The Best SEO Practices for Ecommerce in 2024:
What’s Worked So Far
As we progress through 2024, several SEO strategies have proven effective for ecommerce businesses looking to boost visibility, increase traffic, and convert visitors into customers. In this guide, our experts break down the essential SEO best practices that have shown measurable success so far this year.
Identifying Buyer Intent
One of the most important factors in ecommerce SEO is understanding and targeting buyer intent. This means focusing on aligning your content and SEO strategy with the specific needs and desires of potential customers. Long tail keywords are one powerful way to do this.
Long tail keywords are search queries consisting of four or more words. While they may have lower search volume and keyword difficulty (KD), they are much more specific and often come with high buyer intent. These keywords target people who are ready to make a purchase, offering a higher likelihood of conversion. For example, instead of targeting “women’s shoes,” an ecommerce store might target “where to buy blue running shoes for women.” This tactic helps attract a more qualified audience that is further along in the buying process with at least some idea of what they’d like to purchase.
Other Ways to Identify Buyer Intent
There are several other methods ecommerce sites can use to identify and leverage search intent beyond having useful keywords:
Search Query Analysis
Tools like Google Search Console or your internal search engine can analyze the specific search terms customers are using on your site. This helps you understand exactly what products or information they are looking for, allowing you to optimize your content and product listings accordingly. By identifying the most popular searches that lead customers to your site, you can tailor your SEO strategy to meet their needs more effectively.
Customer Journey Mapping
Understanding the different stages of the customer journey—from awareness to consideration to purchase—allows you to create targeted content for each phase. At the consideration stage, for instance, potential buyers might be comparing similar products, so creating comparison guides or reviews can help guide their decision-making. Aligning content with each step of the customer journey not only boosts engagement but also ensures your content speaks to the customer’s specific intent.
Behavioral Analytics
Use platforms such as Google Analytics to track customer behavior on your site like which pages they visit, how long they stay, and at what points they leave. These insights provide a clear indication of buyer intent. For example, if users frequently visit a particular product page but don’t make a purchase, it may indicate a barrier in the buying process, such as unclear information or a complicated checkout process. Fixing these pain points can lead to increased conversions.
Personalization
Offering personalized product recommendations based on a user’s browsing or purchase history is another way to capture buyer intent. Personalization engines can display products or promotions that match the specific interests of users, increasing the likelihood of a purchase. Tools like dynamic content and product carousels that adapt based on user behavior can lead to higher engagement and more successful outcomes.
Utilizing Social Proof
Adding elements like reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content to your product pages can help confirm buyer intent. When potential customers see that others have had positive experiences with a product, it validates their intent to purchase and builds trust.
By combining these tactics with long-tail keyword targeting, ecommerce sites can develop a holistic SEO strategy that is laser-focused on attracting and converting customers based on their specific needs and search intent.
A Seamless UX Design
A well-designed user experience (UX) can make or break an ecommerce site’s success. In 2024, one of the top SEO practices is ensuring a seamless UX that encourages users to stay on the site and easily find what they’re looking for. A crucial aspect of this is reducing the number of clicks it takes for a customer to get to a product.
The fewer clicks it takes to reach the checkout page, the more likely a customer is to remain engaged and complete a purchase. This means having a clear, simple site architecture with intuitive navigation, concise product categories, and an easy-to-follow path to the checkout. Sites that prioritize ease of use and minimal friction between the user and the desired product will enjoy higher conversion rates and better SEO performance.
Prioritizing store navigation is essential in achieving this. Your navigation menu should be streamlined and organized, offering a logical flow that guides customers to their desired products without confusion. Categories should be clear and concise, allowing shoppers to browse with minimal effort. Include a robust search function to help users quickly find products. By reducing frustration and simplifying the path to purchase, you create an environment that keeps users engaged and ready to convert.
Social Media and Short-Form Media
Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook Stories provide additional avenues for showcasing products, offering tutorials, and delivering value in short bursts. Instagram’s shopping features allow users to discover and purchase products directly, creating a seamless experience, while YouTube Shorts leverages its massive audience to boost visibility through concise, valuable content.
X (formerly Twitter), while more text-based, still plays a crucial role in ecommerce by fostering real-time interaction and driving traffic through short video clips and engaging posts. Across all platforms, short-form media has become a vital tool for building brand awareness, increasing conversions, and creating meaningful connections with potential customers.
The Power of Link Building
While optimizing your site for user experience is crucial, don’t underestimate the importance of link-building in your SEO strategy. In 2024, backlinks continue to be one of the top-ranking factors that Google considers when determining a website’s authority and trustworthiness.
Link building is the process of acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable websites to your ecommerce site. These links act as endorsements, signaling to search engines that your content is valuable and worth ranking higher in search results. But it’s not just about quantity; the quality of the backlinks is key. Links from well-established, authoritative websites in your industry carry far more weight than links from low-traffic or irrelevant sites.
For ecommerce businesses, building backlinks can be achieved through a variety of tactics, including:
Guest blogging on relevant industry sites.
Collaborating with influencers who link back to your products or content.
Creating shareable content, such as infographics, that others will naturally want to reference.
Getting featured in round-up posts, product reviews, or industry-specific articles.
The goal is to establish your site as a trusted resource in your niche. Not only do quality backlinks improve your SEO, but they also help drive referral traffic to your site, increasing the likelihood of conversions.
By integrating a strong link-building strategy into your overall SEO efforts, you’ll boost your site’s authority, strengthen its search engine rankings, and build long-term credibility.
Content Continues to Reign Supreme
As always, content is still king—and this holds especially true for ecommerce in 2024. High-quality, relevant content not only keeps your site fresh but also signals to Google that your site is active and providing value to users.
Ecommerce sites need to prioritize producing regular, engaging content that speaks to real people, not just search engines. This can include a well-maintained blog that offers product reviews, shopping guides, and how-tos that resonate with your audience. Content that answers common customer questions or solves problems is more likely to attract traffic and build trust, improving both your search engine ranking and your overall conversion rate.
In addition to written content, visual content plays a crucial role in engaging ecommerce shoppers and enhancing SEO. High-quality images, product videos, infographics, and interactive elements not only improve user experience but also help search engines understand the context of your products. Visuals make your content more shareable and digestible, which can increase dwell time, reduce bounce rates, and even attract backlinks. In 2024, prioritizing rich visual content is key to capturing attention and boosting conversions.
While it’s important to incorporate SEO-friendly elements into your content, such as keywords and meta descriptions, the focus should always be on creating content that adds value to the reader. Google’s algorithms are increasingly prioritizing content that is genuinely helpful to users.
The Professionals at K6 Digital Can Help You Build an Ecommerce SEO Strategy That Works
Online shopping has only become more popular over the last two decades, and staying on top of effective SEO practices is critical for ecommerce platforms to achieve success. Identifying buyer intent through long tail keywords, optimizing UX for seamless navigation, and regularly producing high-quality content are just a few of the top strategies proven to deliver results in 2024.
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