A guide to SEO for ecommerce businesses

August 12, 2020

If you want your online shop to rank well in search engine results, you need to have a good understanding of SEO (search engine optimisation).

Not entirely sure what SEO means, or why it’s important for your business? Never fear - this introduction to SEO for eCommerce will bring you up to speed in no time.

What is SEO?

First things first, let’s go back to basics: what does SEO mean, exactly?

Put simply, SEO refers to a group of techniques used to improve your website’s visibility in search results. In other words, SEO is a concise way of saying: “this is what you need to do to get your website noticed by Google.”

SEO is constantly evolving and we could write thousands of words on the topic. But for the purpose of today’s blog post, we’re going to cover the three main pillars of SEO for eCommerce success:

Keyword research
User experience (on-page SEO)
Content marketing

Let’s get into it.

1. Keyword Research

In SEO land, the words you type into Google when searching are called keywords (also known as key phrases or search terms).

When SEO first came onto the scene, businesses focused heavily on keyword stuffing - repeating the same words over and over in their content. Today, that’s a big no-no. Google is strict on relevance, and if you target keywords that don’t genuinely align with your products, your site could even be penalised.

The best approach is to select keywords that are both relevant and specific to your products. SEO is no longer about trying to “work the system” - it’s about producing authentic, high-quality content around your brand.

Here are some keyword tips for your online store:

Start with a brainstorm. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and jot down what they might type into Google to find your products.
Avoid highly competitive phrases. Short, generic terms like candles or face cream generate billions of results and are nearly impossible to rank for. Target long-tail keywords like handmade wax candles Auckland or organic face cream NZ.
Conduct competitor research. Tools like Moz’s SEO Toolbar show what keywords your competitors are targeting, how competitive they are, and what backlinks they have.
Write for people. Choose keywords that fit naturally into sentences. Awkward phrasing makes for bad copy and poor user experience.

2. On-Page SEO & User Experience

The way your site is built has a huge impact on SEO. It needs to be easy to navigate, well-structured, and user-friendly - not just for real people but also for Google’s crawling “spiders.”

Both your customers and Google need to understand what your site is about. Here are areas to focus on:

Category and product pages. Every category and product page should have a keyword-rich meta description. Ensure page titles use H1 tags - and only one H1 per page.
Google rich snippets. Structured data allows Google to display extra information like product price, availability, and reviews in search results. This makes your listing stand out.
SEO-friendly URLs and images. Use clean URLs (e.g., example.com/t-shirts instead of example.com/category?id=1) and add alt text with keywords to product images so they rank in Google Image Search.
Use nofollow tags wisely. Apply rel="nofollow" to pages you don’t want indexed, like “add to cart” or “wishlist” pages.

3. Content Marketing

The third pillar of SEO is content marketing: publishing regular, relevant, and interesting content like blog posts, videos, and guides.

Regular updates signal to Google that your website is active, while giving you more opportunities to target your chosen keywords. Content marketing is essential for any eCommerce brand that wants to climb Google rankings.

Here are some key tips:

Quality over quantity. One excellent post per week beats three rushed, low-value posts.
Avoid keyword stuffing. Use your keyword once or twice naturally - Google will penalise overuse.
Be clear and concise. Google’s algorithms are smart, but they can’t “read between the lines.” Headlines should be direct and keyword-focused, while still appealing to readers.