Mastering SEO: A Beginner's Guide to Dominating Google Rankings
- by Phoebe Lengton
- 4 min reading time
Welcome to the world of Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO! SEO helps websites become more popular and show up at the best ranking on Google or other search engines. Whether you're a seasoned webmaster or just starting your online journey, understanding SEO is crucial to success in the digital landscape. In this blog post, we're going to demystify the concept of SEO and show you how it can transform the way your website is discovered and ranked by search engines. We use the help of Shopify’s blog: “Ecommerce SEO Beginner's Guide (2024)”.
SEO is a set of strategies and techniques that make your website more visible to search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. By optimizing your site for search engines, you increase the chances of your content appearing on the first page of search results, where users are more likely to click and engage with your website. How to start with SEO?
To begin, let's talk about keyword research, a cornerstone of any effective SEO strategy. While traditional keyword research focuses on informational keywords, ecommerce sites must target a mix of informational and commercial keywords. Informational keywords like: “How to bake chocolate chip cookies” seek answers, guides, or explanations. In contrast, commercial keywords indicate buying intent: “Discount on gaming laptops”.
To identify relevant keywords, you could leverage the power of Google's autocomplete predictions. As you type in a search query, these suggestions can provide valuable insights. Furthermore, you need to rank your keywords in a few criteria: volume, competition, relevancy and intent.
The structure of your ecommerce site needs to be both simple and scalable, allowing for easy navigation and adaptation as your store grows. The goal is to ensure that every page on your site is within a few intuitive clicks. It's important to understand that most of your SEO links are concentrated on your homepage. The further a product page is from your homepage, the less authority it typically has. This underscores the significance of organizing your site effectively.
A perfect way to help your visitors is by using the help of ‘breadcrumbs’! In this example by H&M, the customer can easily return to ‘Jackets and Coats’ by clicking this breadcrumb. If the customer doesn’t want to see ‘Jackets and Coats’ anymore, she can click the breadcrumb: ‘Ladies’. These breadcrumbs show how you are connected to the Homepage.
All our themes on Shopify offer you build in breadcrumbs, check them out here.
Technical SEO is like the foundation of a skyscraper. While it remains unseen by visitors, it's the structural support that ensures the entire building stands tall, stable, and can withstand the test of time. It focuses on optimizing your site for search engine crawlers, enhancing site speed, and ensuring mobile compatibility.
There are several strategies you can employ to improve technical SEO, such as creating logical internal linking within your menus, regularly checking for and fixing broken links on your website and optimizing images for faster loading.
Now that your keyword research is complete and your site structure is in order, it's time to optimize the content on two crucial page types: product category pages and product pages.
When it comes to on-page SEO, it's essential to craft engaging and informative content. Customize title tags, meta tags, and meta descriptions to include your keywords. Ensure that product images have keyword-rich alt text and that file names are keyword-inclusive. Additionally, make thoughtful decisions about your URLs for blog posts, webpages, products, and collections.
A tip to keep your customers engaged is by adding internal links every few paragraphs. You can post a link in your anchor text to make it easier for customers to seamlessly explore and discover additional information or products available on your website.
Blogging is a powerful content marketing strategy that enhances your site's search visibility by providing valuable information to your customers. Each blog post you publish has the potential to:
- Build your reputation as a credible source
- Improve your site's authority
- Increase visibility in organic search results
When starting a blog for ecommerce SEO you should focus on researching keywords that align with your brand and products. To optimize blog posts, you should opt for a specific keyword.
- Link Building:
Building quality backlinks can help Google recognize your authority more quickly. For example sites that end with respected .com, .gov, and .edu give the most authority when backlinking. One effective approach to link building is to focus on partnerships and create content that provides value to other websites. Additionally, you can explore guest posting and press mentions to earn valuable backlinks.
SEO is an ongoing process. A final tip is to always check your site for errors or backlinking opportunities. Keywords are changing, so keep updating keywords in blogs to maintain in-depth content.