Running an online store? Paid ads eat into your margins. SEO brings you free, sustainable traffic from people actively searching for what you sell. Here are practical ecommerce SEO tips you can implement today to boost your product visibility.
Tip #1: Optimize Your Product Pages
Product pages are where the money is made. But most ecommerce sites use manufacturer descriptions that every competitor also uses. That means duplicate content and zero competitive advantage.
How to Optimize Product Pages:
- Write unique product descriptions: Describe benefits, not just features
- Include keywords naturally: Use words people actually search for
- Optimize product titles: Include key details like brand, model, size
- Add high-quality images: Multiple angles, zoom capability, alt text
- Include customer reviews: Fresh, unique content that builds trust
Need help? View our Product Page Optimization services
Tip #2: Fix Your Site Structure
A messy site structure confuses both users and search engines. Your products should be easy to find through logical categories and subcategories.
Best Practices:
- Keep important products within 3 clicks of the homepage
- Use clear, keyword-rich category names
- Create logical hierarchies (Category → Subcategory → Product)
- Use breadcrumb navigation
- Avoid orphan pages (products with no category links)
Think of your site structure as a department store. Customers should intuitively know where to find what they need.
Tip #3: Don't Neglect Category Pages
Category pages often have more ranking potential than individual product pages. A well-optimized category page can rank for broad commercial terms like "running shoes" or "kitchen appliances."
How to Optimize Category Pages:
- Add unique category descriptions (not just a grid of products)
- Include the target keyword in the H1 and URL
- Add helpful filters that don't create duplicate content issues
- Show enough products per page to be useful
- Link to subcategories and featured products
Tip #4: Address Technical SEO Issues
Ecommerce sites often have unique technical challenges that hurt rankings:
- Duplicate content: Product variants, filter URLs, pagination
- Crawl budget: Too many pages for Google to efficiently crawl
- Page speed: Heavy images and scripts slowing things down
- Out-of-stock pages: 404s or thin pages when products disappear
Solutions:
- Use canonical tags to consolidate duplicate pages
- Block low-value URLs in robots.txt or with noindex
- Optimize images and enable lazy loading
- Keep out-of-stock pages live with a "back in stock" option or redirect to category
Tip #5: Implement Product Schema Markup
Schema markup helps Google understand your products and can result in rich snippets showing price, availability, and reviews directly in search results.
Key Product Schema Properties:
- Product name and description
- Price and currency
- Availability (in stock, out of stock)
- Brand
- Reviews and ratings
- SKU and GTIN
Products with rich snippets get significantly higher click-through rates than plain listings.
Tip #6: Create Content Beyond Products
Product pages target transactional keywords. But you're missing huge traffic opportunities by not creating informational content.
Content Ideas for Ecommerce:
- Buying guides: "How to Choose the Right Running Shoes"
- How-to content: "How to Break In Leather Boots"
- Comparison posts: "X vs Y: Which Is Right for You?"
- Lists: "10 Best Gifts for Coffee Lovers"
This content attracts people earlier in the buying journey and builds your topical authority.
Tip #7: Use Strategic Internal Linking
Internal links spread authority and help Google discover your products. Most ecommerce sites underutilize them.
Internal Linking Strategies:
- Link from blog content to relevant products and categories
- "Related products" sections on product pages
- "Frequently bought together" links
- Category crosslinks where relevant
- Link from high-traffic pages to pages you want to rank
Tip #8: Prioritize Mobile Experience
Most ecommerce traffic is mobile. Google uses mobile-first indexing. If your mobile experience is poor, your rankings will suffer.
Mobile Optimization Checklist:
- Responsive design that works on all screen sizes
- Fast load times (under 3 seconds)
- Easy-to-tap buttons and links
- Simple checkout process
- Readable text without zooming
- No intrusive popups that block content
Tip #9: Encourage and Display Reviews
Customer reviews provide fresh, unique content for your product pages. They're also a major trust signal for both users and search engines.
How to Get More Reviews:
- Send post-purchase email requests
- Make reviewing easy (simple forms, star ratings)
- Respond to reviews (especially negative ones)
- Display reviews prominently on product pages
- Use review schema to show stars in search results
Tip #10: Obsess Over Page Speed
Slow sites kill conversions AND rankings. Amazon found that every 100ms of latency costs them 1% in sales. Your store probably isn't Amazon, but the principle applies.
Speed Optimization Priorities:
- Compress and lazy-load images
- Use a content delivery network (CDN)
- Minimize third-party scripts
- Enable browser caching
- Choose fast hosting
- Optimize Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS)
Bonus: Platform-Specific Tips
Different ecommerce platforms have different SEO considerations:
- Shopify: Fix duplicate content from collections and tags, optimize your theme's speed. View our Shopify SEO services
- Magento: Handle layered navigation, manage large catalogs, optimize caching. View our Magento SEO services
- WooCommerce: Choose SEO-friendly themes, optimize WordPress hosting
Ready to Grow Your Online Store?
Ecommerce SEO is a long game, but the payoff is sustainable traffic that doesn't disappear when you stop paying for ads.
Explore our eCommerce SEO Services or contact BuzFind for a free consultation on growing your online store with SEO.
Further reading: Ahrefs' Complete Guide to Ecommerce SEO