How to Do SEO for Ecommerce

There's a lot of talk about advertising for ecommerce products. Test this Meta creative, change the background colour slightly, launch a video. Much less is made of earned and owned channels like SEO.

Consumer goods trends are volatile. A product is popular one minute and gone the next, like we saw with Prime. The way to navigate this is to build enduring assets that compound over time, like search engine optimisation.

Ecommerce sites live and die on product discoverability and conversions. Big ecommerce sites often have thousands of SKUs, so getting your site to the number one ranking for as many products as possible is vital. 27.6% of clicks go to the first result, and fewer than 10% of clicks go to results below the top three.

This guide covers how to rank your ecommerce website, from keyword research through category pages, product pages, content marketing, backlinks and technical SEO.

What makes ecommerce SEO different?

Ecommerce websites are different to the typical lead-generating website for a service or software business. For starters, people actually buy through your website. So the navigation and the decision-making process are different.

For ecommerce sites, the goal of SEO is to drive shoppers to your website. This reduces your dependency on advertising. Over the long term, it should lower your customer acquisition cost and make your revenue less volatile.

A few things set ecommerce websites apart.

• Scale. Thousands of near-duplicate URLs.
• SERP dynamics. You compete with ads, shipping results, free product listings and product carousels.
• Intent skews transactional. Buy, price, size and colour terms matter far more than generic informational terms.
• Crawl budget management. Ecommerce sites generally have more pages. A higher URL count means you have to actively manage which URLs get crawled and ranked.
• CRO coupling. A high volume of visitors means your UX, Core Web Vitals, page speed and conversion mechanisms matter a lot.

As a result, the KPIs of an ecommerce SEO project aren't the typical chain of more traffic, more leads and more qualified meetings booked.

Here are some KPIs ecommerce CMOs should focus on instead.

• Revenue, and revenue per organic session
• Conversion rate by landing page type
• Assisted conversions from buying guides
• Share of voice on category terms, such as "women's white sneakers", and on SKU terms
• Rich result coverage across product, review, price and availability

Keyword research

The foundation of every ecommerce SEO project is keyword research. When someone searches, and your business is relevant to that query, you want content that ranks highly for it. That makes the searcher more likely to click through to your website and ultimately buy your product.

Which keyword groups should you focus on?

There are four types of queries.

Typically, you want to focus your SEO efforts on commercial and transactional queries, through the category and product pages we discuss below.

There are a few reasons for this.

• Closest to revenue. These queries map directly to category pages, product pages and best-of, comparison and review pages, so they can convert.
• The SERP layout favours shopping. Product carousels, prices, ratings and availability all show in the results.
• Budget efficiency. Ecommerce teams are measured on ROAS, CPA and margin.
• Competition dynamics. Marketplaces dominate these searches.
• Page-type fit. Optimise your money pages, like category and product pages, before moving to the blog.

How to research keywords

Here are a few tips for doing the research.

1. Mine your internal site search. Export the top queries and the zero-result terms, and feed them into new categories and aliases.
2. Use a keyword tool like Semrush. You can filter for intent and broad-match keywords related to the queries people ask about your products.
3. Look at the autocomplete suggestions on Google and Amazon. These are excellent sources of keyword ideas for ecommerce sites.
4. Browse subreddits. Search for your product and look at the subreddits that come up. Reddit often appears near the top of the results because Google treats it as trustworthy. It's a key part of any SEO strategy nowadays.
5. Check competitor keywords. If another business offers similar products, check the keywords they rank for. If you both sell red dresses, go for the same keywords or even better long-tail ones. Then make sure your content is better, your page speed is faster and your backlinks are higher quality.

On-page SEO for category pages

On large ecommerce sites, there are two types of high-intent pages, category pages and product pages.

Category pages help users find the right products fast. They target broad and mid-tail transactional keywords. An example is the Kennards Hire equipment section, where the journey runs from the homepage to equipment, then to a category, then to a specific product.

Category pages help both SEO and conversion rates.

They help SEO because a lot of searches have category intent, not product intent. Think "hire earthmoving equipment" or "floor sanding machine rental" in the Kennards Hire example.

They help conversion rates because they give the visitor a better experience. Category pages act like aisles in a supermarket, signalling where the next step should be. That reduces the cognitive load on the visitor and nudges them to take the next step.

Anatomy of a category page

Above the fold

• A clear, keyword-rich title and H1 that acknowledges the user's intent
• Intro copy of one or two sentences that focuses the user
• A hero image or banner
• Breadcrumbs
• Price and availability badges, if inventory allows. Mirrored through Product schema, these improve click-through from the search results.

Body

• A subcategory or product grid. Parent categories show tiles linking to subcategories, and subcategories show product cards.
• Filters and facets that are multi-select, show counts and stay sticky on mobile
• A sort dropdown for relevance, popular and new
• Index only the high-demand facets, and use noindex, follow on the combinations that would otherwise explode your URL count

Additional content

• Trust signals, such as safety information, certifications, product availability, and five-star reviews and ratings
• An editorial block with FAQs, buying guides and tips, for both SEO and trust
• Featured products or popular picks, a curated strip that shortcuts to the most common choices

Content strategy

• Keep the intro copy short and helpful
• Write unique content for each category, and don't duplicate copy
• Add an expandable FAQ block tied to real customer queries
• Add short buying-guide teasers that link to your blog or knowledge hub
• Work in natural variations of your keywords

Product card design

Core elements

• A clean image, shot from a consistent angle
• A clear, descriptive name that includes the intent, such as "hire"
• A prominent price or hire rate, with the unit
• Rating and reviews
• Key attribute callouts. For Kennards Hire, that would be 2T capacity, towable and diesel.

Conversion boosters

• Badges, such as new, bestseller, limited stock and branch-only
• A quick add or reserve button
• Variant options
• Availability

On-page SEO for product pages

Unlike lead-generation websites, ecommerce websites really depend on how well their product pages are optimised.

Product pages matter for ecommerce SEO for three reasons.

• They match the intent of the buyer. When people search for consumer goods, they often search "buy [product]", "[product] price" or "[product] reviews". If you rank here, you get more visitors and more money.
• Long-tail scale. Each SKU can target very specific searches. There are many variations to rank for, such as generic versus specific, branded versus non-branded, feature-based, problem and solution, modifiers, local intent and transactional signals.
• Internal linking hubs. They pass link equity to categories and guides throughout the site.

So how do you improve on-page SEO for product pages? Here is a guide.

• Put a title tag on every product page. The title tag is the HTML element potential visitors see before they click through. Give it an enticing call to action with value, such as a deal or a benefit of your product. Keep it under 60 characters so people can read it quickly, and try to use your target keywords.
• Include a meta description. Google doesn't use them for ranking. But informative, persuasive copy can lift your click-through rate from the results page, which means more visitors.
• Use an SEO-friendly URL structure. Make it short and descriptive. Use hyphens to separate words, use lowercase text and include a primary keyword.
• Have high-quality product images. Name them properly and include alt text to improve accessibility. Professional, appealing photography increases the chance they buy. After all, people buy with their eyes.
• Write comprehensive product descriptions. Capture the reader's interest and include lots of detail about your items. This also lets you use related keywords to capture the long-tail searches we spoke of earlier.
• Include unique content on each page. Add other helpful content, like FAQs and editorial content, that is unique to that product. This also helps persuade the user to buy.
• Build trust. Include reviews. What do you do when you look at Amazon? I certainly look at the reviews. If the rating is below 4.5, I don't buy, simple as that. If one product has 300 reviews and another has 5, I'll choose the one with 300, provided the ratings are similar. The funny thing is the first company may not have had more customers. They may have just asked for reviews.
• Add schema markup. This is code that helps Google better understand your pages. Adding schema to a page's HTML increases the chance of getting rich snippets.
• Treat the primary image as your LCP. Preload the hero image, use WebP or AVIF, and set a fixed width and height.
• Add a short demo video. Keep it to 30 to 60 seconds and mark it up with VideoObject schema.
• Have a variant strategy. Use one canonical product page with selectable variants, unless the variant terms have their own search demand, like colour or material.

Content marketing

Category and product pages are both very important for ecommerce SEO, but you should also use traditional content marketing to drive traffic and increase conversions on your site.

The goal is to attract, educate and convert, with content that directs shoppers to the right products.

Content types

Decision content for bottom-of-funnel visitors

This includes comparisons between your product and another product, best-of lists and shortlists such as "best X for [use case or budget]", and customer stories and reviews with proof.

From each piece, link to three to five product pages and the parent category page. Add FAQ blocks that answer questions on fit, care, shipping and returns.

Guides for middle-of-funnel visitors

Here, you want to put together buying and choosing guides, plus care, fit, installation and troubleshooting guides.

Use-case pages

This is content that describes the actual use case for the product they are buying. You don't just inform them of the use case. You also place calls to action throughout that show them how to buy your product.

Programmatic attribute pages

These are pages that show a range of products that all fit the same description. For example, if you own a dress store and build a page called "black dresses under $50", it can link to all the black dresses you sell at that price.

Post-purchase education

Here you can provide resources like short videos, blog posts and email newsletters to keep nurturing the customer. Interestingly, we've found a lot of potential customers enjoy this content too, because it shows them they will be looked after.

Site structure and internal linking

The best recommendation here is to build a hub and spoke model. Build one hub per category that links to all the comparisons and best-of pages. From every piece of content, link to three to five product pages and to your guides and FAQs.

For example, say you sell laptops. Your laptop comparison hub could look something like this.

Popular brand comparisons

• MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro
• MacBook Air vs Dell XPS 13
• MacBook Air vs HP Spectre

Best laptops by use case

• Best laptops for students
• Best laptops for video editing
• Best laptops for travel and portability

Best laptops by budget

• Best laptops under $500
• Best laptops under $1,000
• Best premium laptops for $1,500 and up

You can adapt this to your business, whether you sell supplements, dresses or consumer packaged goods.

Optimisation checklist

1. Intent and keywords. Map each piece of content to a clear query with enough search volume to justify writing it. Ideally, you want a mix of top, middle and bottom-of-funnel search terms. But the commercial and transactional terms at the bottom of the funnel are where the money is.
2. Trust near your calls to action. Add ratings, shipping and returns information, and guarantees.
3. Quality signals. Use scannable headings, alt text on images and a unique introduction on every page.
4. Schema. It helps search engines understand what the page is about beyond the text. On product pages, that means Product, Offer, AggregateRating, Review and BreadcrumbList.
5. Distribution. Promote the content to bring in more visitors. That includes social media, email and on-site modules.

Backlinks

Backlinks are tougher for ecommerce because product pages aren't naturally linkable. A lot of pages have commercial intent, which makes publishers less willing to link. Many stores reuse the manufacturer's copy, so there is nothing unique to cite. And there are fewer reasons for anyone to link in the first place.

Here are a few ways to overcome this.

Create linkable assets that support shopping

• Create the content we mentioned earlier that provides value beyond the product pages. This includes guides and comparisons, fit and sizing, care and maintenance, and buyer checklists.
• Publish proprietary data pieces, such as trend reports, pricing indexes and return-rate analyses
• Build tools, such as fit finders, calculators and gift finders
• Feature community content, such as deep-dive reviews and owner galleries

Build product and category pages people will link to

Most ecommerce sites have very basic, thin category and product pages. If your pages provide real value through guides, educational modules, trends or buyer data, they become a more linkable asset.

Affiliates and partnerships

• Tag paid placements with rel="sponsored"
• Use affiliates for revenue, but don't rely on them for authority. Affiliates are people you pay to promote your products, so Google doesn't count their links toward your authority. They can still drive traffic and increase revenue.

Unlinked mentions

• Monitor mentions of your brand, products and CEO, and claim the link when a site cites you without linking
• Prioritise pages with traffic and topical relevance, and offer them the most relevant URL you have

Backlink gap analysis

• Identify domains that link to three to five competitors but not to you
• Segment them by resources, reviews, news, forums and communities, and brand sites
• Build a prospect list and pitch replacements, updates or your superior resources

Links from suppliers and distributors

• If you're a reseller or retailer, ask suppliers to link to your store from their "where to buy" or "authorised retailer" listings
• Offer to maintain their spec or fit guide on your domain so they have a quality page to cite

Guest posts

Write for publications your customers read. For instance, a fashion ecommerce store could write a guest post like "5 must-have outerwear trends for this autumn". Within it, you can give advice, styling tips, seasonal colours and ideas for pairing pieces.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is often overlooked for ecommerce sites. In reality, it matters more for ecommerce than for any other type of website. Amazon famously discovered that speed equals money. In early A/B tests, they found that adding about 100 milliseconds of latency led to a 1% drop in sales.

Technical SEO is so important because large ecommerce sites get thousands of visitors every day. Ecommerce marketing thrives on optimisation. Margins are tight, so every click and every step of the conversion funnel matters.

Here is a brief list of technical optimisations, so the hard work you put into backlinks and keyword strategy isn't wasted.

Site architecture

• Create a flat page structure. A visitor should be able to reach their intended page within three clicks. If you look at the prominent marketplaces, you'll notice you can get basically anywhere within three clicks.
• This is particularly critical for ecommerce sites because Google needs to crawl and index all of your product and category pages. Make it easy for users to find products and anything else they need.

Crawl budget and indexation

• Unlike lead-gen sites that offer a few services, ecommerce sites can be very large, especially when you offer many products. Large catalogues can waste Google's crawl budget on unimportant pages. The goal is to prioritise crawling and indexing for your high-value, unique, revenue-driving pages.
• Include XML sitemaps so Google can index your website properly.
• Noindex discontinued products so Google knows to leave them out.
• Consolidate near-duplicate pages, such as view options, sort orders and pagination, with canonical tags.
• Standardise the query parameters from faceted navigation, such as ?sort=, ?view= and UTM tags, and mark them as non-indexable.

Page speed and Web Vitals

• Aim for a page speed below 3 seconds on mobile. Otherwise, you risk high bounce rates that hurt your conversions. Minify your code and add a content delivery network.
• Largest Contentful Paint is usually the first product image or the hero. Use responsive images with width and height attributes, preload the LCP image, compress to WebP or AVIF, and avoid layout shift from badges and ratings.
• For Cumulative Layout Shift, reserve space for images, prices, "free shipping" ribbons and review stars.

Other general tips

• Use HTTPS. It secures the connection between the browser and your server.
• Make your store mobile-friendly. Lots of people shop on their phones, so don't just optimise for laptops.