SEO for Woocommerce

[sdksmart]

How would you go about SEO for an Ecommerce website? Would you optimize the categories or products?

 

[fisicx]

Both.

SEO for e-commerce is no different to any other type of website.

Start with the google seo guide.

 

[Wesley Cude]

Yes you would need to optimise both. What platform are you using for your website? For our eCommerce store we are using WooCommerce. We had to purchase an additional plugin so we could customise the product category pages.

This allowed us to add further written content to optimise for search enginies.

 

[Deleted member 335660]

How would you go about SEO for an Ecommerce website? Would you optimize the categories or products?

I use Yoast, a free plugin that tells you exactly what to do on products, pages and blog posts. It guides you all the way on keywords etc.

 

[fisicx]

I use Yoast, a free plugin that tells you exactly what to do on products, pages and blog posts. It guides you all the way on keywords etc.

And it will point you in the wrong direction. Google has changed, Yoast hasn’t.

 

[Wesley Cude]

There is still a lot of work to be done when optimising a page, Yoast only helps with the bare minimum. You still need to consider the following:

- What keywords to use based on search volume and competitiveness
- What keyword density to use on the web page you are optimise
- How much written content is required

 

[SEODEV#338055]

Google has changed, Yoast hasn’t.

That's factually incorrect

Yoast SEO changelog - page 1 | Yoast developer portal

Keep yourself up-to-date about new features, enhancements and bugfixes in every release of Yoast SEO for WordPress. Page 1.

yoast.com

 

[SEODEV#338055]

@fisicx is correct you should start with the Google SEO Starter guide if you are generally unfamiliar with SEO, and move on to Google SEO Advanced guide after that

In the Google SEO Advanced guide you will find a section called SEO Best Practises for Ecommerce which you should familiarise yourself with so you know where your ecommerce data can appear in search results, included featured product listings, snippets, videos, news and images

You will also be able to appreciate the importance of how structured product data will affect your products in search and as @Trevor Andrews says there is an excellent Wordpress plugin called Yoast which will help you with this including a premium feature called Yoast Woocommerce SEO Plugin which comes with a helpful configuration guide

There are two further SEO guides you can read the first is the Woocommerce Advanced Guide to Product SEO and the second is Yoast's General SEO Guide which includes some product SEO advice

You can also subscribe to the email newsletter and video channels for Wordpress, Google Search Central, Woocommerce and Yoast and keep updated with all new software releases, ideas and news

 

[fisicx]

That's factually incorrect

What I mean was Yoast still focuses too much on keywords. Google now focuses much more on EAT.

 

[WebDesires]

What I mean was Yoast still focuses too much on keywords. Google now focuses much more on EAT.

No... No they dont...

They focus on User Interaction, quality of content, speed of access for mobile and mobile usability. Of course EAT as always has a part to play, but Google and other search engines are specifically trying to steer clear of such a reliance, since that's what SEO's used to do, spam the internet making a site seem authoritive to grab ranking.

They focus much more on what the user is looking for, whether a site can give them that quickly and what sort of experience was detected from others also looking for the same/similar.

 

[fisicx]

Not so sure about that. Read the quality rater guide and it’s all about EAT.

 

[WebDesires]

Not so sure about that. Read the quality rater guide and it’s all about EAT.

What you expecting? them to release full information on how they index and rank results so people can start manipulating them again?

This is a red herring.

 

[fisicx]

Google has been very open about what they expect. Follow the guidelines and ranking will follow.

Because Yoast has the ‘focus keyword’ it adds it’s own red herring.

As to manipulation, this has always been a thing. One of the main tools for many years was article submission and latterly guest blog posting. Both of these (and other techniques) have been nullified.

If you want to continue to use Yoast that’s up to you. But treat the suggestions as guides only. Following the ideas slavishly could lose you a lot of converting traffic.

As an aside, the quality rater guidelines are how Google uses humans to train the algorithm. So it provides a very useful insight.

 

[SEODEV#338055]

Google commented in March 2020 about EAT "Since we originally wrote this post, we have been occasionally asked if E-A-T is a ranking factor. Our automated systems use a mix of many different signals to rank great content. We've tried to make this mix align what human beings would agree is great content as they would assess it according to E-A-T criteria. Given this, assessing your own content in terms of E-A-T criteria may help align it conceptually with the different signals that our automated systems use to rank content."

So we can agree that EAT is important for SEO

On the same page of the Google Search Central website is a list of questions Google suggests content writers consider for SEO many of which are assisted by using the Yoast plug-in

Content and quality questions​

• Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
• Does the content provide a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
• Does the headline and/or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?
• Does the headline and/or page title avoid being exaggerating or shocking in nature?
• Is this the sort of page you'd want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

Expertise questions​

• Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site's About page?
• If you researched the site producing the content, would you come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
• Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
• Does the content have any easily-verified factual errors?
• Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your money or your life?

Presentation and production questions​

• Does the content have any spelling or stylistic issues?
• Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don't get as much attention or care?
• Does the content have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Does content display well for mobile devices when viewed on them?

Comparative questions​

• Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• Does the content seem to be serving the genuine interests of visitors to the site or does it seem to exist solely by someone attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?

Let us not forget that Yoast is a huge help for creating SEO friendly structured data

"Structured data is important for SEO because it'll make it easier for Google to understand what your pages and your website are about"

Google frequently stresses the importance of structured data in its ranking algorithm

The main benefit of Yoast which is an excellent tool and I highly recommend using it is helping content creators to focus a landing page around a keyword

Why is this important? Because keywords have search volume

SEO professionals track keyword performance in order to achieve high ranking on Google in order to obtain a percentage of the search volume and gain visitors who result in customers (sales, conversions)

If you do not focus on a keyword, ranking and sales how can you justify or evaluate spending time creating content? How can you report progress to clients if it not tracked?

 

[fisicx]

You focus on answering the search query. This doesn’t mean you need to focus on a keyword.

Most of the things you provide In the comprehensive list above don’t need a plugin. If you want to use it to help that’s your choice. But other SEO plugins do a far better job with a much lower performance penalty.

One could also argue that once optimised your can disable Yoast and save £99/year.

 

[toodmiller]

How would you go about SEO for an Ecommerce website? Would you optimize the categories or products?

SEO for eCommerce, first, we need to prepare a strategy, and after that, we need to start categories pages and hot selling products, not all products. Then, for targeting products, we can analyze the sales chart of all products of last one year, and on that basis, we can filter the important products.

 

[sdksmart]

SEO for eCommerce, first, we need to prepare a strategy, and after that, we need to start categories pages and hot selling products, not all products. Then, for targeting products, we can analyze the sales chart of all products of last one year, and on that basis, we can filter the important products.

Cheers, sounds about right to an extent

Google commented in March 2020 about EAT "Since we originally wrote this post, we have been occasionally asked if E-A-T is a ranking factor. Our automated systems use a mix of many different signals to rank great content. We've tried to make this mix align what human beings would agree is great content as they would assess it according to E-A-T criteria. Given this, assessing your own content in terms of E-A-T criteria may help align it conceptually with the different signals that our automated systems use to rank content."

So we can agree that EAT is important for SEO

On the same page of the Google Search Central website is a list of questions Google suggests content writers consider for SEO many of which are assisted by using the Yoast plug-in

Content and quality questions​

• Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
• Does the content provide a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
• Does the headline and/or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?
• Does the headline and/or page title avoid being exaggerating or shocking in nature?
• Is this the sort of page you'd want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

Expertise questions​

• Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site's About page?
• If you researched the site producing the content, would you come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
• Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
• Does the content have any easily-verified factual errors?
• Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your money or your life?

Presentation and production questions​

• Does the content have any spelling or stylistic issues?
• Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don't get as much attention or care?
• Does the content have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Does content display well for mobile devices when viewed on them?

Comparative questions​

• Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• Does the content seem to be serving the genuine interests of visitors to the site or does it seem to exist solely by someone attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?

Let us not forget that Yoast is a huge help for creating SEO friendly structured data

"Structured data is important for SEO because it'll make it easier for Google to understand what your pages and your website are about"

Google frequently stresses the importance of structured data in its ranking algorithm

The main benefit of Yoast which is an excellent tool and I highly recommend using it is helping content creators to focus a landing page around a keyword

Why is this important? Because keywords have search volume

SEO professionals track keyword performance in order to achieve high ranking on Google in order to obtain a percentage of the search volume and gain visitors who result in customers (sales, conversions)

If you do not focus on a keyword, ranking and sales how can you justify or evaluate spending time creating content? How can you report progress to clients if it not tracked?

AHAHA, this is out of context, I suppose but I appreciate every input

@fisicx is correct you should start with the Google SEO Starter guide if you are generally unfamiliar with SEO, and move on to Google SEO Advanced guide after that

In the Google SEO Advanced guide you will find a section called SEO Best Practises for Ecommerce which you should familiarise yourself with so you know where your ecommerce data can appear in search results, included featured product listings, snippets, videos, news and images

You will also be able to appreciate the importance of how structured product data will affect your products in search and as @Trevor Andrews says there is an excellent Wordpress plugin called Yoast which will help you with this including a premium feature called Yoast Woocommerce SEO Plugin which comes with a helpful configuration guide

There are two further SEO guides you can read the first is the Woocommerce Advanced Guide to Product SEO and the second is Yoast's General SEO Guide which includes some product SEO advice

You can also subscribe to the email newsletter and video channels for Wordpress, Google Search Central, Woocommerce and Yoast and keep updated with all new software releases, ideas and news

You should have outlined some of the best practices you have learned over time and backed by data, if at all, there is any. Everyone knows about the Google guide and WooCommerce. Knowing is one thing and implementing them is another.

I use Yoast, a free plugin that tells you exactly what to do on products, pages and blog posts. It guides you all the way on keywords etc.

It does not tell you how to optimize your website, instead it provides a foundation for basic SEO

Both.

SEO for e-commerce is no different to any other type of website.

Start with the google seo guide.

It is different, the approach is different from others, do your research further

Yes you would need to optimise both. What platform are you using for your website? For our eCommerce store we are using WooCommerce. We had to purchase an additional plugin so we could customise the product category pages.

This allowed us to add further written content to optimise for search enginies.

I like this, but how would you optimize both categories and product pages? What is the foundational approach here?

 

[UKSBD]

I like this, but how would you optimize both categories and product pages? What is the foundational approach here?

A good theme that allows you to add extra content to category pages exactly the same as you do pages, products and posts.

 

[fisicx]

I like this, but how would you optimize both categories and product pages? What is the foundational approach here?

Same as optimizing anything.

If someone is looking for left handed hammers your page need to show and sell hammers. Great images, winning copy, associated products, reviews etc. It's really not difficult. It's just time consuming.

It is different, the approach is different from others, do your research further

No it's not. The techniques are exactly the same. The layout of the page will be different to a news site or a 'how to' site but what you put on the page is the bit Google is interested in. It's all about the words.

Things like responsiveness, page speed and all that is secondary.

 

[WebshopMechanic]

Just here for the comments. ?

 

[SEODEV#338055]

But other SEO plugins do a far better job with a much lower performance penalty.

Examples?

 

[SEODEV#338055]

Cheers, sounds about right to an extent


AHAHA, this is out of context, I suppose but I appreciate every input


You should have outlined some of the best practices you have learned over time and backed by data, if at all, there is any. Everyone knows about the Google guide and WooCommerce. Knowing is one thing and implementing them is another.


It does not tell you how to optimize your website, instead it provides a foundation for basic SEO


It is different, the approach is different from others, do your research further


I like this, but how would you optimize both categories and product pages? What is the foundational approach here?

So basically you added absolutely zero to the thread

 

[SEODEV#338055]

Just here for the comments. ?

Just here for the SEO

 

[SEODEV#338055]

Everyone knows about the Google guide and WooCommerce.

Are you everyone?

So don't ever share anything ever because everyone knows everything

What have YOU got to add?

 

[fisicx]

Examples?

Rankmath is excellent. Does much better at seo without all the unnecessary baggage Yoast adds on.

I created a plugin that conflicted with Yoast. There was nothing wrong with the plugin the problem was Yoast loads the page in the background each time to perform analysis. This means the server and browser does everything twice. On a busy site this can significantly affect performance.

As an aside, about the only real thing you need to add to Wordpress is the ability to edit pages titles and descriptions. All the things you listed above don’t need a plugin.

 

[sdksmart]

Are you everyone?

So don't ever share anything ever because everyone knows everything

What have YOU got to add?

Please, do not take it out of context. Your answer was out of topic. No harm intended nor did I intend to cause any vexation of any degree

 

[fisicx]

Please, do not take it out of context. Your answer was out of topic. No harm intended nor did I intend to cause any vexation of any degree

I’m confused now. If you know everything why are you asking the question?

 

[sdksmart]

I’m confused now. If you know everything why are you asking the question?

No, do not be confused. You have no got what you were expecting. Being cheeky in a community is a horrible thing. I am peace loving somebody. Your mindset explains it all. We ask to learn new perspective, learn from each other's approach or methodology. SEO is about creativity, innovation and industry benchmarks.
Asking for a second opinion is a best practice in everything we do, hence quality control. I cannot find a single statement where I have claimed to know everything. Yay

However, Let me make a claim for expertise, now. I am an SEO expert, who has served large companies and worked with digital marketing agencies as SEO Boss and trained junior members, some who are currently at the peak and apex of their careers. If you need help with digital marketing as a package and are ready to pay for my expertise, I will be happy to strike a good working relationship with you.

 

[SEODEV#338055]

I am an SEO expert

You aren't an SEO expert, that's total BS, if you were an SEO expert you wouldn't call yourself one, but you're not so don't

If you disagree and think you are then give a technical explanation of what you think an SEO expert is?

All your posts I've read contain nonsense, waffle, banter and questions because I think you came here simply to bat the breeze

There's absolutely no expert technical SEO content in anything you post that couldn't be learnt from reading a few long-worded blog posts

On the other hand I spend hours every day using WooCommerce and SEO and constantly push the boundaries of my knowledge and abilities with both by relentless and never ending testing, testing and more testing of hypothesis and different industry people's advice, which often conflicts

Calling yourself an SEO expert is a direct insult to all of us struggling on the frontline trying to keep up with all the algorithm and plug-in updates and how to implement new solutions that will improve rather than break people's websites, and gain rather than lose them customers

 

[Slava2Slava]

For WordPress, you can use plugins. There are a lot of them for SEO promotion. The only thing that is impossible is to expand the keywords in the filters, if it concerns an online store.

 

[sdksmart]

You aren't an SEO expert, that's total BS, if you were an SEO expert you wouldn't call yourself one, but you're not so don't

If you disagree and think you are then give a technical explanation of what you think an SEO expert is?

All your posts I've read contain nonsense, waffle, banter and questions because I think you came here simply to bat the breeze

There's absolutely no expert technical SEO content in anything you post that couldn't be learnt from reading a few long-worded blog posts

On the other hand I spend hours every day using WooCommerce and SEO and constantly push the boundaries of my knowledge and abilities with both by relentless and never ending testing, testing and more testing of hypothesis and different industry people's advice, which often conflicts

Calling yourself an SEO expert is a direct insult to all of us struggling on the frontline trying to keep up with all the algorithm and plug-in updates and how to implement new solutions that will improve rather than break people's websites, and gain rather than lose them customers

ahahahahahaha, you seem to have plenty of anger in you, sir/madam. Chill and take a glass of cold water. That may change the way you see things and how you talk to others. I don't get into childish confrontations. It appears your understanding of grammar is worse than mine. That's all I can.

We are not here to score points. No, that is not the intention. If you are unable to contribute reasonably, the best approach is to rest your calm.

I hope you will have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy it and be happy. If you do not mind, I would like to follow you on LinkedIn.

 

[sdksmart]

As part of an SEO approach without tools, I will consider wire-framing and the taxonomy of Woocommerce. There is not a plugin for this. I will be publishing my learnings on LinkedIn soon. This is going to be part of discovery, but I need no credit. " I am a learner"

 

[SEODEV#338055]

ahahahahahaha, you seem to have plenty of anger in you, sir/madam. Chill and take a glass of cold water. That may change the way you see things and how you talk to others. I don't get into childish confrontations. It appears your understanding of grammar is worse than mine. That's all I can.

We are not here to score points. No, that is not the intention. If you are unable to contribute reasonably, the best approach is to rest your calm.

I hope you will have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy it and be happy. If you do not mind, I would like to follow you on LinkedIn.

You claim to be an SEO expert

I'm asking you to define what an SEO expert is?

Answer the question

 

[sdksmart]

You claim to be an SEO expert

I'm asking you to define what an SEO expert is?

Answer the question

Let's assume I am so dull that i can not even find out the meaning from the Internet. Finally, I need not respond to a stupid question. That is one of the dullest questions I have come across. Who are you to be asking me such a question? "I am not that dull or a mopped". I hope you can translate my responses to a meaningful end.

 

[fisicx]

I’m just looking forwards to your LinkedIn article. Should be an interesting and useful read.