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Building a positive online reputation is just as important as your SEO strategies, but the great thing is, is that the two overlap and complement each other.
An effective SEO strategy can naturally improve your brand reputation using content like whitepapers, guest posts, and video reviews and in the same instance, a boost in reputation will ultimately help your SEO. In the below guide, I take a look at SEO reputation management and how you can transform your online business image.
What’s one of the first things you do when considering using a company for a big purchase? You open your web browser on your smartphone or computer, load Google.com, and type in its name! This has become a standard practice and it’s a simple thing most people do for a little background research and scouting.
If the results show an active company that has guest posts, guides, video content, positive customer reviews, and whitepapers, you immediately get a positive feeling about the business. In contrast, if your Google search returns a relative black hole of nothingness, doubts start to build up and you become less certain about making a purchase with that company.
This is the power and reality of SEO reputation management. By using an array of SEO strategies, you can positively impact your online reputation and make sure that customers see your company in the right way. You can then measure PR success, make improvements, and keep building on that core reputation over time.
SEO reputation management often happens naturally as part of your SEO campaign, however, it’s important to remain proactive and keep on top of your reputation too. An SEO company London can help with reputation management in SEO, but there are simple things you can do too.
Control what can be controlled, and use your SEO strategies as a dual-edged sword to boost business and your reputation. Below, I have outlined 5 simple ways you can boost your SEO reputation management.
To show that your business is knowledgeable and a voice to be trusted within your industry, aim to publish a range of tutorials and guides. These can be posted on your website as blog articles or you could even create a separate section within your site for guides.
This content has the primary purpose of showing your authority and giving customers and other businesses reassurance of your industry expertise. The content generation also serves as an SEO tool as the articles improve your linking structure, can be used for internal linking, and can include keywords from your SEO strategies.
Video content is incredibly popular on platforms like YouTube and Tik Tok and it serves the dual purpose of boosting your SEO content marketing strategy and improving your brand image.
Video content can be used in two ways – either videos created by your own business similar to the written guides and tutorials, or third-party videos from satisfied customers. Customer review videos are superb for reputation management as they give tangible evidence of your credentials from people who have worked with you.
A white paper is an original published article that centres around a specific theme, idea, or thesis relating to your industry. This could be something like future predictions of industry trends, discussions on new technologies, or assessments of customer habits for example.
White papers primarily show your knowledge and help to raise your profile as an industry leader and someone people can go to for advice. However, they also lean into SEO content marketing strategies and serve as another outlet where keywords and backlinks can be utilized.
Posting guides and tutorials on your own website is a brilliant way to boost SEO and improve your reputation, but what if you could get your voice heard on popular high-authority sites too?
Authored articles and guest posts on external websites are some of the best SEO reputation tools as they help secure those all-important backlinks.
You get the benefit of voicing your opinions and knowledge on a high-authority site that people respect, but also gain high-quality backlinks and can add in some keywords and SEO content too. Over time, you can work on establishing regular guest posts on a monthly or bi-weekly basis as part of your SEO reputation management.
If you Google a business and see that its CEO or high-ranking management has been involved in tradeshows, industry training, or even work with governments, this immediately gives you a positive impression and raises your opinion of the individuals and company.
This SEO reputation management tip is more difficult to utilize as you have to have the business links and know how to get involved in your industry. However, if you can do things like attend tradeshows, and offer training, you can make it known and showcase your efforts as part of your SEO campaign.
SEO reputation management is one of the easier things to implement as much of the content you generate as part of your SEO campaigns will boost your reputation regardless. However, I advise that you always remain proactive and aim to control your reputation and how customers perceive your company via a sound online reputation management strategy.
Keyword research is a pivotal process in both SEO and PPC marketing. This is because keywords are the underlying core of how these processes work in relation to search engines.
Keywords are used in SEO so that your content appears higher on search engines when people search for those terms. Similarly, keywords are used in PPC ad copy so that when people search for the phrases, your ads are more likely to be displayed.
While the usage of keywords seems incredibly similar, there is a major difference in things like intent, profitability, and content usage which in turn, means that there is a difference between SEO and PPC keywords and how you research them and this is what I explore below.
Before we can jump into research strategies you have to understand the difference between SEO and PPC keywords in a similar way that you differentiate between PPC vs. CPC.
The most basic difference is how SEO and PPC keywords are used in content. SEO keywords can be used in a myriad of different content including blog posts, website pages, social media posts, email newsletters, whitepapers, and press releases.
In contrast, PPC keywords are typically used in the ad copy itself, and the landing page that the ad links to.
The intent behind the keywords differs vastly from SEO to PPC keywords and understanding this helps form the basis of your research. Intent relates to what the customers are intending to do when they are searching for something.
Typically, PPC ads utilize high-intent keywords and aim to attract customers who are further down the buying funnel. For example, someone searching for “the best SEO and PPC consultant” is far more likely to take action as opposed to someone who searches for “SEO consultants”.
In contrast, SEO will also utilize low-intent keywords that attract customers who might be seeking information about a subject or are only just entering the buying funnel. They do not necessarily want to make an immediate purchase.
Profitability relating to the results of your SEO and PPC strategies differs too. With PPC, a business typically wants instant results – they want an ad click to result in a sale. This means that keyword research has to be done in a different way and you have to approach it from a different point in the buying funnel.
In contrast, SEO is not just about generating instant results and sales. SEO campaigns also aim to increase website traffic, boost brand awareness, and keep customers on your site. The results are less urgent and as a result, a broader selection of keywords are often used at different points in the buying funnel.
SEO concentrates on increased volume. This could be an increase in website traffic, email newsletter sign-ups, or contact form submissions, for example. It’s not solely concerned with sales although that is a desired end result.
When researching SEO keywords, you must consider the customer intent. Why may a customer be searching for your company? To find information? To make an enquiry? Understanding their intent helps you find matching keywords.
Oftentimes with SEO keyword research, the intent is not as immediate because customers are often just researching which means broader keywords are used as opposed to the direct ones in PPC marketing.
Intent also relates to the buying process and where the customer is at and this affects keyword research.
SEO keyword research often concentrates on customers who are not ready to make a decision but instead want to fact-find. This can result in more generic keywords and shorter phrases.
PPC concentrates on getting results. This is typically a direct sale or enquiry. You are not as concerned with volume but want the best CPC because, in a PPC model, you pay for every click made whereas SEO isn’t as directly cost-driven.
Keyword intent is just as important for PPC keyword research but usually, it involves a different approach. PPC ads want to capitalize on customers who have a specific intent – a more urgent and defined intent.
For example, they may have already done their research using your SEO keywords, and now they are ready to make a purchase.
Likewise, that intent translates to customers being further down the buying process. Your PPC keyword research should reflect this and oftentimes PPC keywords are more focused with more words and phrases. You have to get in the mindset of someone wanting to make a purchase and think about what you would search for.
I hope you have found this article interesting and that you now have a better understanding of how SEO and PPC keyword research differ. The main contrasts are what you want to achieve from each process, the customer intent, and where they are at in the buying process.
Typically, SEO aims to deliver increased volume – the volume of website traffic, clicks, page views, etc. Customers are also not necessarily intending to make an immediate purchase, but may simply be conducting research.
In contrast, PPC aims to deliver results – conversions and sales. Customers are much further into the buying process and are more likely to intend to make a purchase. These differences ultimately must be reflected in your keyword research.
SEO and PPC are two precious marketing tools that help boost visibility, conversions, website traffic, and ultimately, ROI. To get that ROI, however, an initial budget must be established and costs must be controlled.
So, which marketing strategy gets the most of your budget, SEO or PPC? This is the question I aim to answer below, but it’s a tricky subject and there isn’t a blanket answer.
Instead, to find your ideal SEO and PPC budgets, you must have clearly defined goals for each, and use a system of continued analysis and adjustment that reflects both your short-term and long-term business plan.
While SEO and PPC are both proven marketing methods, their effectiveness is only apparent if you make an ROI and control your costs.
The issue is, is that both processes have the potential for an unlimited spend. For example, you could keep piling money into PPC bids and creating new ads indefinitely. Before you know it, you have spiralling costs and a huge PPC budget that is way inflated past what your company can realistically maintain.
Similarly, with SEO, you can churn out more content, and more blogs, generate more backlinks, and spend thousands per month. Ultimately, there has to be a cut-off point and a realistic budget so you have funds to devote to other areas of your business like product development and research.
I get this question a lot and there is no true answer – it’s circumstantial and dependant on your business goals.
However, new businesses that are just building their web presence can benefit from an increased PPC budget. This is because SEO isn’t something that happens overnight – it takes time for Google to index your site, for ranks to improve, and for things like backlinks to be established.
Therefore, while this is happening, you might want to increase your PPC budget as the results with this type of marketing are often quicker. Ads are published after approval, and your website and ad copy is out there for people to see much quicker than new website SEO results.
As your SEO increases and you start to see results, you could then look at altering your budget and putting more into your SEO strategies to develop them further.
Although individual business factors must be considered, there is a general process you can follow to manage your SEO and PPC budget effectively.
An effective and realistic budget cannot be set without first establishing clear goals for your SEO and PPC. What do you want to achieve? Do you want to increase website traffic? Boost sales? Get more people signed up for your email newsletter.
Sit down with your various teams and set clear goals for both processes. These should include both short-term and long-term aspirations as this is another important factor in managing the budget.
When calculating your PPC budget and SEO budget, you have to look at short-term and long-term impacts as this could mean your budget looks different initially and will change over time.
For example, as I mentioned above, it’s often a great idea to invest more in PPC in the developmental stages of your business and website. You may set a goal of achieving 100% growth in customers for example in the first month. If your SEO strategy and website are just being setup, a larger PPC budget could help achieve this short-term goal.
With goals set, you can make an initial budget for each process. This first budget could be completely wrong but that’s fine – it’s just a starting point.
The important thing is to analyze your progress after a short time period such as a month. Grab all the analytical data you can relating to your SEO and PPC and use tools like Google Analytics to help.
The analytical data you find should allow you to see how your initial estimated budget matches up and what it has achieved in relation to achieving your goals.
For example, you may find that the funds you allocated to SEO simply aren’t yielding the desired results, whereas your PPC budget has resulted in an overperformance. In this instance, you could then lower your PPC budget and use those additional funds to boost your SEO.
Budgeting these two processes and making the most of your SEO and PPC services is a continual balancing act. To always have a realistic spend, you must set regular reviews for your digital marketing and use analytical data to show you the way forward.
Ultimately, your PPC and SEO budget may change from month to month – this is expected. The important thing is that your budget reflects your goals and that you are using the money effectively to grow your business.
I can’t give you a one-stop solution for your SEO and PPC budget as each business is different. However, there are key things you can do to keep on top of your finances and make sure that an appropriate amount is allocated for PPC and SEO marketing.
The main factors are establishing clear goals for each process and constant analysis. You can allocate a budget accordingly if you have defined goals that align with your core business values. With this budget in place, periodic reviews of SEO and PPC data allow you to make changes, and strive for continuous improvement.
Today’s world of business is largely globalized with the advent of the internet, multi-location companies, and the ease of international shipping. Many companies serve entire countries and ship their products and services nationwide.
But what about your local market? With such an emphasis on globalization, local markets are often overlooked and I am here to help you re-connect with your roots. In this article, I explain the importance of dominating your local market and look at two specific strategies that can help – local SEO, and local PPC.
The premise of local marketing is simple – you are advertising directly to people in the physical area surrounding your base of operations i.e. a town, city, or state. But why is this important?
Surely it’s better to simply concentrate on a national market and appeal to more potential customers? Not necessarily, your local market has many benefits including:
Firstly, as you have a physical presence in the local area, it’s much easier to build your reputation, make relationships, and appeal to people on a more personal level. This simply isn’t possible on a national or global scale.
Secondly, your overheads and total costs are often much less due to shorter shipping distances and more efficient deliveries. You can also typically offer better delivery dates and turnarounds.
Lastly, competition in your local area is often much less than on a national or global scale. For example, there may only be one other competitor in your city for your particular business whereas there could be hundreds nationwide. This means that you can gain market dominance with much less effort.
Search engine optimization is incredibly important in business today and local SEO is simply a more targeted process where you use keywords and tactics to boost your rankings for local terms and SERPs.
For example, a garden center in Louisana might utilize key phrases relating to their specific location such as “gardening tools in Baton Rouge” as opposed to more generic terms. This allows the company to appeal to customers who are located in the same vicinity and only want to travel to Baton Rouge for their gardening supplies.
You are appealing to a more targeted audience – an audience that has a much higher percentage chance of needing your products/services.
There are many tools and platforms you can utilize to enhance your local SEO including business listings, local directories, and localized keywords. Some simple tips include:
Creating a Google business listing is a brilliant starting point as this will show up in search results and when people browse for businesses on Google Maps. Keyword research is also highly important and you may want to concentrate on long tail keywords that include specific geographic snippets like the city or state your company is located.
Pay-per-click ads on platforms like Google Ads are incredibly beneficial and have been proven to yield consistent results. Oftentimes, these ads are generic and aim to appeal to the widest possible range of customers.
Local PPC takes a more direct and refined approach and uses ad copy and keywords that target a specific demographic such as a city or state. An SEO and PPC agency can help craft local PPC campaigns and like local SEO, they allow you to tap into an audience who are more likely to use your company due to the physical location.
For example, a car mechanic in Washington DC could create PPC ads advertising their services to their specific area within the city such as Arlington or Alexandria, as opposed to using more generic ads that use keywords relating to the city of Washington, or the state of Maryland.
When creating local PPC content you have to take a different approach and think on a smaller, more personal scale. You must get in the mindset of local customers and think about what they would search for and the ads they are more likely to click on. Some tips include:
Google Ads has many features specifically built for localization but you must also make sure your ad copy is localized and relevant to the audience within your local area. Keywords of course play an important role too and it’s also vital to keep track of your results for calculating PPC budget going forward.
By dominating your local market first, you can then look to expand nationwide and globally. It’s the ideal starting point and by using local SEO and local PPC you can make sure that your company is the number one option in your region and that you shine above other local competitors.
In the world of web development and online store creation, Shopify and WordPress are two powerhouses and offer a variety of features that businesses can use to create fully-fledged and functional websites.
But how do these platforms perform for SEO? After all, having an epic website is one thing, but without a carefully crafted SEO strategy, no one will ever visit it, what a waste!
On the one hand, Shopify is user-friendly, has some decent built-in SEO tools, and its fast stores are mobile-optimized. In contrast, WordPress may be more difficult to learn but gives far greater customization and a huge range of SEO plugins. This is the barebones, but if you read on, I delve deeper into the Shopify vs WordPress SEO argument to see which platform triumphs.
Shopify is a user-friendly ecommerce platform that allows anyone to create an online store without prior web development knowledge. You get everything in a subscription including hosting, a URL, and access to their development tools.
In terms of SEO, Shopify keeps it simple and gives you a range of simple tools and analytics to work with. The app store has SEO plugins available, and mobile optimization and site loading speeds are a big contributing factor too.
Page loading speeds and compliant code are important for SEO and things that Google looks for and Shopify delivers this. You can choose lightweight themes that specialize in fast loading speeds and will automatically optimize on-page items like images. This means your store will load fast and you won’t get any penalties with Google.
All Shopify themes are also mobile optimized and load perfectly on mobile devices. You can even preview how the site looks on mobile devices to make sure things like menus and images work on smaller screens. Mobile optimization is another key factor that Google looks at for ranking.
On-page SEO for Shopify is decent too and although it doesn’t compete with WordPress in terms of customization, you can quickly add important SEO features like alt tags and META tags. The app store also features a solid range of SEO plugins. For first-time users, the on-page SEO is easy to manage and you can eventually incorporate things like Shopify Schema too for your products.
As part of your Shopify subscription, you get an SSL certificate issued which is vital for store security. SSL certificates also contribute towards search engine rankings as sites without them are generally viewed as unsecured and thus won’t be promoted.
WordPress is a web development platform that allows for the creation of online stores using plugins like WooCommerce. It offers more advanced features and control compared to Shopify and you can get packages that include hosting from third-party providers like Blue Host.
For SEO, WordPress is as advanced as you want. The plugin library is immense and it has hundreds of SEO tools you can incorporate into your online store. The optimized code helps keep your website compliant with W3C standards too, and you can easily incorporate blogs into your store for content marketing.
The main benefit of WordPress is the access to SEO tools and plugins. Popular options like YOAST SEO and Rank Math are incredibly advanced and allow you to easily manage your on-page SEO and create things like pilar content. These tools have fantastic documentation too and they give you great flexibility in your approach to SEO.
WordPress is also far more customizable than Shopify and you can edit the underlying HTML code if needed.
There are essentially no limits to how you develop your WordPress online store, and with ecommerce tools like WooCommerce, you can also make your online store incredibly advanced to give your users the ultimate shopping experience. Shopify does offer customization, but you are always confined to work within the boundaries of their online store framework.
Blogging is a vital part of SEO content marketing strategies and WordPress allows you to seamlessly integrate blogs into your website or online store.
Generating new blog posts is easy, and you of course have the on-page SEO analysis tools like YOAST SEO to make the blogs optimized. The plugin library also allows you to add extra blog features like share buttons and comment sections.
Shopify doesn’t give quite as much control over your link structure and URLs and this is actually an important part of SEO. Understandable URLs are a must for an effective SEO campaign and WordPress essentially gives you complete control of your URL hierarchy and structure.
I hate doing this as it seems useless, but, there isn’t an overall winner for SEO. That doesn’t mean that each platform doesn’t have strengths and weaknesses and this is how you pick the best option for your business needs.
Shopify is the user-friendly option – for the entrepreneur who has no web development or SEO knowledge. The built-in tools can get you started, and it already has some SEO-friendly features like mobile optimization and fast loading speeds.
WordPress is for the larger business or the entrepreneur with prior web development and SEO experience. It’s huge plugin library, excellent customization, and blogging support allow for the development of more advanced SEO plans.
One of the most difficult aspects of running a Shopify store is to attract customers and a great way to tackle this is to utilize Shopify content marketing. In this guide, I explain the purpose and benefits of this strategy, show you the main techniques, and arm you with a series of tips to optimize your eCommerce content marketing.
At its most basic, content marketing is the process of creating online material that aims to increase interest in your brand and its products/services. It’s not direct marketing and promotional material but serves a similar purpose and the main benefits include:
Firstly, you increase brand awareness and get your store out on the internet. This ultimately leads to more traffic, an improved brand reputation, and hopefully more sales. Content marketing also contributes to SEO for Shopify stores through backlinks, keyword usage, and the consistent publishing of high-quality content.
The term content marketing applies to a wide range of different items and it’s important to understand the techniques you can use. Below, I have listed five of the most effective methods.
Nothing beats a well-written and engaging blog post for Shopify content marketing! Most businesses and Shopify stores run a blog with articles that complement your products and services and give customers additional info or a fun story they can relate too.
I feel that infographics are criminally underused but they can be an incredibly effective type of content marketing. These are larger images that provide info using a mix of text and images on a specific subject.
You can use graphic design platforms like Canva to produce infographics and they can be integrated into your blogs, social media content, and website content.
Video content is steadily taking over the world of content marketing and this has been pushed by the rise in popularity of video content platforms like YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and Instagram.
Many businesses create short video content on these platforms such as YouTube shorts or Instagram stories and they can be a really effective form of Shopify content marketing.
How many millions of people worldwide use Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok daily? Social media is now part of many people’s daily routine and it’s an invaluable source for your Shopify content marketing.
Building a social media presence is a great way to publish new content, link to your other content marketing pieces, and improve brand awareness. It also gives you a more personal means to engage and interact with your customers.
Although press releases are less common, they are still relevant for digital content marketing and can also help boost your PR campaigns. The press releases shouldn’t be specific to new products or services as these wouldn’t typically count as content marketing.
Instead, you could make press releases relating to new business partnerships, working with charities, or some improvement you’ve made to your company for example.
So, we know the main TYPES of Shopify content marketing, but how can you make your strategy shine? To help, I have listed some simple Shopift content marketing tips below.
How often have you switched off when reading a blog or a social media post because it’s BORING? Your Shopify content marketing is only as good as the underlying quality of the content itself.
Make sure that your content is fun, and unique, stands out from competitors, and actually gives users a reason to continue reading!
Your content marketing must be tailored to your specific audience otherwise it will fall short and not be as effective. This means you must research your target audience and look at important demographics like age, gender, location, and spending habits.
With this info, you can tailor the tone and style of your content marketing to align with the voice of your customers.
As with any online campaign, you MUST track the data and periodically review the results. Without this continual tracking and reviewing, you will never know if your Shopify content marketing strategies are working or how you can improve them.
Shopify analytics is incredibly important and you should schedule weekly or monthly meetings where you analyze the results and look at metrics like website traffic, conversions, and ROI.
Content marketing is an integral part of creating a successful Shopify store and if you haven’t already started, it’s something I urge you to delve into as soon as possible! A successful Shopify content marketing strategy can boost your SEO, increase store traffic, and lead to improved conversions and sales.
I don’t know about you, but if I try to visit an online store and it takes an age to load, 90% of the time I simply close my browser and find another site. This is a common occurrence and online store speeds are something that can greatly affect SEO, customer experience, and website traffic.
If your eCommerce store feels sluggish I look at Shopify speed optimization and give 8 simple ways you can improve your Shopify speed score below.
Shopify speed optimization has numerous benefits from multiple perspectives including the end customer, your bottom line, and marketing strategies including:
For end users, fast store speeds mean everything loads quickly and you can get what you want instantly. There is no tedious waiting for images to load on product pages or slow checkout processes.
This leads to improved customer experience when using your Shopify store, which then leads to improved customer retention, sales, and conversions. You should also experience a drop in your abandoned shopping cart rate.
Lastly, Google loves Shopify stores that are speedy! Page loading times and speed optimization are key components of SEO services for Shopify store success.
I urge you to take speed optimization seriously as it is a primary way to gain an advantage over your competitors and make sure your Shopify store is running at 199% efficiency. To help, I have listed eight simple optimization methods below.
The main cause of slow Shopify store speeds are images and video. These are both vital components of successful online stores but they must also be optimized to improve your Shopify speed score.
Images and video should be compressed where possible to reduce loading times and you can also employ the lazy loading technique.
This is a technique where the browser only loads images that are in your current field of view. Anything off-screen on the page will not be loaded until you scroll down to the content where the image is located. This can greatly improve speeds and it doesn’t affect the customer’s viewing experience.
Unfortunately, not all Shopify themes are created equal and while some may look fantastic, they may not be the fastest. Therefore, you should opt for a lightweight Shopify theme that has been optimized for fast loading times.
JavaScript and plugins for Shopify can enhance the usability of your store but they can also cause loading issues. Where possible, you should minimize the use of third-party JavaScript, and disable any unnecessary Shopify apps that your store isn’t using.
You always need a starting point and an overview of the issues you face with Shopify store speeds, therefore, a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights is invaluable.
All you have to do is enter your main URL into the tool and it will scan your site for loading issues. This is free to use and you are given a breakdown of all your issues together with an overall score. Using this summary, you can start to address the individual issues.
I get the desire to use fancy fonts on your eCommerce store to make your site attractive and stand out. However, these can be detrimental to Shopify speed optimization.
If a user does not have the special font installed on their device, it has to be downloaded first which takes time.
To avoid this, I advise only using “system fonts”. These are the most common fonts and are pre-installed on most devices. Some examples of popular system fonts include Verdana, Calibri, and Helvetica.
Redirects are where a user clicks on a URL and is instead redirected to a different one. This could be due to a change in site structure, or because the original page is currently unavailable.
Broken links are URLs that cause a 404 error and simply won’t load.
Both of these issues reduce loading times and make your Shopify store slow. There is a host of online checking tools that allow you to scan your Shopify store for broken links and redirects – use them and cut out any of these problems to boost your Shopify speed score.
Data collection and analysis is a necessary part of managing a Shopify store. You need a range of metrics to track your progress and look at areas of your store and SEO strategies that need refining.
However, all of this data tracking can reduce your Shopify speed as the site has to load multiple tracking tags. To combat this, you can create a single JavaScrip request using platforms like Google Tag Manager to reduce the strain on your store.
AMP is Accelerated Mobile Pages and it is a framework that allows you to develop an incredibly fast and optimized mobile version of your Shopify store for smartphone users.
This is incredibly important in today’s digital world as most people now use their mobiles for shopping instead of a desktop computer or laptop. AMP apps are available in the Shopify app store like RocketAMP and FireAMP.
How many times have you visited an eCommerce store only to be stumped and struggle to find what you are looking for, or need additional support when buying products?
This is a common occurrence and the best businesses understand that FAQ pages can help address these issues and provide valuable customer support.
FAQ pages go one step further though and can also contribute to your SEO strategies, content creation, and keyword usage. In this guide, I explain all of the above and show how your business can utilize e-commerce FAQs to your advantage.
Let’s start with the basics and understand what FAQ pages are.
FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs can either be dedicated pages or articles, product pages, and website pages can have FAQ sections usually after the body text.
Dedicated FAQs are usually found in the customer support or help sections of a website and may be broken into different customer support categories such as payments, products, and deliveries. Alternatively, FAQ sections on existing pages could be something like a list of questions relating to a specific product on a product page.
FAQS are essentially a list of questions and answers that aim to answer common issues and queries customers may have relating to your eCommerce store.
E-commerce FAQs have a dual purpose and they can be useful for both SEO and customer experience and they should be a part of your Ecommerce checklist.
Google loves FAQs and indeed a great practice is to look at Google’s PAA (People Also Ask) section of Google searches to find common FAQ questions. You can use FAQs to enhance your SEO strategies as they increase content, provide real value to customers, and can also include keywords and phrases.
While SEO is fantastic, the primary purpose of e-commerce FAQs is to give value to your customers and act as an additional form of customer support.
Oftentimes if I am struggling to find something on a website, I will head to the help section and look through the FAQs. More often than not, I can find the answer to my issue. This means that I don’t have to waste time trying to contact the customer support team.
FAQs may not solve some complex issues, but they greatly reduce the strain on your customer support team for simple issues, and give customers a more streamlined browsing experience when using your online store.
As you can see, your business stands to gain a lot from utilizing FAQ pages and there are some key things you can do to optimize their effectiveness.
To make effective FAQ pages, you MUST perform research to find the best questions. It’s no good just typing up the first questions that enter your mind – these might not have any relevance to the info customers may need when using your online store.
The first step is to have a brainstorming session with various team members. Everyone can give their input and think of questions customers might ask, or simple issues they may face that could be turned into e-commerce FAQs. An SEO agency for ecommerce can also help with this.
After the brainstorming session, I advise checking Google PAA suggestions to find commonly asked questions relating to your business and products. If the formatting and quality of your FAQs are up to scratch, you can be featured in the PAA block too which can give a huge SEO boost.
Creating e-commerce FAQs is an art form and it is not a simple case of writing the questions and answers. The formatting should be correct with the questions formatted as headings, and the answers as regular paragraph/body text.
There is also a specific FAQ schema to follow which helps Google crawlers index your FAQ pages and understand the type of content on your website. Tools like YOAST SEO in WordPress can help with FAQ schema by using things like their FAQ block.
The worst thing you can do with FAQ answers is to waffle! Don’t pad them with fluff. Instead, answer the question in the first sentence and make your FAQs concise and easy to digest. The reader should be left in no doubt as to the answer.
FAQs are an excellent place to utilize keywords and phrases to bolster your SEO strategy. For example, with standalone FAQ pages, you could use primary keywords that you are targeting site-wide.
Alternatively, for FAQ sections on things like product pages, you can use product-related keywords to be more specific and targeted. The FAQs should always provide value first, and you should never sacrifice the quality of the answers simply to inject keywords though.
FAQ pages for eCommerce stores are incredibly simple to implement and with little effort, you can boost your SEO and customer support.
These straightforward questions and answers give customers the info they need, help them make informed decisions, and can also reduce the pressure on your customer support team. Not only that but with the correct formatting and use of keywords, they can enhance your existing SEO strategies.
Out-of-stock products are primarily annoying for customers and point towards inventory issues with your business. However, they can also have a detrimental effect on your SEO campaigns by reducing website traffic, increasing abandonment rates, and causing a negative impact on Google rankings. In this article, I explain how to avoid this, and why stock management matters.
Out-of-stock products can negatively impact your business SEO and ecommerce KPIs in several ways including:
Stock issues essentially reduce customer satisfaction and mean they are far more likely to close your site, abandon their shopping cart, or not visit your store in the first place. This hammers your SEO metrics and ultimately can affect Google rankings which we want to avoid at all costs.
Because of the potential negative consequences, it’s important for businesses to give heed to handling out-of-stock products and make sure they have a fool-proof plan in place. Below are seven simple tips that can help:
I get incredibly annoyed if I go through the entire shopping process only to find out at the checkout that the item isn’t in stock! Don’t be that business!
Make sure it’s apparent from the first instance a customer sees a product that it’s out of stock. This keeps their shopping experience enjoyable, keeps them on your site longer, and lets them adjust their shopping path.
After making the stock issue apparent, the simplest thing you must do is to give your customers alternatives! I’m far more likely to make a purchase if I am shown a similar product to an out-of-stock one. In contrast, if I’m given nothing, I will 99% of the time simply close the website and look elsewhere.
The best ecommerce stores do this and use phrases like “similar products to X”, and “you may also be interested in”. Give the customer a reason to continue shopping despite your stock issues and this will ultimately help your SEO too by increasing conversions and the time customers spend on your online store.
Product schema markup is incredibly important for ecommerce and this is something an SEO ecommerce consultant can advise but you can also use this to your advantage to clearly show out-of-stock items.
This schema allows you to create rich snippets that are displayed on search engines. You have probably seen these – they are enhanced search results that show info like a star rating, price, name, and in this instance, stock status.
So that customers don’t waste time looking at out-of-stock products you can simply place less emphasis on them!
Most ecommerce platforms like Shopify allow for product ordering and give precedence on product category pages to products that are stocked. When shopping, I personally like the little filters you can choose to hide out-of-stock items.
To keep customers on your site and to reduce crawl errors often associated with out-of-stock products you must make sure that there is the correct link structure in place.
By this, if a product is out of stock, you should try and avoid something like a 404 error page as Google generally doesn’t like these. Linking back to the homepage after a stock issue is also bad practice as ideally, you want to keep your customers within a “product loop”. Therefore, make sure it links to something like alternative products, or the initial product category page.
Oftentimes you might have special products that will ultimately go out of stock and never return. Things like limited edition products, or limited stock editions are brilliant, but you don’t want them continuing to appear on search engines once they are finished.
To combat this, there is the “unavailable after” meta tag. This allows you to specify the expiry date for a product and after this, search engines like Google will stop crawling it and remove it from their indexes.
Regardless of availability, many people will still want to order your product when it’s available and you should always give them the opportunity to if you intend to re-stock it.
This can be done either via a pre-order option or something like an email notification. Pre-ordering secures their business and leads to a sale regardless of current stock issues, while email notifications can be used as an additional SEO tool. For example, you can include within your re-stocked email notification other products, offers, and of course primary keywords.
The impact on SEO is just one issue with out-of-stock products and you should also make sure that your inventory management system is running effectively to avoid problems like this initially. If your products are always stocked, your SEO campaign can’t be affected in this way!
However, this is easier said than done and this is why you must have a fail-safe plan in place and an effective way to deal with stock issues without harming your SEO. This includes effective redirects, ample stock notification, and alternatives like pre-orders and email notifications.
eCommerce stores are complex and made up of a range of important files and web pages, each serving a different, but vital purpose.
An incredibly simple but crucial example is the Robots.txt file. This seemingly innocuous file might look like a jumble of phrases, but in eCommerce, it serves a purpose and is something that should always be configured ASAP when creating new types of Ecommerce websites.
In this guide, I explain the purpose of the Robots.txt file, how it benefits your eCommerce SEO, and some simple tips to get you started.
Robots.txt is a plain text file (you can create it in Notepad if you want!) that is placed in the root directory of your eCommerce store. It is a simple set of instructions that tell search engine crawler bots which web pages they shouldn’t try and crawl. The aim is to improve crawler access, regulate the crawling rate, and improve SEO.
You may wonder what’s the fuss about dictating which web pages a bot crawls, surely it doesn’t matter? But it does! Optimizing your Robots.txt file is especially critical and offers the following benefits for all ecommerce SEO packages:
The main benefit is that you help manage a search engine crawler’s budget. Each search engine crawler typically allows a set amount of resources to crawl a website based on things like its reputation, size, and authority which constitutes the budget.
By optimizing your Robots.txt file, you make sure that the crawl budget is effectively used and that there are no wasted resources.
Building on that, you can make sure that non-SEO pages like accounts, shopping carts, and login pages are not crawled and that only your SEO-rich pages are targeted.
Right, we know what this file is used for, and we know how it can benefit your online store, but how do you actually go about achieving that? To get you started, I have listed some simple tips and best practices below.
First, you must understand that Robots.txt files are meant to be read by different user agents. User agents are the crawling software for different search engines that access and index your web pages.
In your Robots.txt file, you can either create a blanket set of instructions for all user agents using the user-agent: * text string, or specify instructions for individual user agents such as Googlebot, Bingbot, and Baiduspider in which case the text string would start something like User-agent: Googlebot.
Robots.txt files are composed of directives which are essentially text strings that act as a set of instructions for the crawler bots to follow. Available directives include:
The most important thing to remember when creating your eCommerce Robots.txt file is to target low-priority pages! These are pages within your online store that are necessary for its functionality but serve no SEO purpose. Examples include:
Just think – what benefit does it serve for Googlebot to crawl a customer’s account login page compared to an actual product page, product category page, or blog article? None! An account login page is purely functional and a necessary part of your online store so that customers can manage their accounts.
By disallowing access to these non-vital pages (in terms of SEO usefulness) you are improving the efficiency of the search engine crawlers and making sure they get to the pages and content that matters quicker.
Please note that as Google states, the Robots.txt file is not meant to be used to hide web pages from search results. If this is your desired end result, methods like password protection or the noindex HTML meta tag should be used instead.
Part of creating a successful eCommerce store is tracking data and performing analytical research. A potential issue with this is that oftentimes URL parameters are added at the end of web page addresses to enable tracking and this can cause duplicate crawling.
The Robots.txt file can be used to prevent this from happening by disallowing particular URL parameters. Examples include:
The ref parameter, for example, is often used in web page URLs to track referral data and this isn’t something that needs to be indexed.
It’s best to create a Robots.txt file as soon as the basic structure and hierarchy of your eCommerce website are developed and many eCommerce website builders like Shopify and WooCommerce have the functionality to automate this process.
Don’t leave it at that though – as your online store grows it’s critical to refer back to the Robots.txt file and update it to reflect how your site and SEO strategies develop.
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