sitelinks.
I say “attempt” to optimize because this isn’t a SERP feature that you can toggle like alt text or structured data.
So that we’re all on the same page, sitelinks are the clickable buttons that appear beneath your result’s metadata on a SERP. They typically allow users to navigate directly to sections of your website.
In the case of eCommerce, the most logical sitelinks to include in your results are those for your most popular product categories.
But, once again, I say “would want” because Google’s algorithm selects sitelinks. That doesn’t mean you can’t have an impact on which sitelinks Google displays. The pages Google links to in your results are determined primarily by the navigation of your site.
As SEOs, we always advise having a straightforward and easy-to-navigate website structure. It improves the user experience, aids navigation, and encourages Google to crawl your pages.
Keyword-optimized content, smart internal linking, and simple, intuitive menus are all things that help Google crawl your site.
These elements will give you the best chance of defining what your SERP sitelinks will be. When you tell Google which pages are most important to you and your customers, the search engine will reciprocate by generating useful sitelinks.
This is yet another example of having your SEO jump right to the top of the SERPs without requiring users to do anything.
And in the highly competitive eCommerce space, this is critical.
Go ahead and optimize
When it comes to competing with others, businesses always have a difficult time. Someone is always trying to beat you at your own game, whether you’re a local shop or an international eCommerce brand.
While SEO can never force anyone to do anything, when we take the steps outlined above to optimize our websites for SERP features, we put ourselves in the best possible position.
If you aren’t already doing these things, you should start as soon as possible! Then sit back and see what happens.
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Learn more from SEO and read BigCommerce SEO Features & Ecommerce Success Tips.
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