Throughout your Ecomly store, there are areas to enter content specifically for SEO purposes to help shoppers discover your products on search engines such as Google and Bing. Page titles, descriptions, and keywords can be filled in for content pages, category pages, product pages, blog posts, and brands. This article will detail where you can enter SEO-related metadata and best practices to maximize your SEO impact.
URL Structure #
URL structures can be adjusted for products, web pages, and categories. By default, it uses an SEO-friendly structure, but you can customize the formatting of the URL structure to suit your business needs.
To learn more about URL structure options and how to handle custom URLs, see: Permalinks
Metadata #
Metadata refers to information included on the meta tag on a webpage. Search engines can use metadata to find relevant information to display in search results. Metadata includes items such as the page title, the meta description, and any keywords.
Page title #
Page titles are often used as the title link in search engine results, so it is important to craft a meaningful and branded page title. These can be added to content pages, products, blogs, and category pages.
Every page should have a unique title tag, preferably starting with a relevant keyword, and have less than 60 characters. An example of a good page title is “Blue T-Shirts at Discounted Prices for Sale | BunchOfTshirts”.
This kind of page title is preferable because it utilizes keywords that are found on the product’s page, as well as the store’s name. For further help on crafting SEO-friendly page titles, see Guide to SEO.
Meta description #
Meta descriptions display in search engine results as a short descriptive blurb. They are usually only a couple of sentences long.
Google search results may not use your meta descriptions. In some cases, Google search results may favor your product description over your meta description. It is still recommended that you fill out both product descriptions and meta descriptions. See Google’s Help Documentation for more information.
It is best practice to add meta descriptions to every page of your store, including products, content pages, blog posts, category pages, and the home page. If you are targeting specific keywords, make sure to include them at the beginning of the description tag. A meta description tag should be well-composed, compelling, and informative.
Think of it as an advertisement. A well-composed meta description tag will most likely increase your website’s Click-Through Rate (CTR). The CTR is calculated as the number of times your link is clicked divided by the number of impressions. Impressions are the number of times your link is displayed on the search engine result pages each time a specific search is performed by a user.
Product and Category Description #
Descriptive text on product and category pages helps search engines crawling the site to find terms for search results. It’s advisable to utilize your keyword strategy when writing your descriptions.
Product descriptions are located under the Product name section when you add or edit a product.
Some best practices for writing a description include:
- Know your typical shopper. This will help with what information is most important to them.
- Make the description easy to read. Break up large chunks of information with sub-headings, bullet lists or images.
- Don’t use the exact same content on two or more products. Duplicate information is detrimental to SEO.
- When using images in the description, add the image description in the WYSIWYG editor.
For more advice on best practices for writing descriptions, see our Guide to SEO.
Category descriptions have a similar strategy to product descriptions. These are added under Products › Categories when you add or edit a category.
Many of the same best practices from product descriptions can be applied to category descriptions. They should be easy to read, catered to the audience/shopper, and utilize keywords. It’s also a useful place to highlight or link to deeper subcategories, entry-level products, or higher-end products.
Keywords #
Keywords are words and phrases in your descriptions and metadata that are relevant to the content on a page and are an essential part of your organic SEO and paid marketing campaigns.
There is a section to place meta keywords on pages. However, this method is slowly becoming obsolete: it is better to include keywords into descriptions and categories.
There are a few pitfalls when it comes to including keywords. One of the easiest to fall into is called “keyword stuffing.” This means overloading your page with as many keywords as possible.
Search engines stopped ranking with meta keywords quite some time ago, and in the process began personalizing and stacking results made to its search engine on a user by user basis. In doing so, the methods by which search engines ranked sites changed considerably, along with the ways in which optimizing content could be achieved.
Well, what does that mean?
Search engines today already know whether the content you’ve posted is quality or not. It’s checking against the rest of the internet for copies that would denote your entry as “non-original”, reviewing your structural content formatting, and ensuring the content is easy to read. It will monitor how long visitors stay on the page, track how widely your content is shared, and much more. A quality, the well-written article will always rank naturally higher without “SEO experts” than a poorly written article stuffed with keywords.
SEO tips #
Content is your gateway to good SEO #
90% of SEO is good content. Content is where your backlinks, traffic, user engagement, and ultimately, leads will originate from. Yoast SEO is a complete end-to-end management module for all of your content which ensures that the structural formatting and readability of your content is perfectly optimized every time.
Backlinks, do I need those? #
Backlinks are links to your site from another site on the web. While much of that is out of your control, the bottom line is that the more widely your content is shared, the more you’ll build valuable backlinks as a result. Companies like Ahrefs.com can help you track these brand mentions and ensure you are competitive in your local market. This is why we recommend “SNAP” sharing your content to social media, and blog interesting topics in the first place. Basically, the more widely your site is linked to from around the web, the higher your site will be shown in organic relevance searches for various words and phrases.
Blog content #
There are also other ways of locating trustworthy people to blog on your behalf. These may be other employees in your business, 3rd parties in your local area, or 3rd parties sourced online. A good blog is a part of every successful marketing and branding effort. If you have someone in the house, consider having them re-blog (in their own words) other great content on the web you believe is worth displaying on your site. Create completely original posts on topics you have familiarity with (like some of those bits of knowledge you are already telling clients during a property showing or listing appointment). Alternatively, hire outpost creation to a team of writers that you trust. It’s also possible to automate the process of posting your articles to the site with a virtual assistant.
Other things you can do to increase your online visibility #
Of course! Online success comes with hard work, but it can pay off in more closed escrows and more interaction with your community. A blog is one healthy way to ensure visitors have reasons to return, but consider that your overall brand and its service offerings are some of the first and most important bits of detail you’ll want to display within your site. If you specialize in certain types of transactions or offer a unique transaction experience, make sure your end users can see it in a professional-looking setting on your site.
You’ll also want to build out any specialty searches for ease of use on your site by your end-users. Offering both locations you specialize in as well as tailored market searches helps ensure visitors that arrive to your site have reasons to stay.
Pairing a great overall website with online marketing can offer some of the quickest results and best overall bang for your buck when it comes to generating leads. Services like Facebook Remarketing and Google Adwords can ensure your brand is in front of the right people at the right time.
