{"id":1568,"date":"2014-11-25T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T15:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.jimdo.com\/?p=1568"},"modified":"2020-10-05T13:01:24","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T11:01:24","slug":"improving-online-stores-seo-and-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jimdo.com/blog\/improving-online-stores-seo-and-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Easy Tips for Improving an Online Store\u2019s SEO (and Sales)"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to your website, there\u2019s never a bad time to think about about how to improve your search engine optimization (SEO). But with the holiday shopping season fast approaching, now might be the best time to start implementing<\/em> some SEO best practices, especially if you operate an online store. It\u2019s no secret that if your website employs good SEO, you\u2019ll have a better chance of attracting visitors via search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. But the thing is…not everyone knows how to do this.<\/p>\n

If you use some of the following best practices for ecommerce SEO, you\u2019ll have a much better chance of improving your search engine rankings and thus potentially bringing more traffic and sales to your website. And who doesn\u2019t want that?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. Implement clean, understandable website navigation<\/h2>\n

If you have an online store, it\u2019s extremely important to understand (and implement) good universal navigation. Universal navigation refers to the set of links (or navigation strip) most commonly seen at the top of websites. Here\u2019s an example of the universal navigation for a sample Jimdo website:<\/p>\n

\"Example<\/p>\n

In this example, the links \u201cHome,\u201d \u201cMen\u2019s Bikes,\u201d \u201cWomen\u2019s Bikes,\u201d \u201cBike Accessories,\u201d \u201cAbout Us,\u201d and \u201cContact\u201d are all part of the universal navigation. Since any page you add to your website will include a link to those pages, they become your most important web pages to search engines.<\/p>\n

So how do you know what links to put in your universal navigation? Website usability testing<\/a> often includes a method known as \u201ccard sorting,\u201d which helps understand potential product and category groupings. If you have an online store, or you\u2019re looking to build one<\/a>, start by writing out each of your products on individual note cards. Next, group different products together based on their similarities. Once you\u2019ve done this, you should have a set of product categories. It\u2019s these main categories that should become part of your universal navigation.<\/p>\n

Additionally, online store owners should include sub-pages under each main category page, and then individual products under those sub-pages (e.g. Mountain Bikes > Trek Bikes > X-Caliber 9.). If your website and online store employ this style of navigation, you\u2019ll help search engine crawlers, as well as visitors, easily understand how to navigate your website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Create Your Online Store<\/a><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Focus on improving quick on-page SEO factors<\/h2>\n

The majority of on-page SEO factors can be implemented and improved in a matter of minutes. Everyone, including online store owners, should make sure that they’ve added the following to their web pages:<\/p>\n