WooCommerce SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the basics and most important steps that will help your product page and your eCommerce website to rank on the top in SERP. If your website is not optimized for SEO then you are not only losing sales but your potential customers too.
No matter what type of layout and interface you are providing to your user, if your e-store is not optimized for WooCommerce SEO then it will surely affect your online business. If you want your potential buyers to visit your website then it is important for you to rank your website on the top in SERP. Optimizing your website for SEO will make it easier for the user to find the right product within your website.
To know more about SEO check our blog on Inbound Marketing Series: What is Search Engine Optimization? Types And Example Explained
With the increase in competitors, it has become difficult for an eCommerce website to rank on #1st. But proper SEO guidance and tricks will surely help your WooCommerce website to attract potential buyers on your website
Therefore in this article, we will be providing some tips that can help you in optimizing your eCommerce website. Implementing these tips can help you in ranking your product page on the top in SERP. If used properly these tips will surely help you to outperform your competitors.
Why should I optimize my WooCommerce website for SEO?
SEO plays a crucial role in bringing a website on the top in the search engine result page (SERP). Today almost every user looks for the solution in google and a website ranked on the top providing the solution gets an abundance of organic traffic. If you look at the Pie-chart you can discover the search percentage distribution across 10 web properties. Google alone has 59.30 percentage of searches across the US.
If you are an online retailer then it is important for you to know that most of the organic traffic comes from google. If you want to boost your sales then it is important for your products to rank #1 in SERP. Even if your website ranks on the 2nd or 3rd position in SERP then there will be a huge difference between the number of visitors on the 1st website and your website.
Focused keywords play an important role in deciding the rank of a website. Embedding focused keywords in your web page title, URL, description can help crawlers in deciding the rank of your webpage for the particular keyword. But remember to always palace those keywords naturally. If you try to forcefully add the same keyword in a different position then there are chances that your website may get penalized by search engines.
That’s why in the e-commerce industry SEO plays an important role in driving conversion. A small difference in the ranking can impact your sales. Because when a user looks for some products like shoes or cloths and if he/she finds the right product on the website ranked on #1 then they may not bother to visit the website ranked on the 2nd.
Now you might be clear with the importance of SEO for an eCommerce website.
Is WooCommerce good for SEO?
If you are creating an eCommerce website then it is really important to know whether the platform you are using to create your online retail store is SEO friendly or not. There are other popular eCommerce platforms like Magento and Shopify providing SEO friendly features.
So the question is what makes WooCommerce different from other platforms?
In simple words Yes, WooCommerce is an SEO friendly eCommerce platform because WooCommerce is a plugin that is integrated with WordPress. And WordPress is a well-known SEO friendly CMS platform. In reality, the WooCommerce plugin code is optimized for SEO but doesn’t provide much of SEO features. Only when it is integrated with WordPress it becomes an SEO friendly eCommerce platform.
WooCommerce is SEO friendly but you can optimize your website ranking by downloading free SEO plugins and using the various SEO techniques. Yoast SEO is one of the most popular plugins used by almost every WordPress and WooCommerce website owner. Integrating this plugin can help you in identifying the small SEO mistakes carried out by most e-commerce websites.
While creating a new WooCommerce store, it is up to you to upload the product data like image, description, title and many more. But before uploading it if you are ready with the proper strategy then it will surely boost your WooCommerce product page ranking. You can use the mentioned tips to create an effective SEO strategy for your WooCommerce product page.
Tips To Optimize Your WooCommerce Website For SEO
1. Set up WordPress SEO
Before moving any step further we recommend you set up SEO in WordPress dashboard. Earlier in this article, we have mentioned WooCommerce is a plugin that is integrated with WordPress. So if you successfully set up your WordPress for SEO then it will become easy for you to optimize your eCommerce website ranking.
You can check our article on 10 Underrated On-Page and Off-Page SEO Activities Explained With Examples to know about each and every detail related to SEO setup. Going through this article will surely help you in resolving many doubts that you might be facing related to SEO.
Another way to set up SEO in WordPress is by downloading Yoast SEO. There are so many advantages of installing Yoast SEO like it will help you to add an SEO sitemap, identify focused keywords on the page and many more.
So, you can download the Yoast SEO plugin in your WordPress dashboard then go through the SEO article to determine the changes you have to make in the SEO field for your products. After reading the SEO guide you can come back to this article to identify the tips for your WooCommerce SEO.
2. Optimize product description for SEO
One of the most underrated but important aspects of WooCommerce SEO is the product description. The description is used by the search engine and it appears under your Title. If you want your product to rank on the top in SERP, then you should spend quality time crafting keyword-optimized product descriptions.
You need to ensure that your description is providing a compelling reason to the user on why they should click and explore your products. Product description plays a crucial role in deciding the rank of your product page. That’s why it is recommended to use focused keywords in your description and create meaningful content.
Searching engine crawls your product description identifies the keyword and depending on that they rank your product page for that particular keyword. You can take the help of the product manufactures content to craft your description but we recommend creating your own description. Crafting your own product description will allow you to insert your focused keyword naturally.
If you have installed Yoast SEO then you can navigate to the Yoast SEO section in the back end of your product page and add a description under the title as shown in the image. If you click on the SEO analysis under description then you can find the missing part in your description.
3. Optimize Product Title
Another important technique to optimize a product page ranking is to write SEO friendly product titles. Product til plays an important role not only for search engines but it also helps users in identifying what your web page is about.
The product title is displayed on the search engine result page as shown in the images. Your page title should indicate what your page is about and which product you are selling on your product page.
You can mention the title of your product page in the Yoast SEO plugin. When you mention the title in the Product page Yoast SEO automatically detects the tile and you can check how your title will appear in the desktop and mobile devices browser.
Most of the time users forget to add focused keywords in the title. To avoid that you can Click on SEO analysis under description to check the title correctness of title. Generally, these titles appear in the browsers title bar and in S
While inserting the keyword in the title make sure that you are using the broad keyword for the category page and specific keyword for the product page. Most of the time e-commerce website owners make a mistake by using an interesting broad keyword in the title of the product page which makes your product page compete with one another in SERP.
For example, if you are selling shoes for men and women both then for the category page the keyword should be “Buy shoes for men or women” and the same keyword should be inserted in the Title of the page.
The category page allows users to explore more products that fall under the same category. Whereas the product page displays specific products that your user might be seeking to possess. So be careful while inserting keywords in the title of your category page and product page.
4. Optimize Product Slug
After adding title and description, next to optimize your search engine ranking you need to add the Slug of your WooCommerce product page. A slug is displayed after your domain name and it is also called permalink.
Most of the users don’t pay attention to the slug of the web page. But when it comes to deciding the rank of your website then a Slug is taken into account by search engine crawlers. A search engine crawler analyzes the slug to decide what a page is about? Depending on that they categorize the page and provide the rank.
To check the slug of your product page you can scroll down to the Yoast SEO option, under the title you can find the slug of the webpage. Yoast SEO automatically detects the slug form the title but we recommend you change and provide more detailed information in the slug. For example, if you are selling T-shirts of a particular brand then the slug can be red-T-shirt-round-neck-cotton-brand name
5. Breadcrumbs
Today breadcrumbs have become an essential part of successful WooCommerce SEO strategy. Leading Search Engine “Google” has clearly mentioned in their algorithm that they are going to enhance the user experience by providing easy navigation. And breadcrumbs play a crucial role in providing easy navigation to the users.
Breadcrumbs appear at the top on the product page that helps the user in identifying which page they are on and how they landed on that web page. Using breadcrumbs they can move back to the previous page easily. It helps Google in determining your website structure and google gives preference to the structured website.
Most of the WooCommerce website owners think that it is difficult to activate Breadcrumb in WooCommerce. But in reality, it is a very simple step just you have to enable a few things and paste a small code in your eCommerce website.
If you want to enable breadcrumbs in your website then
- Go to WordPress dashboard
- Navigate to Yoast SEO option
- Click on search appearance
- Next, you can find a page displaying various options
- In the top menu bar click on Breadcrumbs
- Then you can enable the breadcrumbs and use the product category
So, now you might be clear with how to activate breadcrumbs on your WooCommerce website. And you can analyze the importance of Yoast SEO. From that one plugin, you are able to handle almost every aspect of WooCommerce SEO.
To display breadcrumbs in your WooCommerce website you need to edit the Header.php file in the theme and paste the given code at the end. If you want to know more about breadcrumbs then click here.
<?php
if ( function_exists(‘yoast_breadcrumb’) ) {
yoast_breadcrumb( ‘
<p id=”breadcrumbs”>’,'</p>
‘ );
}
?>
6. Optimizing Website Navigation
Website navigation plays an important role in deciding whether your website visitors are going to stay or abandon your WooCommerce store. If your website navigation is confusing then there are chances that your visitor might get lost in your eCommerce website. And they may never come back to buy any products from your website.
That’s why it is recommended to create a clean and simple navigational layout which can reduce your bounce rate and increase your conversion rate. Remember if your visitor starts spending time on your website then your website can rank higher and outperform your competitor.
It works on the simple phenomenon, if your site is useful and liked by users then google will recommend your website by ranking your website on the top in SERP. Other than breadcrumbs there are lots of ways to make your eCommerce website navigating easy and simple.
You can categorize the products in your store and provide the proper link that relates to the category or product page. When google crawler indexes your web page then they should find the pertinent link to the product page. You can display these links in the web page footer as it will help both Google and users to identify the important links on your website. Inter-linking always improves your website authenticity.
7. Define the product category and tags
Product tags and categories help your customers in finding the right product they are looking to buy. Not only for the user but defining the product category also helps you in arranging the same products under a category.
Defining the product tag and arranging it under a category helps search engine crawlers in listing your website in the search engine result page. Adding similar products under a category also increases the keyword density of the particular category making it easy for the category page to rank top in SERP.
Remember if your website is having bulk products then you can divide the categories into two parts parent category and child category. For example, if you are selling clothes online then your parent category will be menswear and chile categories will be t-shirt, shoes, jackets, and many more.
Apart from the category, you can also determine the tags for the product. For example, if you are selling jackets then the tag for the product can be a men jacket, winter wear, leather jackets, casual wear, etc.
8. Optimize Product Image (Add Alt Tag)
Adding alt text is one of the underrated WooCommerce SEO techniques but most useful in driving traffic to the eCommerce website. While uploading the image in WordPress you can find the Alt text, title, caption, and description on the right sidebar as shown on the image. Most beginners ignore filling those boxes but filing those boxes can help you in driving more organic traffic and boosting your WooCommerce SEO ranking.
Alt text plays an important role in redirecting your potential buyers from image searches to your website. Yes, you heard it right, there are times when the user searches for the image to see the product details.
If your product image is attractive enough then they click on the image which redirects the user to the website. Recently Google has made a small change in the image search by removing the “view image button”. That means whenever a user wants to see the details about the image then they have to visit the website.
For example, if a user searches for a book name in the image search and if he finds the image of the book. Then there are chances he/she may click on the image. If the image is optimized with alt text then it will redirect the user to the website.
Whenever your website fails to load the image then the alt text of the image appears on the screen. You can also insert the keyword in the alt text to make it easy for the users to find the image of your product in the image search.
9. Optimize WooCommerce Website Speed
Website speed also plays a crucial role in deciding the rank of your eCommerce website. If your website takes more than 6 seconds to load then more than 60% of the users abandon the website.
Remember when your visitor abandons the website then it becomes difficult for the store owner to bring them back on the website. If your website speed is not optimized then it will surely affect your sales and revenue. The search engine also gives preference to the website that loads faster. If your website is not optimized for speed then it may affect your website ranking. Most probably search engines will decrease your website rank.
Slow website creates a bad reputation in front of the audience and most of the eCommerce website faces a downfall in sales due to website speed. Therefore to boost your WooCommerce SEO ranking you have to optimize your website speed.
If you want to know more about fixing slow website speed then check our blog on 8 Tips to Fix a Slow Loading WooCommerce Website Speed
There are many website speed testing tools available like Google PageSpeed, Gtmetrix, Pingdom and many more that can help you in getting your eCommerce website load time.
Frequently asked question
1. How do I do SEO for the products page?
If you want your product page to rank on the top then it is important for you to optimize your page depending on search engine guidelines. Here is the checklist that you should know while optimizing the WooCommerce product page for SEO.
- Add keyword in the product title and description
- Write a unique description for your product page
- Add alt tag in images
- Include keywords in Product Slug
- Optimize image size
- Add product category and tag
2. Is WooCommetrce SEO friendly?
Yes, WooCommerce is an SEO friendly eCommerce platform because WooCommerce is a plugin that is integrated with WordPress. And WordPress is a well-known SEO friendly CMS platform. In reality, the WooCommerce plugin code is optimized for SEO but doesn’t provide much of SEO features. Only when it is integrated with WordPress it becomes an SEO friendly eCommerce platform. To rank on the top knowing the WooComerce SEO tips will surely help you to drive more organic sales and traffic.
3. What is the use of Breadcrumbs in WooCommerce?
Breadcrumbs appear at the top on the product page that helps the user in identifying which page they are on and how they landed on that web page. It allows users to understand the location on the website. Breadcrumbs automatically generate internal links. Using breadcrumbs they can move back to the previous page easily. It helps Google in determining your website structure and google gives preference to the structured website.
4. What is the WooCommerce SEO checklist to follow in 2020?
Here is the checklist for WooCommerce SEO that will help your website to rank on the top in SERP:
- Perform keyword research
- Get your site hierarchy right
- Add keyword in title and description
- use unique title tags for your website page
- Optimize images in your website
- Reduce the size of images in your eCommerce website
- Optimize your website speed
- Incorporate Keywords in the URL
- Add Breadcrumbs
- Defining the product category and tags
- Optimizing Website Navigation
5. How to enable breadcrumbs in WooCommerce?
If you want to enable breadcrumbs in your website then
- Go to WordPress dashboard
- Navigate to Yoast SEO option
- Click on search appearance
- Next, you can find a page displaying various options
- In the top menu bar click on Breadcrumbs
- Then you can enable the breadcrumbs and use the product category
6. How do I add alt text to an image?
Adding alt text is one of the underrated WooCommerce SEO techniques, but most useful in driving traffic to the eCommerce website. While uploading the image in WordPress you can find the Alt text, title, caption, and description on the right sidebar as shown on the image. Most beginners ignore filling those boxes but filing those boxes can help you in driving more organic traffic and boosting your SEO ranking.