To make as simple of a relatively complex concept as possible, BigCommerce SEO entails all of the changes you need to make to a BigCommerce website in order to get it to show up in the organic search engine results pages for specific keywords and search terms.
This is how to make it work for your website, from a very high level.
First, Set Goals
Before starting with BigCommerce SEO, it is important to recognize what SEO can be used for, as well as what it does not do.
SEO, or search engine optimization, can be used to improve a website’s rankings in the organic search results. It can be used to generate highly qualified leads and when research is done well, can bring in leads that are more likely to convert, boosting sales and revenue. It can also result in more impressions, clicks, and better click-through rates for key web pages.
What SEO will not do is get you leads overnight, the way PPC and social media can, so be aware of that.
Find Keywords
In order to get started with BigCommerce SEO, you need to find some keywords that will work for your business.
Ideally, these should be high-volume, low-difficulty keywords that are associated with either commercial or transactional search intent, meaning that people that are searching for them have the end goal of buying something. It’s generally easier to rank for long-tail keywords, but you won’t want to rule out short tail options either.
Pick between 10 and 50 or these, depending on how involved you want to get with the optimizations.
Make Basic Site Structure Optimizations
Once you have a few keywords lined up that you want to target, you need to make sure you’re setting your website up for success through an SEO strategy.
Make sure that the products you intend to sell are properly categorized and that the category pages don’t have any bugs. It should be easy to find these products from your website’s mega menu or through a search bar.
Make sure your website also has an SSL installed and configured, and that there are no broken links, which you can find and disavow in Google Search Console.
Make a Few on-Page Optimizations
Once you have all your products uploaded, the website in order, and the target keywords you want to focus on, you can get started with page-level optimizations.
First, let’s start with photography. Use original photography if you can and compress the image file before uploading. This will allow you to use high-quality photographs but will help keep your page speeds fast. This will not only benefit SEO, but also user experience and user engagement, collectively.
Next, get some of your target keywords and place them in the page titles and headers for some of your main products that you want to get the most visibility among potential customers. This is one of the most impactful on-page optimizations you can make. You can also add them to meta descriptions and into page URL slugs at the time of creation.
Then, add some internal links between products that often sell together, or which would sell together as complementary products if there were adequate visibility for them.
Lastly, optimize the page copy by making sure it is original and answers questions about the product’s specifications and use cases. In this copy make sure you embed a couple of your target keywords that are relevant to that specific product.
Watch the Leads Grow Through This Basic BigCommerce SEO Methodology
From a very high level, this is basically how BigCommerce SEO works, once you break everything down to its simplest components.
It’s not that doing SEO “right” is hard; it’s that doing it right takes a lot of time and resources that many eCommerce entrepreneurs simply don’t have to spare.
This is why so many work with BigCommerce SEO agencies to do the research and implement the optimizations for them.
If that sounds like it appeals to you, start looking for an SEO agency with proven experience in your industry and see what you can find. Increased visibility and more organic leads are closer than you think.
