If you are running an e-commerce site than you just have to read this article.

There are several ways we can drive traffic to our e-commerce website, we could use PPC, or set-up affiliate programs we could even look at traditional marketing channels to drive traffic. Although all this methods are good, we really want our site to attract organic search traffic.

In our favour an online store can have literally hundreds of pages, all these pages can be simply optimised to be organic traffic generating powerhouses. It can take a little time to optimise and entire e-commerce shop but the rewards are well worth the time invested.

One of the biggest flaws we encounter with online stores is the lack of content or worse the lack of genuine content. Many site owners use the default product descriptions that either come with the XML product feed or are supplied by the manufacturer. Using the standard product descriptions can be a kiss of death for your budding e-commerce store.

Some of our suggestions here touch on site development, if you have not developed your e-commerce store yet than this article is golden to you.

If your online store is already up and live and you are smacking your head with why are we not making any money and seeing 80 visitors a day, then take this advice and tweak your site where needed.
Now we are not going to touch on usability that is for a separate article this is pure e-commerce SEO related.

Brand:

Think about the brand of your site, what does it say about your ecommerce site, is it memorable does it sound like the sort of shop you would like to shop at? Brand is important there is allot in a name.

• Is your domain memorable, is it easy to type in, can it help your credibility. – There is a lot in a name!

Product descriptions:

If possible these should be broken down into the short product description and the long product description. The short description should be informative and targeted well at the product in question. The first 150 characters are imperative and should make the user want to click on the product they have been searching for.

• Do not use descriptions that came from the manufacturer or product feed, take the time to write your own it is well worth the trouble.

The short description:

This should be used as the META description for that products page. Now in a perfect e-commerce shop this is taken care of by a little programming.  In this application the short description is injected into the pages META description tag, this is the reason the first 150 characters are so important as in most cases this is what the searcher is going to see in Google.

• Once the user has been exposed to your sites listing in Google or other search directories, you want them to click the listing

The long description:

Put thought into the long description, make it informative and use keywords relating to that product and product category.  Use call to actions, if you have free shipping of orders over X amount use this as added leverage to close the sale. If your site is localised be sure to include that as well.

• The long description should be informative, target relevant product and market keywords and above all be unique.

Product title:

This is critical unlike the META description tag which is more about CTR (click through rate) the META title tag is SEO ranking important.  This should also be injected into the META title tag. The title tag should be informative keyword rich without being keyword stuffed.

• Title tag should be keyword rich and informative for the product in question.

On page optimisation the H tags:

As with the META title tag is so important, so is the correct use of heading tags. The product title should also be on the product detail page either in a H1 tag or a H2 tag.

• Use H1 or H2 tags for every product title, correct usage of heading tags is vital to good SEO.

Image ALT tags:

Make sure your site is using image ALT tags and include an informative image description within that tag. Do not repeat that same information that is in the products short description, use synonyms make each ALT tag unique and targeted at the product in question.  Make sure each image is a live link, that way the search engines will take notice of the ALT tag content.

• Image alt tags are often forgotten but their value to the overall optimisation of the site is great.

Internal linking:

Do not use footer links these are not valued highly by the search directories, instead use categories. Categories show good site structure and also usability to the user is heightened.  In essence a site with good usability is often search engine friendly. Do not make static links to products unless you are going to keep discontinued product lines in the site. Again this is where using categories is far superior.

• Use categories to power internal linking and do not use footer links.

The URL:

Where possible always use a rewrite URL it is better for the user and easier for most search engines to crawl. Furthermore it is far easier from a branding perspective for writing down and giving to people or on tactical media.

• Do use rewrite clean URL's whenever possible

Related products:

Cross promote products on every product detail page, if the page is about a golf clubs, offer you may be interested in: Golf balls, golf bags and other associated products. Using related products modules enhances usability and internal linking structure.

• Do use related products and recently listed products on all product detail pages.

Customer feedback:

There is no single tool for sales as powerful as comments from what is perceived as impartial comment. Make sure there is a simple process for a user to review a product they have purchased from your store. Market back out to your database and ask ‘were you happy with your product purchase’ ‘would you mind adding a review’ If you don’t ask you never know and it never hurts to ask.

• Customer feedback can help you overcome problems or highlight usability issues you had never considered. Customer reviews are powerful sales tools.

Product reviews:

Most people will search for information before making the purchase decision.  Include reviews of your products and make them worthwhile not just ‘this is the best widget you could ever own’ be honest give examples and the rewards can be great.

• Product reviews are an important resource to a consumer looking to buy, the more value you can add to your ecommerce store the more sales you will attract.

Site search:

You would be surprised how many people will use a site search capability to find what they are looking for. Make sure your sites search engine is powerful and simple to use.

• Search is simple and often displays exactly what the user was looking for without having to drill down through miles of products.

Link building:

We cannot emphasise the importance enough of link building, talk to your product suppliers and ask for a link. Engage in useful product reviews and gain natural links. What ever your strategy is just build links, quality links from quality sources.

• Links are a vote for your business he more votes the better, but you want good votes. A bad link can hurt many good links so think quality not quantity.

Engage your market:

We often talk about engaging your market, encourage user feedback and user reviews. Poll your market and get ideas where you can improve your site or services. Offer discounts to frequent buyers and hold competitions, value add your services and be engaging.

If you follow our advice here you are certain to develop a good valuable e-commerce website.

With a little effort and common sense it is not difficult to build an organic powered e-commerce site and if you are looking for the perfect platform that can support all these ideas, you should consider Magento.

Running online shops in conjunction with traditional retail or even instead of traditional retail can be very lucrative and with the very stable options available without the need to custom code sites. With most people being very comfortable these days with purchasing online it could be argued there is never a better time to get into internet retail than now.