Online stores: Nine tips for search engine optimization
1. correct handling of sold out items
In any store, product availability can fluctuate, so some products may be temporarily out of stock. When dealing with sold-out products, it depends on how high the repurchase rate is and how long the unavailability lasts. In any case, it should be avoided that a new URL is generated when the product becomes available again. This means that no effects of the old URL can be adopted. Furthermore, there are various ways of dealing with sold-out products:- If the product is permanently sold out, the status code 404 should be used to indicate that the URL no longer exists. If a very similar product is available, you can link to it with a 301 redirect.- If the product is not available and there is no concrete delivery date, you should at least remove the product from the linking in the store. On the product page itself, you have to display a visible indication of the unavailability accordingly and can offer an alert function if necessary. Through this function, the searcher can be notified when the product is available again- If the product is not available but there is already a concrete delivery date, you can continue to display the product in the store. Here, however, is that already on the category overview pages it is clear that the article is currently not available. Nothing is more frustrating for the store visitor than clicking on interesting articles and only then finding out that no order is possible. This can lead to the store being abandoned again quickly.
2. clearly name products and categories
Here, on the one hand, it is important to use the customer's language instead of your own technical language. The monthly search queries for "washing machine" and "fully automatic washing machine" are a good example:
3. individualize description texts
The fact that copying the manufacturer's texts is not a good idea due to duplicate content has been recommended many times by now. Rather, if possible, add your own touch that fits your store. For some products, it may be a good idea to include a short testimonial or best practice tip. Surely there are - especially in the B2B sector, categories and products for which no further information with added value can be added. Then you don't have to start listing historical incidents just to have keyword-relevant content on the page. But any text that helps your customers make a decision is basically useful for your findability as well. You can and should add to and update your texts at any time - this is also a positive signal to search engines that your store pages are being maintained.
4. product photos
Similar to the description texts, you can also score here with your own photos. On the one hand, this gives the product page an individual aspect and at the same time you have a better chance of being found in the image search. Individual and product-related alt attributes are mandatory.
5. maintain page titles and descriptions
The page title and page description should be basic setting for every website owner, but they are always underestimated. Pay attention to the appropriate character length (approx. 55 for the title, approx. 155 characters for the description - tool tip: http://www.sistrix.de/serp-snippet-generator/) and avoid the same texts there as well. In addition, the product or category should be at the beginning of the page title, you can end the page title with your store name. With these two elements you influence the click rate of your potential customers. Being found alone does not help - only when your search result is clicked, the searcher finds your store. And when they click, Google notices this as a positive user signal.
6. product reviews
Let your customers rate your products. In addition to the valuable testimonials as a buying guide for interests, the rating score can be displayed as stars in Google search results. As with almost all Rich Snippets, displaying the rating stars will get you more visitors through an improved click-through rate. In addition, the click-through rate serves as a positive user signal for Google that can influence the rankings of a page accordingly.
7. product data
Product data such as name, price, image and availability can also be made unambiguously interpretable for search engines with the help of structured data. This means that this information can also be displayed within the search results. The further advantage is that your data can be interpreted as actual products and is therefore particularly relevant for transactional search queries.
8. clarity and usability
User signals are a factor in search engine optimization that should not be underestimated. If an online store is structured in such a way that users can find what they are looking for quickly and easily, this is passed on to the search engines as a good dwell time. With their behavior, your store visitors provide Google with the insight that they cannot fully obtain through purely technical recording. Make it as easy as possible for your visitors and offer sophisticated filtering and sorting options in the store, especially for large assortments. An intelligent search also prevents a hasty exit.
9. cross-selling
Finding what is being searched for is only the first step. You should also try to interest your visitors in other products that they had not yet specifically included in the search. These can be similar or matching products such as accessories. With well-done cross-selling, you affect the dwell time as well as the internal linking. The resulting links are very relevant to the topic among themselves and form keyword clusters. As a further positive effect, the average shopping cart value is also increased.
