Ecommerce SEO: How to Make Your Brand Stand Out (+ Checklist)

Ecommerce SEO is the process of optimizing an online store to rank higher in search engine results. This guide outlines essentials for ecommerce SEO success, from improving product pages and keyword research to building a fast and mobile-friendly site.

Now a $6.8 trillion industry, ecommerce is among the fastest-growing (and most competitive) spaces for businesses looking to capture online market share.

In other words, competition is pretty stiff.

Because of this, standing out — and connecting with buyers — as an online retailer is more important than ever. That’s where ecommerce SEO (search engine optimization) comes in.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the SEO best practices for ecommerce businesses to increase your visibility and revenue.

What is ecommerce SEO?

Ecommerce SEO is the digital marketing strategy of optimizing an online store to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), drive more organic traffic, and increase sales.

While it involves traditional SEO practices, such as on-page SEO (site content), technical SEO (backend elements), and off-page SEO (mentions on third-party websites), ecommerce SEO involves specific techniques to boost brand visibility on the SERP.

These include:

• Optimizing product pages with keyword-rich titles, meta descriptions, and unique product names.
• Using structured data to display rich results like price, inventory, and reviews.
• Creating category and subcategory pages and internal linking to facilitate simple store navigation.
• Improving page speed and mobile usability for a fast, mobile-friendly shopping experience.
• Leveraging user-generated content for reviews and Q&As for social proof and trust.

The goal of ecommerce SEO is to appear higher in the SERP to reach more potential customers by creating an enjoyable online shopping experience, ultimately increasing brand awareness and conversion rates.

Why SEO is important for ecommerce

SEO is important for ecommerce businesses because it is a highly competitive space. To appear higher in search engine results, an ecommerce site needs to be properly optimized. This increase in visibility can lead to revenue growth.

How to create an ecommerce SEO strategy

1. Conduct SEO-specific keyword research
2. Improve on-page SEO
3. Prioritize UX and site architecture
4. Tune up your technical SEO
5. Create a Google Merchant Center account
6. Add schema markup
7. Create helpful content
8. Prioritize link building
9. Remember that CRO is part of SEO
10. Monitor and optimize

1. Conduct ecommerce-specific keyword research

Just as with any other business, digital marketers won’t be surprised to know that the right keyword research strategy is table stakes for strong ecommerce SEO.

Ecommerce keyword research focuses more on commercial and transactional search intent, meaning search terms shoppers use when they’re ready to buy, like “buy queen sized sheets” or “best running watch.”

It also involves targeting a large volume of product-specific and long-tail keywords across many pages (products, categories, filters), making organization and prioritization especially important compared to general SEO.

To start keyword research:

• Start with Google Keyword Planner to identify search volume and competition
• Use Google Search and the “People also ask” and “Related searches” sections to discover trending queries and keyword ideas
• Try Amazon Suggest to see how real shoppers phrase their searches
• Explore competitor sites using SEO tools (like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Moz) to uncover keyword gaps and opportunities
• Plug target terms into Wikipedia to find related concepts, synonyms, and categories
• Use Google Trends to compare keyword popularity over time and seasonality

Once you’ve completed your keyword research, aim to naturally include terms 3–5 times per page to avoid keyword stuffing.

Then build out content silos: With product pages, having content such as blog posts with internal links, keyword-rich meta descriptions, title tags, and other hallmarks of good content marketing will help you stand out.

2. Improve on-page SEO

Use your specific keywords in page titles, meta descriptions, headings, product titles, and descriptions.

Don’t just say what a product is — describe what it’s made of, what its purpose is, and how it’ll benefit the buyer.

Tag your items by categories, accurately title your images, and make sure those product images are high-quality and include alt text.

Pro tip: Different ecommerce site platforms (like WordPress, WooCommerce, or Shopify) will offer different plugins and capabilities to help with your on-page SEO efforts.

3. Prioritize UX and site architecture

Organization is especially important for ecommerce sites.

Effectively leveraging category and subcategory pages with breadcrumbs for easy navigation is likely to boost both your SEO rankings and the amount of time people spend browsing your online store.

While average time spent isn’t a ranking factor for SEO, your potential customers will certainly thank you for a seamless user experience and be more likely to come back.

Take Neiman Marcus’s homepage, for example:

You can see all the page categories in the banner along the top that then lead to subcategories, then the product pages themselves.

Subcategory example:

Product page example:

Note that there are often content blocks at the bottom of these pages filled with relevant keywords that searchers are likely to use which ultimately boost the site’s SEO.

Pro tip: We recommend relying on search strings in your URLs, such as “/german-chocolate,” to keep your sitemap organized and easy for search engine bots to understand what a page is about when crawling it. Once you’ve optimized your XML sitemap, you can submit it through Google Search Console to show which URLs are the main ones and which pages will have a canonical tag.

4. Tune up your technical SEO

Technical SEO is the process of optimizing a website’s backend elements to improve its crawlability, indexability, site speed, and overall search engine performance.

Conduct an audit to review your site for:

• Crawl errors
• Duplicate content
• Unintentional temporary redirects
• Unoptimized images
• Poorly coded JavaScript and CSS
• Broken internal and external links

Further reading: Technical SEO: An Easy-to-Follow Guide + 6 Improvement Tips

5. Create a Google Merchant Center account

Something we recommend all online sales brands do is create a Google Merchant Center account with proper data feeds for the search engine to leverage in its shopping tab on the SERP.

This is a free feature that helps you organize your content in a way Google favors — and it gives great exposure to new customers with images (unlike search results).

With the Merchant Center, ecommerce brands can:

• Upload accurate product information to your ecommerce store
• Reach customers through paid and unpaid channels (like social media and search ads)
• View reports and metrics for your programs linked to Merchant Center

Further reading: Google Merchant Center: Get Started in 4 Easy Steps

6. Add schema markup

Also called structured data, schema markup is a type of code that helps websites communicate more clearly with search engines.

This helps search engines better understand and display your content as rich results — which is especially valuable for ecommerce sites:

Implement structured data to enhance search results with product info like price, product reviews, and availability.

Further reading: Schema Markup: What it is, How to Audit + Why it Matters

7. Create helpful content

For SEO success, ecommerce brands should go beyond product listings to provide valuable information that educates and provides value to their target audience.

Leveraging a content strategy that includes regular blog posts, how-to guides, or product comparisons can attract visitors and nurture them at different stages of the buying journey — not just those ready to purchase immediately.

Examples include:

• Gift guides
• Tutorials
• FAQs
• Product roundups
• Style guides

This content should be useful, easy to read, and optimized with target keywords.

Further reading: 5 Easy Steps to Build a Full-Funnel Content Strategy

8. Prioritize link building

One of the most effective ways to rank higher in the search results is by earning backlinks to relevant, high-quality websites.

While this can take more time, it’s a worthy investment. Here are some key strategies to earn backlinks:

• Create valuable content that others will want to reference and link to.
• Partner with influencers or bloggers for honest reviews or features on products you send.
• Pitch your products to journalists, bloggers, or publishers for product roundups.
• Use platforms like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to contribute quotes and insights for articles in your niche.

Further reading: What Are Relevant Backlinks? How to Get Them + Expert Tips

9. Remember that CRO is part of SEO

Because of the high competition that surrounds many ecommerce brands, your site’s ease of use can really be a make-or-break factor in its success.

That’s why it’s key to keep conversion rate optimization (CRO) in mind and consistently test elements like layouts, filters, and images for products, to see which ones result in better performance.

Pop-ups, for example, may not be as effective as banners and may even turn off some users. You can also analyze your site’s performance through the use of heatmap, scrollmap, and confetti reports.

These reports track your site visitors’ behavior to illustrate where people are gravitating, where they’re bouncing, and more.

As we’ve discussed before, you can set your site up for maximum CRO by optimizing your checkout process and being mindful of not overwhelming your shoppers with too many options.

10. Monitor and optimize

Ecommerce SEO is a long game that requires ongoing tracking and management. Using tools like Google Analytics and Search Console, track your rankings, traffic, and conversions to regularly refine your strategy.

4 ecommerce SEO tools

There are plenty of online tools available to help get your SEO efforts off on the right foot. Here’s a quick look at some of the most popular, and a glimpse at their standout feature that marketers love:

1. SpyFu

SpyFu is a tried-and-true SEO tool that aids in finding relevant keywords, competitor analysis, rank tracking, and more.

This tool can also show you the ad copy your competitors are using in their PPC campaigns, which is useful for crafting your own compelling copy and improving click-through rates.

SpyFu also provides historical data, which is valuable for identifying trends and changes in your competitors’ strategies over time. This can help you adapt and stay competitive in the fast-paced ecommerce landscape.

Marketers love: SpyFu’s keyword research tool

2. Semrush

Semrush is hugely popular amongst digital marketers for its user-friendly interface, range of offerings, and virtually unmatched site auditing capabilities.

During the audit, Semrush will scan your website for technical issues that might be affecting your SEO performance. It checks for broken links, duplicate content, site speed, and other factors that can impact user experience and search engine rankings.

This, along with its on-page optimization feature and content analysis tool, makes it an SEO professional’s bestie.

Marketers love: Semrush’s SEO audit

3. Ahrefs

According to Ahrefs themselves, their “continued investment in web crawling infrastructure makes them the only tool to update ‘referring domains’ graphs daily.”

This means Ahrefs makes it super easy to keep track of backlink data (AKA growth and decline over time).

As you can imagine, this information can be vital for reporting purposes and keeping your SEO strategy in tip-top shape.

Marketers love: Ahrefs’s historical data and top-notch reporting capabilities

4. Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog crawls your webpages, just like search engines do. This allows you to get a comprehensive view of your site’s structure, URLs, and interlinking.

For ecommerce websites, this is essential to ensure that product categories, product pages, and important content are being properly crawled and indexed.

Screaming Frog is especially useful for technical aspects of SEO (such as page load and redirects).

However, it’s important to note that its focus is on technical analysis rather than keyword research, backlink analysis, or other aspects covered by other tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or SpyFu.

Marketers love: Screaming Frog’s technical SEO assistance

Tools like SpyFu, Semrush, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog can provide valuable data and insights.

But remember: Ecommerce SEO success also requires a clear understanding of your target audience, a well-structured website, high-quality content, technical optimization, and a solid link-building strategy.

Common ecommerce SEO mistakes from the experts

We spoke with HawkSEM’s team of SEO experts to find the most common mistakes they encounter on ecommerce websites.

Jordan Fultz, Lead Strategist:

“Not doing SEO at all — we’ll see businesses with no system or workflow to keep up with SEO content recommendations,” says Fultz.

“Beyond that, I also see brands optimizing product titles for either their Google Merchant Center feed or organic search, but not both.”

Jessica Weber, Director of Account Performance:

“Not optimizing products on both the page and the feed, and not having persistent pages for out-of-stock items,” Weber adds. “Meaning the page 404s or disappears when something goes out of stock.”

Austin Lewis, Team Lead:

“Leaving easy wins on the table like missing product schema, review schema, and GTINs.”

Madison Scherner, Senior Lead Strategist:

“No schema, not utilizing product categories, and ignoring page content on product pages — like not using FAQs, product descriptions, testimonials.”

Other common SEO mistakes to avoid

• Poorly organized site structure that makes it hard to navigate or filter products
• Out-of-stock items appearing in search results without the ability to filter them out
• Missing individual images for product variations (e.g., colors, sizes)
• Not using alt tags or metadata for product images
• Inconsistent image or video sizes across pages
• Slow-loading website performance
• Non-responsive design or limited functionality across devices
• Unclear or hard-to-find return policies

The takeaway

In today’s saturated online space, it’s more challenging than ever for ecommerce brands to stand out — and that’s exactly why SEO can be a game-changer.

Brands that rise through the rankings consistently follow best practices: using the right keywords, paying close attention to what their audience responds to, and maintaining a streamlined, consistent listing process across their ecommerce platform.

While strong SEO takes time and effort, it’s a smart, long-term investment for any business looking to grow and thrive in a competitive market.

Need a little help along the way? We’ve got you covered.

Ecommerce SEO strategy: A checklist for getting started

This post has been updated and was originally published in February 2020.