Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur looking to make a splash in the e-commerce world or a seasoned online sales merchant looking to up your game in the new year, one thing is sure…
You have to be on top of your game if you want your e-commerce store to stand out in the virtual sea of online stores.
Online selling has become a huge source of income for many people. Far from just a side hustle, successful e-commerce sites have become extremely profitable for their owners.
Take, for example, the eCommerce giant known as Amazon.com.
Founded on July 5, 1994, by Jeff Bezos in Seattle, Washington, Amazon.com began as an online bookstore with a vision to revolutionize book retail. Quickly diversifying its offerings beyond books, the platform expanded into various categories, becoming a one-stop-shop for consumers worldwide.
Amazon’s commitment to technological innovation, such as one-click purchasing and customer reviews, propelled its success.
And according to sources, Uncle Jeff hasn’t been doing too bad for himself lately. Amazon.com generated approximately $554.02 billion in 2023, up by 7.7% from the year before, with no sign of slowing down. (1)
Remember that huge companies start small. An idea or a dream shared by like-minded childhood friends. So, if you dream of online selling superstardom, this article is just for you.
But before we start talking about the SEO tools that will help you optimize the daylight out of your e-commerce store, let’s discuss a few of the most important aspects of your site where you need to focus your energy most.
Focus Point 1 – Keyword Research
Keyword research is identifying and analyzing the specific words and phrases people use when searching for information on search engines. In the context of e-commerce sites, keyword research is crucial for several reasons.
By understanding the keywords relevant to your products or services, you can optimize your website’s content, meta tags, and other on-page elements. This helps search engines like Google understand the relevance of your site to specific queries, increasing the likelihood of your site appearing in search results.
This, in turn, allows you to target high-traffic keywords that potential customers are using. By optimizing your content for these keywords, you can attract more visitors to your e-commerce site, increasing the chances of converting an online browser into an online customer.
Keyword research, when done right, also helps you understand what keywords your competitors are targeting. This information can be valuable for identifying gaps in your strategy, finding new opportunities, and staying competitive in the market.
Focus Point 2 – On-Page Optimizations
On-page optimization or on-page SEO can refer to just about anything that is totally within your control.
From loading speeds and meta descriptions to header and title tags. It refers to whatever you’re able to tweak, adjust, and refine.
On-page optimization is important for a couple of different reasons, with the two most important probably being a better user experience and the second being a favorable nod of approval from search engines.
Google’s algorithm will reward pages that have been optimized for a given keyword without compromising the user experience – So strike a balance!
Focus Point 3 – Off-page SEO
Off-page optimization can be a bit more tricky of the two genres.
That’s because your off-page SEO efforts are often influenced by how other people and organizations react to your website.
By that, I mean that you’re not in control of other people’s preferences, likes, or dislikes. If they choose to link to one of your articles – great. But if they don’t, then that’s pretty much out of your control.
In a similar way, organizations and social media will decide how much they want to share your products or not. And there’s a lot that goes into this side of digital marketing, which is why many e-commerce sites leave it up to a professional digital marketing agency to provide the SEO services needed to reach the top of the search engine rankings.
That being said, here are three of the best eCommerce SEO tools that will help you identify, optimize, and draw those all-important shoppers to your sales pages.
3 eCommerce Tools You Need in 2024
#1 Ahrefs
Ahrefs isn’t just an eCommerce SEO tool; it’s an all-encompassing SEO platform used by many in the industry to perform both on and off-page tasks. Here are some of the best ways to utilize Ahrefs for your on-page SEO:
Keyword Research
One of the key features of Ahrefs is its keyword research tool.
You can discover keyword ideas, analyze their search volumes, and assess their difficulty scores. This information helps you choose the right keywords to target in your content.
Content Analysis
Ahrefs can analyze the content on your web pages and provide insights into its performance.
It can show you which keywords your pages are ranking for, their positions in search results, and the estimated traffic each keyword brings. This information helps you understand how well your content is performing and where you can make improvements.
Site Audit
Ahrefs offers a site audit feature that can identify on-page SEO issues.
It can point out issues such as broken links, missing meta tags, duplicate content, and other technical SEO issues that may affect your on-page optimization.
Competitor Analysis
You can use Ahrefs to analyze your competitors’ websites.
This can help you identify their top-performing pages, the keywords they are targeting, and their backlink profile. This information can guide your on-page SEO strategy by giving you helpful content ideas.
And What About Off-site Seo? Well, two of the off-page factors that Ahrefs will help you with are your link-building campaign and content research
Link Building
Ahrefs allows you to analyze your backlink profile AND that of your competitors.
Yep, you get to see what’s going on on other sites… pretty nifty.
You can assess your backlinks, referring domains, and domain authority, helping you understand your site’s link profile and identify opportunities for improvement.
By studying the backlink profiles of competitors, Ahrefs helps you discover potential link-building opportunities in your industry.
Building backlinks isn’t for everyone, and many newbies make mistakes, especially early on in their link-building careers. Here’s a good article that will help you avoid some of the most notorious link-building pitfalls:
Common Link Building Mistakes – And How They Affect Your Business
Content Explorer
Ahrefs’ Content Explorer helps you find popular content in your niche by analyzing social shares and backlinks.
This information assists in creating content with a higher likelihood of attracting backlinks and social engagement.
These features within Ahrefs empower your off-page SEO efforts, allowing you to build a strong and authoritative online presence through strategic link-building and content production.
Pro Tip
If you have an eCommerce store and you’re going up against some of the giants in the industry, you need to be smart with your SEO efforts. Target the pages that matter the most, and be smart about the format of your landing pages.
In this video, Gert explains how a small e-commerce store beat the odds and outranked their own goliath in the ecommerce world:
#2 Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO is a tool used by many to write articles intended for blog content.
The platform is pretty nifty in that it allocates certain keywords to an article in the number and order it believes will be rewarded by search engines.
As you write your content, the program will increase your score to 100. The higher the score, the more likely you are to rank for the given keyword.
It gives you ideas for frequently asked questions, the length of the article, and which subheadings to use in each article.
You would want to use this feature to optimize blog articles and even category pages for a specific product.
Optimizing each article and service page with Surfer SEO gives you a better chance of outranking your organic competitors, thus giving you more online visibility.
Pro Tip
Do not over-optimize your articles.
Writing to satisfy a platform can lead you astray and lower the readability of your content. Keep things fresh and original. SEO tools like Surfer use SERP results to tell you what’s currently ranking on Google search results and tailor their suggestions accordingly.
Following the suggestions of the program too closely will inevitably make you ‘copy’ what’s already out there. Don’t regurgitate – Reinvent!
#3 Pitchbox
Once you’ve created fresh new content and identified a list of link prospects using the other tools, you’ll want to reach out to the website owners to inquire about a guest post or backlink through a niche edit.
The challenge with this part is often just finding the relevant email addresses and getting hold of the right person. Even with the correct contact details, the outreach process can be quite tedious, with most emails simply going to spam.
This is where an outreach platform like Pitchbox comes in.
It streamlines the outreach process by offering features such as prospecting, where users can identify potential contacts and influencers based on keywords and other criteria.
The platform simplifies email outreach with tools for creating and sending personalized campaigns, managing responses and automating follow-up tasks.
Pitchbox also provides performance tracking through analytics and reporting, allowing users to measure the success of their outreach efforts.
Free eCommerce SEO Tools
For those on a tight budget, I recommend looking at some of the free Google tools that will help you get your foot in the optimization door, all be it limited.
Here are three free SEO tools that might not have all their features available on their free plans (keeping their cards close to their chest). Still, these platforms will be very helpful to a budding ecommerce business.
Google Analytics
This SEO tool enables in-depth analysis of an eCommerce site’s search engine performance by providing insights into website traffic, user behavior, and the efficacy of marketing efforts.
With features like traffic source identification and customizable reports, it proves to be a fundamental tool for understanding and enhancing the website’s search traffic.
Google Search Console
Search Console aids store owners in monitoring their website’s search presence through performance reports, allowing them to assess clicks, impressions, and average position in the search engine results.
This free tool also assists in submitting sitemaps, ensuring efficient crawling and indexing by the search engine.
Ubersuggest
Recognized as a free and robust SEO tool, Ubersuggest equips eCommerce website owners with capabilities crucial for effective SEO.
It helps you identify and analyze relevant keywords, including long-tail and target keywords.
Moreover, Ubersuggest offers insights into backlink data and site audits. It is a comprehensive and accessible choice as a free SEO tool, especially for eCommerce sites aiming to enhance their online visibility.
Conclusion
There you have it, the three fundamental tools you’ll need to optimize every aspect of your online store.
Sure, there are a hundred more tools available, but only a handful are really needed. If you stick to these basic but powerful eCommerce SEO tools, you’ll be able to optimize your site for sweet success.
One of the big challenges that many store owners face is that each of these tools comes at a price, and a monthly subscription fee that allows you all the features you want will set you back quite a bit.
If you want to see real results for your eCommerce site, contact redbat.agency, an eCommerce SEO agency that knows how to use all the best tools on the market to grow your online presence and rake in that valuable organic traffic you’re dreaming of.
Further Reading:
- E-Commerce SEO Case Study – Hacks That Increase Organic Traffic
- The Main Benefits of E-Commerce SEO
- How to Choose an ECommerce SEO Agency – The Wise Man’s Guide
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