Online Store Search Engine Optimization Guide - Tips from an SEO Expert

Comprehensive E-commerce SEO Guide | Guest Author: Jussi Viljanen

This article is part of a three-part series on e-commerce search engine optimization written for the AI Commerce e-commerce platform. The article is written by SEO consultant Jussi Viljanen.

Content of the article:

1. Importance of SEO for E-commerce

2. Where can an e-commerce site appear in Google search results?

3. Areas of E-commerce SEO

4. Ensure visibility with the right keywords

5. Search engine optimization for product pages

6. Search engine optimization for category pages

7. Technical optimization of e-commerce

8. External SEO

9. The importance of the e-commerce platform for SEO

10. Summary

11. Frequently Asked Questions

Importance of SEO for E-commerce

E-commerce and online shopping are part of today’s consumers' daily lives. According to the Finnish e-commerce payment service Paytrail's report from 2023, as much as 77% of Finns reported having made purchases online in the last 28 days. 

Knowing that the majority of these buyers start their purchasing process through search engines, the role of e-commerce SEO becomes very significant. If you are not visible in search engines, you will miss out on the best customer traffic.

Search engine optimization and the organic traffic it generates offer several significant advantages for e-commerce:

• Cost-efficiency: Compared to paid advertising, SEO offers long-term visibility without having to pay separately for visitors

• Continuity: A well-optimized e-commerce site can receive traffic continuously and for a long time

• Ready-to-buy customers: SEO reaches customers exactly when they are searching for products and are ready to buy

• Scalability: The more traffic you get over time, the lower the cost per customer

• Trust: Organic search results often generate more trust than paid ads

Where can an e-commerce site appear in Google search results?

Google's search results page is full of opportunities for online stores. It is much more than just a traditional list of links to various sites today. 

Visibility can come from many different elements that can reach customers.

Organic Search Results

Traditional organic search results are still at the core of search results in Finland and are a great way to gain traffic to an e-commerce site. Organic search results are the typical links to various pages that Google displays based on its own algorithm and which pages it sees as best matching different search terms.

The search results page itself and organic results can vary depending on the type of content. Google displays organic results slightly differently depending on whether it is a product page, category page, blog post, or something else. 

How to enrich your search results?

Organic results do not necessarily have to be just boring links. By enriching them with different information, such as product price information, reviews, availability, and so on, you can make your results significantly more visible, informative, and distinctive.

Getting enriched results requires adding structured data to the e-commerce site, known as Schema markup. Schema is HTML code that can be added to any page. With Schema, you can communicate different information about the content directly to the search engine without the search engine having to guess what each page means.

By using Product Schema markup on product pages, you can convey various details about your products and achieve rich search results. There are several different schemas for various purposes.

In a highly competitive market, it is worth utilizing all available means. This way, you can stand out from competitors and increase traffic to your online store.

Image Search

Google's image search is often a forgotten place, but especially for e-commerce, it is an important and very potential source of traffic and visibility. By optimizing your online store's product images, the images can rank high in image searches, appearing specifically to customers who start their information and product searches by looking at images.

Google also displays image search results in its own section, but it also elevates image search results among traditional search results. By ensuring that your product images are high quality, have relevant file names, alt texts, and are structured correctly on the page, you can improve your visibility in image searches and drive traffic directly to your product pages.

Product Listings

Google often elevates product listings in the search results, where you can feature your products along with product images, names, price information, and, for example, review data. This is a similar element on the search results page to what can be seen with Google Shopping ads. The difference is that you do not pay separately for these placements but receive them organically.

When your product pages are in good condition with diverse and clear information and by using schema markup or structured data, you can get your products into this section. 

The entire section is visually very distinct and attention-grabbing among the search results, thus making it an effective place to attract visitors to your product pages.

Video Results

Google increasingly shows videos, especially YouTube videos, in the search results. An online store can indirectly gain visibility through this avenue as well and elevate its brand and business. 

An online store can create promotional videos, comparisons, or instruction videos for its products, which can become part of the search results.

People Also Ask Section

Almost all search results have a