10 Ecommerce SEO Mistakes to Avoid in 2024 (and how to correct them) 🛒

Introduction

Technical SEO is crucial for the success of any ecommerce store. It involves optimizing the infrastructure of your website to make it easy for search engines to crawl, index, and rank your pages. Mistakes in technical SEO can significantly impact your site's visibility and performance in search engine results. This guide covers the most common technical SEO mistakes that ecommerce stores make and how to avoid them.

1. 🔍 Poor Website Structure

🚫Your  Mistake:

A poor website structure hampers search engine crawling and indexing, leading to lower visibility and rankings. Key issues include complex navigation, lack of clear hierarchy, and missing breadcrumbs. Organize your site logically, use clear hierarchies, and implement breadcrumbs for better SEO.

✅ What to do instead:

• Create a Clear Hierarchy: Organize your website with a logical hierarchy, ensuring that important pages are easily accessible within a few clicks from the homepage.
• Use Breadcrumbs: Implement breadcrumb navigation to help users and search engines understand the structure of your site.
• XML Sitemap: Generate and submit an XML sitemap to search engines to facilitate better crawling.

2. 🐢 Slow Page Load Times

🚫 Your Mistake:

Slow page load times frustrate users and increase bounce rates, negatively impacting SEO rankings. Common causes include unoptimized images, excessive JavaScript and CSS, and lack of browser caching. Improve load times by compressing images, minimizing scripts, and using a CDN.

✅ What to do instead:

• Optimize Images: Compress images without compromising quality.
• Enable Browser Caching: Store resource files locally in the user's browser for faster load times on subsequent visits.
• Minimize JavaScript and CSS: Reduce the size and number of JavaScript and CSS files.
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): Distribute your content across multiple servers to speed up load times.

3. 📱 Non-Responsive Design

🚫 Your Mistake:

A non-responsive design negatively impacts SEO and user experience as it fails to adapt to different screen sizes. With mobile traffic often surpassing desktop, ensure your ecommerce site is mobile-friendly and optimized for mobile-first indexing to maintain high rankings and user satisfaction.

✅ What to do instead:

• Responsive Web Design: Ensure your website adapts to different screen sizes and devices.
• Mobile-First Indexing: Optimize for mobile-first indexing, where Google primarily uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking.

4. 📑 Duplicate Content

🚫 Your Mistake:

Duplicate content confuses search engines, leading to diluted rankings and potential penalties. Common issues include similar product descriptions and redundant pages. Resolve this by using canonical tags, implementing 301 redirects, and creating unique content for each page to maintain SEO integrity.

✅ What to do instead:

• Canonical Tags: Use canonical tags to indicate the preferred version of a page.
• 301 Redirects: Redirect duplicate pages to the original content.
• Unique Product Descriptions: Write unique descriptions for each product instead of using manufacturer descriptions.

5. 🔗 Poor URL Structure

🚫 Your Mistake:

Poor URL structure hinders search engine crawling and user understanding, impacting your SEO. Issues include long, complex, or non-descriptive URLs. Improve SEO by using short, descriptive URLs with relevant keywords and maintaining a consistent URL structure across your site.

✅ What to do instead:

• SEO-Friendly URLs: Use short, descriptive URLs that include relevant keywords.
• Consistent URL Structure: Maintain a consistent URL structure across your site.

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6. 📊 Missing or Improperly Used Schema Markup

🚫 Your Mistake:

Failing to use schema markup or using it incorrectly can result in missed opportunities for rich snippets and better search engine understanding.

✅ What to do instead:

• Implement Schema Markup: Use schema.org markup to provide additional information about your products, such as price, availability, and reviews.
• Test with Google's Rich Results Test: Verify that your schema markup is correctly implemented.

7. 🔗 Broken Links and 404 Errors

🚫 Your Mistake:

Broken links and 404 errors frustrate users and harm SEO by disrupting site navigation and indexing. Regularly audit your site to identify and fix broken links. Implement a custom 404 error page to guide users back to relevant content, improving user experience and maintaining SEO health.

✅ What to do instead:

• Regular Audits: Perform regular site audits to identify and fix broken links.
• Custom 404 Page: Create a custom 404 error page that guides users back to relevant content.

8. 🔒 Lack of HTTPS

🚫 Your Mistake:

Lack of HTTPS can hurt your SEO rankings and undermine user trust, as Google considers HTTPS a ranking factor. Secure your website by obtaining and installing an SSL certificate, ensuring all pages use HTTPS. This enhances security, boosts search rankings, and builds user confidence in your site.

✅ What to do instead:

• SSL Certificate: Obtain and install an SSL certificate to secure your website and use HTTPS.

9. 🔗 Poor Internal Linking

🚫 Your Mistake:

Poor internal linking can prevent search engines from efficiently discovering and indexing your pages, and can also hinder user navigation. Strengthen your SEO by strategically using internal links to connect related content, distribute page authority, and improve overall site navigation for both users and search engines.

✅ What to do instead:

• Strategic Internal Linking: Use internal links to connect related content and distribute page authority throughout your site.

10. 📈 Ignoring Analytics and Search Console Data

🚫 Your Mistake:

Ignoring analytics and search console data is a critical mistake that can lead to missed opportunities and unresolved issues in your SEO strategy. Regularly monitor data from Google Analytics and Search Console to gain insights into your website's performance, user behavior, and search engine visibility. Use this data to make informed decisions and continuously optimize your SEO efforts for better results and growth.

✅ What to do instead:

• Regular Monitoring: Regularly check Google Analytics and Search Console for insights and issues.
• Actionable Insights: Use the data to make informed decisions about your SEO strategy.

🚀 Optimize Your Ecommerce SEO with Freelancers

There’s a seemingly never-ending list of things to take into account when optimizing ecommerce SEO. As a business owner, you already have enough on your plate, which is why it’s crucial to hand some of the work off to ecommerce SEO freelancers.

“As your store continues to grow, it becomes almost impossible to do everything on your own. Hiring freelancers will help you to scale your business and outsource parts of your SEO strategy to get better results,” says Khan. “I have personally hired freelancers for SEO tasks on Fiverr and had great results.”

With a marketplace of specialized experts, Fiverr allows you to chat with freelancers before you hire them. Manage your freelancers, payments, and project files in a single dashboard.

“I’ve purchased 182 orders and spent $4,754.56 on Fiverr and these are my top three tips for hiring freelancers for SEO: don’t expect perfection, be realistic, and ask for samples,” says Khan.

Sign up for Fiverr and hire experienced freelancers for ecommerce SEO,  content strategy, product descriptions, market research, and more.

Conclusion

Technical SEO is an ongoing process that requires regular attention and optimization. By avoiding these common mistakes and following best practices, you can improve your ecommerce store's visibility, user experience, and search engine rankings. Regular audits and staying updated with SEO trends and algorithm changes are essential to maintaining a strong online presence.