Ecommerce SEO strategy for 2022: What to prioritise and what to leave behind
The end (of 2021) is nigh and it’s time to work on your ecommerce SEO strategy for 2022 – but what should you focus on?
In this article, we’re going to share our insights of what we’ve learnt in 2021, and how that can help you prioritise your SEO optimisations in 2022.
So where to start?
As with any ecommerce SEO strategy, the first steps lay the foundations of your work. They set targets, record benchmarks and help you understand the competitive landscape.
Define your SEO goals
Defining your SEO goals helps gives your work purpose.
As with any marketing strategy, you want to start by defining your goals. What exactly do you want to achieve?
Why do we do this?
Because it gives your work purpose. It helps keep you focused on what you want to achieve.
Remember that any goals you set have to be realistic. While we’d all like to increase organic traffic by 1000000%, it’s highly unlikely that that is achievable.
But what is achievable?
Well, the first place to start is to set your benchmark data. Consider:
- What did you achieve last year?
- How about the year before that?
- Have you benefited from seasonality?
- What competitors are there in your space and can your site realistically compete with them?
Once you’ve defined your SEO goals, it’s important to document how you will measure them. Are keyword rankings important or is search engine results page clicks the most important metric in achieving your goal?
Outlining this in your ecommerce SEO strategy will keep your efforts focused.
Analyse your SERPs competitors
Take a look at the search engine results page to see who is dominating the space for your target keywords.
When we talk about competitors, a lot of businesses tend to think about their traditional competitors. This could be local competitors or big retailers in the space. But these aren’t the competitors you’re looking for.
Why?
Because these aren’t necessarily the businesses you are competing against when it comes to SEO.
Instead, take a look at the SERPs (search engine results page) for your target keywords and see who is dominating the space.
The next steps, which will help form your SEO strategy for 2022, is to analyse the following:
- Why are they successful? I.e. What does Google like about their page or content?
- What can you learn from them?
- Are there any low hanging fruits? I.e. Are there any quick wins for you to climb up the rankings?
- What makes you stand out compared to your competitors?
Once you have these building blocks in place, you’re ready to build your ecommerce SEO strategy for 2022.
We have outlined four areas to focus on in 2022, as well as things to leave behind in 2021.
Search intent is more important than ever
Search intent is the intention an internet user has when entering a search term into a search engine.
Search intent – that is the intention an internet user has when entering a search term into a search engine – has been of growing importance in the last few years and will be more important than ever in 2022.
Why?
Because Google prioritises search engine results that give users the best experience.
So it’s important to ensure that your content matches the search intent behind a keyword.
But how do you do this?
The first step is to analyse the SERPs for your target keyword.
Are the majority of results informational? Or are they transactional?
It’s important to develop content that matches what users search for. It’s the best way to create a good user experience and satisfy what Google is trying to provide searchers.
User experience is king in 2022
Google prioritises a good user experience when ranking results.
That segways perfectly to our next priority for 2022, which is user experience.
Now if you’re an ecommerce store, user experience should already be a priority. In fact, we wrote about the importance of user experience for ecommerce stores in 2021 on our blog.
But did you know that user experience has a profound impact on your search engine optimisation as an ecommerce store?
It’s true.
Google prioritises a good user experience when ranking results. They take into account mobile usability, page speed (more on both of those shortly), the quality of content and more.
Ultimately they want to give users the best experience on Google and that means rankings sites that can continue that quality experience. That’s why UX should be a key component of your ecommerce SEO strategy for 2022.
Your website has to be mobile friendly
90% of internet users access the internet on mobile.
Did you know that 90% of internet users access the internet on mobile phones?
It’s true. The world is mobile-obsessed and that now includes Google.
Since March 2018, Google has prioritised mobile-first indexing. That means that the Google bot will first crawl the mobile version when deciding how to rank your website.
That means that your website HAS to be mobile-friendly. It provides the user with a good user experience, so it’s no surprise that mobile optimization is an important ecommerce SEO strategy.
Speed up your website in 2022
A fast website equals a good user experience.
It’ll come as no surprise to you that our final priority for ecommerce SEO in 2022 is your website speed.
Why?
Because a fast website equals a good user experience. And if we’ve learnt anything today, it’s that user experience should be your number one priority in 2022.
Three things to avoid in 2022
If there’s anything you takeaway from this post, it’s to avoid doing these three things…
Avoid these three things to improve your ecommerce SEO strategy…
- Keyword Stuffing
If you’re still stuffing your web pages with keywords in 2021, then you seriously need to reconsider your tactics. Back in the day, Google’s algorithm was a lot simpler and keyword stuffing was a sure fire way to rank your content. In 2022, though, you have to create quality content with keywords included naturally.
- Unnatural Links
Backlinks are a major part of SEO strategies. Gaining links from authoritative sites helps show Google that your site can be trusted. Paying for links is an example of an unnatural link that Google will deem as spammy and punish your site for.
- Intrusive Ads
This one comes back to user experience. Intrusive ads create a negative user experience and Google will punish you for that. Make sure your page design is clean and any advert works alongside your page design and content naturally.