Ecommerce SEO Checklist: Keyword Research

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1. Have You Done Keyword Research?

How do you find out the right keyword that can bring high traffic to your eCommerce website?
The answer is keyword research. Keyword research helps you find out the trending words people use to search for your products.
The ideal keywords have low competition and high search volume. They bring you a high monthly average search with minimal competition.
The best part about research is you may stumble upon new terms. You can tap into a wide array of SEO tools to mine the top-searched keywords specific to your industry.

2. Do You Know Your Buyers?

You cannot develop a strong SEO strategy without industry knowledge of audience preference. Without this, you will miss out on several marketing opportunities. An easy way to find out about your target audience is by creating a buyer persona. It gives you an insight into the demographic details of your visitors.
You get to know the keywords the audiences are using at various stages of the market funnel. It helps you understand their needs, questions, and desires. Use this information to drive more customers to your eCommerce site.

3. Are You Paying Attention To Searcher Intent?

If you know the intent of your customers, engaging with them becomes easier. As we know, not all people always use Google to make a purchase. They may just want to know more about a product they have heard from their friends. It allows you to spread awareness.
Unless they know you, how are they going to like you?
Educating them about your product is the first step in the eCommerce marketing funnel. It helps you get leads. Once your keywords cater to the searcher's intent, you gain a better Google rank. Hence, all your keywords don't need to have buyer intent.

4. Are You Focusing On Both Primary And Long-tail Keywords?

Both varieties of keywords form an integral part of a proper SEO plan. You use the primary keywords in headings, URLs, and the like. They give users an idea of your eCommerce products and services.

• Primary keywords have a high search volume.
• Long-tail keywords do not have that, but they bring high conversion rates.

Long-tail keywords either focus on the purchase intent of the customers or their need for information. Either way, they help create a bond between your site and the target audience. SEO tools like Ubersuggest and Google autosuggest can help you in your quest.

5. Are You Assigning LSI Keywords To Each Of Your Webpages?

Apart from the primary and long-tail keywords, you need to target LSI keywords to each page. Look out for the related terms of the primary keywords, apart from their synonyms.
One of the best sources of LSI keywords is Google. Check the examples of related searches that Google offers at the bottom of the result page.
Another way to find them is by using the Google search bar. As you type the target keyword, look at the option that Google is offering in autosuggest. LSI keywords assist the search engines in understanding your content better.

6. Are You Making Use of Unique Keywords?

Unique keywords have their share of searches. Use them on every page of your eCommerce site. These keywords yield the maximum result when you place them evenly across the page. It includes both the body of the content and the title tag. They are unique to your niche. The more you use them, the higher is the chance of your target audience to find you.
You must blend productivity with creativity to drive traffic to your website. The rationale is simple: The higher the traffic, the better the sales.

Ecommerce SEO Checklist: On Competitors

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7. Have You Analyzed Your Competitors?

Competitor analysis gives you a great deal of information.

• First, it helps you identify your competitors, both online and offline.
• You became aware of their standing in the market,
• Then, you get to know the keywords they are targeting.
• You find out the tactics that have helped them secure a better Google rank.

Acquiring all this information helps you avoid the mistakes they have committed.
You identify the opportunities and improvise on your strategies to ace them. In short, you strengthen your ecommerce SEO plans. It's not about reinventing the wheel but avoiding the labor pain.

8. Did You Find The Source Of Your Competitors Backlinks?

Backlinks play a major role in convincing Google that you are trustworthy. If you are a new player in the industry, it may not be easy to have quality backlinks immediately.
Worry not. Your competitors are here to help you.
Conduct research and get hold of the websites that link to your rivals. You can consider it as stealing, but Google does not mind you doing this.
Backlinks help you improve your standing with Google if they come from high-quality pages.

9. Are You Targeting The Sales-driven Keywords?

Keywords can make or break your eCommerce business. While keywords having high search volumes are important, they need to drive sales as well. After all, you do not want organic traffic but also leads that will transform into sales.
To find out whether a query is transactional or informational, use Google's keyword planner. Now, if the keyword directly leads you to your product pages, they are sales-driven. Incorporating them will help searchers to find the products they are searching for on the web.

Ecommerce SEO: Off-Page Checklist

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10. Does Your Site Has Quality Backlinks?

Backlinks help you gain authority. They tell both the search engines and users that your site is credible and trustworthy.
Google gives importance to sites that have high-quality, relevant backlinks. Now, when people find Google trusting a site, they also start trusting it as well. Soon after launching your site, identify the backlinks that can give you a push on the result pages. This step is of utmost importance as it helps you gain traction in the market.

11. Have You Set Up Profiles On Directory Listings?

Setting up profiles on authoritative directory listings send positive signals to Google. Find out listing sites and directories that are relevant to your industry. Such directories must be of high quality and authentic.
When people find your website on such directories, they will start trusting you. It helps you spread your reach. Besides, you gain a better rank for related search queries.

12. Have You Optimized Your Content For Voice Searches?

People are increasingly using mobile phones to conduct online searches. Given the impact and scope of mobile phones, you must optimize your site for voice searches.
Optimizing for voice is not the same as optimizing the content for normal searches. People use voice search to find the places they are looking for near them. Also, most of the voice searches will be query-based. So, you need to keep the tone of your content conversational.
Use long-tail keywords in your content. This way, Google prefers your website content as prospective answers.

13. Are You Performing International SEO?

The aim of international SEO is like that of regular SEO. It helps you to drive more traffic but by reaching people across boundaries. It gives foreigners speaking different languages access to your website.
When you perform international SEO, you expand your audience base. However, before you proceed, do research to find out the places your products have a market.
There are two types of international SEO:

• Multilingual SEO, and
• Multiregional.

14. What Domain Strategy You Are Choosing For International SEO?

There are three domain options when you go international.

• Country-coded top-level domains (ccTLDs),
• Subdirectories, and
• Subdomains.

CcTLDs define the audiences or the country you are targeting. You need to create a separate website for each country.
Subdomains require creating individual websites for all countries. However, they are less expensive than ccTLDs and easy to maintain.
Subdirectories are the easiest of the lot when it comes to setting up and maintaining. Make a subfolder within the root domain; after that, place content for different countries/languages in it.
Use hreflang tags when only the users' language matters, not their location.

15. What Are You Focusing On For International SEO: Language Or Country?

In international SEO, you can either focus on a country or language.

• If you are targeting a country, consider the linguistic variation while creating content. Keywords and their use vary from one country to another. Also, study the buying behavior of people.
• Now, if you are focusing on language, make sure to translate and tag the content properly. Otherwise, you will face trouble with indexation.

For translating, hire a person who knows the language. It is never wise to depend on machine translators. Also, check the formats of tagging used by different search engines.

16. Are You Staying Away From Black-hat SEO Practices?

Google, among other search engines, never appreciate black-hat SEO strategies. Therefore, stay away from them.

• When searching for backlinks, never use the link from spam sites.
• Also, do not overstuff keywords into your website.
• Do not indulge in cloaking, article spinning, link manipulation, and the like.

If you use any of the black-hat SEO practices, Google will penalize your site by demoting the rankings. Not only do you lose traffic but also sales.

Ecommerce SEO: Technical Checklist

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17. Do You Have A Mobile-friendly Website Design?

Having a mobile-friendly website design is no more a choice. It is a requisite if you want your eCommerce business to succeed.
Use responsive web design to gain customers across a broad range of platforms. In this design, the website adjusts itself to different screen sizes. This way, users do not have to scroll up and down or zoom in and out continuously. Every detail of the page remains visible to them. A mobile-friendly design also ensures a better user experience.

18. Are You Blocking Important Search Engines Bots?

Google bots & Bing bots crawl and index your web pages regularly. Search engines use them to build databases and determine your rank. Bots will crawl only to the pages that you permit.
When you block them from visiting your webpage, Google will fail to get information on that page. It can both be beneficial and detrimental to your site.
You can use robots.txt to hide broken links and certain files from search engines. However, if they fail to visit any important page, all your SEO efforts will go waste.

19. Is Your Robots.txt Blocking Unnecessary and Non-public Pages?

Robots.txt makes search engine spiders aware of the pages they should not crawl on your website. It helps you prevent unnecessary pages from getting indexed.
You may also have a login page or a staging version of a web page that you do not want users to find. Robot.txt will do the job for you. Besides, it helps avoid duplicate content issues.

20. Have You Optimized Your URL?

URLs play a major role in determining your visibility. They help search engines understand a site's purpose, content, and target market. Optimizing them is thus a necessity.

• Use relevant keywords in the URLs and remove the extra words.
• Use hyphens wherever possible, and avoid using underscores. Google algorithms cannot read underscores.
• Canonicalize the URLs and exclude dynamic parameters.
• Ignore capital letters as they make the URLs hard to read for both search engines and people.

The main aim is to keep it short and make it easily readable.

21. Have You Added Schema Markup To Your Website?

Schema markup increases the website's CTR on the search engine results. It gives more data about your website to the search engines and users.
Your website content becomes more indexable compared to other websites that are not having schemas. It enables search engines to add more value to the results. Users get access to extra data like reviews, pictures, dates, and pricing of your products.

22. Have You Checked Your Website's Loading Speed?

Users get upset if they have to wait for any webpage to load. They leave the website, and their chances of revisiting it reduces. Hence, search engines rank a website better when it loads in no time. It makes it important to keep a tab on your eCommerce site's loading speed.
Eliminate the factors that can slow down your website. Optimize image size, remove unnecessary JavaScript files, CSS, and HTML codes. Also, reduce redirects, enable compression, and improve server response time.

23. Have You Fixed Broken Links?

Broken links hurt user experience. The earlier you repair them, the lesser the effect on your Google rankings. Broken links can surface because of both internal and external linking. It may happen if you didn't change the link of a webpage that you have renamed or moved.
Another reason could be you linking to content that no longer exists. It also happens when the external page owner that you have linked to removes or deletes the URL.
Repairing broken internal links is easy as the control rests with you. In the case of external links, you either remove the linking or get in touch with the third party.

Ecommerce SEO: On-Page Checklist

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24. How Do You Plan To End The Competition Between Your Webpages?

If your eCommerce site has multiple pages, this can happen. For example, your product page on 'Gowns for women' can compete with your blog page with the same name.

• A simple way to solve this is by changing the keywords for the pages. For the product page, use product-specific keywords.
• In contrast, while writing blogs, target keywords representing informational queries.

For example, use 'Gowns for women' for the product page.
For blog post headings, you can go for a more descriptive one like 'how to choose women's gown for parties.'
Maintaining unique content and metadata helps avoid this issue.

25. Do You Have A Section For Blogs?

Blogging has the power to influence your eCommerce SEO. Having a blog section is an easy way to attract organic traffic to your eCommerce site.
You can educate people and spread awareness of your product through blogs. However, use only high-quality content. Also, ensure that the topics are relevant to your target customers.
As you include answers to customers' queries on your website, Google prioritizes you. Besides, blogs are a great place to incorporate long-tail keywords.

26. Do You Have High-quality Content?

All your SEO strategies will fall flat if you fail to maintain high-quality content on your site. You cannot get a better rank unless Google considers your content worth sharing.
Keep in mind that search engines give importance to high-quality and unique content. Therefore, create innovative content covering almost every aspect of your site. Most importantly, spread the keywords evenly without overstuffing. Also, avoid thin content and plagiarism.

27. Do You Have Dedicated Pages for Products?

Having dedicated pages for every product is a must for your eCommerce site to succeed. Also, your page needs to have 300 words or more to compete with competitors. It means adding the name and picture of the product is not enough.
You need to have an informative piece on each product description. Explain in detail the features and benefits of the product. The more the information, the better are the chances of getting ranked higher in the results.

28. Do You Have Unique Content For Category Pages?

Users search for the product category pages to gather information about the products. Thus, these pages are the first line of conversion in terms of users' shopping experience.
Include unique content for each category page and let them drive traffic for you. To optimize these pages, give relevant headings, emphasize category navigation, and the like. All these value adds are sure to bring an upsurge in traffic to your site.

29. Are You Focusing On Internal Linking?

Internal linking is another way to give a push to your eCommerce website. Share the links of content between the various webpages.
Internal linking facilitates easy navigation between the pages. Besides, it establishes information hierarchy. It inspires people to know more about your site and products.
The Result: They end up spending more time on your site. It gives Google an idea that you are providing a superior user experience. Eventually, it increases your rankings.

30. Are The Titles Unique On Each Page?

You have several pages on your website, from the homepage to product pages. Thus, it becomes necessary to give an identification to each page. And what can be better than a title!
Each page needs to have a unique title that best describes it. However, keep it within 70 characters. Giving titles to thousands of product pages can appear as a painstaking job. The most efficient way to handle the situation is to include the product names in the titles. This way, the titles become both unique and informative.

31. Have You Optimized The Header Tags?

Optimizing the heading tags by using keywords improves your search engine visibility. Differentiate the header tags in your web page.
For example, the h1 tag needs to have sentences with keywords closely relevant to your page title. They also need to be relevant in terms of your content. This way, they provide context and structure to your write-up.
The h2 tag refers mostly to the sub-heading. It should be in coherence with the h1 tag.

32. Have You Solved The Duplicate Content Issues, If Any?

You certainly do not want to repeat the same content on different web pages of your eCommerce site. Google's tendency to turn a blind eye to such acts is low. If your content is duplicate, search engines will push the page behind.
Google considers a page duplicate if 60% of its content matches with another page. An eCommerce website may end up having more than one product page for the same item. The difference would be in the sizes and colors of the page. Now, this can be unintentional, but the chances of Google penalizing you remain high.
Consolidating all the data on a page solves not only the issue but also enhances user experience.

33. Are The Important Pages Only A Few Clicks Away From The Homepage?

The more click it takes to reach an important page from the homepage, the more difficult it is for users and Google to spot it.
Search engines give preference to websites that follow an intuitive linking structure. Such a structure assists users to browse through the site easily. Therefore, it is best to keep the important pages within three clicks away from the homepage. Otherwise, it affects the quality of the entire site.
A clumsy site is a business's nightmare. Always avoid cluttering or improper tagging of images.

34. Are You Using Keywords In The Meta Description?

While meta descriptions have no direct bearing on your rank, they influence visitors. It's like they speak to your audiences about your products on your behalf. It makes it essential that you must have a unique meta description for each page.
The description should match your webpage content and contain the relevant keywords. Keep in mind that they should not be more than 150 characters.

35. Do You Have Images On Your Website?

Images bring a wave of freshness to your website. After all, visual media always have enjoyed a strong appeal among audiences.
Imagine a site overstuffed with texts. Hardly anybody will like it. Images not only add meaning to your web pages but also attract visitors.
Images help search engines have a better understanding of your website. That does not mean you have to populate the entire page with random pictures. You should pay more attention to curate the content. The better the layout, the better would be the reception among the audience.

36. Are The Images Optimized?

Incorporating images can add value to your website only when you optimize them. Otherwise, they may even cause harm to your website. Ensure that the image dimension is the same as its displayed size. Also, reduce their size.
Large images often increase the pages' loading time. Besides, the images must be relevant to the text. Keep their names short and include the relevant keywords. You can also add a caption as it helps in better scanning of the page.

37. Have You Added Alt Text For All Images?

Adding Alt text to the images is necessary. It helps Google understand the images and their relationship with the text. Besides, Alt text assists visually impaired people in describing the images. That is why it is important to save them in a human-friendly manner.
For example, when you click a photo, the camera saves it in the form of numbers. Now, those numbers are irrelevant to your text and website. Hence, change the alt text at the time of uploading the picture on your website. Use primary keywords in the Alt text as it brings you a step closer to your audience.

38. Have You Uploaded A SiteMap?

The idea behind every SEO strategy is to make a site accessible to Google and other search engines. Generating a sitemap and uploading it to the Google search console is a step towards attaining that goal. It is not mandatory, but it benefits your site.
Sitemaps are the blueprint of your website. It helps search engines find, crawl, and index every content of your website. It informs Google about the most important pages of your website. Remember, Google ranks not only websites but also all your webpages.

39. Are You Optimizing The Website Footer?

When you are optimizing the entire site, why left the footer behind? They can increase your visibility by offering information missing from the main menu.
A study has found that optimizing footer can lead to a 50 percent rise in conversion rates. Hence, use both internal and external links in the footer to pinpoint your relevancy to the users. The higher the number of such links, the better is your Google rank.
You can also use primary keywords in the footer. However, do not overdo anything. Organize the links and do not link every page of your eCommerce site.

40. Does Your Site Content Cover The Frequent Search Queries Of The Customers?

Users prefer websites that have answers to their queries. So, why not understand their queries?
Start updating answers to the frequent search questions to increase the reach of your online store. You can also maintain a Q/A section on your website and update it regularly.
The benefit is two-fold. You spread awareness while increasing the volume of unique content on your website. Gradually, this gives you an upper hand over your competitors.

41. How Have You Incorporated Drop-down Menus In Your Navigation Bar?

Dropdown menus refer to the list of items that appear when you hover or click on a top-level menu heading. Depending on their programming, they can make crawling difficult for search engines. Apart from this, it also affects the user experience.
Visitors tend to miss top-level pages. They can also slow down your site. Besides, dropdown menus are not mobile-friendly. They indeed save screen space, but they make navigation difficult on mobile phones.

42. Are You Using Breadcrumbs On Your Website?

Breadcrumbs are both SEO and user-friendly. When you incorporate breadcrumb navigation, it gives a direction to the users. It offers the users a trail of their activities on the website. Hence, they do not get lost within the multiple pages of your website.
Breadcrumbs give users a sense of control and encourage them to visit more pages. As a result, they end up spending more time on your site. It reduces the bounce rate and helps you impress Google.

43. Can The Search Engines Crawl & Index Your Site?

If the search engine bots cannot crawl your website content, how can they rank them?
These bots are not always very patient. If they have to take multiple detours to find your important pages, they will leave your site. So, it will negatively affect your site. Therefore, always keep a tab on how conducive your website is for the robots to crawl.
Solve the technical issues that are blocking the bots by using Google's crawl error report. Also, ensure that Google can index all your pages.

• Check Google's Index Report. If there is a downward trend, then there is trouble.
• In the Google index section, check the content keywords report.
• If you spot strange keywords, the chances are high that someone has hacked your website.

Having unrelated keywords can also suggest that you are facing on-page SEO issues.

44. Is Your Homepage Optimized?

The homepage introduces your eCommerce website to the world. Hence, make it as creative and unique as possible. Do not leave out any scope of optimization.
Meticulously organize it while educating people about your products. A homepage should have information about all the new launches and promotional offers.
However, do not does overstuff information on the homepage. It needs to be pleasant and soothing to the eyes. Keep it simple. Use important keywords in its content, headings, title tags, and meta description.

Ecommerce SEO Checklist: On Reputation Management

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45. Do You Have A Review Section On Your Website?

Reviews are a must for every eCommerce site. Positive reviews increase the conversion rate by more than 50 percent.
How so?
Well, people trust your products when other people vouch for them. Reviews help you earn credibility. That is why you always encourage your customers for reviews.
Maintain a review section for every product. Ask your customers to rate your products. Reviews also generate new and fresh content for your site. Either way, it boosts your SEO efforts and helps you create a bond with the customers.

46. Are You Asking For Testimonials?

Why just stop at reviews? Ask for testimonials as well. They also help you increase the conversion rate. Like reviews, they too build authority and trust.
When you include testimonials on your website, it helps you to track your audiences. Others sharing positive opinions about you convince the users to hit the 'buy' button.
Even bad testimonials are helpful. Posting them lets people know that you believe in transparency. Secondly, choices vary from one customer to another. What did not go well with one may attract another person!

47. How Are You Managing The Reviews?

Managing reviews is one such art that can make or break your name and authority in the market.
While you focus on the positive reviews, do not just remove the negative reviews. Rather, communicate with the customers, understand their concerns, and solve them. This way, you not only gain their loyalty but also impress many others.
Address criticism in a dignified way only when it is worth it. Identify people who are attacking you without any proper reason and fight them back. Do not let anyone mess around with you. Most importantly, always keep track of the reviews.

Ecommerce SEO Checklist: On User Experience

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48. Are Your Dealing Properly With 404 Pages?

Error pages or 404 pages are a big disappointment. They upset users, and Google does not like it. 404 pages appear when you remove content from a page, change permalink, or the link is incorrect.
In the case of third-party links, it may happen that the website has changed its URL. There can be other reasons, as well. It could be a temporary server error or a technical issue blocking robots from crawling.
Whatever is the reason you need to solve it immediately.
Use 301 redirects. It automatically redirects people to the appropriate page or the new website. Apart from this, you can also save a humor-filled template for the 404 pages. A little humor does not harm anyone.

49. How Are You Dealing With Out-of-stock Products?

An eCommerce site with fluctuating inventory is bound to face out-of-stock products problem. If the product is never coming back, remove that product page. Otherwise, leave a 'product is out of stock' notification.
Allow the users to 'get notified' when the product is back. Apart from this, leave links to similar products on that page.
You can also redirect users to a page having a similar product or the related product category page. This way, you are adding value to the page while providing a good user experience.

50. Are You Focusing On User Experience?

User experience is one of the most important things to consider if you want to impress both users and search engines. Every other day, Google is changing its algorithms to enhance user experience.
Search engines use several metrics to measure how well you are serving the users. A few of them are page loading time, website responsiveness, menus, and URL structure. Always keep track of these things and solve the problems the moment they crop up.
SEO and user experience go side-by-side. While one focuses on search engines, the other on the site's audiences. Thus, you cannot ignore one while focusing on the other.

51. Are You Prioritizing Pages Properly?

When you have multiple web pages, you need to prioritize the important pages to help Google find them. Otherwise, your audiences cannot know what you want them to focus on in your site.
Take the help of Google Analytics to prioritize the pages once you list them, map keywords to each of the pages. Use both primary and long-tail keywords but only after considering their search intent.
Prioritizing pages also help you enhance the user experience of your eCommerce site. You enter the good book of Google while increasing your conversion rate.

52. Which Option You Are Using: Load More Or Infinite Scrolling?

People often ignore Infinite scrolling. The main reason is because of the load it puts on a long page's memory. If you don't build the page properly, it negatively affects the page's performance. In terms of user experience, it focuses less on individual products on a page. Also, it does not allow people to access the website footer. This way, you limit the role of your website footer.
Load more option enables users to compare products of a list easily. As the load time is less with this option, it offers a superior user experience. Thus, many prefer several variations of the load more option. However, both options have an advantage: they do not replace products on a list.

53. Does Your Website Has Videos?

Along with texts and images, you need to have product videos on your website.
Often, you can also translate the content into a script and make a video of it.
Videos find more audiences than texts. Incorporating them help you engage better with your customers.
Do not make large videos to make the page slow and increase its loading time. You can also let all other elements of your eCommerce site to load first. It helps you buy some time.

54. Are You Engaging With Your Customers?

You cannot offer a better user experience without engaging with your customers. There are several ways to engager with them, like responding to their reviews or answering their queries.
With time, it strengthens the bond you have with them. The process has dual benefits.

• First, the generation of fresh and new content no longer remains a challenge for your eCommerce platform.
• Second, Google appreciates the efforts you make to keep your customers happy. Soon, you find your website securing a top place on the search engine result pages.

55. Are You Keeping Your Website Simple?

Keeping things simple is one of the tricks that never fail to appease people. You can have several elements on your webpages, but the presentation should be simple.
Do not overstuff any page. Also, check the font and color you use on your eCommerce product pages. There should be proper space between the text as well as every product.

Related : Tips for Your eCommerce Landing Page

Navigation should be simple. Otherwise, users will find it difficult to access your site from mobile phones. However, keeping it simple does not mean you cannot be creative.

56. Does Your Website Has Infographics?

In today's cut-throat competition, you cannot keep infographics out of your website. People love them because they can acquire a lot of information in less time. Besides, creative infographics are quite engaging and have a huge fanbase.
Short Infographics not only influence people to stay on your eCommerce website but also makes them come back. This way, while your bounce rate reduces, your customer base becomes strong. Not to forget, once people get impressed with something, they often share it with others.

Ecommerce SEO: Marketing Checklist

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57. Have You Searched For Partners?

Being new in the game is never easy. The road to success might have several hurdles, which are, at times, hard to overcome alone. Getting a little help can make things easy. Search other websites for partnership.
While you offer them content, they drop a word about you on their website and social media accounts. It helps you reach new people and gain new links. You also get to build domain authority.
Set a deal with affiliated websites to promote your products on their platforms. It is a great way to drive traffic to your site. In return, you pay a commission to them.

58. Do You Have Sponsors?

Another way to find visibility is by sponsoring your eCommerce products and content. You can target well-known bloggers for that. While some of them do it for free, others charge you. Both ways, you gain a large base of audience.
When someone reputable praises you, people take out time to know more about you. However, to convince the bloggers, you have to maintain superior quality and transparency. They may also have several other prerequisites that you have to agree to. After all, nobody wants to risk their reputation.

59. Have You Contacted Any Social Media Influencers?

You can find a lot of influencers on social media. With time they have earned respect and trust of people. So, when they write about your eCommerce business or products, people will listen to them.
Choose someone you know your industry. The influencer must add value to your content while promoting your online store. Studies reveal that 71 percent of marketers believe that influencers bring better quality traffic. Thus, they are worth a try.

60. Are You Active On Social Media?

Social media can set the ball rolling for your eCommerce website. Though they do not directly influence your SEO ranking, they give you exposure. And this brings you organic traffic and visibility.
When you post on various social media platforms, you extensively distribute your content. Besides, your brand earns a reputation, and you become a name to reckon with. All these significantly contribute to your SEO performance and Google rank.

61. Are You Using Email As A Marketing Medium?

Email is an effective marketing medium, and it can boost your SEO efforts.

• They have the reputation of bringing qualified traffic to your site.
• Emails are great at promoting targeted SEO content and boost your off-page SEO factors.

You can use them to inform the target audiences about new launches and offers. They encourage engagement with customers and social shares. You can also use Email as a marketing medium for outreach purposes.

Ecommerce SEO: Outsourcing Checklist

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62. If You Are Hiring An SEO Firm, Have You Done Your Homework?

When you launch your website, you already have a lot many things on your platter. SEO responsibilities demand continuous time and effort.
You need ample resources as well. If it appears a huge task, you can hire an SEO firm. However, do your homework first. The firm needs to have experienced, knowledgeable, and qualified employees.
The staff should be amicable and spend time understanding your company and its needs. Besides, check whether they have flexible plans and offer emergency services. Find out about their reputation. It is a major decision that is going to have a massive impact on your life. Take the time to do thorough research.

63. Does The SEO Firm Communicates Properly?

The SEO firm should maintain transparency in communication. Make sure you get the point of contact, which is available 24*7.

• The firm should keep you updated about your website's performance even if things are going south.
• Its staff should give you monthly reports written in simple terms devoid of jargon.
• Check whether the firm consults with its clients before making financial decisions.
• Is its staff willing to answer your queries?

All these answers speak volumes of the firm. You need to communicate properly with the staff; otherwise, how can you trust them?

64. Is the SEO Firm Affordable?

Apart from offering superior services, the SEO firm also needs to be within your budget. It should not break your bank. Check whether there is any hidden cost. They should not surprise you with the bill.
Remember that price does not always determine the quality of work. It may happen that the firm is charging more but has no proven record of success.
Consider all the parameters before taking a call. Never let money be the sole deciding factor. It does not mean you blindly opt for the costly alternative. Cheaper firms, too, can do the trick. Assess a company based on its merits, not the bill it furnishes.

Related : Why You Should Avoid Cheap SEO Services?

65. What Does the Firm's Contract Say?

Every SEO firm has a contract. The question is, does the contract proposes to bind you?
True that SEO efforts take time to show results, but they never take more than a year. Stay away from firms that bind their clients for years. Ideal SEO firms never make such an effort. They are confident of bringing the desired results. Also, they do not penalize you for breaking the contract.
If they fail to satisfy you with the results, they let you part ways amicably. Read through the fine print to understand what you are getting into before signing it. Never trust a firm that wants long term deals without spelling out the course of action.

Ecommerce SEO Checklist: Building Credibility

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66. Have You Built Credibility?

Building credibility is essential to optimize your site for search engines. With credibility comes high-quality organic links. You also get exposure to the press and other forms of media.
A website's design plays a vital role in building credibility. The design should invoke a sense of trust among users. Do not position advertisements above your content. Ensure crucial information is not getting trapped under layers of advertisements. Otherwise, users will find it difficult to trust you.
Give users get full access to your background information. Also, the articles you publish should have proper citations. Apart from this, proper user interaction is another factor that contributes to building credibility.

67. Are You Targeting Communities To Promote Your Products?

For every type of industry and niche, there are relevant communities. Find out one that will suit you and become a member. Contribute to the community's welfare while convincing it to promote your products.
You can also target forums having influential people. It enables you to expand your reach and develop a large audience base for your online shopping site. At least a section of their members and followers will visit your site to know more about you, if not all.
The Result: You gain not only organic traffic but also significant leads.

68. Do You Have A Yahoo Listing?

It is common knowledge that Google dominates the market, but it will be unwise to depend solely on it. There are several other search engines out there that can help you expand your business. One such community is Yahoo.
When you target online listings, create one with Yahoo. It will come for free. Yahoo listing gives your customers accurate and updated information about your website. It is important to drive organic traffic and gain a foothold in the market.

69. Have You Tapped The Bing Community?

When you are targeting Yahoo, why ignore Bing? It also has a huge community that you can benefit from. Remember, competition is less on Bing.
Bing betters Google when it comes to transparency. It can help you tap the local customers. While ranking, it takes reviews from other search sites into consideration. Its search result includes the ratings and reviews given by external sites. It allows people to know you better.

70. Do You Have YouTube Presence?

The penetration of YouTube's has achieved in the past few years is largely unsurpassed. Millions of people visit YouTube every day. There cannot be a better place than YouTube to promote yourself.
Create a YouTube channel to spread the word about your products. Encourage people or contact influencers to make YouTube videos about your products.
Be consistent with your campaign schedule. When you appear before people at a regular interval, they get influenced by your presence. Eventually, it increases your organic traffic.

71. Are You Targeting The Local Customers?

Never forget to target local customers. It does not matter how big a company is; if it ignores local customers, it loses sales. Create a Google My Business listing and list yourself on online directories. Always keep your name, phone number, and address updated.

Related : How Can Local SEO Services Help You to Boost Your Local Business?

Research and find the preference and needs of the local people. Also, identify the keywords used regionally. For example, people in your locality may prefer the term football over soccer. Tweak your SEO strategies to target them.

72. Are You Covering The Local Events?

To tap the local market:

• Become a part of it.
• Engage yourself with its developments.
• Dedicate a section of your blog to local news and events.
• Write about their requirements that can have an impact on their daily life. Soon, people will start noticing you.
• Take pictures, make videos relevant to your eCommerce site, and upload them.

The more you care for them, the better the response you will get. Besides, when Google finds out your efforts, it prioritizes you for local searches.
For example, you own a sports equipment business. So, when someone searches for a cricket bat, Google will prefer your online sports store.

73. Are You Focusing On The Other Popular Search Engines?

Google has a worldwide reach. Yet, a country can have its search engine. For international SEO, research the popular search engines of your target country.
For example, Baidu dominates the Chinese market and Yandex, the Russian market. So, if you are targeting any of these countries, focusing only on Google will not help.
Apart from Google, Yahoo, and Bing, there are other popular search engines. DuckDuckGo and MSN, to name a few. Target them as well to spread your reach.

Ecommerce SEO Checklist: Tracking The Output

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74. Are You Being Patient?

When you are performing SEO, you have to be patient. SEO does not give results overnight. You have to follow all the protocols for a period ranging from six to nine months before seeing results.
Do not try to hurry or lose hope. Do not be inconsistent as it can ruin your entire game plan. If you are outsourcing SEO, do not fall for companies promising quick results. There is no secret sauce recipe with SEO.
The grind is quite simple: You have to put your head down and work smart to see things shape up bright.

75. Are You Documenting Your Results?

You might be putting your best foot forward. However, you can never know it unless you are documenting the results.
Preparing reports provide many benefits. You get to know where you are standing. Both the positive and negative sides of your performance come to the fore.
While you draw inspiration from your success, you rework the areas needing attention. This way, no problem is big enough a hurdle for you. Besides, it helps you with your accounting, tax, and other aspects of the business.

76. Are You Tracking Your SEO Progress?

You may be focusing on the right keywords. And you might have gained some high-quality backlinks to your eCommerce site. But, is your SEO strategy working?
You may be making monthly reports to measure your results. But, how to find the factors that are affecting the report?
Several SEO metrics can help you decode your success or shortcomings. Analyze your search engine traffic and compare your performance with market share. Identify your traffic sources.
Find out how a single source is affecting your visitors' number and traffic. The answer will also highlight your strength and weakness. Using this information, alter your SEO strategies to get the optimum results. Also, track the keyword rankings to identify the competition you are facing.

77. Are You Focusing On The Engagement Rate?

You get the engagement rate after dividing total engagements with the total followers. The number is then multiplied by 100.
Total engagements / Total followers X 100
It is a great marker of your customers' satisfaction with your site. It helps you determine how well your target market is responding to your content. It enables you to carry out course correction if needed.
Bounce rates, page loading time, and comments influence the engagement rate. If you are not keeping a strict vigil on this, it can take a toll on your sales and brand image. It, in turn, harms your ROI.

78. How Do You Plan To Increase Click-through-rates?

The Click-through rate finds out the number of people clicking a link among the total number of visitors. CTR is effective in determining whether the right customers get targeted. It is directly proportional to your Google ranking. The better the rate, the higher is the rank.
When you publish the right content for the right audience, your CTR will rise rapidly. With a spike in CTR, your search engine ranking improves. Studies reveal that you get over 30% CTR on desktop and 25% CTR on mobiles when your rank is high.

79. Are You Using Various SEO Tools To Your Advantage?

The magic of SEO is not limited to those with deep pockets. There is a host of sophisticated tools, including free ones, to give you a leg up. You can tap into these free tools to research and audit. Even the free ones can work wonders when it comes to ranking.
Just like any other tool, SEO aims at reducing the manual effort to save time. And in business, time is invariably money. Use these tools to check meta content, track keyword rank, analyze backlinks, and more. It gives you an indication of your site's performance.

Ecommerce SEO Checklist: Budgeting

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80. How Are You Fixing The Budget For The SEO?

The budget can play a constraining role when you draw the business plan. But it does not mean that you have to go for the least costly alternative every time invariably.
The key to selecting a service provider is determining what you require.
Do you intend to spread awareness about your brand or want to optimize content?
Based on your needs, choose from three types of services: On-page, Off-page, and Technical SEO.
The best SEO companies offer a seasoned blend of all three. If your needs are small, talk to experts to identify the specifics. When you have figured out what you want, accommodating the money part becomes easier.