OnPage-Optimierung für Online-Shops (inkl. Checklisten)
You will learn what the SEO-relevant
pages of an online shop are and how to
optimize them perfectly for Google searches. Have fun! My name is Alexander Rus
and SEO is my bread and butter. On this channel we chat
about SEO and content marketing. If you want to learn how
you can sustainably win customers through your website, then
subscribe to this channel right now. So what are the SEO relevant
pages of an online store? First the home page, second the
category pages and third the product pages. And in the following we will
look at a best practice example for each page type and a customer example from us, so that we can then
really dive into the optimization. Before we start, a quick note: If you have no experience at all with
keyword optimization, there is a comprehensive guide on our website where you can
learn classic, general keyword optimization.
But let's get started: How do we optimize our homepage? Let's start with a best practice example
for an online shop homepage. I think I've shown that a number of times
on this channel – rei.com is a huge outdoor online store
and they also use the homepage to just promote sales and stuff. But what's important now is
n't sales promotion. The important thing is what else is on this page. First of all, the most important categories for this company and
for the target group are linked, then of course some
call-to-actions and the top sellers. Then the most popular products. Then the
most popular categories are linked again. That means you see a clear SEO focus. What is important now with this
best practice example: The online shop is incredibly large,
accordingly it can afford that there is little content on the start page, because
I think they also try not to use the start page for a specific keyword to rank.
That means content is secondary.
If I now have a small online
shop and want to rank the homepage for a keyword, then of course I need more really
SEO-focused content on my homepage. Perhaps one more customer example from us: we recently looked at Elbemetall
anyway in an SEO case study. This is still (
but not so) a small brand, and here the homepage is a lot
more SEO-focused. But in any case also optimized for what
goals a start page has to meet. H1, "To the configurator", so that you
can configure these products, then trust agents, then content, then
links to the most important category pages, then the USPs are shown again, then again
the call-to-action for this configurator, because ultimately it works This shop is about
this configurator, and then the top sellers , i.e. really linking the products,
and then an SEO long text, because in this case we
actually want to rank this start page for a keyword.
What are the classic search patterns now, how people access the
home page via Google in the first place? Or to put it another way: Which keywords – or
who – enters here via Google? It's always the same on the home page. The user either searches for "branch + shop" , i.e. in this case "stahlblech shop", or
for the brand, i.e. for "elbemetall". And these are the people who end
up on the homepage, and accordingly we should of course
steer them in the right direction as quickly as possible. This means that the goal of the home page is : To perfectly pick up the brand search queries, i.e.
people who already know the shop, and
to steer them in the right direction.
That means where they
want to go – to the top sellers, to any sales, to the top categories. Then, show unique selling propositions – that means, if someone joins via "Industry + Shop",
then we first have to convince them that our shop is the right one.
And what is the right answer for both target groups is always the
top products and the top product categories. Simple, which is used to capture the majority of
the target audience. So not just any products that
few people want, but the products
that are most likely to be what the person is likely to want. And how do we optimize that?
We are now looking at a small on-page optimization checklist
for the start page. An optimized snippet, of course. There is a current, very extensive
video only about Google Snippets, where I show what is important in the title tag
and meta description.
Then of course we want an H1, and if
there is a keyword for the homepage , the main keyword should of course be in the H1. Then we want a short introduction
or a teaser in the visible area , i.e. above the fold, i.e. it must be
clear to the user at first glance what is at stake and why you should buy here. Exactly the same
also applies to the Google bot. The first content on the page
should immediately make it clear to which keywords this page is relevant. That means we want to
mention our main keyword right away in this introduction. Then
tease and link to the most important category pages. On the one hand, we then distribute the link Juice
to our most important category pages, ideally they are of course also in the
main navigation, but still link again. Then: tease top sellers.
That really means show products, product listings. Products that sell the
most and link to them internally because then those important, top-
selling products get even more juice.
And if the home page has a keyword focus
, meaning it's not just supposed to be an entry point for brand search queries, but the
page really has its own main keyword, then of course it needs a long text
below for us to play along here. How long should the text be? Of course, so that we are competitive – that
means you look at this keyword: What is the top 3 text length
– and adapt to this text length.
So. Then the question always arises: Ok, when should the brand appear in the title tag
, like “Elbemetall” in this case? Very simple rule: On the home page, the brand should
always appear at the beginning of the title tag, because many or most people will
enter via brand searches on the home page. That said, it's the primary
attribute people pay attention to in search results. Then, to make a small
distinction, now independent of the start page: If you have a well-known brand, then
you actually always want to put the brand at the end of the title tag. And if you
're still building your reputation or the brand is
n't that relevant in your industry, use the whole title tag for SEO and
relevance and just omit the brand. So we know how to optimize a start page
– the next step, the most important step for an
online shop: shop categories. How do we optimize shop categories? Very, very important, to repeat that again: category
pages are the main landing pages in your online shop.
And as a best practice example:
Ann Taylor is a well-known fashion brand. That's how a… Well, there are a lot of basic principles
for a category page made perfect. That is, Sidebar (i.e. the sidebar)
with the navigation is on the left side. We have a filter function that
doesn't push the content down extremely now. It's a huge brand now
, which means they can save on text. If we had a small shop now
, we would have a short teaser text underneath, but we try to have as many products as
possible visible at first glance. Clean H1, then nice product pictures, reviews, color selection, ideally the same slider so
that I can slide through all the pictures. Like I said, I hate sliders, but this
is the good kind of slider that doesn't move by itself
and isn't about bypassing content prioritization,
it's about improving usability.
Product listing and so on. And then down here comes our SEO text. The larger your shop is, the
more text you can save. The smaller your shop is and the less
authority you have compared to the competition, the more content you need to be
relevant enough to play here. Like this . Customer example for a category page: Viplounge – they sell lounges, as
I think you can see at first glance. You can see now that this is a
small shop with strong competitors. That means there's more content focus
– so here we have our H1, short teaser text, products, and then
another long text down here. Otherwise always the classic elements with
sitebar on the left side and so on. Ok, what are the search patterns that
go into category pages? So, what keywords
do people typically come across? They are looking for the product category,
in this case "rattan lounge", for example, they are looking for "buy rattan lounge", i.e.
product category + "buy" or product category + "online" and then of course there are
many more variants of that, but these are Basically the basic structures, the basic patterns, how
people search and get on these pages.
So. On the on-page checklist for a category page: Ideally, we want to
have the main keyword in our URL, of course, which should be structured
hierarchically, as in this case: …/garden furniture/rattan-lounge And optionally you can make the solution, what you see quite often that
you have a "/c" at this point. Why are you doing this? It may be that there are technical
reasons that you have to do it. But it can also be because
it makes it easier to analyze things because it's
much easier to segment. So. Then you need an optimized Google snippet, H1 heading including the main keyword –
in this case only the product category, ideally not "product category +
buy" because that doesn't look so nice. Then breadcrumb for vertical linking. That is, where we link the layers. So from the – let's say if you link
from the top of the start page to the main category, subcategory and so on. So that a nice hierarchy can be
depicted here and the juice can flow nicely.
Then, a short introductory text of
30-50 words including the main keyword in the visible area, such as here. Then, our products, of course, because the primary content of a category page is of
course always the products themselves. Then, depending on how strong we are:
an attractive long text. How long should this text be? Just look again: Based on
this keyword, what is the competition doing here? Simply use the keyword again here
and make sure that the content is tailored to the search intention
, because someone who searches at this level needs a buying guide and
not a classic informative guide. Because when I'm looking for rattan loungers,
I already know what a rattan lounger is and rather need recommendations on what to look for in a rattan lounger and what is
the right rattan lounger for me. Fits. Btw, there is a
video just about this topic where I only talk about category
pages – highly recommended. So. And then we come to the last
SEO-relevant page type and it is not always SEO-relevant and I explain
when it is SEO-relevant and when not.
Namely the product pages. How do we optimize a product page? We start again with a
best practice example. I love this store. Solo Stove, they sell
table fires and bigger stuff. Beautiful product page from my
point of view, with great, emotional pictures, headline, reviews, price, discounts,
payment options, a clear button on how to put this in my shopping cart. Then there are benefits, product features, what’s included
(as I said, I’m of course not so enthusiastic about the folding and unfolding from an SEO point of view
, but in this case it’s perfect). Then, bundles are shown to
make you sell more at once. Then videos, long text about this
product, frequently asked questions, other products, similar
or relevant products. Then photos of users/customers who use this
product, ratings, etc.
It couldn’t be more loving and trustworthy. An example from one of our customers:
Bellaffair is a hairdressing supply. Very basic. Of course we put a bit more content
on top of that because people are actually looking for the product and not
the category, so you really have to rank the product page and otherwise
just do it basic, but it works well.
Products that are relevant,
relevant guides to them, and so on. How can you now distinguish when such
a page is SEO-relevant and when not? If after the products – as is now the
case with Dyson Airwrap, people are really looking for the product, then of course I have to
explicitly optimize my product pages for SEO. Now when I have something like
an online furniture store , people (unless you say
Ikea now) aren't looking for specific product names, then it doesn't matter when you look at
things like keyword usage and text length and so on – there goes it's really
just about UX so that converts in the best possible way.
What are the search patterns now? People search for product name
or product name + "buy". And what do we want to do now if this page is SEO relevant and the product pages
are now SEO relevant in our case? Then we go
through our beautiful OnPage checklist again. Of course we want to have
the product name in the URL, we don't want a hierarchy so that a product can appear
in different categories. Then, depending on what
kind of tracking setup you have, you can say: I want to
have "…/product" or "…/p" in my URL. On the one hand, the user
then knows that when he sees the URL it's on a product page, and second
, it's easy to segment. Then optimized Google snippet again,
H1 heading with product name. Then very important, because
the images are so important on a product page, clean images
SEO – there is a video on image SEO. On product pages in particular,
it's often handy to try to rank those images in
image search, because if you 're in the furniture industry, for example,
then it's quite often the case that people first search in image search and then through
image search only enter your shop.
This varies from shop to shop.
Depends if this is a visual product,
but image SEO can be super important. Then we want to have our
breadcrumbs again for vertical internal linking. This means that the layers
are well linked to each other and that the link juice can flow properly. Then a short version with bullet points,
i.e. the most important facts about this product. Then, of course, reviews, ideally
including review markup, so that we get our beautiful stars in the search results
– our Review Rich Snippet. Then, when the pages are really SEO-relevant:
Below is a long text, just again in comparison to the competition – do it
better than the competition. Then, similar products to strengthen horizontal
linking. That means the link between products that are relevant to each other
but are on the same level. And then, what I think is really cool,
if we jump back to the example: I love it when product
pages generate their own content – i.e.
User-generated content. And a few ideas for this
are already well done: The possibility for customers to
post videos & photos, write reviews, ask questions
, provide answers and so on. Also how Amazon does it in the end, because
then you generate your… Of course it has to be moderated somehow, but you have
your own content machinery that scales. And that's the end of it. These are your most important SEO pages
, they should be well optimized. Everything else about a shop is not so important.
Of course, in the second instance, you can go
to non-commercial keywords and thus to a
guide, but in the first instance : the gold is buried here. Thank you so much for watching and see you
next time. Bye!.
