How to Optimize Your Online Store Using SEO

If you run an online store, you know how important it is to optimize your pages for search engines. Using SEO to optimize your online store can yield amazing results and produce new visitors every day for free. It costs nothing to bring these visitors to your store, and many times they are already interested in buying the product they are searching for. This article will show you how to optimize your online store using SEO best practices, for better results.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Computer
• Internet connection
• Online store
• Knowledge of HTML and meta tags
• Content

How to Optimize Your Online Store Using SEO

1. Identify the keyword phrases you want your store to be optimized for. Name your categories and product pages after these terms, as they relate to the products you sell on your store.
2. Add your keyword phrase to the title tag meta tag in the header of your HTML page code; the description meta tag; and then to the keyword tag. You can add additional, related words to the keyword and description tags to make them read fluidly, as well.
3. Include the keyword phrase to the <h1> tag in the header of your page text. This should be the first thing the reader sees; it will be the title of your page.
4. Include the complete keyword phrase several times in your page's content. Using it once or twice in each paragraph, or in 2 to 4 percent of the total content, is a good thing to aim for. But spread the keyword phrase out for the best results.
5. Name the directory that contains your page with the keyword phrase itself. This will increase the chances that search engines will find your page.
6. Link to your page inside your website, and begin to build links from other sites to these pages using the keyword phrase in the link.
7. Repeat this process with all of your pages, naming and renaming directories whenever possible. You should also add content whenever you can. Keep track of your efforts, trying new things to get your pages to rank higher.

Tips & Warnings

• Adding content is the best way to get better search-engine rankings. Once you optimize your online store for the best keywords, you should continue to add relevant content and links. The more you update your site, the more often the SE (search engine) will visit it.
• Search engines are very complex, so SEO is not always straightforward and scientific. Search engines may penalize sites for trying too hard to optimize their pages. These methods are called "keyword spamming" or "keyword stuffing." The best way to avoid this is to always publish and link to relevant content, and to update your site every two weeks or more.