A good website search engine optimization strategy should be as unique as the site it’s optimizing. Although several SEO best practices apply to most sites, you should also take into account the nuances of your website’s niche and audience before making any final decisions on your SEO strategy.
If you’re an SEO expert and have experience optimizing Bigcommerce websites, here are some of the best practices you might consider incorporating into your strategies.
- Optimize Titles
When it comes to search engine optimization, many website owners don’t realize how much of an impact on-page SEO can have.
Search engines evaluate many elements of a webpage, including title tags and Meta descriptions. To ensure your pages are displaying correctly in search results and ranking as high as possible, focus on optimizing your titles by making them accurate and relevant while avoiding keyword stuffing or awkward phrasing.
If you’re considering SEO experts to help with more advanced SEO tactics such as link building, be sure to ask about their strategies—including what they’ll do if Google’s algorithm updates require changes.
SEO is a complex process, and many more SEO best practices can improve search rankings on major search engines such as Google.
These include analyzing your site’s user experience, monitoring backlinks to your site, and using various technical tweaks to boost performance.
If you’re considering hiring an SEO expert, be sure to take them for a test run first by having them audit your website and track their changes before committing.
A reputable SEO firm should be able to show you how they’ll achieve top search engine ranking results—and, if necessary, point out any errors or issues they may find.
- Use Long-Tail Keywords
Using long-tail keywords is one of the best ways to improve your search engine optimization. With longer search terms, you have a much better chance of ranking high on Google than you would with short phrases.
Think about it—if someone searches for online commerce software, it isn’t likely that your website will rank highly because there are too many other websites that use these words.
However, if you can use a long-tail keyword like customer-centric e-commerce integration software, then your odds increase significantly.
To get started, first think about your primary keywords. If you want to sell on BigCommerce, then focus on terms like BigCommerce, eCommerce platform, and marketplace builder.
From there, start building out other phrases that are related to these words. You may even find that some of these long-tail phrases will be more relevant to your customers than others.
Make sure you never use a keyword more than once though! Using one word or phrase throughout your content is key for ranking well on Google.
You can also use tools like Google Keyword Planner and Keyword Tool Dominator to help come up with new ideas.
- Add a Breadcrumb Navigation
Using breadcrumb navigation on your website is one of those SEO best practices that not only make it easier for users to figure out where they are on your site but also help search engines better understand how you want to be represented in their results.
By adding a breadcrumb to your footer, you can establish more clearly how you want your pages to be displayed.
With some minor tweaks to include title and Meta descriptions, you can greatly increase how likely a search engine will give a boost to that page over another on your site. The bottom line: Breadcrumbs make SEO easy!
- Optimize Image Names
SEO Experts believe that image names should be descriptive enough to explain what’s on them; in addition, they should be informative and structured so that search engines like Google can understand them.
For example, the file name of pic23.jpg doesn’t provide much information to search engines, whereas something like lobster-red-potato-salad is highly descriptive, informative, and structured (and full of keywords).
To optimize image SEO on big commerce websites, always give your images clear names that are as descriptive as possible.
- Add Schema Tags
Schema tags are HTML tags that are meant to help search engines understand your website’s information.
Adding schema tags is an excellent way to boost your SEO rankings, as well as increase engagement with users.
Make sure you include several types of schema elements on your site, including product reviews, events, businesses, and articles.
It’s also a good idea to look into additional elements outside of Google Schema – social media buttons, mobile app ratings, and more – to give users even better ways to interact with your content!
Once you’re up and running with schema elements on your website, be sure to let Google know about it.
- Add Alt Attributes to Images
We are big fans of using images on your website to enhance design, functionality, and user experience.
We also highly recommend that you add alt attributes to all of your images. Alt attributes help describe what is shown in an image, so they act as a placeholder when that image is not displayed or if a browser can’t load it correctly.
In addition, search engines use alt text to determine what an image might be about, which in turn impacts how well a webpage will rank in search results (especially on mobile).
Before uploading an image onto your website make sure that you fill out those empty spaces with relevant content (alt attribute) describing what the product is and what it looks like—you never know who might be reading!
- Analyze Your Competitors’ Keywords
The best place to begin when it comes to SEO is with your competitors. See how they are ranking and what keywords they are using.
To do that, first, you need to know who your competitors are. This means analyzing sites that offer similar products and services as you, but which aren’t too competitive (Google will return less relevant results if there’s not enough data on a site).
Once you have compiled a list of your 10-20 top competitors, use tools like Open Site Explorer to get information about their backlinks, keywords used in content pages, and more.
- Use Website Speed Test to Check Speed Issues
Before you hire an SEO expert, check your site’s speed using a tool like Pingdom or Webpage Test. Most SEO experts will be able to find areas that slow downloading time on your site (such as large images), but being able to show specific numbers and times can help sell them on your need to upgrade hardware and software.
Conclusion
If you want to grow your e-commerce business, SEO is essential. If you’re interested in becoming an SEO expert yourself, learn from some of our favorite SEO experts on Bigcommerce.
From keyword research to link building, these experts have some valuable best practices and offer their advice on how to build a successful e-commerce business with bigcommerce.