by Nick Stamoulis
While it pains me a little bit to be talking about the holidays before September is barely even half over, if you want to get your e-commerce SEO ready for the holiday shopping season it's better to start thinking about it and implementing tweaks now so your changes will have enough time to impact the SERPs. Remember, just because you make a change to your site, say you added a few new pages of content, and can see it instantly on your end that doesn't mean the search engines notice it right away. You have to give your site time for the dust settle and your e-commerce SEO changes to take effect.
Here are 3 ways to get your e-commerce SEO ready for the holidays:
1. Rewrite product descriptions.
A common problem I see on many e-commerce sites is that they stick with the product description supplied by the manufacturer. While it's great to use that information, chances are you aren't the only e-commerce site using the exact same text! This makes it harder for your product page to rise above the others (and you might run into a duplicate content issue if you aren't careful.) If your product page reads the exact same way to the search engines as five other sites, why should your site do any better in the SERPs? Now is the time to rewrite generic product descriptions and insert your brand's unique selling point into the content. What does your site offer customers that no one else can? How can you make your product pages more appealing to customers and search engines alike?
2. Build links with product reviews.
Shopping is an incredibly social experience, even when it's online. Shoppers want to know they are getting the best deal, the best product and the best overall experience before they ever place an order. Customer testimonials and product reviews on your site make the whole shopping experience much more social and help build that consumer trust. They also provide a few extra lines of content for the search engines to consider.
Another way to build consumer trust in your site AND build some quality links to various product pages on your site is to get product reviews published on other sites. Just about every niche, no matter how small, has one or two influential online personalities that write a blog, are active in social media and have a dedicated following. Reach out to these personalities and ask them to review your products on their website! Not only are these reviews (which may be paid) are good source of inbound links, the blogger is now introducing your website to their audience. That kind of endorsement goes a long way in building trust because the blogger has established themselves as an authority figure in their field and people respect their advice and opinions.
3. Ramp up your content marketing.
Let's say you've been writing one blog post a week; now is the time to jump to two. Even if you only do it for the next three months an influx of quality content can go a long way in making your e-commerce SEO incredibly successful this holiday season. Each new blog post can have a deep link to one of your internal product pages while still not being overly promotional. For example, let's say you own an e-commerce site that selling crocheting supplies. You could publish a how-to blog post that introduced your customers to fun holiday pattern for scarves or gloves and add a link or two back to the specific yarn or needle product pages they'll need to use. You're still writing useful content that is designed to meet your audience's needs but you are building links to your product pages at the same time. That how-to pattern page can also go in your monthly e-newsletter to existing customers, and should be published on all your social profiles. You could even do a little cross-linking from your site and link from the specific product pages to the blog post in a "See how this product can be used!" manner.
Obviously if you sell thousands of products rewriting and optimizing each page for SEO isn't going to be a quick or easy process. My advice is to start with the product pages that are the most profitable for your site and roll out the changes in batches as you go. Which product pages get the most traffic? Have the highest conversion rate? Are the most expensive products? Generate the most revenue for your company? Try to bring those pages up even more with e-commerce SEO and then work your way through the rest of your website.
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