Ecommerce SEO: The Ultimate Beginners Guide For 2025

When starting an ecommerce business, creating a beautiful, functional store is a major achievement, but attracting customers is the key to long-lasting success. Many other stores are competing for attention, so you need to ensure your ecommerce store stands out — this is where ecommerce SEO comes in. 

A good SEO strategy helps search engines rank your store higher on result pages, making it more likely that your target audience will find you. Since the first result on a Google search results page receives more than 30% of the clicks, it is crucial to be near the top if you want a share of the organic traffic. 

In this guide, we’ll cover key steps for optimizing your ecommerce store’s SEO, improving its visibility, and increasing the chances of driving more traffic and potential sales.

Importance Of SEO For Ecommerce

Most potential customers who land on your website start their journey by searching for something. They may have a specific product in mind or be looking for inspiration. Regardless, your store must appear in their search results.

Once they arrive on your site, all the effort you put into setting up your store can work its magic and convert visitors to customers. However, without good search engine optimization (SEO), the chances of them getting there are slim. 

Depending on what you are selling, there will be hundreds or even thousands of competitor websites vying for the same visitors as you, so it’s your job to ensure you have a competitive ecommerce SEO strategy.

The main focus of ecommerce SEO is optimizing product category pages, product pages, and product descriptions. The titles you choose for your items, keywords, and images can all impact where you appear on the search engine results page.

From in-depth ecommerce keyword research to optimized product descriptions, you need to attract website visitors in as many ways as possible. 

Mastering SEO is essential to your business strategy, whether as a small business or a huge enterprise.

Ready to build your ecommerce website? Get started with Friday today.

The 6 Fundamental Steps Of Ecommerce SEO

To improve SEO efforts for your ecommerce website, follow these six key steps to optimize your online store and hit the top spot on Google.

Step 1. Keyword Research

Before you can include words your customers search for on your product pages, you need to know what they are. Keyword research involves finding the most common search terms for your target audience so that you can include them on your site.

Search Intent

The four main types of keywords are informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional. 

While many websites focus primarily on informational keywords, ecommerce site owners should also target commercial and transactional keywords to attract potential buyers. In addition to providing informational content, it’s important to include keywords that signal purchase intent.

Understanding search intent helps in selecting the right keywords. Informational keywords appear at the start of the buying process when users research topics, such as ‘how to choose an air fryer’ or ‘features of top-rated smartphones.’

Navigational keywords come into play when users search for a specific website or brand, such as ‘Nike official store’ or ‘Amazon login.’ These are valuable for brands ensuring their website ranks when customers look for them directly.

Commercial and transactional keywords occur later in the buying process when users are ready to make a decision. Terms such as ‘compare,’ ‘best,’ or ‘buy’ in front of a product type signal that a purchase is imminent, so include them on your pages, too.

Keyword Tools

If you want to do deeper research to generate keyword ideas, use keyword research tools. Many are available, both free and paid, but some of the most popular ones include Ahrefs, Semrush, and Google Keyword Planner.

These tools offer different features, but most will inform you how easily you can rank for a term and suggest similar options.

As a startup business, you should target keywords with reasonable volume but low competition. Ahrefs and Semrush will give you an idea of the difficulty of the keywords, allowing you to choose easier words and incorporate them into your product and category pages.

Keyword Research tools are a great way to improve your SEO strategy once you understand search intent and have used search engines’ autocomplete features.

Autocomplete Suggestions

You can use plenty of keyword research tools or do a simple Google search. Typing the start of a search phrase into Google will leverage autocomplete to suggest related keyword ideas based on the most common inquiries. This disclosure gives you a list of highly relevant keywords at the touch of a button.

As a rule, the longer the search term, the easier it is to rank for it. For example, ranking for the search term “how using a yoga block can improve your practice” will be significantly easier to rank for than the search term “yoga.”

Use autocomplete on Google and online marketplaces like Amazon to find longer keywords to help increase your rankings.

Step 2. Site Structure

Site structure refers to how your website is organized, including the hierarchy of pages, internal linking, and navigation. While a visually appealing and easy-to-navigate site keeps users engaged, a well-thought-out site structure can improve your rankings and ultimately increase your sales.

A strong site structure ensures that search engines can efficiently crawl and index your pages while helping users find information quickly. Key elements include clear categories and an internal linking strategy that connects related content.

Fixing poor site structure later can be complex, so save yourself time by setting everything up properly from the beginning. If the correct structure is in place, adding new pages is easy as your site grows.

The Rule Of Three

Ideally, your ecommerce site’s hierarchy should be a maximum of three levels deep, including your main categories, subcategories, and products. 

If you have many more levels, consider streamlining each level to reduce the number to three. Start with your homepage and ensure it links to your store’s main product categories. 

For example, if you run a technology store, your main heading would include laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc. Subcategories within laptops might be gaming laptops and office laptops, and each product would fall under this category.

The rule of three is optimum setup for user experience and SEO. Search engines struggle to index pages more than three levels deep, which can affect rankings. 

If users can’t easily navigate to the product they are looking for, they will leave the site, increasing your bounce rate and resulting in a potential loss of sales.

Page Indexing

For ecommerce sites, not every page needs to be indexed by Google. You are not expecting your checkout page to turn up at the top of a Google search, so there is no need for search engines to store that data in their database. Conversely, you will want your ecommerce site’s product pages to be recognized by search engines, so they must be indexed.

You can use a noindex tag for pages you don’t want Google to recognize, but not for your essential SEO pages. When you first set up your website or add a new page, you can request that Google index it, increasing its chances of ranking quickly.

As a rule, you should ensure that category pages, product pages, and blog posts are indexed to help you rank well for the keywords associated with each page.

By paying attention to your ecommerce site architecture when you set up your platform, you can give your users the best possible experience. Likewise, search engines will know which pages on your site are most important.

Step 3. On-Page SEO

When it comes to e-commerce SEO, on-page SEO refers to optimizing the content on your page to make it as user-friendly and, of course, search engine-friendly as possible.

In addition to using carefully chosen keywords with low difficulty and reasonable search volume, you can add a few extra things to improve your organic search traffic.

Meta Descriptions

A meta description is a chance to increase your on-page SEO by including relevant keywords. It is a brief section summarising the page’s content. This description appears under the title tags in search engine results pages and not on the page itself.

While meta descriptions provide a summary that entices users to visit your site, meta titles serve as the first impression in search results and directly influence click-through rates. 

Include keywords in the meta descriptions that encourage potential customers to click through to your site instead of a competitor’s.

Carefully writing meta descriptions, meta tags, and title tags can significantly impact how search engines understand your website and determine its ranking. Optimizing these elements ensures better visibility, improving your chances of ranking higher than competitors.

Product And Category Pages

When adding product and category pages to your ecommerce website, you must invest effort into the descriptions to ensure they do them justice. The product pages are the core of your ecommerce store, enabling visitors to learn about your products and encouraging them to purchase.

When optimizing product pages, simply copying and pasting the manufacturer’s description is not enough; search engines and visitors will find the same information on every similar site.

Instead, consider what further questions your users may have that the manufacturer’s description doesn’t cover, and highlight the product’s features and benefits in detail.

This principle also applies to digital products. Whether selling e-books, software, courses, or design templates, create unique descriptions that clearly communicate value, usage, and key benefits.

Ecommerce category pages are as important as product pages for your SEO efforts. They give you a chance to target broader keywords that could attract users who haven’t yet decided which product to purchase. 

Your category pages could target the keyword “budget laptops,” whereas the product pages would focus on the particular model.

Image Optimization for SEO

Images play a big part in SEO, so use high-quality images and feature multiple photos for each item. Digital products often lack physical images, so enhance the listing with engaging visuals such as mockups, screenshots, or preview videos.

Alt text is another opportunity to improve user experience. It allows text readers to describe the image to those who cannot see it or display it in place of the image if the page is having trouble loading.

Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Although adding relevant keywords is a successful ecommerce SEO strategy, you must avoid keyword stuffing. 

Randomly adding irrelevant keywords creates a horrible user experience and is not favored by search engines. Keep keywords sounding natural and use them to create an engaging customer experience.

Mastering keyword research is a crucial aspect of a successful ecommerce marketing strategy, keeping your content aligned with the needs of your target audience. 

Finding the right keywords will see you climb the search rankings, causing Google to send more organic traffic your way.

Ready to get your ecommerce store online? Explore Friday’s website templates.

Step 4. Technical SEO

On-page SEO focuses on optimizing the content on your ecommerce site and providing a positive user experience. Technical SEO, on the other hand, is the behind-the-scenes optimization that helps make your website run smoothly.

If you execute technical SEO effectively, it can improve your search engine ranking and boost website traffic.

Mobile Optimization And Usability

Optimizing your site for mobile is a must in today’s world. Google considers the high proportion of people who will access your site from a smartphone when deciding where to rank your site, analyzing the mobile version before the desktop site.

This factor indicates that if you have invested effort into making a stunning desktop ecommerce website, but it is not functional on mobile, your visibility will decline. 

Fortunately, most ecommerce platforms like Friday ensure that your website is optimized for mobile use. However, it is good practice to check every new page you create on desktop, tablet, and mobile to ensure that all functions work. 

You can use mobile-friendly test tools to ensure that your mobile site is as responsive as possible. 

Page Speed And Performance

Site speed, whether desktop or mobile, is another essential factor for technical SEO. 

A recent study suggests that if a web page takes longer than three seconds to load, 40% of users will abandon it! You don’t want to lose sales due to shoppers’ impatience, so make sure your website loads quickly enough to capture their attention. 

It is advisable to use Google Search Console to track your website’s technical SEO issues. In Google Search Console, you can verify if the search engine is crawling your site properly, examine the indexing status of specific pages, and assess how well your pages rank.

This tool can be invaluable in helping you ensure that everything is managed behind the scenes.

Internal Links

Internal links are another vital part of technical and on-page SEO. From a user’s perspective, links to other pages on your site allow them to view products quickly, which is advantageous for both parties. 

Your site’s bounce rate is the number of users who leave a page without taking any action, such as clicking a link. If you have very few internal links on your pages, you are increasing the likelihood of a high bounce rate.

A high bounce rate tells search engines that users don’t find your site valuable, which can negatively impact your ranking over time. Adding relevant links to the pages of ecommerce sites will improve user experience and keep them on your site for much longer.

You can also use internal links to signal to Google which site pages are the most important. Pages with more links will be considered more valuable, so make sure you link to your best products to increase their sales.

Step 5. Content Marketing

Optimizing your product pages and descriptions is vital for ecommerce SEO. However, to get long-term, consistent organic traffic, you need to create blog posts as part of your marketing strategy. Valuable content builds authority and ensures that Google’s visitors continue to trickle in.

The key is posting consistent, high-quality content that provides value. However, there are pros and cons to blogging, and it requires time and effort.

Target Informational Keywords

Informational keywords help solve problems for readers while positioning your brand as a trusted resource. Focus on content that educates your audience and naturally integrates relevant product links.

For example, if you sell natural cleaning products, you can write a blog post about the benefits of switching from conventional cleaning products to natural alternatives.

Product guides are also a great place to start. Create one for every product category you sell, which could give you an advantage over competitor sites selling the same products.

As long as you include product links within all your blog posts, you will see the difference it makes to your organic traffic.

Make Your Content Easy To Read

Use headings and subheadings to break up your blog content and help readers skip to the section of the article that is most relevant to them. Search engines also like content that is easy to navigate, so remember to add appropriate keywords to your headings.

Since you already have high-res images that you have used in your store, add them to your blog posts to make the page attractive and increase the chance of readers clicking through to your store.

Use our blog post checklist before you publish to ensure it is SEO-optimized.

Step 6. Link Building

Link building is a valuable aspect of SEO that can take longer to implement than the others. As previously stated, the position your page will rank on Google depends on how useful the search engine considers your content and how authoritative your site is overall.

A link to your site from another reputable site is one of the most prominent signals to Google that your site should be trusted, and it can greatly affect your content’s ranking.

When your site is brand new, you will have very few backlinks, making it difficult to rank well in the early months. The faster you can establish high-quality links to your site, the sooner you will move up the search rankings results.

Guest Posts

One way to create links to your site is to write content for other sites and include your name and website in the post. Many websites accept guest posts, allowing them to post more content without creating it themselves or paying for it.

Alternatively, if you are an expert in your field, you can provide quotes to journalists and writers that will be featured in their articles, along with a link to your website. Sign up on Qwoted.com to connect with thousands of writers who need quotes.

Regardless of the niche you’re selling in, connect with website owners and bloggers who produce similar content and propose writing an article for them. If you’re already posting blog entries on your ecommerce site to enhance SEO, send them links to demonstrate the quality of writing.

The more guest posts you can write, the more signals Google will receive that your site is worth recommending to readers.

Create Shareable Content

The blog on your ecommerce website is an effective way to earn backlinks over time. By creating high-quality, shareable content, readers will eventually want to repost it on their site, which means you’ll gain a backlink in the process.

The more optimized content you create on your site, the higher the chance of people linking to it. This strategy is not short-term; it may take several months to see results.

In the long run, however, it can result in authoritative links within your niche, which Google will love.

Broken Link Building

If another website has broken links, you can turn this to your advantage. This method involves locating links that direct visitors to a site similar to yours but are no longer functional.

By reaching out to the site where the link exists, you can suggest a replacement that links to your ecommerce site. This strategy ensures a win for you and the site owner. They fix a broken link (something Google hates), and you get a shiny new backlink to your site.

Ready to launch? Review our ecommerce checklist first.

5 Best Ecommerce SEO Tools To Track Your Results

While ecommerce SEO is primarily the result of hard work on your part, doing all of the analysis yourself can be time-consuming and, at times, inefficient. 

There are various SEO tools that you can use to speed up the process and keep you on track, from finding the best keyword ideas to monitoring your website traffic.

1. Google Analytics

This free tool from Google is essential for monitoring your website’s performance. It enables you to analyze visitor behavior and their entry points on your site, track your bounce rate, view average session durations, and more.

This information can help you understand how your customers interact with various elements of your site, allowing you to improve and optimize your pages.

2. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a powerful SEO tool many leading ecommerce stores use to improve their SEO. It provides insight into your domain authority, simplifies keyword research, and tracks competitor strategies to identify what works. 

When working to earn backlinks, Ahrefs can show where your biggest competitors get their links from, allowing you to earn equally high-quality links yourself.

3. Semrush

Semrush is another comprehensive SEO tool that is particularly useful for keyword research and traffic analysis. Its powerful keyword magic tool can analyze your domain and help you find keywords for which you have a good chance of ranking. 

You can also compare keyword difficulty at a glance, allowing you to target low-competition keywords that will benefit your search engine rankings.

4. Answer The Public

While most SEO tools require a subscription, Answer The Public is a free tool that generates keyword ideas by analyzing the questions people type into search engines or ask on forums. 

As well as providing you with long tail keywords, it can give you inspiration on topic ideas for your blog posts and allow you to address questions that your target audience is already asking online.

5. Moz Pro

This resource is an all-in-one SEO tool that helps ecommerce businesses improve rankings through keyword research, site audits, and backlink analysis. It offers domain authority tracking, which measures a site’s strength against competitors, and Keyword Explorer, which helps identify high-ranking search terms. 

The Link Explorer tool provides insights into backlink quality and identifies toxic links that could impact rankings. Moz Pro also includes site crawl diagnostics, which detect technical SEO issues like duplicate content, broken links, and missing metadata.

Start Your Ecommerce Business With Friday In 2025

If you are looking for an ecommerce platform to make setting up your online store a breeze, Friday is an excellent solution. With stunning templates to customize your business and a drag-and-drop editor that simplifies the entire process, you can have a beautiful, user-friendly website ready to launch in no time.

With an all-inclusive subscription that gives you access to secure payment gateways, web hosting, and stock photos all in one place, you don’t need to worry about unexpected costs as you build your online store.

Get started with Friday’s free trial—sign up now.

Summary

Mastering ecommerce SEO is vital to driving organic traffic to your site and boosting sales. By strategically targeting keywords, creating an optimal site architecture, and implementing a strategy to earn backlinks, you will steadily improve your rankings and scale your platform.

As your ecommerce SEO efforts take effect, more potential customers will discover your site, and your sales will increase.

Having a powerful ecommerce platform to support your business can help you achieve success sooner, providing the tools needed for growth and scalability.