Effective positioning of online shops – how to make them more visible in search results?

Knowledge of the positioning of online shops is at hand today. You can easily find tips, articles, or even entire ebooks on the subject on the Internet. So the problem is not lack of information, but rather finding yourself in their thicket. In this article, we will try to help you sort out the basic facts regarding the current SEO recommendations. We will also give you a hint of what tools you can use to improve your website yourself.

Why is positioning an online store important?

If you are wondering why everyone around you is talking about positioning as an absolute “must have” online store, you need to know one thing. Organic search results are still one of the most important sources of customer acquisition in e-commerce – according to the report of the Conductor platform (The 2024 Organic Search Traffic Benchmarks Report ) in as many as 7 key industries (including retail, technology and tourism and hotel industries) produce as much as 33% of the total traffic on the websites. Appropriate visibility of the company on the Internet is therefore a key factor in achieving sales goals, and the cost of positioning the online store becomes an investment in greater profits.

Positioning of shops www – basics

Online store positioning, but also positioning any other website (in short SEO) is a number of actions aimed at achieving a higher position by the page in the search results. Even from your own experience, you know that sites that appear in the first search engine proposals are usually the ones you use. Your clients do the same thing.

The SEO is based on organic movement and covers many aspects, so to increase traffic on the site and conversion, it is worth to “take care of” each of them. Below we describe the ones we considered to be crucial.

User Experience

How many times did you get off the site because it was too slow to load? Or not finish the shopping because the online store did not offer you a convenient payment option? The customer – encountering difficulties (not necessarily a large format) like you will resign from the offer, therefore the user experience is what determines the effective positioning of online shops. 

What can you do?

• take care of the readable structure of the page – the readable structure of the page is the one where the user moves without thinking, as if he used it many times – even when he first meets it. It guarantees not only a positive user experience, but also makes it easier for the customer to find the right product and move on to the purchase process. Read more about the structure of the friendly website below,
• make sure your site works smoothly – fast loading sites are not only scored by the search engine, but above all by the visitors themselves. According to the study Think with Google 53% of mobile users leave the page, which charges more than 3 seconds (!),
• Remember the aesthetics – We're not going to discuss tastes here. The only thing is that texts available on the website should be read pleasantly (e.g. thanks to appropriate intervals or letter size), and the graphics are of high quality.

To take care of the website – the comfort of its use in mobile version – until it is strange to mention in 2024, when it should be an absolutely permanent point for SEO e-commerce. 

Security

Users are increasingly aware and want to be sure that their data is properly protected. Responding to these needs, you can build consumer confidence and build a professional online store image.

What can you do?

• Try to get SSL security certificate – without a proper certificate, when trying to enter the website, the browser will show the user that the site is unprotected,

• offer trusted payment systems – The subject of money is an extremely sensitive subject. Make sure you offer proven payment systems and communicate this clearly to your customers, 

• Update CMS Software and Plugins – in this way, you not only minimize the risks associated with security gaps, but also have a positive effect on e-commerce positioning. Search engines prefer regularly updated sites. 

Content marketing

In many places, you will read about its importance and how valuable content strengthens the positioning of shops. What, though, are valuable content and how do we create it? 

First, remember your target group – she will be the main recipient of what you create. Second, influence her life. – although it sounds a little high-end, providing practical industry tips or a simple trick using your products will be much better than an article that lists the advantages of what you are selling. Finally thirdly, rely on data. . Investigate and check what users are looking for on your website, which stops them for longer, and what issues they are facing, and then... provide them with exactly what they expect.

What can you do?

• create guide entries – share your knowledge and help your potential customers. Are you in the beauty business? Write how to plan daily skin route using cosmetics from your e-shop. Do you sell car accessories? Do a great test of parking sensors and share your insights while linking to products from your offer,

   

• Remember the qualitative descriptions – in a situation where the customer cannot take the product into hand, its description is of great importance. Make sure that each category, subcategory and product pages has a unique, easily written description, containing relevant key phrases. The key phrases are written in more detail in the next point,

   

• ensure that information is available – FAQ, terms and conditions, privacy policy, information on the way and time of dispatch, payment methods... there is a lot of this, but the easier the user access to this information, the better for you. Imagine a customer who will switch through the different stages of the purchase only to realize on the last page that you do not offer the option of payment available to him. He'll probably get annoyed, and once he's cooled down... he'll go to the competition. 

Link Profile

The construction of a link profile is really important not only for online shops, but also for any other website, because directly affects its visibility on the Internet, builds authority and potentially increases movement within it. 

There are two types of links in SEO.

Internal link

These are all references from one part of the page to another. They help you navigate on the website and encourage you to explore your online store for a longer time.

External link

Obtaining links to your site from other sites on the Internet. However, it is not about getting any links, but about valuable links – e.g. from thematic blogs, news sites or other sites recognized in the field.

Although you can take care of some aspects of the optimization of the online store yourself, the construction of the website's link profile is one of the ones worth relying on professional support.

Trivia: similar products

It's worth responding to the needs of a customer he hasn't thought of yet. The presentation of similar articles at the bottom of the product page (e.g. complementary to the one you are looking at) encourages the user to explore the site longer and potentially increases its shopping cart.

Page structure

You already know how important it is to be intuitive to move on the side. Let us now focus on what elements can make it happen!

Search

Absolute basis for the SEO of an online store. It helps you to navigate the site while providing you with information about what your customers are looking for. Who knows, maybe you'll find out what kind of product is missing from the offer?

Breadcrumbs

In the famous fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel, bread crumbs were poured behind them to find their way home. Do you know that positioning e-commerce needs that, too? Breadcrumbs (usually in the form of a horizontal list of links) show the user where the page is currently located, as well as how it can return to the previous place.

Navigation map

So listing all pages available on the site, for example in the form of a menu with product categories. This is an important element especially when it comes to positioning a store with a lot of articles.

Pagination (or missing)

The choice of the way products are presented is also the optimization of the online store. Each of the available solutions has its disadvantages and advantages, but a certain indicator of trends in this area may be the recent announcement by Google of a resignation from the so-called "endless scrolling" and a return to pagination.

Among the most popular solutions you will find:

• pagination – when it comes to positioning an online store, this is the division of a long product list into several separate pages. Pagination improves website performance, but can lead to shorter exploration of your website content, 

• Infinite scroll – means scrolling endlessly, a solution known, among others, from Facebook. The user scrolls the page down, and its new elements load on a regular basis. This gives smooth experience and often works positively on the time of the site's exploration, but can cause difficulties, for example, with finding yourself on the site. It is also not a solution beneficial from the SEO point of view – Google robots usually do not see the content that is initially hidden,

• lazy loading – is similar to infinite scroll, with the difference that subsequent items are loaded only when the user approaches the end of the currently viewed content (e.g. the section). This option is less fluid than infinite scrolling, but easier to navigate. However, it is important to bear in mind the appropriate implementation of the solution,

• load more – a button appears at the end of the product list Load more. . It is only when the user clicks on it that the next products appear on the screen. This improves the efficiency of the site, although it is worth keeping in mind that it can be difficult to implement and can cause problems with indexation. Googlebot cannot click on the buttons, so it will not be able to “see” subsequent products. 

Filtering of products

Another point with mandatory when it comes to positioning an online store with a large number of products. It allows users to filter objects with preferences, e.g. prices, available colors, shipping speed or even – more specifically – sleeve lengths (for clothing). The use of filtering makes it very easy for customers to find the desired product and increases the chances of finalising the transaction.

Trivia: Product options

Do you have the same model of sweatshirts in different colors in the store? Or five available sizes of the same jacket? How to solve this in an online store: should each option have its own website, or should one page offer the option to choose its favourite?

Both solutions have their disadvantages and advantages, but in this particular case, from the perspective of Google search engine there is no need to create separate pages for individual versions of the product. What is different, however, is when data tell us that certain variants can be searched by users (common for example smartphones).

Keywords

They're crucial for a reason. Thanks to them, users are able to reach your website at all (excluding the perfect scenario in which someone directly inserts the address of your site into the browser bar) and easier to find what they are looking for.

What can you do?

• perform a good research – do not rely solely on what your intuition suggests, but use it to use tools. They will only show you whether a phrase has potential and how much the text should be saturated with it,

• remember the descriptions – both products and categories. Well-written descriptions are able not only to help optimize SEO, but also to influence the customer's purchasing decision and build the image of your brand,

• don't skip the long tail phrases – long-tail keywords, which is precisely the phrases of a long tail, are less competitive and more detailed, so don't be afraid to reach for them. For example, use the phrase “battery head flashlight” instead of “light” – in this way the potential customer will find exactly the product that meets its requirements. 

Images

These are one of the main sources of product information for the customer, who cannot – just like in a stationary store – simply take it in hand. But do you know that pictures also affect SEO? Suitablely ordered and described, they help you find your store in search results. 

What can you do?

• name files – by uploading graphics with a random name you make it difficult for the search engines to interpret them properly, so make sure that the name is suitable for the content,

• use ALT tags – or alternative text, assigned to the graphics and briefly describing its contents. It facilitates the search engine's understanding of the image content and its indexation, and allows you to find your store by searching for the image,
• take care of the size of the photos – avoid using too much size and adjust it to the actual needs of the site. With the tools available online, you will easily reduce the size of the image with minimal (or no) loss of quality.

Availability

At a time when the word "inclusiveness" is changed by all cases, it is worth ensuring that the site is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. By implementing several solutions, you can also make your offer available to people with hearing loss, whether blind or visually impaired. 

What can you do?

• conduct screen readers tests – This will make sure that the page is correctly interpreted by them. It will also help, as mentioned above, to place alternative texts for images,

• Take care of the subtitles – if there are video material in your store, make sure they also include content transcription,
• Remember the readability – make sure the text is easy to read on the selected background, and the contrast is sufficient for people with different types of visual impairment.

How do I position an online store? Summary

As you can see, the improvement of the online store's position includes many activities that only in combination produce measurable, synergistic effects. Some of them will be able to achieve on your own, using online knowledge or free tools, while others will require the help of experts. 

What is to be remembered for reading this article?

1. Positioning online shops is crucial because organic search results generate significant traffic on e-commerce websites.
2. Key elements of SEO include improvement of page structure, charging speed and aesthetics, as well as security and software update.
3. Content marketing is important – it is worth creating valuable content and product descriptions to attract customers and build their loyalty.
4. The link profile, both internal and external, is important for increasing the visibility and authority of the website.
5. Optimization of the online store also includes care for availability and responsiveness to improve user experience and SEO effectiveness.

Written by Dorota Wanat from Semcore

Some of the Polish pioneers of SXO – a strategy combining SEO and UX. Every day they multiply the potential of brilliant companies on the Internet and help to increase the conversion of their online platforms. They are constantly developing, currently with curiosity they explore Bing's capabilities for e-commerce.