Avoid the most common SEO issues, challenges and mistakes by going through this presentation with tips, criteria and tools to use independently of your online store Web platform, and grow your organic search results

1. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
7 E-Commerce SEO
Mistakes
… and how to Solve Them
#ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti

2. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Organic search is the bigger traffic driver to
online stores, even well known ones, after direct
amazon.com ebay.com etsy.com bestbuy.com target.com homedepot.com
semrush

3. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
The biggest e-
commerce platforms
acknowledge this
and have started to
provide more SEO
related
functionalities..

4. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
However, e-commerce sites characteristics
make them challenging to optimize for search…
A high number of
pages due to
products volume
Complex
categorization
Constant URLs
changing status
due to dynamic
inventory
Same products
information than
other Websites

5. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
… as they generate fundamental SEO issues!
Crawl budget
problems
Content
cannibalization
issues
Internal linking
challenges
Poor content
pages that won’t
rank

6. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Online stores are
great to improve
your abilities to
tackle SEO issues at
scale to achieve
results

7. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Let’s see 7 common e-commerce
SEO errors & how to fix them
#ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti

8. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
1. No-Indexed sub-categories or
facets pages with traffic potential
#ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti

9. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
2. Un-linked sub-categories or facet
pages with traffic potential
#ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti

10. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Many e-commerce won’t rank for popular terms as
they’ll noindex sub-categories or facets by default…

11. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Some sites canonicalize all their sub-categories or
facets to their main categories…

12. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
… or even block them from being crawled!

13. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
to avoid content duplication & control crawl budget,
some also noindex & obfuscate their internal links too
#ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti

14. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
However, subcategories & facets can connect with
popular searches with high commercial intent

15. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
If your sub-categories/facets can’t rank, your
products pages will do it instead but worse…

16. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
.. with inconsistent rankings between many “somewhat
relevant” product pages cannibalizing each other

17. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
… main categories will also rank instead in other
scenarios but will have poorer conversions too

18. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Should you index a sub-category or facet page?
Index
Noindex
No
Are there enough
products at the sub-
category/facet level
to satisfy the user
need?
No
Yes
Yes
Demand
Supply
The sub-category/facet
has enough search
volume to compensate
their optimization
This is why is
recommended than
rather than no
indexing by default,
to validate the
supply and demand
of each sub-
category/facet to
assess their
potential

19. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
It’s fundamental to
develop a keyword
research to identify
the search volume
related to each sub-
category/facet…

20. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
.. as well as the
number of
unique products
offered per sub-
category/facet
to satisfy the
demand

21. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
>
If there’s a demand and supply that compensates sub-
categories and facets optimization, index them!

22. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Don’t link to
canonicalized
Category URLs
… without forgetting to allow their crawling and
effectively link them through their canonical URLs

23. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
3. Internal search results pages that
cannibalize and won’t rank well
#ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti

24. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Some e-commerce sites still index their internal
search results pages to attract rankings & traffic..

25. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
… allowing
also their
crawling
without any
constraint

26. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
The issue here
is that we can
end up easily
ranking for
non-relevant
terms..

27. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Causing content duplication with categories/sub-
categories/facets that are indexable & meant to rank

28. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
… that end up being cannibalized in Google search
results by these other pages…

29. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Ranking in
worse
positions than
a category/
sub-category/
facet that
feature more
comprehensive
content & are
better linked

30. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
To avoid this,
some sites decide
to canonicalize
from their internal
search results
pages to their
alternate
categories/sub-
categories/facets
…

31. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
… although the
best is to 301-
redirect internal
search results to
their relevant
categories/sub-
categories/facets
pages

32. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Instead of directly
indexing them,
monitor your
internal searches
to identify
categories/facets
with potential to
create and index

33. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
4. Categories and sub-categories
pages with little unique
commercial content to rank
#ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti

34. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
As we saw before, categories/sub-categories/facets
connect with some of the most important searches…

35. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
However, many of these
pages only feature links to
products, without any
descriptive text, which
makes them hard to rank
https://www.mariehaynes.com/john-mueller-podcast-transcription/

36. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
A common approach is to
add descriptive text at
the end of the products
listings to improve their
relevance without hurting
conversion…

37. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
The problem is that many times this content is not
really useful and doesn’t connect with user intent…
John Mueller:
https://www.mariehaynes.com/john-mueller-podcast-transcription/

38. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Sometimes entire articles
are placed at the bottom of
the products listings, with
an informational intent, not
commercial

39. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
John Mueller:
This type of text can end up confusing Google about
the nature/intent of the categories pages …
https://www.mariehaynes.com/john-mueller-podcast-transcription/

40. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
It’s then fundamental to
develop a keyword
research to identify the
questions that are made
in this phase of the
purchasing journey to
clarify customers doubts
Semrush, sistrix

41. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Frase
You can use
content
optimization tools
that offer relevant
suggestions
depending on
content nature

42. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Supporting categories/facets pages to sell better too
Confirming
users that they
products they’re
seeing are the best
for their scenario
Clarify any
doubt around the
use and
characteristics of
the products
Inform why
they’re in the best
place to buy these
products
https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/optimizing-content-in-category-pages-while-keeping-its-commercial-nature/

43. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Integrating them with
the necessary visibility
within the listing to
fulfill their role with
users too

44. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Check this Glenn’s
case study showing
how cutting “fluff”
content in e-
commerce content
impacted in better
rankings
https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/ecommerce-category-description-case-study/

45. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
5. Products pages with poor unique
descriptive content
#ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti

46. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Product pages target a very long tail of queries that
can end up generating most of your traffic

47. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Users also tend
to share
products pages
more than
categories, so
they attract
valuable
backlinks and
direct traffic too

48. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
However,
products pages
also tend to show
little unique
content that and
Google tend to
leave them out of
their index due to
that too

49. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
This is why is
fundamental to
enhance products
pages with valuable
information, that
describe the product
and help to sell,
supporting the
customer decision
making process
Unique
descriptions
Comparisons Q&As
Reviews
Complementary
Products
Similar
Products

50. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Title & Meta
Description
with version
and Color
Product
Description
with version
and color
Product
Heading with
version and
Color
VS
Start by differentiating similar products using their
specific characteristics within the metadata…
Product
Heading with
version and
Color
Title & Meta
Description
with version
and Color
Product
Description
with version
and color

51. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Leveraging
automated
content
generation tools
to advance faster
as an input to
copywriters
copy.ai & neural text

52. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
If you have many identical or very similar products
with a very short lifespan..

53. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
It’s better to
consolidate them
in “static"
products
aggregator pages
that offer the
different products
of the same type,
brand,
characteristics of
different sellers

54. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
6. Products pages with backlinks
and traffic that generate errors or
are inconsistently redirected
#ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti

55. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Some products
URLs tend to
have a very
short lifespan
and end up
generating
errors…

56. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
.. these don’t only affect the site crawl health, but its
rankings and traffic attracted by these pages

57. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
It’s common when analyzing products URLs to find
not only HTTP errors but redirects with issues..

58. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
This is why is fundamental to establish rules and
criteria to manage their crawling and indexing…

59. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Before creating
a new URL,
establish
validations to
verify if the
product existed
in the past, and
use the old
URL…

60. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
When doing a product “pre-launch”, use the same
URL that the product page will have when is sold…

61. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Remember to list products in the relevant and
indexable categories/sub-categories/facets ….

62. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Don’t link to
canonicalized
Product URLs
… and link to them using their canonical URLs,
avoiding canonicalized ones

63. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/product
Use product structured data to specify their
characteristics and improve their SERP snippet

64. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7439058?hl=en
Create and send products feeds through the
merchant center to maximize their visibility

65. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
When a
product is out
of stock,
eliminate its
inclusion in
listings, XML
sitemaps and
feeds

66. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
If it’s a temporary
status: the product
page should be
kept indexable,
allowing users to
be notified when is
back to stock,
offering similar
products

67. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
The product structured data and feeds should be
updated and show their out of stock status too

68. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
If it’s permanently out of stock, and the product has
a new version, 301-redirect towards it
301 redirect to new
product page, while
alerting users.
Update internal links, XML
sitemaps and product
feeds

69. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Add a
notification
explaining to the
user why it’s
being redirected
… if there isn’t a new product version, but the page
has backlinks, traffic, rankings: 301 redirect to category

70. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Don’t do
this
Avoid
302 temporary
redirects that
don’t pass the
former page
popularity and/
or redirect to a
non-relevant
category page
Don’t do
this

71. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Don’t show 404 http errors for out of stock products
with backlinks: you’ll lose value + is bad experience

72. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Personalize
the error
page offering
alternatives to
make it usable
You can use 404s/410s in pages out of stock that
don’t have traffic, rankings, nor backlinks

73. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Al internal links, search pages, XML Sitemaps & feeds
should eliminate these unavailable products URLs

74. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Establish rules in your store platform for each of
these scenarios, to configure accordingly
https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/ecommerce-seo-issues-how-to-fix/

75. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
ryte
Set recurring automated crawls to identify still
existing issues and solve them too

76. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Use real
time monitoring
systems to
perform this
identification
much more
quickly,
receiving alerts
too
Little Warden & Content King

77. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
You can integrate
traffic and ranking
data to only get
alerts of those
pages with a
minimum value
Little Warden & Content King

78. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
7. Not establishing a full Web
structure allowing to connect
through all customer journey
#ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti

79. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
There is high traffic potential beyond categories
pages in the buyer journey: brands, comparisons, etc.

80. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Many e-commerce sites don’t feature Web areas &
content that allow to rank for more relevant queries
Brand hub Model comparisons Gift Cards

81. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
It’s key to
develop a keyword
research and content
audit, that allows to
map all the different
queries types during
the buying journey
with a relevant areas/
content type that
satisfies their need
Guides/articles
Brand page
Comparison page
…..

82. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
To help, I’ve created this reference for e-commerce
sites, to avoid forgetting relevant queries types…
https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/keyword-mapping-cheatsheet/

83. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
… you can also see examples of known online stores
for each and copy/paste from Google sheets
https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/keyword-mapping-cheatsheet/

84. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Really?

85. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
Following the previous advice is how you’ll minimize
these most common issues..
Crawl budget
problems
Content
cannibalization
issues
Internal linking
challenges
Poor content
pages that won’t
rank

86. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
…
and maximize
your organic
search results
results to
achieve your
sales goals

87. #ecommerceseo at #deepseocon by @aleyda from @orainti
www.orainti.com
Thanks! Questions?
orainti.com
I’m Aleyda Solis
* SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti
* SEO Speaker at +100 Events in +20 countries
* Author “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales.”
* Crawling Mondays Video & Podcast Series Host
* #SEOFOMO Newsletter Wrangler
* Maker LearningSEO.io
* European Search Personality of the Year in 2018
* remoters.net Co-Founder