Over the last couple of years, several businesses have transitioned to online models in response to shifting market dynamics. In many industries, competition is rapidly intensifying.
While some businesses have achieved success using ready-made templates and e-commerce solutions, the escalating competition in online searches necessitates a focus on delivering exceptional user experiences.
At some point, digging into the technical aspects of your website becomes necessary to prevent errors that could negatively impact your search performance, particularly if you’re contemplating a site migration or moving away from pre-packaged services.
Even though platforms like Shopify can accommodate large e-commerce stores, it’s essential to invest time in understanding the technical tasks these platforms handle on your behalf.
A pivotal component of this is technical SEO service for e-commerce establishments, encompassing two key areas: technical proficiency and technical optimization.
Website and URL Structures
The concept of site architecture should mirror that of a traditional catalogue. Catalogues have been in existence for centuries. If we go back more than a century and examine the iconic Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogues from the 19th century, we will find that very little has changed in how we organize offline catalogues and even our e-commerce websites today.
Years of repetition have effectively familiarized users with this format. Therefore, adhering to a straightforward site structure of:
Homepage > Categories > Sub-Categories > Products
is something users are accustomed to and logically comprehend. This structure should also carry over into your URL format, which should remain consistent and descriptive for the benefit of users.
Products should also be housed within their own category-neutral subdirectory. This arrangement allows you to include them in multiple pertinent categories without generating duplicate product pages.
For instance:
- Category Page: example.com/category
- Subcategory Page: example.com/category/niche-1
- Product Page: example.com/p/product-name or website.com/products/product-name
Based on my experience, attempting to cram keywords into e-commerce URLs doesn’t yield significant results.
The Importance of Categories and Structure Over Content in SEO
When you consider prominent e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, they impose URL structures that incorporate subdirectories and product SKUs. Remarkably, these websites can compete just as effectively as any others.
Sitemaps And Google Search Console Setup
While not strictly essential for the functionality of e-commerce websites, HTML sitemaps are a beneficial addition. They facilitate improved internal linking to category and subcategory pages, aiding in the organization and navigation of your site for users.
Similarly, having an XML sitemap is not obligatory, but it can assist Google in discovering your URLs. When you crawl your URLs using the Search Console Inspection API, you can uncover potential issues. For instance, it might reveal that a category page is exclusively found through the XML sitemap and lacks internal linking.
To obtain more comprehensive and insightful data, and to measure the quality of your pages, consider the following steps:
- Submit structured XML sitemaps to Google Search Console.
- Establish a Google Search Console property for each subfolder branch on your website, such as yoursite.com/clothing.
This data can help you pinpoint areas where you might need to enhance the value and quality of specific categories, subcategories, and product pages.
Additionally, you can integrate a variation of the XML sitemap into your homepage design, creating a natural crawl path to transfer PageRank from the homepage to categories and subcategories, without resorting to cumbersome lists of links.
Manage Inventory and 404 Errors
When your products become unavailable, your product page templates will reflect this change. This situation can lead Google to interpret the page as a soft 404, resulting in its removal from indexing. Consequently, you may experience a decline in traffic and a drop in rankings for the search terms associated with that page.
Moreover, if a user visits your page in search of a specific product only to discover it’s out of stock, their brand experience could turn negative.
However, this circumstance also presents an opportunity to cross-sell other products or encourage the user to wait until the item is back in stock, all through automation.
When the stock level of a product template reaches zero and displays the default out-of-stock message, Google may categorize it as a soft 404. To avoid this, consider incorporating similar products and elements onto the product page, creating a distinct value proposition. This not only provides guidance to the user on what to do next but also helps prevent the occurrence of a soft 404 error.
For instance, if your inventory for “Blink Video Doorbell” is depleted, implement an automated check that replaces the “out of stock” message if you have similar products in stock. This can be accomplished using your product information management (PIM) system. Modify the template to showcase other brands and products that match the same or similar criteria.
If you have physical retail locations in addition to your online presence, consider altering the messaging to “out of stock online” and guide users to a store locator.
Furthermore, you can develop templates that leverage your Product Information Management (PIM) system to identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling on other pages.
Utilizing custom tags within your PIM can also guide customers toward related products based on various variables like size, colour, shape, or release event. These integrations of PIM data into your product pages play a crucial role in preventing negative user experiences.
Incorporating PIM data to enhance user value should be a standard practice in optimizing your e-commerce store. This enhanced usability can set your product pages apart from competitors, especially when they offer similar pages or value propositions.
Structured Data
Implementing structured data can enhance an e-commerce website’s visibility in search results, enriching the SERPs with informative Rich Snippets. It also serves to present information clearly to search engines, aiding them in comprehending the essential aspects of each product for effective comparison with competitors’ websites.
While Rich Snippets can contribute to increased click-through rates from the SERPs to your pages, their success is not guaranteed.
For product pages, the utilization of product schema is paramount and can facilitate the inclusion of review-rich snippets.
In the case of category pages, incorporating the ItemList schema is advisable. If your business has local stores, consider integrating the LocalBusiness schema on individual store pages.
Beyond the Product schema, your website should also incorporate other essential schema types, including:
- Organization.
- Breadcrumb.
- Website.
- Sitelinks Search Box.
A meticulously refined technical website not only enhances the user experience but also provides a competitive advantage.
Would you like to read more about the effective technical SEO tips for e-commerce websites related articles? If so, we invite you to take a look at our other tech topics before you leave!
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