Online shop SEO – practical tips

We’ve all heard time and again that advertising is the lifeblood of commerce. How can this well-known saying be applied to running a business online? Through search engine optimisation (SEO), which is essential if you want to be visible on the web. It encompasses a wide range of activities, only some of which can be carried out without specialist knowledge and software. However, you have to start somewhere, and this practical guide is a good place to begin.

Online shop SEO – what does it involve?

Search engine optimisation (SEO) for an online shop is one of the most important measures aimed at promoting it. Thanks to the activities carried out as part of this process, the online business becomes more visible to users and, as a result, has the potential to become more profitable. SEO focuses on improving the store’s ranking in organic (i.e. unpaid) search results, so that the link to the store appears as high up as possible. Measures that ensure the link appears within the top three results on the list generated by the search engine are considered effective. To achieve this, the following are essential:

• creating content optimised for keywords and key phrases (e.g. product descriptions), i.e. those entered into search engines by internet users;
• publishing high-quality content which, although it does not always lead directly to the shopping tab, is important for search engine bots;
• link building, i.e. ensuring that links to an online shop’s homepage or product pages are placed on external websites;
• optimising the website from a technical perspective, i.e. its loading time, adjusting the length of URLs, etc.;
• analysing both the actions of competitors and our own, which enables us to eliminate any shortcomings;
• continuous monitoring of changes made to the search engine’s page indexing mechanisms.

In Poland, as in many countries around the world, effective search engine optimisation relates almost exclusively to Google. The reason for this is its dominant position. For years, over 90 per cent of internet users have been using this American company’s service. Other search engines, such as Bing, DuckDuckGo and others, are almost never a focus for SEO specialists working for online shops.

It is also worth bearing in mind that the measures listed are not the only ones you can take. How else can you optimise your website’s search engine ranking? To do this, you need to use Google Ads, a paid tool that boosts search results. However, advertising links or images placed in the most prominent position – at the top – come at a cost. What’s more, the effects of such a campaign are only visible whilst it is being paid for. It is precisely for this reason that it is recommended to focus on optimising your online shop to deliver long-term results, taking into account the organic, free results displayed by Google’s search engine. Combining both of these approaches will increase your chances of visibility.

Online shop SEO – what do you need to know about Google’s web crawlers?

Just as every online shop owner wants customers to buy from them, so too do those responsible for the Google search engine want internet users to use it. However, they need to be encouraged to do so in some way. How can this be done? It is essential to correctly anticipate their intentions and present them with results that are likely to pique their interest. To this end, the tech giant uses bots that analyse web content at lightning speed. To present valuable content, they utilise every available means, namely:

• website resources;
• data from maps and business profiles made available to Google;
• information found on social media;
• publicly available educational materials;
• information found elsewhere, e.g. in open databases.

The tools used by Google, commonly known as ‘robots’, are in fact algorithms that scan millions of web pages in an instant. They use HTML code scanning to guess the user’s intent with varying degrees of accuracy. In this way, they examine, amongst other things, the content and files hosted on a website, such as graphics and photographs. The extent to which the suggested search results are relevant to a person’s queries is largely determined by keywords. Effective online marketing requires analysing what customers type in and under what circumstances, and then adapting to their requirements, needs and habits.

Keyword analysis – how do you tell them apart?

SEO for online shops cannot be achieved without selecting the right keywords that are relevant both to many businesses within a given sector and to a specific company. In order to consistently rank highly in search results, in many cases you need content that appears when a user enters a more complex search phrase. It is important to remember that it is these phrases, rather than general terms, that offer the best chance of appearing high up in the list generated by Google for the user. How can you optimise an online shop using this advice? The best way to understand this is through examples.

General keywords

Phrases of this kind are entered into search engines very frequently, posing a challenge for both Google’s bots and SEO specialists. One of the countless examples of such phrases is ‘red car’. What is missing from this phrase? Almost everything – for example, the purpose of the search (it’s difficult to tell whether the person wants to read about vehicles of that colour, or perhaps buy or repair one), a specific make, and perhaps also the price or condition of the car, if the aim of the search is to make a purchase. On your shop’s website, it’s worth using such general terms only to aid search engine optimisation, as they don’t usually boost click-through rates much on their own.

Frazy long-tail

The structure of these phrases is complex enough to allow the user’s intentions to be understood. An example of a long-tail search term might be ‘red model car to assemble’. Google will display far fewer results for such a term, but these will be much more competitive for businesses – in this case, those selling model kits. Such phrases should be included on the website, as they largely determine whether it will appear at the top of the search results.

Product names

Expanding the search term to include the product name allows a company that stocks that product to achieve an even better search ranking. Narrowing down a user’s search to display relevant results for a query such as ‘XYZ model of red car for assembly’ allows a company to stand out even more clearly from competitors selling other products. In this case, you can increase your chances of securing a prominent position in Google’s search results by including in the page description both the name (make and model) of the vehicle and the manufacturer of this type of hobby accessory.

Answers to the questions

In keyword analysis, questions that address the specific problems faced by internet users play a major role. Identifying and utilising such phrases does not lead directly to sales, but it helps build the company’s image as a team of experts. A key factor in achieving high rankings on Google is having a subpage with content that relates to your business in various ways. For example, hobbyists interested in model-making might search for the phrase ‘what glue should I buy to assemble the red XYZ car?’. Creating content that answers this question is an excellent starting point for showcasing your company’s range, as well as making it easier for website visitors to make purchases by including links to specific products within the text.

Local phrases

The final category consists of phrases containing the names of professions, companies and towns. To rank highly for such search results, you need to complete the ‘Contact’ section on your shop’s website and ensure it is marked on Google Maps. This means that when someone searches for, say, ‘model car shop Warsaw’, a link to your site will appear in the list of similar businesses.

Online shop SEO – the importance of website content

Content – that is, the material published on a website – is heavily promoted by Google’s bots, and as such, it should not be neglected. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that it must be of high quality. Fortunately, the days when low-quality texts stuffed with keywords could be found at the top of search results are long gone. For years, Google has been striving to ensure that internet users receive articles that are genuinely interesting and comprehensive. It is for this very reason that corporate blogs have grown in importance over the years; these feature content related to the company’s activities, the sector in which it operates, the products or services it offers, as well as related topics.

Having a content section on your own website isn’t the only thing you can do to improve your search engine ranking through content. Sponsored articles published on external websites also work very well. In this regard, there have also been significant changes over the years. In the past, the mere fact of publishing an article on any website (ideally with a link to the advertised shop’s site) increased the chances of improving one’s position in search results. Nowadays, Google’s algorithms can distinguish between websites that exist solely as advertising platforms and those that feature interesting content created for internet users.

Online shop SEO versus link building – what’s it all about?

Link building is also linked to content. This involves placing links to the target website on other sites. It helps to build what is known as your website’s authority. In other words, adding links signals to Google’s bots that the site is popular amongst internet users, and is therefore worth ranking highly in search results. Links generally do not exist in a vacuum; they are usually part of text published on various websites.

However, it is not enough simply to know what this type of SEO involves; one must also know how to carry it out so that the result is not the opposite of what was intended. In this case, a pattern similar to that seen with sponsored content applies. If Google’s algorithms detect that links are being placed in texts on pages that exist solely for the purpose of publishing promotional articles – with no connection to the content of a well-ranked website or a random forum thread – they will classify these links as spam. In such a case, you cannot expect the desired results; on the contrary, your website is likely to drop to lower positions in Google’s search results.

In link building, links are categorised by type and value. The first category is divided into:

• graphic links – which take you to another page when you click on them, e.g. a brand logo or an advertising image;
• text links – included in texts or comments.

Text links are further categorised as follows:

• URL, i.e. the address of the recommended page, e.g. inpost.pl;
• exact match in the form of keywords with a hyperlink added, such as ‘sending a parcel via Paczkomat’;
• partial match: similar to the previous ones, but not strictly (i.e. exactly) related to the search term, only partially so, e.g. parcel delivery;
• zero matches that are not an integral part of the text, such as ‘HERE’, ‘click here’, ‘see’, ‘check’, etc.

In addition, links are assigned to the following categories:

• follow – links of this type prompt Google’s bots to check the recommended URL and thereby boost its ranking in the search results;
• nofollow – links that instruct algorithms not to check what lies behind them.

From the user’s point of view, it makes no difference whether they click on a ‘follow’ or ‘nofollow’ link. However, this has a huge impact on search engine optimisation. Too many of the former type of links may signal to Google that it is dealing with spam. For this reason, SEO specialists also use the latter type of hyperlinks.

Online shop SEO – tools to help you with this

Tools such as Ahrefs are useful for optimising content on your own website and internal platforms, as well as in link-building campaigns. It is one of the most popular tools for finding thematically relevant backlinks. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to its functionality. It can also be used to check which websites are the most popular in terms of the number of backlinks, their growth, or the most valuable content. This tool can also be used to assess the user experience on your website, as well as to select topics and create content in line with SEO best practice.

Ahrefs is therefore useful both for analysing competitors’ activities and for auditing your own website for errors that contribute to poor optimisation. However, it is a paid service, just like Senuto, for example. Google, on the other hand, provides free tools for optimising your online shop’s website. One of these is Google Trends, which allows you to find keywords whilst taking location and time period into account. The digital marketing industry also makes use of Google Search Console, which provides information on which content has been indexed (verified) and which search terms the search engine has responded to. Those running an e-business will also be interested in Google Analytics, which provides insight into the number of visitors to the site, the time they spend on it, the subpages they visit and their popularity.

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​​​​​​​Is well-designed information architecture important?

Online business owners should be aware not only of what online shop SEO is, but also of user experience. The clarity and ease of navigation on the site affect its position in search results, but, more importantly, the number of visits to the shop that result in a completed transaction. In this case, it is not an increasingly intelligent but still emotionless bot that is at work, but a human being. A poorly designed website is a sure-fire way to lose customers. Frustrated by a confusing interface, they will simply switch to a competitor’s site.

Creating the right information architecture requires, amongst other things, ensuring a consistent look and feel across both versions of the website – desktop and mobile. In addition, care must be taken to label buttons correctly when they lead to further subpages or prompt the user to perform an action. In online shops, it is also crucial to organise products into categories and to inform the customer of their current location on the site and the actions they are performing. To fulfil this last requirement, it is essential to display clear messages notifying the customer, for example, when an item has been added to the basket.

Technical optimisation of an online shop – why is it so important?

Even the most polished content and high-quality backlinks won’t amount to much if the website doesn’t work properly. But what does that mean? The first thing to look out for is loading speed. If users have to wait too long for the page to load, they’ll simply start looking for another one. Google’s bots are aware of this, which results in such websites being ranked lower in search results. In addition, you need to ensure that the website displays correctly on both computers and mobile devices.

As part of technical optimisation, a sitemap is also created. In this case, however, it is not merely a table of contents designed to help users find the relevant subpage. In addition, an XML version is created for Google’s bots. The code includes information that is irrelevant from a user’s perspective but invaluable to algorithms, such as the priority of a given URL. URLs themselves also require attention. A good URL should not be too long. Shorter URLs, free from random sequences of letters and numbers, are favoured over more complex ones. Another of the many steps involved in the technical optimisation of a website is adding meta descriptions and tags to the content published on the site.

Online shop SEO – how much does it cost?

Is it even possible to answer the question of how much it costs to optimise an online shop for search engines? It makes no sense to come up with any indicative price ranges, as the final cost depends on the number and quality of the measures taken, as well as the nature of the business. Content is a good example: prices start at a few zlotys per thousand characters and can reach three-figure sums. The cost depends largely on the complexity of the subject matter and the expectations regarding SEO optimisation of the content. As you might expect, expert articles containing relevant keywords are worth considerably more than simple content lacking them.

The same applies to backlinks. A link-building campaign can be carried out in many different ways. Those that rely mainly on links costing a few zlotys, placed on niche websites, allow you to publish thousands of them. But will such a tactic yield the desired result? Not necessarily; in fact, one can expect the effect to be less noticeable than adding a link to an article on a portal with a multi-million audience. In this case, however, you must bear in mind that a single link could cost as much as several thousand zlotys.

Online shops also incur different costs depending on their expectations of agencies handling the technical aspects of optimisation. The work of specialists in this field is not cheap in itself, and the cost increases in line with the scope of the tasks assigned to them and the time they devote to carrying them out. For this reason, as well as the reasons mentioned earlier, it is impossible to specify exactly how much it costs to optimise the website of an online business. Some companies allocate several thousand zlotys to this, whilst others (provided, of course, they have a sufficient budget) spend many times that amount. It is also important to bear in mind that this is not a one-off expense.

Search engine optimisation is a never-ending process involving the need to adapt to Google’s constantly changing guidelines. For this reason, the largest companies in their respective sectors set up their own teams of specialists to provide them with comprehensive services involving the development of an appropriate strategy, its implementation, and responding to changes introduced by the owner of the world’s most popular search engine. Do you run an online shop? Make sure it’s visible!