Mistakes That Cost Money: An E-commerce SEO Case Study

6 min read

Mistakes That Cost Money examines common mistakes e-commerce sites make and how they negatively impact search engine optimization efforts. Errors like incorrect titles, product descriptions, duplicate content and more can affect your site's visibility in search engines.

We will Describe those Mistakes That Cost Money

The first mistake is to refrain from using keywords at all. This is a common mistake among many people, especially those just starting with eCommerce SEO.

They feel keywords are too expensive and need more time to learn about them. They believe that if they use enough keywords, their site will rank well for those terms.

This is not the case! Yes, it's true that the more pages you have with relevant content and targeted keywords, the better your chances of ranking for those keywords.

However, there's a difference between having many pages with relevant content and being able to rank for those terms in Google search results.

This requires proper SEO techniques and knowledge of how to use keywords effectively in your content. It also requires a good understanding of how Google works to ensure your content is technically and semantically well-optimized.

Suppose you need to become more familiar with these topics. In that case, it's recommended that you hire someone with experience working with eCommerce SEO clients or who has knowledge in this area (such as an experienced SEO consultant).

Using A Proper Keyword Strategy

Keywords are the words that shoppers use to find products on your site. The more relevant and specific your keywords, the more sales you'll see. Unfortunately, only some products will be as valuable as others, so choosing the right ones is essential.

A keyword strategy should help you determine which keywords will work best for your business and which you should avoid.

A good keyword strategy is based on four factors:

Product type: If your business sells a particular product, then targeting that product with relevant keywords will help people find and purchase from you.
Competition: The more competition there is for a particular keyword, the harder it may be for customers to find you using search engines like Google or Bing. You can avoid this by researching other categories or niches that contain similar products or services as yours and then creating campaigns that target those terms instead.
Geographic location: If your customers are local, they may have already discovered other businesses in their area that offer similar products or services, so they're less likely to look at pricing comparisons or reviews before making a purchase decision (which means they're less likely).

Writing Content for the Wrong Search Terms

When it comes to search engine optimization, there are a lot of things that you can do. The first step is to determine what your target audience is looking for.

If you need more clarification, start using some of the free tools available on the Internet to gather keyword data. Then, use this information to create relevant content.

Unfortunately, only some business owners or marketers have the time or expertise to create high-quality content. This is where it's easy to make mistakes when writing e-commerce SEO content. Here are some common mistakes that cost businesses money:

Writing content for the wrong search terms. If you think about how most people shop online, they will search for products and services using general keywords like "furniture," "shoes," or "clothing."

However, these terms are only sometimes the best for your business because they need to tell potential customers exactly what you do or your target audience.

Instead of writing general e-commerce SEO articles that don't specify what you sell or who buys from you, try writing articles with more specific keywords such as "computer accessories" or even "electronics."

Incorrectly Using A Famous Keyword Phrase

The most common SEO mistake retailers make is misusing a famous keyword phrase. For example, if you're selling a product that's just like the ones on Amazon and eBay, then it's likely that you'll be competing with those retailers for customers.

It's essential to understand what keywords people search for when they find your site on Google or another search engine (e.g., Bing). Once you know what keywords to target, you must use them correctly in your website's title tag, meta description and other elements.

For example, suppose you're selling a new laptop computer with an "Intel i5 processor" in the title tag. Your content should also mention that feature within the article text or images, so readers will know what they're getting when they buy yours!

Another common mistake is assuming that Google knows about every possible keyword combination that could be used to describe your product or service.

If a competitor has already used one or more of these phrases in their content, then you should avoid using them yourself unless there's no way around it (e.g., "best selling products" instead of "best selling products").

Correctly Using An Obscure Term

What's the first thing you do when you wake up? You brush your teeth and get ready for the day. But what about SEO? It's a matter of getting your site indexed in search engines like Google and Bing, which means having a high-quality site relevant to users' searches.

This cannot be easy to achieve if you don't know what you're doing. Many factors go into optimizing a website, including choosing keywords, adding meta descriptions and titles, ensuring you have good content, and more.

But one of the most important aspects is getting your website indexed in search engines — which takes time and effort for small business owners unfamiliar with how it works.

So how does one get their e-commerce site fully optimized for search engines? One way is using an SEM (search engine marketing) tool like SEMrush or Moz Pro.

These tools help businesses determine which keywords are most relevant for their industry, where they rank for these terms on Google and how much traffic they receive from them monthly. They also give them insight into what other companies do with these keywords.

Using Too Many Keywords Within A Single Title Tag

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a process that helps you get your website ranked higher in search results on Google, Yahoo! and Bing. It's an integral part of any e-commerce store, but it only happens by itself.

If you want to improve the visibility of your website and drive more sales, you need to optimize it for search engines. It takes time and effort — mainly when doing this manually — but it can be worthwhile if you have a limited budget.

One of the most common SEO mistakes that e-commerce businesses make is using too many keywords within a single title tag. Here's why it's a problem:

Search engines crawl through thousands of pages every day. For this reason, they do not crawl content within titles or headings unless some value is returned from those links.

If multiple keywords are used in one title tag, then all of them will be ignored by search engines because they don't match any of the words used in that title tag.

Poor Site Architecture And Slow Load Times

Site architecture and slow load times can save you money. Visitors might need clarification and leave without buying if your website needs a better structure. Poorly coded pages could also cause a lot of frustration for customers, leading to negative reviews on social media or even refund requests in person.

A good user experience is one thing that can save your business money as well. People are more likely to leave if they need help understanding what they're doing or how to do it properly.

This might be an issue if you have a complex checkout process, but even creating an account could confuse customers and lead them away from your website.

Poor search engine optimization (SEO) can also cost you money because Google considers your website's quality when ranking it in search results.

You must keep up with SEO updates so that your site is always as up-to-date as possible and stays caught up to competitors who have been optimized more recently than you were a year ago.

Not Allowing Google To Index Your Site

This mistake is easy but will cost you money in the long run. You can avoid this problem by ensuring that Google and other search engines fully index your website.

If you have an XML sitemap file and are using a sitemap tool like Google's Search Console, then this will be much easier than if you don't have any sitemap and instead rely on manual updates from the webmaster console.

Consistent URLs are essential for SEO because they help search engines crawl your site more effectively and find better content-ranking positions.

If a page or post has a URL that contains keywords for the page or post, then it should also have a similar URL but with the same keyword in it (for example: "homepage" vs "homepage").

This helps searchers find related information for something specific within your website's content, which improves rankings in organic results pages (SERPs).