SEO is a tricky business. Every day, Google is changing its algorithm, and it’s hard to keep up with the changes. But knowing those changes is important, too. You might make mistakes that can hurt your rankings if you are unaware. eCommerce businesses can’t afford to miss out on any traffic that their site might be able to generate. So what are some common SEO mistakes that you should avoid?
Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing involves including a keyword or phrase in a web page’s content to manipulate search engine rankings. This can be done by repeating words, phrases, and sentences repeatedly without adding value to your site’s content.
Keyword stuffing is bad because it can cause you to rank for irrelevant keywords, resulting in lower conversions due to poor user experience. It also makes it harder for users searching for specific products or services on Google or Bing to find what they are looking for because of all the clutter on your page.
Gone are the days when the rule of the more keywords, the better for page ranking was true. In fact, it was only helpful in the early stages of Google Algorithms. But as soon as the first significant update, the Florida Update, came into effect, Google started focusing on informative content and not only keywords.
Now, Google has listed keyword stuffing as a bad practice in its spam policies for Google Web Search guidelines. In fact, the results of individual research published on the Search Engine Land website show that keyword stuffing in Google My Business listing has led to a suspension. According to data, 20% of businesses faced soft, and 20% faced hard suspensions.
Hence, avoid keyword stuffing if you want your eCommerce store pages to rank higher than competitors. Instead, focus more on offering value to the visitors. For instance, instead of focusing on the product’s name, focus more on providing related information, such as the product’s size, color, how to use it, applications, etc.
Weak Product Descriptions
The product description is one of the essential parts of your website. It’s what prospective customers read to decide whether or not they want to buy your product, so it needs to be well-written and engaging.
A good product description aims to convince potential buyers that they need this item. It also gives them enough information about what it does so that they feel confident purchasing without any further questions. You should also include keywords describing what makes your product unique or better than similar ones on the market.
Additionally, even keywords play a part here. Although the first focus should be on providing all the product information, keywords are important, too. Hence, find and add related keywords naturally in the descriptions.
This might seem easy, but many companies make mistakes with their production descriptions because they’re either too short or don’t include enough information about why someone would want this specific product over another one available online.
According to data from Baymard Research, 10% of eCommerce stores have poor product descriptions. Hence, if you want to get more sales, try to focus on product descriptions. And if you don’t have the expertise, seek help from a local SEO company. It is best to opt for a local company to ensure better results, especially in states with high competition, such as Ohio.
Data from Crunchbase shows a total of 979 eCommerce organizations in Ohio. Hence, if you are an eCommerce business operating in cities of Ohio like Toledo, the competition can be fierce. This means you would want to save as much capital as possible while getting the best services. This will help you manage your finances. Hence, you should look for affordable SEO services in Toledo for the best results.
Avoiding Schema Markup
Schema markup is a way to provide additional information about your site and content. It can help improve search results, but it’s important to note that schema markup isn’t just for eCommerce sites. In fact, most websites should use this type of markup because it’s an easy way to tell Google what your content is about without having to write lengthy descriptions or titles.
Schema markup is fairly simple. For instance, you just need to add specific HTML tags to the head section of your HTML code. This tells Google that this product costs $100 and will show up as such in search engine results pages (SERPs). Adding more meta tags to the page code can also add other types of data, like product categories and brand names.
Inappropriate Use of Noindex, Nofollow, and Robots.txt
Inappropriate use of noindex, nofollow, and robots.txt are errors that can cause a lot of confusion for eCommerce businesses. One of the most common mistakes is using noindex in robots.txt files and on individual pages.
When you add noindex code to your robots.txt file, it tells Google not to index any content on that page or any pages linked. This can be a big problem for eCommerce sites because if Google can’t see all of your pages, it will have a hard time determining which ones are most relevant and helpful for users searching for products related to yours.
Google also recommends not using noindex to prevent the selection of a canonical page. Canonical pages are those with duplicate or similar pages already available on Google. However, you should use different methods like adding a schema or redirecting to avoid getting penalties for such pages.
Another mistake is adding nofollow tags to all links on your website, internal or external. While this may seem like a good idea at first glance, it’s counterproductive because it tells search engines not to follow links off your site.
This means they won’t be able to see other relevant sites for users who land on yours. You also risk losing traffic from those sites because people who come to your site from those sites won’t be able to see any of your content.
Spamming Your Own Content
Spamming your own content is a bad idea. It’s not just a Google penalty that can hurt your ranking, but it also hurts the brand. If you’re spamming your content and someone discovers it, they might think that you don’t care about quality. That, in turn, can destroy your online reputation and drive customers away.
Spamming links from other websites to yours is also a big no-no in terms of SEO. If people are linking back to you because they want something out of it, then this is not good either because those links won’t count as natural links. Therefore, when Google looks at them again later on down the line, they won’t get any credit for them.
Conclusion
So there you have it, some of the most common SEO mistakes that eCommerce businesses make. Avoiding these pitfalls is critical to improving your SEO performance and ensuring you get the most out of your website.