become more important with Google now shifting to a free merchant marketplace with a +35B product Shopping Graph https://blog.google/products/shopping/buy-on-google-is-zero-commission/
a higher SEO competition but challenges to stand-out to grab traffic in SERPs like this Ads Local Pack Organic Organic PAA Organic Organic Popular Products
make also SEO execution harder and often most efforts go to fixing bugs A high number of pages due to product volume Complex categorization Dynamic inventory causing constantly changing URLs The same product info as other sites
SEO Success We then get stuck on fixing issues, rather than building, which is what achieves real growth FIXING IMPROVING BUILDING Creating content to target new relevant queries through user search journey Optimizing existing content for already targeted relevant queries Minimizing tech debt to avoid crawlability, indexability and page experience issues
E-commerce SEO challenges w/ 3 key actions to integrate in your strategy Look at the SERPs, their features and intent to drive your content optimization & maximize visibility through the full search journey Prioritize SEO activities based on your e-commerce goals’ impact and effort Establish an SEO quality framework to avoid issues that hold execution back 1. 2. 3.
the SERPs to drive your content optimization & maximize visibility through the full search journey #ecommerceseo at #ecommercesummit by @aleyda from @orainti
you’re now investing in content across the search journey: Are you optimizing it to maximize visibility & CTR via shown SERP features? THEY DON’T THEY DO
queries across the whole search journey Create and optimize different type of content to target intent across the whole journey Optimize content to effectively leverage search results features to maximize visibility It’s time to look at the SERPs to reassess what you target and how you do it to maximize your traffic Expand Target Create content to satisfy each intent type Leverage Search Features
as many products per page as viable, with longer descriptions, to show more relevant content Product 1 Product 2 Product 3 Product 4 Product 5 Product 6 CATEGORY A Pages: 1, 2, 3… 100 Product 1 Product 2 Product 3 Product 4 Product 5 Product 6 CATEGORY B Pages: 1, 2, 3… 60 < Product 7 Product 8 Product 9 Product 10 * Explain why you’re in the best place to buy these products * Clarify common doubts of customers when buying these types of products
Q&As to Facts, integrate them within categories/facets pages to support sales too Reassure users that the products they’re seeing are the best for their scenario Mitigate any doubts around the use and characteristics of the products Show why they’re in the best place to buy these products … #ecommerceseo at #ecommercesummit by @aleyda from @orainti
generate at scale leveraging content automation tools to help writers FAQs: • Are these boots made from real leather? • Do these boots have a good transpiration system? • What are the best pants to wear with knee-high boots? Surfer, NeuralText
triggered by structured data anymore, content format and merchant feeds influence what Google highlights in snippets https://brodieclark.com/little-known-rich-results-ecommerce/
Men Women Jeans Pants Shorts Jacket Shirt T-shirt Dress Skirt Jumpsuit Bootcut Straight Wide Slim Crop Flare Skinny Black Blue White Red Product Characteristics Type Audience + + + Modifiers + Buy Shop Best Top Cheap Children It’s about maximizing your e-commerce search visibility share through the full customer journey Home Brand Categories Sub-categories Filters Comparison Guides Deals …
can’t just follow “SEO best practices” or “checklists”, which are great to avoid missing things, but not to drive your SEO strategy https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce?hl=en
INCREASE 150% SALES OF WINTER BOOTS FOR WOMEN AND MEN INCREASE 400% TRAFFIC TO MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL CONTENT OF WINTER BOOTS FOR BOTH WOMEN AND MEN GROW 250% ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC TO WINTER BOOTS LISTINGS, COMPARISONS, REVIEWS, GUIDES AND PRODUCTS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 3 POSITIONS OF CURRENT TOP 10 FOR MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL QUERIES TARGETED BY WINTER BOOTS LISTINGS AND COMPARISONS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 10 PILLAR AND GUIDES PAGES OF WINTER BOOTS FOR WOMEN AND MEN …. 1. YOU’RE TRYING TO GET THIS 2. TO OBTAIN THIS! Biz Goals [What Decision Makers care About] SEO goals [What SEOs care about] Start by establishing top-to-down SEO goals for your e-commerce that connect with your business ones
OF WINTER BOOTS FOR WOMEN AND MEN INCREASE 400% TRAFFIC TO MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL CONTENT OF WINTER BOOTS FOR BOTH WOMEN AND MEN …. TOP-TO-DOWN SEO GOALS GROW 250% ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC TO WINTER BOOTS LISTINGS, COMPARISONS, REVIEWS, GUIDES AND PRODUCTS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 3 POSITIONS OF CURRENT TOP 10 FOR MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL QUERIES TARGETED BY WINTER BOOTS LISTINGS AND COMPARISONS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 10 PILLAR AND GUIDES PAGES OF WINTER BOOTS FOR WOMEN AND MEN This will help to tie each SEO action to business goals, allowing to focus on meaningful SEO execution 1. RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE X WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE SITE RANKINGS? WHERE HAS BEEN FOUND AND IS GENERATED? Screens hot SCENARIO 1 HOW CAN IT BE FIXED? Screens hot SCENARIO 1 Screens hot SEO Effect Affected Areas Business Importance Optimization Status Execution Difficulty Required resources Priority High Paginations Medium Low Low Technical High 1. WILL HELP TO ACHIEVE THIS 2. TO OBTAIN THIS
allow to achieve the desired business goals (+150% sales) Measurable [Meaningful]: Organic search revenue, traffic and rankings can be tracked Attainable [Action Oriented]: You’ll have reasonable time to see results (1 year) Relevant [Rewarding]: It will impact the relevant areas/sections to achieve sales goals Time-Bound [Trackable]: It should be achieved during a specific time (1 year) Evaluated [Ethical]: Its evolution will be assessed at the end of each month Reviewed [Rewarding]: Its activities will be reviewed based on their impact When establishing SEO goals use the SMARTER principles, to ensure impact and meaningfulness “Grow 150% organic search conversions YoY of X, Y, Z product lines”
To Execute Don’t Do 2. To Assess & Prioritize 2. To Assess & Prioritize Recommendation Impact [0-10] Effort [0-10] To Prioritize Higher Medium impacting with high effort 6 4 12 Low impacting with high effort 4 4 8 Low impacting with very high effort 4 2 6 Very low impacting with very high effort 2 2 4 Prioritize your SEO activities with higher impact/lower effort to achieve your goals
Recommendations Prioritization Template in Google Sheets to easily do it https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15dD2VFzE203ZIKD-vTqlg3Wg-YQY9a-HS5J7AT-S4jA/view
SEO recommendation to a SMARTER SEO goal? It’s a non-problem and shouldn’t be prioritized INCREASE 150% SALES OF WINTER BOOTS FOR WOMEN AND MEN INCREASE 400% TRAFFIC TO MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL CONTENT OF WINTER BOOTS FOR BOTH WOMEN AND MEN …. TOP-TO-DOWN SEO GOALS GROW 250% ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC TO WINTER BOOTS LISTINGS, COMPARISONS, REVIEWS, GUIDES AND PRODUCTS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 3 POSITIONS OF CURRENT TOP 10 FOR MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL QUERIES TARGETED BY WINTER BOOTS LISTINGS AND COMPARISONS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 10 PILLAR AND GUIDES PAGES OF WINTER BOOTS FOR WOMEN AND MEN 1. RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE X WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE SITE RANKINGS? WHERE HAS BEEN FOUND AND IS GENERATED? Screens hot SCENARIO 1 HOW CAN IT BE FIXED? Screens hot SCENARIO 1 Screens hot SEO Effect Affected Areas Business Importance Optimization Status Execution Difficulty Required resources Priority High Paginations Medium Low Low Technical High 1. WILL HELP TO ACHIEVE THIS? 2. TO OBTAIN THIS? X
categories to implement fast and assess impact vs similar unchanged ones: * Positive result? Replicate to rest. * Negative outcome? Move to other implementations! Unsure about impact? Run tests to assess their impact in your context or see if there are better alternate ways to achieve results
create your own SEO A/B Split Tests for Free by using Google Tag Manager as Chris shows here https://www.slideshare.net/chr156r33n/how-to-construct-your-own-seo-a-b-split-tests-for-free
common SEO horror stories in e-commerce that are completely preventable Internal search results cannibalizing categories Noindexing categories pages with search potential Lack of unique commercial content in categories Product pages with poor unique descriptive content Product pages with traffic but inconsistent status Seasonal pages with traffic but inconsistent status Overlooking informational content and resources
it, so you can take a look at the different solutions alternatives here https://www.slideshare.net/aleydasolis/ecommerce-seo-horror-stories-how-to-tackle-the-most-common-issues-at-scale-and-avoid-an-seo-nightmare-mozcon
SEO IMPLEMENTATION SEO QUALITY ASSURANCE FRAMEWORK EDUCATION To prevent SEO mistakes VALIDATION To avoid launching SEO Errors MONITORING To catch SEO incidents fast With ongoing SEO education, validation and monitoring measures for an optimal execution
& TECH SEO GUIDELINES/ WIKI ONLINE SEO TRAINING AND Q&AS FOR TECH/CONTENT/ [STAKEHOLDERS] TEAMS RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS FEATURING SEO CONCEPTS & IMPORTANCE TOWARDS GOALS INCLUDE A “WHY DOES THIS MATTER” SECTION IN AUDIT & REPORTS CREATE PERSONALIZED GUIDELINES WITHIN WIKI/PM PLATFORM DO LIVE (AND RECORD) WEBINARS & Q&AS WITH INVOLVED TEAMS A base of SEO education across teams is fundamental to establish understanding
CHANGES INTEGRATED VALIDATION CONTENT OPTIMIZATION & TECH SEO CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST FOR COMMON WORKFLOWS RECURRING / ONGOING SEO TECH/CONTENT VALIDATION PRE & POST WEB RELEASES SET RECURRING CRAWLS WITH SEO CRAWLERS WEB PLATFORMS SEO CONFIGURATION CHECKS CREATE EASY TO FOLLOW/USE CHECKLISTS FOR USUAL ACTIVITIES Strengthen your SEO Quality Framework with a seamless SEO execution validation workflow
with teams the use of content & tech configuration checklist for common workflows https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LGc9RxurRTv2K0Zsckh1cirEQ9E9rP7-04k1wnVIkhg/edit?usp=sharing
OK? SEO IMPLEMENTATION YES NO YES ON-GOING SEO VALIDATION SEO RELEASE NO FIX POST-RELEASE SEO VALIDATION: OK? YES NO FIX ON-GOING SEO VALIDATION: OK? YES NO FIX IN LESS 24H REVERSE IMPLEMENTATION Agree on release validations workflow with devs taking into consideration “what-if” scenarios
TECHNICAL CONFIGURATION CHANGES ALERTS WEBSITE SEARCH CRAWLING ISSUES ALERTS WEB RANKINGS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC & CONVERSIONS DECREASE/ INCREASE ALERTS QUERIES SEARCH POPULARITY DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS MENTIONS & BACKLINKS ALERTS SPAM OR MANUAL ACTIONS ALERTS WEB ANALYTICS TOOLS SEO CONFIGURATION ALERTS TOOLS (LITTLE WARDEN, CONTENTKING) WEB SERVER LOG MONITORING TOOL AND SEARCH CONSOLE RANK TRACKERS SEARCH TRENDS TOOLS MENTIONS/BACKLINKS TOOLS GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE Catch critical SEO configurations and KPIs changes fast to take action before it’s too late
CHANGES INTEGRATED VALIDATION ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC & CONVERSIONS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS WEB RANKINGS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS QUERIES SEARCH POPULARITY DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS WEB CONTENT & TECHNICAL CONFIGURATION CHANGES ALERTS CONTENT OPTIMIZATION & TECH SEO CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST FOR COMMON WORKFLOWS COMPANY CONTENT OPTIMIZATION & TECH SEO GUIDELINES/WIKI ONLINE SEO TRAINING AND Q&AS FOR TECH/CONTENT/[STAKEHOLDERS] TEAMS RECURRING / ONGOING SEO TECH/CONTENT VALIDATION PRE & POST WEB RELEASES EDUCATION VALIDATION MONITORING MENTIONS & BACKLINKS ALERTS WEBSITE SEARCH CRAWLING ISSUES ALERTS SPAM OR MANUAL ACTIONS ALERTS SEO QUALITY ASSURANCE FRAMEWORK RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS FEATURING SEO CONCEPTS & IMPORTANCE TOWARDS GOALS This is how you say goodbye to continuous SEO errors that hold your execution back
setting a Quality Assurance Framework in this presentation https://www.slideshare.net/aleydasolis/goodbye-seo-fck-ups-learn-to-set-an-seo-quality-assurance-frameworkpdf
3 keys activities to incorporate into your E-commerce SEO strategy for success Look at the SERPs, their features and intent to drive your content optimization & maximize visibility through the full search journey Prioritize SEO activities based on your e-commerce goals’ impact and effort Establish an SEO quality framework to avoid issues that hold execution back 1. 2. 3.
AUTHORITATIVE RELEVANT & TRUSTWORTHY CRAWLABLE & INDEXABLE GREAT USER EXPERIENCE RANKABLE FOR RELEVANT QUERIES > YOUR PAGE YOUR COMPETITORS PAGES These will help to stay ahead of competitors, minimizing errors, identifying and executing faster what obtains goals SEARCH BEHAVIOR SEARCH RESULTS
* SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti * SEO Speaker at +100 Events in +20 countries * Author “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales.” * Crawling Mondays Video & Podcast Series Host * #SEOFOMO Newsletter Wrangler * Maker LearningSEO.io * European Search Personality of the Year in 2018 * remoters.net Co-Founder orainti.com Thanks! Questions? orainti.com