It was just 5 years ago when you could launch your e-commerce store and easily reach one of the first positions in search results. But due to high competition in recent times. It is not a simple task to promote your website on Google and keep up with all updates of its algorithms.
All these changes are made to provide customers with more relevant search results and enhanced experience and require new approaches for getting your website on Google. So if you are interested in improving your e-commerce store positions in search, proceed to learn the latest SEO trends in 2021 we uncover in this article.
Top 9 Latest SEO Ecommerce Trends 2021 to Boost Sales
1. Website Optimization for Smart Phones and Tablets
According to Statista, mobile traffic accounts for almost half of all online traffic globally. Mobile devices (excluding tablets) accounted for 54.8 percent of worldwide website traffic in the first quarter of 2021. It demonstrates the massive increase in mobile device usage.
People use smartphones not only for entertainment but also for making purchases. That is why e-commerce stores have to align with consumer expectations - be convenient and adaptive. So provision of smooth both desktop and mobile experience for customers is a priority task.
At the beginning of 2021, Google has finished the application of mobile-first indexing meaning predominant usage of the website's mobile version for indexing and ranking. It means that e-commerce stores that don’t pay much attention to the provision of smooth customer experience on mobile devices, simply can’t reach the top position in search results.
In order to correspond with this trend, check how your website is performing on mobile devices. You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check your store and then contact a professional e-commerce development company for further assistance.
If the tool shows issues with any element of the page, try to eliminate this problem as soon as possible.
2. Website Performance and Core Web Vitals Optimization
Website speed has always been a very important factor for e-commerce stores. It influences not only the website ranking positions but business efficiency entirely. The longer it takes the page of your store to load, the more customers will abandon your website and won’t make a purchase.
In 2021 the importance of website speed has increased significantly. Google has announced a few metrics called Core Web Vitals which become crucial for the evaluation of website quality and its user-friendliness for visitors.
Let’s review them in detail:
● Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is the metric that allows measuring the loading time of the main content of a page to interact with: images, text blocks, videos. A good result is 2.5 seconds and less.
● The First Input Delay (FID) is the period between when a user interacts with your site for the first time (by clicking a link or tapping a button) and when the browser is able to reply to that interaction. The ideal time is under 100 milliseconds.
● Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) determines the visual stability of a site because it helps quantify how often users experience unexpected layout shifts. Ideally, it should fit in a range of 0-0.1.
You can check these metrics for your e-commerce store with the PageSpeed Insights tool. This report will show you not only the current score of your e-commerce store, but will also suggest ways of website speed improvement.
3. User Protection and Security
For several years in a row, we all are noticing the trend towards the active struggle of search engines against internet scammers. And the new Google Page Experience update has put the safe-browsing, HTTPS-security on the front line of search signals used for evaluation of website page experience.
In 2021 you need to perform the following tasks to provide user safety and reach good SEO results:
● Secure your store with HTTPS protocol
● Use a reliable hosting provider
● Establish appropriate modules and monitoring scripts for virus and hacker protection on your website.
● Set up updates of your CMS regularly
● Use a safe login and password to the admin panel of your store
● Integrate only well-known payment gateways on your website
● Monitor your website security in Google search console
4. Microdata and Rich Snippets
Microdata, or structured data, helps search engines robots to better understand the content on a webpage. It also plays a key role in a rich snippet's appearance, as snippets are created based on structured data. When you “help” Google to understand what your page is about, Google “helps” you in return by showing rich snippets in search results and attracting more customers to your website in a natural way.
Furthermore, structured data is required for inclusion in the highlighted snippet's zero position. If you have a blog on your e-commerce site, it can be a good source of new clients for your products when you use it right. Try to answer the hot questions and uncover trending topics to appear in a zero position in search results.
Summing up we can say that microdata is one of the things in SEO which you need to have in 2021 in order to grow your business and attract customers.
5. Video Content Implementation
Video content became a magic wand for a huge part of e-commerce stores during the pandemic. It has always been important for customers to have a look at the product in detail before purchasing. And that was one of the advantages of brick-and-mortar stores. When customers have to switch to online purchasing, the possibility to view product videos in e-commerce stores helped to fill this gap for new online buyers.
Besides, you can not only integrate product videos but start a YouTube channel to tell people more about your brand and attract customers. It will help you to increase traffic to your website and increase a level of trust in your company.
Implementing video content on your website will help to:
● Make the store more attractive and useful
● Improve behavioral characteristics of your website
● Optimize conversions
● Increase the number of external links to your store
● Contribute to search ranking positions
6. Compliance with Google’s EAT Principles
The acronym EAT stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, and it refers to the quality of content on websites. Google says EAT is among the top three considerations for Page Quality evaluation and ranking positions.
Here is the list of factors taken into account by Google in relation to website correspondence with EAT factors:
● The website has the address and contact information of your company
● You provide all the information about the terms and conditions, warranties, returns, exchanges, payment, and delivery methods
● The product page is set up right - there is a title, detailed description, product images, price, and reviews
● There is a copyright in the footer of the store
● The website has About Us or Our Team pages
● You have a company blog uncovering niche topics in your industry and keep it up to date
● Each article has an author, and each author has their own page outlining their expertise and knowledge in the business
● Website content is structured, there are lists, tables, infographics, and other content types
No doubt, search engines will pay a lot more attention to EAT factors in the near future. So if you still haven't been for Google EAT, you should
7. Local SEO Strategy
COVID-19 pandemic influenced people’s everyday life and consumer behavior. Along with the rise of e-commerce and a growing number of online purchases, the role of local companies increased much too. Customers now are more likely to buy products from the companies nearby to reduce the number of trips and contacts with other people. This trend will continue in 2021 too.
If you have an offline store or a pick-up point, use Google My Business to attract locals.
1. Fill out the profile: your business type, working hours, contacts, and website address.
2. Write an engaging description using keywords.
3. Add your logo, photos of your business and team.
4. Add info about your products and services.
5. Ask clients to add reviews and share their opinion, react to questions and reviews, especially to negative ones.
6. Grow the number of links to your store from the local websites and forums.
8. Internal Relinking
Internal relinking on your e-commerce store helps customers and Google robots easily navigate through your website. As a result, you receive:
● Increased usability of your e-commerce website
● Improvement of behavioral indicators
● Raise of conversion, number of sales, and average order value
● Page nesting levels and their priority definition
● Distribution of links weight and indexation speed up
An additional bonus is that keywords used as an anchor for the link, improve page relevancy. So if you set up your pages and choose anchors right, it is possible to improve your website rankings and attract more traffic.
9. Different Traffic Sources
Variety of traffic channels and sources is another SEO trend of 2021. If visitors come to your store from everywhere, Google considers the website as popular and improves its rankings.
If you’d like to follow this trend, attract customers to your e-commerce site from:
● Google My Business
● YouTube channel
● Social networks: Facebook, Instagram, and others
● Advertising
● Email campaigns
● Messengers
● External sources like forums, guest posts, directory listings and more
You need also to pay attention to company reputation to generate branded traffic and organically increase the number of visitors.
Final Thoughts:
As you have probably noticed, all SEO trends in 2021 are tightly connected with the provision of a fast, convenient, and secure search for consumers. Keep up with all described above principles, and search engines will grant you with the improvement of search ranking positions for that.
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