Is it possible to position an online store yourself? This issue raises interest, but also doubts among people setting up their first online store. Meanwhile, you can take action yourself that will support our visibility.
Alone or with help?
If we only have the willingness, time and are ready to delve into the topic, we can undertake the positioning of our online store on our own. Of course, we always have the opportunity to use the help of professionals. Most interactive agencies offer services in the field of website positioning. We can be treated comprehensively in this respect or decide to seek help only on certain aspects.
Why is SEO so important? The number of people visiting our online store depends on how high we are in the search engine results. Remember that most users do not even look at the other page of search results. Positioning of the online store includes activities that are aimed at improving our visibility and thus increasing popularity and sales.
Valuable content
The content of the online store can include product descriptions, names, as well as any other texts that we include on the website. A good solution is to run a blog connected to an online store. In this case, it is worth posting several articles during the month. It is good if the topics will be related to tips useful to potential customers of our store. If, for example, we operate in the cosmetics industry, let’s write about skin types, the most common skin problems or errors in care. We will easily be able to use key phrases referring to the cosmetics we offer. What’s more, it gives us the opportunity to use internal linking.
What content should I put on the website? First of all, unique. This increases our chance of a higher position in the search engine. Even if we have the opportunity to use a ready-made description of manufacturers, it is still worth creating our own, unique content. Of course, we must include the most important issues related to the specificity of the product, but it is good to write the text in your own words. The phrases we use should be thought out. You should avoid writing general, very popular expressions. When running a travel agency, instead of using the word “trips”, let’s clarify what our offer is about, such as “organized trips for the elderly”, “round trips abroad”, “trips for young people”. Let’s empathize with the role of a person who will soon sit at the computer and enter in the search engine what he is looking for.
Keywords or what?
Already knowing that keywords are very important, we can start to think about how to choose them so that our actions are effective. Remember that it is the longer phrases, i.e. the so-called long-tail phrases, that work in our favor. First of all, it is worth considering what distinguishes our online store. When selling pet food, we can bet that the phrases we want will be “adult dog food” or “wet food for kittens”.
However, is it possible to determine for yourself which key phrases we should use? Following the previously mentioned tips, you can, of course, independently match the keywords that we consider valuable. However, it is also worth using the help of specially dedicated tools, such as Google Search Console, Keyword Planner or Wordtracker. Programs of this type are available both as free and in paid versions. What’s more, we can also ask for help from professionals, for example from an interactive agency that also deals with activities related to positioning and SEO. The cost of defining the keywords is not high, and we will gain confidence in the sense of the actions we take.
Title oraz meta description
The title of the page, i.e. the title, should contain the most important keyword for a specific website. It is good if it is at the beginning. Care should be taken to ensure that it is not too long and does not exceed 70 characters. What can constitute a website title? Either the name of the company, selected products or other relevant information that describes the content of a given page. It is worth ensuring that each page has its own, unique title. Thanks to this, we will take care of better visibility in the search engine. While the title is quite important regarding positioning, meta desription, i.e. the description of the subpage, is primarily to encourage users to visit the store.
What else is worth remembering when creating website titles? They should be as natural as possible and contain the most important information. Don’t use terms like “the best food only in our restaurant” or “mechanic”. Let’s write “pierogarnia Gdańsk – Pierogi restaurant” or “car service Warsaw – mechanic Stanisław Kowalski”.
External and internal linking
One of the treatments that we can easily do ourselves is internal linking. The use of these types of links helps website visitors as well as search engine robots to navigate between sections located on the website. Linking makes Google strengthen the website to specific keywords that have been linked. These actions can be performed in different ways. The source of links can be articles, descriptions, menus, side sections or file galleries (graphic links). It is good if the link is surrounded by text.
External linking, on the other hand, consists in the fact that the user goes to the page of our store by clicking on a link located on another website. Links should lead not only to the main page, but also to specific products or categories. Please note that an excessive number of specific links or inappropriate placement may cause Google to impose a filter penalty on us. In such a situation, our online store will appear lower in the search results.
Social Media
A business profile on Facebook or Instagram is a necessity today. Posts that are added should arouse interest in the recipient. It’s a good idea to add interesting infographics, illustrations, or photos to them that will enrich the content. What’s more, it is worth placing links to the website or products in them. Our business partners can also post such a link at home as part of their cooperation. However, having a profile is not everything. The most important thing is activity. It’s a good to publish new posts at least once a week. Let’s also try to stimulate our audience to take part in the discussion and make them feel that their opinions and suggestions are important to us.
Analytical tools
The fact that there are few orders in our online store does not necessarily mean that it is not very visible to the search engine. Perhaps there are other aspects that discourage potential customers from making a purchase. It is worth considering here whether our website loads quickly (and we can be sure that 5 seconds is too long for the current Internet user), whether it is displayed in an appropriate way on mobile devices (more and more people buy using mobile phones) and whether navigation is intuitive (if the customer gets lost while using our website, he will certainly leave it after a while).
We are not able to assess “by eye” what real interest our offer arouses. Fortunately, various types of analytical tools come to the rescue. We can include Google Search Console, Google Analytics or Google Trends. Of course, there are many more possibilities. Thanks to them, we can easily check which of our products are the most popular, which pages are the most often displayed and through which websites they have just reached the name online store. We can also trace how often baskets are abandoned and what age and gender prevail among our customers. Currently, we even have the opportunity to learn about the interests of users – through the analysis of browsed websites.
