Simple SEO Techniques (that you can do yourself) to Boost Traffic to Your Site

If you have your own eCommerce site, you probably know that you need to get your products listed on the first one or two pages of Google's search results in order to get any search engine traffic. But making your site more attractive to the search engines (known as search engine optimization) is no small task, especially for the inexperienced. But it's not impossible to tackle at least some elements of SEO yourself.

Since eCommerce website development and maintenance is probably taking-up much of your time already, you've got to drill down the massive number of possible SEO tasks to just the bare essentials. This article will cover two of the most important on-page SEO techniques that you can do yourself, and give some instruction on where to start.

But first, there's a few key points that you must remember when it comes to SEO:

1. SEO should be performed on a page-by-page basis. Each and every page (likely meaning every individual product) must be optimized separately.
2. Search engines favor unique content. Write your own, original product descriptions, rather than using the stock, manufacturer's description.
3. Keyword research comes first. Determine which words and phrases people are more likely to search for when they are looking for your products.
   
   Specific, long-tail phrases (for example, "stainless steel garden trowel") are easier to rank well for, and more likely to draw serious shoppers than generic, short-tail phrases (like "gardening tools"). Choose wisely; the keywords you decide to focus on will provide the foundation for every step in your optimization process. Keyword research tools, like the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, can help with this step.
4. There is no guarantee. Although there are a number of things you can do to improve your optimization; there is no magic formula to ensure a top position.

Now that we've got the basics covered, we'll go over two key elements to SEO success.

The golden rule of SEO is this: Content is King.

Website content is fundamental to any site’s long-term SEO success. Search engines explore the sites in their index to look for content that will match a user’s search query. So while it may seem obvious, it is of the utmost importance to make sure that your site’s content is well-written and clear. Google wants to provide searchers with high-quality sites where they will find useful information and have an overall pleasant browsing experience. When a searcher visits your site, he should find that every page is free of typos, grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, and has a clearly defined and easy-to-identify subject.

Use Keywords:

This will also bode well for your search rankings; if a web crawler can easily determine what your page is about, it’s more likely to be included among the top results for searches on that subject. You want to make sure that someone can pick-out the main topic of the page within the first four or five sentences.

Do this by using the terms you uncovered during the keyword research phase. However, do NOT go overboard on the use of keywords and phrases. Use your keywords frequently – but only as frequently as it makes sense. Your first priority is to write for human visitors; if you do it well, a reader will be able to determine the subject of the page within the first few lines of text – and so will the SEs.

Use Alt Tags for Every Image:

While you obviously want your site to be visually appealing, it’s critical to remember that search engines aren’t humans – they can’t interpret images or graphics in the same way a person can. A web crawler can only “see” text; any content that is presented as an image, including product photos, cannot be read by an SE. To work around this, be sure to add an alt tag for every image. An alt tag is a BRIEF description of the image (ideally containing a keyword or two) that is read by both web crawlers and screen readers (used by the visually impaired).

Most content management systems (CMS) will have a text field available to you when you upload images, called "alternate text" or something similar, where you can simply type the alt tag. If you modify your site by editing the HTML code, simply add: alt="description of image" to your image tag. Sticking with our example from the first section, the image tag for a photo of the garden trowel would look something like this:

<img src="photo/blacktrowel2345.jpg" width="100" height ="100" alt="Stainless Steel Garden Trowel with Black Handle">

Keep your Goal in Mind

Even though you want to make your content attractive to search engines, it’s important to remember that your primary audience is human visitors. Think about this: what’s the point of getting hundreds of search engine visitors to your site if none of them become customers? The goal of every website is to eventually lead to sales, and a poorly written website - even if it ranks at the top of every search - will do more harm than good for your company’s reputation and business.

Meta tags are descriptions of your site (or elements within your site) that are not seen on the page itself. They provide one of the best opportunities for you to use your keywords.

The four main meta tags, listed in order of importance, are:

1. The title tag (also know as the meta title or page title)
2. The description tag
3. Image alt tags (discussed in the Site Content section)
4. Meta keywords

Although your meta tags are not seen on the webpage itself, they are still viewable by searchers, as the title and description tags are frequently displayed on the SERP. So take care to proof-read, and make sure that they are written as clearly as your content.

In the image below, you’ll see an example of a Google results page, where the title (in purple) and meta description (in black) are clearly shown.

As with every other element of on-page SEO, meta tags are added to every individual page, and should be as page-specific as possible. There are a number of guidelines to keep in mind when crafting your meta tags (see the column at right); most importantly, remember that while you should use your keywords frequently, avoid overusing them at all costs!

While many web CMSs have a simple entry field for adding meta tags, it’s also possible to add the tags directly in the HTML (or source code). Simply apply the following tags in the <head> section of every page:

<title>Page Title</title>
<meta name="description" content="This is where you would type the meta description for your page.">
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword one, keyword two, keyword three">

This may seem like a lot of time-consuming work, but don't worry. When performing optimization work, remember that it doesn't all have to happen at once. (In fact, making too many changes in a small time frame can sometimes set-off "alarm bells" for search engines, causing your site to be penalized in the rankings!) The best way to optimize a site is to do it one page at time.