7 Ecommerce SEO Tips for Small Businesses (2024)

In today’s competitive ecommerce landscape, having a strong online presence isn’t optional—it’s essential for success. SEO, or search engine optimization, is one of the most cost-effective ways to grow your brand, drive organic traffic, and boost sales.

Below, we’ll cover seven essential SEO tips for small business owners, along with recommended tools to help you succeed in 2024.

Small Business Ecommerce SEO Tips

Before diving into an ecommerce SEO plan, it’s crucial to understand your target market and the competitive landscape online. Competing against industry giants like Amazon and eBay can feel daunting, but building your niche and connecting with your audience is a sustainable path to growth.

Improving your online presence takes time and persistence, but it’s one of the most rewarding investments you can make. By combining SEO with other strategies like paid advertising and social media, you can create a well-rounded digital marketing plan that drives long-term success.

Start with SEO as a cost-effective way to build organic traffic, raise brand awareness, and increase online sales. Below, we’ll break down small business ecommerce SEO strategies to help you get started.

1. Understand Key SEO Terms

SEO can seem overwhelming at first, especially with the number of terms and concepts involved. However, at its core, SEO is about creating content that is helpful and relevant for your audience while improving your website’s structure and visibility for search engines.

Here are a few essential SEO terms to know:

  • On-page SEO: Actions taken directly on your website to improve its search presence, such as optimizing content and meta tags.
  • Off-page SEO: Efforts made outside your website, like earning backlinks and promoting your content to increase visibility.
  • Keyword Research: Identifying the specific search terms (keywords) your audience uses to find products or information related to your business.
  • Conversions: Measuring the completion of specific goals like purchases, form submissions, or newsletter sign-ups.
  • Search Engine Results Page (SERP): The page displayed after entering a query into a search engine, showcasing results ranked by relevance.

Understanding these terms will give you a strong foundation to confidently implement SEO strategies and communicate effectively with experts or tools you might use.

2. Perform Keyword Research

Keyword research is the foundation of successful SEO because it helps you align your content with what your audience is actively searching for. Even if you’re an expert on your products or services, your customers might be using entirely different words or phrases to find them.

For example, if you’re selling fitness equipment, the terms you use to describe your products may differ from what potential buyers type into search engines. Researching these keywords ensures your content is both relevant and discoverable.

How to Conduct Effective Keyword Research

  1. Leverage SEO Tools: Use comprehensive SEO platforms like Semrush, SE Ranking, or Ahrefs to access search volume, competition levels, and keyword suggestions. These tools also help you uncover related keywords and emerging trends in your niche.
  2. Start with Google: If you're on a budget, Google’s free features like the “People Also Ask” section and the “Related Searches” at the bottom of SERPs can provide valuable keyword ideas.
  3. Understand Search Intent: Organize keywords into three primary categories based on user intent:
    • Navigational Keywords: Searchers looking for a specific website or page (e.g., “Nike homepage”).
    • Informational Keywords: Queries seeking knowledge, often framed as questions (e.g., “how to use a treadmill”).
    • Transactional Keywords: Searchers ready to take action, such as buying or signing up (e.g., “best treadmill for small spaces”).

Why Target Informational Keywords

While it’s tempting to focus solely on transactional keywords that drive sales, informational keywords make up the majority of searches online. A Penn State study found that 80% of search queries are informational, 10% navigational, and 10% transactional. By addressing informational queries, you can attract a larger audience and build trust with potential customers early in their buying journey.

One of the best ways to target these queries is through blog posts. For example:

  • Write how-to guides, FAQs, or product comparisons.
  • Answer common questions using keyword-rich, conversational language.
  • Include internal links to product pages to guide readers further down the sales funnel.

3. Build a Sound Website Structure

A well-structured ecommerce site is essential for both user experience and search engine rankings. Search engines prioritize fast-loading, secure, and user-friendly websites. To ensure your site is optimized:

Key Elements of a Strong Website Structure

  • HTTPS Protection: Secure your site with HTTPS to protect user data and boost SEO. This is non-negotiable for ecommerce sites.
  • Mobile Usability: Most visitors browse via mobile. Use the mobile useability report in Google Search Console to ensure your pages are mobile-friendly.
  • Loading Speed: Slow pages increase bounce rates. Use Google's PageSpeed Insights to identify performance bottlenecks and aim for load times under 3 seconds.
  • Internal Links: Link your pages strategically using relevant keywords to enhance navigation and improve on-page SEO. For example, link blog content to product pages to guide users further into your sales funnel.

4. Focus on On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is where content meets optimization, ensuring your site is discoverable and persuasive. It’s vital for generating traffic and driving conversions.

Ecommerce On-Page SEO Best Practices

  1. Create Unique Content: Avoid duplicate content across your site; search engines penalize it. Write fresh, detailed product descriptions and blog posts.
  2. Use Localized Content: For local businesses, tailor content to specific regions or cities to boost local SEO performance.
  3. Optimize Meta Tags: Experiment with search titles, meta descriptions, and headers to improve clickthrough rates (CTR).
  4. Enhance Readability: Break up text with bullet points, bolding, and headings. Use concise, skimmable formats to engage users.
  5. Include Social Proof: Add customer reviews, ratings, and testimonials to build trust and improve conversions.
  6. Utilize Strong CTAs: Place clear, compelling call-to-action buttons on product pages to guide users to purchase.
  7. A/B Test Key Elements: Test colors, fonts, images, and layouts to identify what works best for conversions.
  8. Ensure Mobile Optimization: Verify that all content, including buttons and images, looks and works perfectly on mobile devices.

By following these tips, you’ll improve not just your SEO performance but also the overall usability of your site, ensuring a smoother customer journey.

5. Earn High-Authority Backlinks

Backlinks remain one of the most important off-page SEO factors. Think of backlinks as votes of confidence—when high-authority websites link to your pages, search engines view your site as trustworthy and relevant.

Why Backlinks Matter

  • Boost Rankings: Backlinks signal credibility and help your pages rank higher in search results.
  • Drive Referral Traffic: Links from authoritative websites bring targeted traffic to your site, increasing your brand awareness and sales potential.

How to Build High-Authority Backlinks

  1. Analyze Competitors’ Backlinks: Tools like Semrush, SE Ranking, and Ahrefs let you see how competitors acquire backlinks and identify high-value opportunities for your site.
  2. Earn Links Naturally: Share high-quality, link-worthy content such as guides, infographics, or original research on your blog or social media.
  3. Collaborate with Others: Build backlinks through guest posting, partnerships, sponsorships, and participation in industry events.
  4. Engage in Outreach: Reach out to bloggers, journalists, and niche sites to share your expertise or content. Offering something valuable—like a product review or expert quote—can encourage links back to your site.

Focus on earning links from sites that are relevant to your niche or industry to maximize their impact on your SEO.

Other ways to earn backlinks are through guest posting, partnerships, sponsorships, events, contests, and naturally through sharing link-worthy content on social media. Check out these link building tips for more ways to earn links.

6. Implement Structured Data Markup

Structured data is a critical yet often overlooked aspect of SEO. By adding structured data markup (also known as schema) to your site’s HTML, you provide search engines with additional context about your content, increasing your chances of appearing in rich results.

What Are Rich Results?

Rich results are enhanced search listings that include additional information, such as:

  • Review Stars: Displayed ratings from your product or service reviews.
  • Featured Snippets: Highlighted answers to user queries.
  • Product Details: Price, availability, or specs for ecommerce products.

These results make your listing stand out and often lead to higher click-through rates.

How to Use Structured Data for Ecommerce

  1. Learn the Basics: Use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to validate schema markup on your site.
  2. Apply Schema Types Relevant to Ecommerce:
    • Product Schema: Display product details like pricing and availability.
    • Review Schema: Showcase customer ratings and testimonials.
    • FAQ Schema: Highlight common questions and answers about your products or services.
    • Breadcrumb Schema: Improve navigation and visibility in search results.
  3. Follow Google’s Documentation: Refer to Google’s structured data guidelines for examples and implementation tips specific to ecommerce.

By implementing structured data, you increase the likelihood of your pages being displayed as rich results, making your business more visible and competitive.

7. Use SEO Tools to Enhance Efforts

Why SEO Tools Are Essential

Manually analyzing your ecommerce SEO can be time-consuming and overwhelming. Fortunately, there are powerful tools available to simplify keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, and website optimization. These tools help you work smarter, not harder, by automating key tasks and providing actionable insights.

Example tools include all-in-one SEO software and SEO auditing tools with features for keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, website audits, and reporting.

Recommended Software Tools for Ecommerce SEO:

Google Tools for Performance and Visibility

Google offers free, essential tools to help you monitor and improve site performance:

Comprehensive SEO Platforms for Optimization

Streamline your SEO workflow with these all-in-one platforms:

  • Semrush: Conduct in-depth competitor analysis, identify content gaps, and track keyword performance.
  • SE Ranking: Affordable for small businesses, offering features like rank tracking, keyword research, and site audits.
  • Ahrefs: Focus heavily on backlinks while providing robust tools for keyword analysis and content recommendations.

Technical and Local SEO Tools

Technical and local SEO tools are indispensable for fine-tuning site performance and boosting regional visibility:

  • Screaming Frog Spider Tool: Detect broken links, duplicate content, and other technical SEO issues.
  • BrightLocal: Perfect for businesses targeting local customers, simplifying citation management and improving local rankings.

If you run a Shopify store, take advantage of the platform's SEO-specific resources. Explore Shopify’s SEO plugins and refer to their documentation to fine-tune your site for search engines.

Conclusion

SEO is one of the most effective and sustainable ways to grow your ecommerce business. It drives organic traffic, builds trust with your audience, and increases sales without relying solely on paid ads.

To succeed:

  1. Use the tools recommended above to streamline your efforts.
  2. Stay consistent with your SEO strategy—it’s a long-term game.
  3. Focus on creating high-quality, user-centric content to build a strong foundation.

Remember, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Start today, and you’ll reap the rewards of consistent growth over time!