10 SEO rules for eCommerce content marketing

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To boost sales, eCommerce content marketing and SEO positioning techniques must be integrated strategies and follow - at least - the ten rules established by Jill Kocher , writer and expert in search engine optimization.

1. Answer questions from the audience

Through questions or phrases that they type into search the benefits of using our teacher database engines, consumers are constantly looking for valuable information on specific topics or products. Identifying them is essential in content marketing for eCommerce when thinking in terms of SEO . In this way, you generate content around these questions and satisfy the needs of the public. This translates into better positions, since you give answers to what the user generally searches for on the web and, on the other hand, your site gains relevance over time.

To illustrate the above, imagine that your business is an online pet store, and you focus only on creating product descriptions. Without a doubt, this type of content can attract traffic to your site and achieve positions on the results page when the specific name of what you are promoting is typed into the search engine; but an article that answers the question “How to feed a Pitbull puppy ?” would be much more effective, where you provide valuable information on the subject and, why not, list one of your food supplements for dogs of that breed.

To identify those information gaps or questions that the consumer is asking, you must use keyword research tools.

It is also important to have a presence on the interaction sites frequented by the target audience, such as specialized forums, social networks and competitor pages. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the questions that the support team answers on a daily basis.

2. Choose content formats wisely

As we have seen, a series of articles that answer users' frequently asked questions (written in the language they use when performing a search) will be essential to achieve a good ranking on the results page. However, it is advisable to complement the information with alternative formats such as video. With these, the public can better understand the topic and be more likely to share it.

This type of format, when it is of quality and provides value, increases the time spent on the site and referral traffic (since the audience shares it on social networks). Google's algorithm takes these factors into account for ranking, since it basically interprets that the website is offering quality content and optimizing the user experience, fundamental principles of contemporary SEO.

Of course, when using this format you have to optimize it and apply SEO techniques for video , among which it is worth highlighting its transcription and the use of keywords in the title, tags and file name.

3. Include descriptive texts

This point is closely related to the previous one. Although search engines use artificial intelligence to perform their rankings , it will be easier for them to understand an image or a video when it is accompanied by paragraphs optimized with keywords that describe its content (as well as meta tags , alt tags and tags ).

4. Select the appropriate theme

It is important that the information in each piece to be published is closely related to the products that the store sells. Otherwise, the traffic received from search engines will be low (and probably of poor quality), so conversions will be poor.

For example, if you sell pet supplies and offer great Super Bowl content, you'll likely get some visitors, but you'll have few sales since those users aren't your target audience.
5. Writing for the public

Don't use overly technical language. Remember to think about how users would search for information about your product. If you run AdWords campaigns, check which search terms they used to find you.

6. Forgetting to sell

Content with valuable information is the best tool to capture the attention of an audience. However, you must not forget that your business needs to sell and that you cannot publish quality pieces for free, that is, without expecting any kind of conversion. A call to action, a link to the store or any other maneuver aimed at convincing the customer is essential to increase sales and position the brand. The key to this practice is not to be too aggressive or use a purely advertising tone.

7. Link the store and the blog

The link between these two sites is important so that users can find valuable information about the products you sell. But it is also essential for the search engine algorithm to be able to identify the context of each of them.

8. Do not use “temporary” microsites

In eCommerce, microsites are small brand annex pages used to promote a campaign or sell a particular product. Although they are often effective as an advertising channel and can gain some traffic, they are not recommended for SEO.

Google's algorithm is able to identify the relationship between the main page and the minisite . Therefore, the links between them will have no value as incoming or external links, and you will lose the keyword work done to position it. Promotional and campaign content must be published on your main URL.

9. Distribute content on another site

You need to give your content as much exposure as possible, but on sites that are in your industry and have authority; the way to achieve this is to offer content to other sites to publish and distribute.

To maintain the SEO benefits, when executing this practice you have to require the hosting site – the third party where the content will be distributed – to use canonical tags, which validate your page as the original source; otherwise, it will not be clear who was the initial author of the content.
10. Do not publish third-party content

It relates to the previous point: when you host third-party content on your page, you may get traffic, but not any real SEO benefit. Remember that to do this you have to insert a canonical tag that reveals the original source of the site that generated what you are publishing. Therefore, it is the site that, by being tagged in this way, gains relevance and authority in the eyes of the search engine algorithm, essential factors in indexing.

If you do not insert the canonical tag, Google will consider the content as duplicate and will proceed to apply the corresponding SEO penalties .