These are 2023’s Best SEO Strategies for Ecommerce Shops

2023 is well underway now, and if you haven’t already defined and implemented your digital marketing and SEO strategy, then there is no time like the present. With the ever-changing nature of the SEO landscape, it is always a good idea to get a little refresher on the classic strategies, and an update on newer trends and requirements, before you decide what is best for you and your business.

Our award-winning ecommerce SEO Agency has prepared this starter guide to help you boost the presence of your online shopping platforms.

Want to learn more about the Digital Authority Partners approach to SEO? Watch this video!

Rich, Engaging Written Content

Any time you write something on, for, or in support of your business, you should do so with a lot of thought and care. That throwaway FaceBook post could be enriched with high-volume SEO keywords, those LinkedIn posts should link back to your website, and your product descriptions should be catchy and informative. Finally, you should definitely be putting out high-quality blog pieces or articles.

These do not have to be lengthy pieces, indeed, if the nature of your business does not call for a long thought leadership piece, then brevity is preferable to padding for a word count. The important thing is that the pieces that you write are engaging, they are relevant to your site (there is no point in blogging about vacations if you sell industrial chemicals), and they should be grammar and spell-checked.

Use one of the SEO keyword research tools to find as many relevant keywords and phrases as you can – but avoid overstuffing. Your readers will notice if a word or phrase seems forced, and it will break the engagement. It is best practice to find the keywords you want to use first, then build your piece around them so that they become an intrinsic part of the content.

Structured Data SEO

When a search engine ‘looks’ at your website, it has to make the best estimate of what the content means and what the intent of your site is. Even the most advanced of artificial intelligence cannot currently infer from vague content or make accurate judgments on any ambiguities. The best thing you can do to increase the relevance of your ranking (thus reducing bounce rate and improving your ranking) is to communicate with the search engine algorithm in a language that it understands.

To do this, we have schema markup. It is a way for you to make your content easier to interpret by Google (or other search engines). This can get quite complicated, particularly for the SEO beginner or those that do not know how to code. You can, however, use some readily available tools (both free and paid for) to auto-generate basic schema without the need for an advanced degree in computing. 

Real Estate Matters

Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) is essentially the physical, geographic address associated with your organization. Not entirely relevant to your operations as an ecommerce platform, but an easy way of showing Google that you have a legitimate business, and giving you representation in ‘near me’ searches.

If you operate from home, you might want to avoid listing your address for obvious privacy and security reasons. If you have an office, storeroom, or warehouse address of any size, though, it is worth taking ownership of it online – you will be eligible for on-page reviews, and you will lend your site some authority and trustworthiness.

Ride the Voice Search Wave

Voice search has trended upwards ever since its inception – it has been a slow burner, but as the technology gets more accurate, and smart devices become more affordable and prevalent, that growth is set to accelerate. For SEO purposes, you need to make sure that your content is showing up when someone searches by voice.

To create content for voice search SEO, you first need to understand how people interact with voice assistants when compared to typed requests. When a browser or searcher types into a search box, they will typically automatically parse their search into what they believe to be the keywords – so rather than typing ‘show me hotels on the Las Vegas strip’, they are more likely to type something like ‘Vegas hotels’ or ‘hotels on the strip’.

Conversely, when those same searchers use a voice assistant, they tend to be more formal – ‘what are the best hotels to stay at for a weekend in Las Vegas, for example. So your content, then, needs to be designed to both ask and answer those longer-tail keywords, in a conversational style. It can be difficult to write content that naturally both asks and answers a question – FAQ pages are the perfect place, but you can also incorporate the location-based questions into your blogs and articles, as you can write headings or subheadings from the reader’s perspective.

Go Google Shopping

For a long time, Google Shopping (the results that searchers get when they click on the shopping results) only showed results from paying companies. A couple of years ago, though, the company opened these listings up to free, organic results – meaning that your ecommerce site can and should be listed here without you having to pay for space.

Competition, of course, is rife – so although you do not need to now pay for those listings, you will need to optimize for them. In addition, your site must be registered with a Google Merchant Center account, and you must upload your product feed (so the search engine knows what to list). After this, it all comes down to keyword-rich, well-written product descriptions, and the authority and relevance that your site has – in other words, the classic SEO techniques.

As the user side of Google Shopping becomes more intuitive and provides better value to those that search on it, it will become more and more popular. If you haven't already, it is time to get your ecommerce site listed here as well as on main search pages – the two are not mutually exclusive.