SEO Mistakes To Avoid For E-Commerce
There are numerous eCommerce platforms out there for people with a few dollars and an internet connection. Dropshipping is one of the most popular eCommerce trends in the US today. In order to stand out and be the best eCommerce business you can be, reduce cart abandonment, increase sales, and provide a fantastic customer experience, especially in the area of SEO, you cannot just shoot in the dark and hope it all works out.
Knowing what eCommerce mistakes to avoid can save your business from making them. Some of these mistakes include not diversifying your product offerings and not optimizing your product pages.
In order to ensure that your online store is up and running smoothly, successfully, and as quickly as possible, we have compiled this list of common eCommerce SEO mistakes to avoid.
1. E-commerce Platforms You Shouldn't Invest In
A poor content management system can have a detrimental effect on your eCommerce business in the long run. A platform that isn't scalable, versatile, or user-friendly enough may not be able to meet your store's needs or growth potential.
First, research which platform is best for your needs so you avoid this mistake.
Before investing in an eCommerce solution, ensure that you thoroughly review the documentation provided by your CMS platform. The last thing you want to do is spend all your time reading documentation. Spending time, energy, and money on a CMS only to find that it does not provide essential features for your eCommerce store. If this happens, you'll have to invest a lot of time, money, and effort again just to migrate away from the site and switch to the right eCommerce platform.
2. A poorly designed and poorly navigable website
Having a poorly designed eCommerce site can seriously hurt your business. If your site isn't visually appealing, potential customers won't stick around long. In spite of the fact that designing a great-looking eCommerce site may seem difficult to those who aren't web designers or developers themselves, there are a number of themes you can customize for free, as well as a variety of templates to choose from. To manage your eCommerce website's design, you can hire a professional web designer.
Next, you need to make sure the navigation on your store is intuitive. A poorly designed eCommerce store navigation is incredibly frustrating for consumers, so if they have trouble finding what they're looking for, you could lose out on a lot.
Use a sitemap to improve the usability of your website, as it allows users to see all of your site's pages at once. Finally, if you take anything away from this mistake, let it be that consistency matters for eCommerce websites. It's important that your website's design is consistent across different browsers.
3. Mobile Responsive Design Is Overlooked
Having a mobile presence is essential when it comes to eCommerce. Today, 40% of all online purchases are made via smartphones or tablets, so if your site does not have a responsive web design and isn't optimized for mobile devices - again, about half of the market share between them both - then you are losing money.
In order to provide an easy browsing experience regardless of how large or small a person's screen may be, you should have separate URLs set up for desktop users and mobile users alike. This will allow users to view content in the best way possible regardless of what device they're using.
4. Market Research Isn't Enough For Your Online Business
It is vital to understand who your ideal customer is. Who are they? What interests them? What drives them? For example, if you are selling products aimed at teenagers, you must understand their needs and what influences them. purchasing behavior. Otherwise, you'll end up with a mediocre product that no one is interested in buying or using.
In order to reach your target audience online, you need to learn about their social media habits so that you know the best way to reach them. It makes a lot more sense to invest in Instagram if teens interact more on it than on Facebook, for example.
Additionally, you should do a competitor analysis to find out who else is offering similar products to yours. You can learn what marketing strategies your competitors are using to attract customers and build customer loyalty by seeing what's popular and trending. Create a solid marketing strategy based on your market research findings.
5. Checkout Processes That Are Long And Convoluted
A short, painless checkout process is crucial when selling eCommerce products. Customers may be discouraged from making a purchase if your checkout process is lengthy or complicated, which means you will lose out on a sale in the long run.
If you can do one thing to improve your checkout process, it is to streamline the number of steps that consumers need to take to complete their purchases. A customer, for example, shouldn't have to create a new account and fill in all of their information again if they already have one. There should be no hassle or confusion involved with guest checkout.
Providing multiple shipping options, integrating payment gateways, or including popular payment options will make it easier for your customers to make a purchase if you remove hidden costs and unexpected fees, and simplify your checkout process. If your customers want to avoid having to enter their credit card information for a long time, you can also use tools such as PayPal or Shopify to make the process even faster.
Optimizely can assist you in determining the most painless and efficient checkout process to increase conversion rates.
6. Broken links are not fixed
Google will drop the ranking of your website if you have broken links due to the fact that they might consider you unreliable or unhelpful.
If you are experiencing this problem, you should constantly check your website for dead links. If any are not found, you can either redirect them to the correct page or remove them altogether. In order to avoid having to spend time going through every single product by hand, you can use tools like Xenu Link Sleuth and Screaming Frog, which are free options for small businesses.
Monitoring recently deleted pages and your 404 error pages is also a good idea since these are often the most common examples of broken links.
7. Descriptions of products are inadequate
Writing a high-quality product description is one of the only ways your potential customers will be able to decide whether or not they want to make a purchase when you're selling online. A lot of business owners put up a mediocre or poor product description that doesn't say much about the product.
Your description should be at least 250-300 words in length if you want to increase sales. Having a great description can help you increase search engine traffic, which will increase your SEO ranking.
Details such as features and benefits, sizing, and material information should be included in your product description. You can make your descriptions as long as you like, but remember that each one has to keep the customer's attention, otherwise they will scroll past them.
To improve your chances of being found in Google searches, product descriptions should also include important keywords related to your eCommerce store.
8. Blogs Aren't Invested In
Many eCommerce businesses don't invest in a blog section, which is a common mistake. By increasing consumer trust, establishing a loyal fan base, and motivating them to try out new products, you can also grow your eCommerce business. A blog is an excellent way to get more search engine traffic.
As well as creating engaging content for your target audience, a blog can help you to increase your brand awareness. Additionally, it can help you build trust with consumers. As you release highly-relevant and informative content, you can gradually establish yourself as an industry leader.
It is possible to start blogging once a week. If you use tools like WordPress or Squarespace, you will be able to integrate keywords into each post much easier since they have SEO-friendly themes. Moreover, you should focus on writing blog posts that provide useful information and tips for your customers, as well as answering FAQs.
9. Neglecting social media posts and failing to build social proof for your online store
Creating a social media marketing strategy for your eCommerce posts is another eCommerce mistake to avoid. You can market your eCommerce brand for free on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, and Pinterest, which can help attract new customers who may be interested in purchasing your products or services.
Getting organic traffic from your social media posts can lead to an increase in sales if you are active on social media. Additionally, the more active you are on various social media platforms, the more likely you are to be found by new customers who may be interested in your online store's products.
10. Images on your eCommerce site that are of poor quality
Poor-quality product images are another common mistake that eCommerce brands make. In reality, low-quality photos can actually harm your store more than good and lead to decreased sales and revenue. Business owners make this mistake because they believe it is just a quick and straightforward fix.
In addition to choosing high-quality, clear, and crisp images for your eCommerce site, you should use large images that show off your products' features to the best of their abilities.
In addition, you will need to make sure that your product photos have proper descriptions and include any relevant keywords so that search engines like Google can easily index them correctly. Use alt tags, titles, and captions to your advantage.
Final thoughts
There are many reasons why eCommerce businesses fail. After all, starting an eCommerce business takes significant time, effort, and attention to properly develop an online store that is both profitable and attractive while simultaneously keeping the business at arm's length. However, for your products to compete globally, you must also master the intricacies of international marketing.
Several factors influence whether or not consumers purchase from your website, including how well-designed your site is, how trustworthy you are perceived by both your target audience and search engines, what kind of information they find useful on your eCommerce website, the value they receive from their purchases, and the overall experience they have while shopping.
It is just as easy and simple to avoid eCommerce mistakes if you know exactly what they are. As a business owner, it is important to understand the most common eCommerce SEO mistakes that both inexperienced and experienced store owners make, because not only will you be able to anticipate problems, but you will also be able to run your eCommerce business efficiently and profitably if you have this understanding.
Although you may have made these common eCommerce mistakes, it doesn't mean you have failed; it simply means that as your business grows, you'll have more to learn. It's best to learn from these mistakes, regroup, and get back on track to growing your online business instead of giving up or giving up on your eCommerce website.
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