Search engine optimization (SEO) is no magic bullet, but if you can get your website ranking well for targeted keywords, you will enjoy a steady stream of new people visiting your website and buying your products. Best of all, that traffic is free — you don't need to pay Google for your listing!
What is SEO?
SEO is the practice of improving your website in order to increase the number of visitors you get from search engines such as Google. It's also about making sure your website is user-friendly for people who visit it: it should be easy to navigate around and attractive to look at.
You can generally do enough SEO yourself, without needing any professional help, to make a difference to your search engine placement. If you are selling very competitive items like weight loss products or generic clothing, you might need help from a professional, or to at least invest a lot of time in learning about it yourself.
Understanding what search engines want
In order to be successful with SEO, you need to make sure you align yourself and your website with the goals that search engines have. Understanding what search engines are trying to do is crucial to your success.
Ultimately, search engines like Google want to deliver fast and accurate results to users.
For example, if someone searches Google for "buy winter coats online," the search engine wants to quickly show them the best place(s) to buy coats online. The "best" place is determined by thousands of factors that Google weights in a variety of ways, including:
- Number of repeat visitors that website gets.
- How many people stay on the website and look around compared to how many just leave after a few second (this indicates the website doesn’t have what they are looking for).
- Whether relevant keywords and key phrases are being used (but not overused) throughout the website.
- How many backlinks the website has. Backlinks are when websites link back to yours. The more quality backlinks, the better.
- Quality content (and yes, Google has ways of automatically detecting poor quality content).
- Good website structure: This is made easy when you use a solid platform like SaleHoo Stores.
There are other things that play into a ranking, but these are some of the main factors.
What you can do to help your website rank in Google
Keyword research for your online store
Your overall task with SEO is to find out what keywords your customers are typing into Google when they search for the products you sell, then rank your website for those keywords.
It's vital that you take the time to research the exact keywords people use to search Google. Don't just guess, because you could get it wrong, which will mean your efforts are wasted. There are tools and software options that tell you what people are searching for, so you can accurately choose the best keywords for your store (more about this soon).
Keyword research isn't difficult, but it is a skill that you need to learn. Here's a quick video where you can get a fantastic overview of how to do it, plus a link to free software that you can use to speed everything up, which will be much easier for you.
Optimize your meta data (don't let those words scare you!)
Once you know which keywords your customers are searching for, you can start optimizing your website for those words and phrases. One way to do this is by taking advantage of meta data.
Your meta data tells Google and other search engines key information about your website that helps it rank well. Without meta data, your website will probably be ignored by search engines.
Your website should have a back-end section where you can enter meta data. On SaleHoo Stores, it’s under the Store Settings section. Entering your meta data there is as easy as simply typing in a few words. If you are not on SaleHoo Stores, talk with whoever built your website and they should be able to help.
Meta data explained
There are 3 types of meta data: meta descriptions, meta titles, and meta keywords.
Meta description: Text that displays in the search results. It should say what your page is about and entice users to click through to your website. The meta description should be less than 200 characters. Here's an example:
You should customize your meta description on every page of your website - including every product page.
Meta title: Your meta title is very important. Make sure you insert targeted keyword phrases. Each of your website pages should have a custom meta title.
Meta keywords: You might have an option on your website to add meta keywords. Google doesn't pay attention to these, but other search engines do, so there is no harm in adding them in.
Insert keywords from your keyword research and make sure you keep them relevant.
Backlinking and why it's important
Backlinks are an extremely important part of SEO. A backlink is when another website links to yours. In Google's eyes, when quality websites link to yours, that boosts the search engine's confidence in your website. Think of it like votes in an election: The more votes (links) you get, the more trust you voters (Google) can give you.
There are good backlinks and bad backlinks. As a blanket rule, quality is much more important than quantity. As for buying links from other sites, it's best to avoid this practice completely.
Learn the basics of backlinking and the easiest ways to do it in this video lesson. You can also check out this invaluable guide to backlinking for online retailers. Bookmark it now, read it later and make sure you take action with what you learn!
In summary
SEO should be part of your weekly tasks as an online retailer. You should spend at least an hour a week learning more about it and taking action with the knowledge you pick up.
Don't be scared of search engine optimization — it's a crucial part of any online business and it's not something you can ignore. Get started now by adding meta data to your online store and take the first step towards getting your store ranking in Google.
The first thing you need to do is keyword research, so make sure you watch that quick video I mentioned and check out AffiloTools (the free SEO/keyword research software the video recommends).
