The purpose of this article is to share our experience and observations so that you can achieve better results by adopting our SEO logic and strategies. We will tell you what factors we take into account when optimizing online stores, what are the actions to guarantee a place on the first page of Google search results, and what are the most common mistakes that e-store owners make when it is it's about e-commerce and SEO (e-commerce SEO).

Explained in simple words, SEO is about getting your business website to the top of Google search results. Optimizing your website helps it appear higher in Google results when a search is performed using keywords related to your industry.

But how do search engines know that your site deserves to rank well? These are the 4 pillars of the Google search algorithm:

• Well-Structured Website - A well-designed website can help you make a good impression on your potential customers.
• Intuitively Built Website - A user-friendly website is a logically organized site that users will buy from.
• Quality website - high-quality content is honest, and clear and does not serve a hidden agenda.
• Relevant so that it contains useful information - From an SEO perspective, relevance refers to how well the information on a website matches a search query.

These statistics will convince you that SEO and e-commerce are closely related:

• 37.5% of all traffic on e-commerce sites comes from searches.
• 23.6% of online store orders are directly related to organic traffic.
• 1 out of 3 smartphone searches are done before visiting an offline store.
• SEO has a conversion rate of 14.6%.

So a good SEO can bring you lots of customers and money. But all this only when done correctly.

Let's take a closer look: how exactly is e-commerce SEO different from typical SEO?

• Google treats everything involving financial transactions with care;
• SEO for online stores is usually extremely competitive, regardless of niche. Keep in mind that there are already tens of millions of online stores that want to rank on the first page of Google.

SEO for online stores is more complex because:

• problems with correct handling of the product catalog;
• there are lots of product categories;
• correct management of depleted stocks;
• website architecture;
• potential user trust issues to make online payments;
• problems of correct handling of filters.

So what are the most important ranking factors for E-shop from our point of view?

Of course, each SEO expert has his own opinion and way of doing this so-called white-hat SEO (white hat - genuine SEO tactics that are approved by the main search engines and comply with their terms and conditions):

1. From our observations and many tests and research we have studied, Backlinks are the most important ranking factor. The last time was 2017 Gary Illyes from Google confirmed that PageRank is still used in their algorithm and our tests indicate that a good ranking cannot be achieved without a good link strategy. A lot of factors contribute to a backlink's ability to make a difference, 2 of the most important are relevance (links from sites and blogs that write about the same types of topics) and authority (links from powerful help SEO the most).
2. Product page optimization - There is a world of opportunity to present your product so that it remains relevant and attractive to your customers. Remember first and foremost that Google wants to understand what your page is about. It all starts with keyword analysis, and meta tags (don't forget to add modifiers to your title tags like 'Buy', 'Cheap', and 'Deals'): to get more targeted traffic, use common terms that people use when searching for products in Google), create high-quality content that provides more detail than your competitors (do this at least for your most important products). Avoid duplicate content and stand out by optimizing product page descriptions.
3. Site Architecture and Internal Links - Site architecture should be intuitive and easy to understand. All product pages must be no more than 3 clicks away (or even less) from your home page. Optimize your internal link structure to benefit from good customer retention, you can suggest products that are usually bought together or similar products.
4. UX / UI and customer reviews - What does user experience mean? For us, this consists of several parts: easy-to-read content, internal links, product suggestions (for a lower bounce rate), a well-organized site, interesting and useful content, and no intrusive ads. In general, user interface refers to websites designed around the needs of users.

Why focus on customer reviews? They build trust for online shoppers and increase your brand credibility. 88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. This means they can increase your conversions and revenue. From an SEO perspective, reviews are some additional text that may contain keywords that search engines can use to better understand your content.

The most common E-COMMERCE SEO mistakes we've seen when working with our clients' sites:

• There are no product descriptions and the textiles are of poor quality.
• Incorrect product page structure
• URLs that are not SEO-friendly.
• No design elements and no color scheme aimed at conversion.
• The categories sound too general (for example, the category is called "laptops", not "Apple laptops").
• No attractive offers.
• Lack of a blog on the e-commerce site: In Moldova, we noticed that e-commerce blogs are still ignored.
• Connection problems.
• Few images or images that are inauthentic or uninteresting.

In conclusion, we just want to add that we hope we have inspired you to do e-commerce SEO according to the above methods tested by us so that you can get results immediately!