eCommerce SEO Archives

The growing usage of smartphones has transformed businesses and lives drastically. Be it hiring a cab, buying clothes, ordering food or availing services online; everything is just a click away at really cheap rates. And, the e-commerce market is expected to grow at a fast pace in the coming years. According to AT Kearney 2016 report, the e-commerce market in GCC countries is expected to grow to US$20 billion by 2020 from $5.3 billion in 2015.

e-commerce sites come across various SEO challenges that obstruct their efficiency. There is a need for business owners, marketing managers, and SEO experts to know these problems; and plan accordingly for their solution. I have jotted down 5 on-site SEO problems which hold back E-commerce sites from delivering to their optimum.

5 SEO problems that hold back e-commerce sites

1. Product description not clear:

Usually, e-commerce sites have a considerable number of products. The quality of a product description can either make or break a sale. It is common for product descriptions to be really short, manufacturer based and automated. With short and automated descriptions, the search engine has limited information.

It is seen that sites with a detailed description of products perform better in search results on all popular search engines. e-commerce website owners should try to include a piece of detailed information; that a shopper needs, to make a decision of purchase. Also, it should be kept in mind to follow the best description format for the products, such as bullet points.

QL Tip: It is advised in general that 350 and 400 words would be enough to describe the main features and benefits of a particular product.

Apart from adding the product description in detail, you can also add blogs to the e-commerce website. Blogs could include keywords that are needed to improve the overall ranking of the website. Backlinko analysis of 1 million search results showed that the average Google first page result is 1,890 words long.

2. Reviews not included on the site:

The user reviews about the product or service affect the search results.92% of consumers now read online reviews.

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The impact of adding user reviews is clear and unambiguous. By adding reviews, we can’t say that SEO ranking will improve solely because of getting more reviews. For example, an analysis of over 30,000 businesses was conducted by Yotpo. These businesses added user reviews to their site and measured how this impacted organic search traffic. Within nine months after the implementation of reviews, they found that Google page views per month grew by 30%.

If you also fear of not including user reviews due to negative feedback, then please include it, the results are almost sure to be positive. Also, it will uplift sales. Reviews produce an average of 18% uplift in sales.

3. Improper migration strategy of e-commerce platforms:

Most of the e-commerce sites are built using third-party platforms. This is because they want to focus more on their core business rather than web development.

Sometimes websites outgrow one platform and switch to another as their market shares increases. Also, they switch platforms to gain access to previously unavailable features.

Well, switching platforms can hamper rankings. Many companies wait till they finish the migration of e-commerce platforms and then go for SEO. Don’t do this mistake. Whenever you make any changes in your e-commerce platform, make sure that an SEO professional is always involved in it from the beginning.

4. Not able to develop informational content and focusing more on transactional keywords:

It is very important to add informational keywords that would be able to target the customers who are a bit further up in the funnel. Sometimes, focusing too much on certain keywords usually falls under the failed strategy. For example, it is very difficult to rank for keyword “money”, but this doesn’t mean that you can entirely neglect it.

Apart from adding informational keywords, you should perform a site: search in order to find out which page on-site already ranks best for any given keyword.

Ranking for less competitive phrases adds to the traffic along with improving overall reputation with the search engines. This might be because it influences behavioural metrics. You can take help of SEMrush to find keyword difficulty. When you analyze your existing rankings to see which keywords are already performing well, you can make changes to optimize for those keywords.

QL Tip: Look for keyword rankings in Google Search Console or SEMrush to identify keywords ranking on the second page or so. If these keywords are ranking without being optimized, take them as a golden opportunity and capitalize on them.

5. Site redesigns which are poor:

You might find sites, that, after redesigning gained traffic and also those which lost all the traffic because of it. The latter one is more painful, a redesign was done to beautify the site, incorporating new features. If you redesign your site, without considering SEO, then this is bound to happen. Those pages that were ranking well can get vanished, the content might get changed; thereby, turning a win-win situation to a lost one.

Whenever you change URLs, make use of 301 redirects. This will retain the link popularity that is attributed to the site and help the transfers to the new URL. The 301 redirect shows that indexed URL has moved. The search engine then de-index the old URL and index the new one.

It is advised to create a benchmark metrics including rankings of the site, home page rank, domain authority, and the no. of pages that are indexed in Google with the site: domain.com search. This will be beneficial for comparisons post-launch.

Concluding Lines:

Start looking at your site and take out problems, if any, related to the information that you have provided on your website. By analyzing the problems and fixing those on time, you will able to rank high in the search results of search engine.

Your valuable views are most welcome in the comments below.

This post is by guest author, Umair Qureshi. This article has been edited and published with the author’s permission.

Australia is the 7th largest economy in the Asia-Pacific region and the 12th largest in the world. Since the last two decades, Australia has enjoyed uninterrupted economic growth, a result that is reflected in the per capita GDP of the country (the fifth highest in the world today). World Bank Group ranks Australia as the 15th easiest country to set-up and runs a business. Furthermore, the establishment process of e-commerce stores is so easy that you can set up a new business in just two days. Here, we shall focus on the process and potential hurdles of the establishment of e-commerce stores in Australia.

Establishment of an eCommerce store in Australia

For people who like to crunch numbers, here are some interesting statistics and facts pertaining to the Australian economy and eCommerce scenario in perspective:

Australia’s eCommerce sales were more than $20 billion in 2016 and, are estimated to exceed $24 billion by 2018.

Australian eCommerce customer demographics are mostly dominated by the youth with the age curve around 30 years. This means a somewhat limited market as of now. However, this also implies that there is a huge potential for growth in the upcoming years. The number of online buyers is steadily increasing. At the moment, the number of online transactions is low, but the cart size is on the rise. All these cumulatively indicate that more and more people are comfortable with online shopping.

Australia is fortunate in terms of eCommerce and online business because it has a clear-cut high demographic yield that responds well to the market. 90% of online transactions in Australia involve three or fewer brands. This can also be interpreted as brand loyalty because customers trust the brand for the quality of products/services and remain loyal to the chosen brand. Therefore, it is important that an online store should establish itself as a trustworthy brand in the market.

Now, running an eCommerce store in the competitive Australian market is not that easy. Although there are a number of platforms that streamline the process of setting up and managing online stores, you as the owner/manager should also be well versed in the relevant fields such as logistics, referencing, and customer management.

So, if you wish to launch and manage an online store in Australia, read through this blog. This blog will help you to avoid the hurdles that have the potential to sink many online stores.

The process to Follow to Establish an E-commerce Store in Australia

The success of any business is dependent on proper planning and following a well-prepared plan. Setting up an eCommerce store in Australia is a step-by-step process that requires thorough planning and attention to minute details.

I will now present several important pointers that will help you come up with proper planning and action items for your business setup process.

1. Choose Your Legal Form

Opening an online store begins with the legal recognition of the brand/store. You will have to define the legal status of your store before registering it with the relevant services such as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). This authority allows a registration number to your business. You could choose any legal status you see fit. However, I recommend that you opt for being registered as a self-employed entrepreneur or a sole proprietor. It is always best to consult an expert (an accountant or a business advisor) at this point.

2. Draft a Business Plan

A business plan documents all the required details about how your store will be established and how will it function. Many people skip this important step because creating a business plan appears too cumbersome to follow. However, following this step allows you to analyze your action plan and ensures that your project is on the right track at all times.

3. Choose A Domain Name

The choice of the domain name pretty much determines the future of your eCommerce store. Plan to invest several hours in discovering the right domain name for your store. A number of online tools (like Mashable, shopify) help you in choosing the best name for your new store. Remember that your domain name has to be catchy and unique.

4. Choose Your Hosting Service

Very few people actually know how to set up and manage servers. Even if you are among the very few of such technical experts, it is still a tedious and time-consuming process for you. I recommend that you opt for managed cloud-based hosting for your online store. This way you will be able to sidestep all server related issues (including security) and focus on your business full-time.

You are definitely wondering: which hosting provider to choose for your e-commerce store? A very legitimate question indeed! Choosing the right eCommerce web host, as Cloudways helps you by providing:

● 24x7x365 chat supports so that you are able to get quick help at all times.
● A powerful stack comprising of high-performing and optimized caching technologies.
● Auto-scalability with almost zero downtime.
● Dispersed data centres to reduce latency and target your audience more effectively.

5. Create the Store

There are many platforms in the market which you can use to open an online store. Depending on your requirements and technical expertise, you can choose Woo Commerce, Magento, Prestashop, Opencart, or others. Some of these platforms offer turnkey e-commerce solutions, while others require extensive design and development skills. Other platforms request for HTML and CSS skills. A competent developer who specializes in eCommerce solutions could prove to be an ideal partner.

6. Standards and Technical Regulations

Suppliers and manufacturers have a legal and moral obligation to ensure that their products are safe for consumers to use. All products must comply with the appropriate safety standards, contain clear instructions for proper use, and include warnings about probable abuse. If a product does not meet the mandatory standards as set by Australian authorities, there is a risk of legal actions against the business.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) requires compliance with product safety, information standards, and the prohibition of dangerous goods as declared in the Trade Practices Act. The “Fair Trade Offices” also play an important role in the safety of products.

7. Finding and Dealing with Suppliers

As an eCommerce store owner, reliable suppliers should be of utmost and important priority. For this, explore your industry to discover wholesalers. Once you have the suppliers lined up, you need to set up logistics.

Many people prefer handling the supply lines through the post office. However, third-party logistics partners such as DHL are also popular business partners. Whatever your choice is, it is essential to negotiate an advantageous contract in your favour.

8. Manage the Inventory

No customer, willing to buy, likes the “Out-of-Stock” notice. To avoid this (embarrassing) situation, it is important that you pay close attention to inventory management. This is an ongoing process and requires good relationships with your suppliers and logistics partners.

Sales data analysis is an important part of inventory management. Over a period of time, you will acquire the skill of juggling between often contrasting requirements of inventory management.

9. Define (Legal) T&C and Policies

Well defined and easy to understand policies are one of the essential requirements for any eCommerce store. Many customers often check out the payment and return policies prior to finalizing their purchase decision.

In order to come up with an ethical and concrete set of terms and conditions, ask a lawyer to go through your draft of T&C and policies. He will ensure that your draft complies with the existing Australian consumer protection laws.

10. Build Your Online Presence

“You can’t just open a website and expect people to flood in. If you really want to succeed you have to create traffic.”- Joel Anderson, Walmart CEO

Once your e-commerce site/store is ready, you have to build your online presence in order to reach new customers and build rapport with them. This step demands careful planning and working with vendors and suppliers so that you could build a solid and trustworthy online presence on social media channels. This necessarily involves good digital marketing strategies that include an email campaign, a customer loyalty program, a blog on a persistent basis, and a proactive presence on multiple social networks.

Closing thoughts – Now Realize Your Dream

As I mentioned earlier in this article, Australia is the country where people are not at all stranger to online shopping. Proper planning and meticulous attention to details are the real keys to the success of your online store in Australia.

Tag: eCommerce SEO

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