What is e-commerce site SEO? Introducing points to be aware of, including portal sites

If you run an e-commerce site or portal site, you may be wondering how your site is from the SEO point of view. You can increase the number of users who visit your site by taking correct SEO measures even on sites where branding has not yet been established.

This time, Reasons why SEO is necessary for EC sites and portal sitesorInternal measures, Point to being aware of introducing

Definition of e-commerce site and portal site

The e-commerce site websites that sell products and services of the company or other companies indicate that

In this article, e-commerce sites and portal sites are defined as sites where you can search for products and services from databases, view details, and take actions such as purchases and inquiries.

E-commerce site, portal site example

Mail order site ZOZOTOWN, Amazon, etc.
Real estate site SUUMO, HOME'S, etc.
Recruitment sites Mynavi, Rikunabi, etc.
Gourmet site Tabelog, Gurunavi, etc.
Meta search site trivago, Kakaku.com, etc.

Why you need SEO on your ECommerce site

SEO is essential when running an ECommerce site. The main reasons for this are the following two points.

Market expansion of e-commerce and portal sites

SEO is cost-effective

The expansion of the market for ECommerce and portal sites will also lead to the expansion of business opportunities. However, it is also certain that competition will increase.

When there is little competition, you may have been displayed high in the search engine without being conscious of SEO. However, if the competition increases, it will not be possible to display easily. There are other ways to generate revenue besides SEO, but SEO is relatively cost-effective and can generate sustainable revenue.

Therefore, SEO is important to keep your e-commerce site profitable. Let's take a closer look at why SEO is necessary.

The EC/portal site market continues to expand

The first reason why SEO is necessary for ECommerce and portal sites is market expansion.

The Internet and ECommerce industries continue to develop rapidly. New products are being developed, and new demand and markets are increasing. At the same time, the number of new entrants continues to increase, and the competitiveness of the EC/portal site market continues to rise.

Furthermore, the rise of such various players will increase new user needs, and at the same time, the keywords searched by users will also diversify.

Therefore, it is necessary to constantly implement SEO measures such as adding new keywords and reviewing the site.

I will explain how the market is actually expanding by dividing it into the EC site market and the portal site market.

The ECommerce site market expanded approximately 1.9 times in eight years

The graph below shows the transition of the ECommerce market size in BtoC (Business to Customer) announced by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. B2C refers to businesses in which companies provide products and services directly to general consumers. For example, EC markets such as Amazon and Rakuten market.

Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry "Compiled the results of market research on electronic commerce"

In 2020, it decreased by 0.43% from the previous year, but the market size in 2021 increased by 7.35% to 206,950 yen. Comparing 2013 and 2021, about 1.9 times is

In 2021, the new corona infection was trending, and it had a big impact on people's lives. The demand for stay-at-home orders also overlaps, and the EC market is expanding significantly.

In addition, the spread of smartphones will have a large impact on the expansion of the e-commerce market. The graph below shows the size of the EC market via smartphones.

Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry “FY2019 International Economic Research Project for Establishing Integrated Domestic and International Economic Growth Strategy ”

Looking at the graph, it is obvious that with the spread of smartphones, the Expansion of the ECommerce market size doing. There is also data that more people now use simple smartphones than search and shop on PCs.

Therefore, search demand for ECommerce sites is not only for PCs, but smartphones must also be considered.

So what about the portal site market?

The portal site market is also shifting from PCs to smartphones

The business model of the portal site is revenue from Internet advertising such as "advertisement type", "posting charge type", and "contingency fee type". In other words, it is no exaggeration to say that Internet advertising has driven the portal site market.

Let's take a look at how the size of the Internet advertising market has changed.

The graph below shows Internet advertising spending from 2011 to 2018. Internet advertising costs are increasing year by year. Although not shown in the graph, it 202121% increase from the previous year was 2,705.2 billion.

Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry "Trends in the Advertising Industry"

One site model that has driven the growth of the Internet advertising market is the portal site. As with e-commerce sites, the spread of smartphones has had an impact, bringing about major changes in the Internet advertising market.

In the past, most people browsed websites on PCs, but with the spread of smartphones, website browsing via smartphones is increasing. In addition, smartphones have made it possible for anyone to easily access the Internet. Demand for portal sites is higher than before.

SEO is a cost-effective way to attract customers

The following methods are mainly considered for attracting customers for ECommerce and portal sites.

Attracting customers from advertisements

Attracting customers from SNS

Among the above, the most cost-effective way to attract customers is to attract customers from search engines, that is, SEO.

If your SEO measures are successful and your site is displayed at the top once, you can continue to generate stable inflows over the long term. Of course, this does not mean that it will not fall, and the ranking may change in the following cases.

more competition
Search engine algorithm update
search engine penalty

In other words, if you can create a page that is displayed at the top of the search results by SEO, you will be able to attract customers stably.

On the other hand, listing ads pay advertising expenses and attract customers. Keywords for listing ads are bidding, so you can only expect high rankings if you spend a lot of money. In addition, additional costs are required to continue to be listed at the top.

Therefore, compared to listing advertisements, Attracting customers through SEO is cost-effectiveAlso and ideal for EC and portal sites.

Target keywords for SEO of ECommerce sites and portal sites

When considering SEO for ECommerce sites and portal sites, it is important to decide what keywords to target. here are keyword selection points and, Keyword examples by site types that will introduce you.

Types of target keywords and countermeasure pages

There are three main types of keywords to set as targets, and there are pages to be targeted for each.
Countermeasure keyword ① BIG word → Countermeasure on the TOP page
Keywords for countermeasures ② Keywords that classify products → Countermeasures on the product list page
Countermeasure keyword ③ Product name keyword → Countermeasure on the product detail page

Selection of target keywords

Next, we will introduce the characteristics of each of the countermeasure keywords introduced and examples.

BIG word

It is said that BIG words with high search volume are easier to rank high if the site scale is large or branding is done. For example, keywords such as "mail order" and "real estate".

If you are launching a new site, targeting a long tail rather than a single keyword will make it easier for you to rank high in search rankings and lead to an increase in inflows.

The long tail refers to long tail keywords.

Used in the same sense as "niche keywords" and "small keywords", Keywords that combine multiple words (2 words, 3 words...) are.

The long tail combines multiple words, so the search volume itself is low. However, the purpose of the search becomes clearer than BIG keywords, and higher conversion rates are a feature.

For example, "Skirt mail order" instead of "mail order", and "Tokyo real estate" instead of "real estate". It is a good idea to target keywords such as "Gotanda real estate" and narrow down the theme of the site.

Keywords to classify products

Categories and tags that classify products are also important as countermeasure keywords.

For example, in the case of a job site, there are many classification keywords such as "area", "occupation", "annual income", and "company size". Then, which of the multiple categories should be set as a countermeasure keyword?

First of all, after identifying the possible classifications of combinations, we will list the actual search keywords from there.

If it is an area, Tokyo x job change, Tokyo x recruitment, Tokyo x recruitment, etc.

If it is a job type, engineer x job, server-side engineer x job, IOS engineer x job

Once you have your list, research the search volume for each. It would be better to decide whether or not to have a hierarchical structure and categories according to each volume.

Keyword in product name

Regarding the keyword of the product name, let's first check how many times the product name is searched.

It is recommended to set product names such as "Pocky" and "Tepra" that have high search volume as countermeasure keywords.

On the other hand, remember that it is difficult to set keywords that are not business viable if the name is known, such as the company name of the dispatched company on the temporary staffing site.

Points in the site structure

The basic structure of ECommerce sites and portal sites is generally as follows.

TOP ＞ Product List ＞ Product Details

However, if you can expect an inflow by the product name rather than the keyword of the product category that you are dealing with in the product list, it is recommended to make the level of the product details shallower.

Also, for keywords with high potential, generate pages corresponding to those keywords so that search engine crawlers can follow them.

For example, in the case of a real estate site, not only "Tokyo rental" but also subdivided area names such as "Gotanda rental" have potential, so the following structure is recommended.

For Rent ＞ Tokyo ＞ 23 wards ＞ Gotanda

Countermeasure points on each page

It is essential to incorporate the keywords set in the TOP, product list, and product details into the body text and title tags, but there are other measures that can be taken.

Here, we will introduce the points of countermeasures for each page.

Top page

On the TOP page, I want to take measuresKeyword information and columnsorContent with update system is recommended that you include

For example, in the case of the top page of a skirt mail order site, it is effective to include "Points for choosing skirts" and "Information on new arrivals".

Product list page

On the product list page, the structure of the internal link is well combined, and Pages aligned with user search needsThe point is to

For example, on Amazon's product list page, we have successfully set up internal links for product classification and narrowing down to achieve both usability and crawlability.

*Internal links are important, but be careful not to create meaningless links.

Product detail page

In addition, as much as possible not only the product image include text information inside the product listing page which is also one of the points.

It is effective not only to include information that expresses the product, such as product descriptions, usage, reviews, etc. but also to include “non-product” information derived from the product.

If it's a page about a frying pan, it's a good idea to include recommended recipes that use a frying pan, and if it's a cardigan, it's a good idea to add a coordinate that incorporates the cardigan.

end of sale page

On EC sites, there are cases where the sale of products handled is terminated due to reasons such as product shortages and discontinued editions.

actually, It is not good for SEO to leave the discontinued product page on the EC / portal site.. There are two reasons for this.

Impact on crawlers

lead to user abandonment

So what should we do with the discontinued product page?

Here are three ways to best handle end-of-sale pages:

delete page
Setting status code 404
Dare to leave an end-of-sale page

To delete a page, click301 redirect' will be used. A 301 redirect allows users who have accessed a page you do not want to see to be redirected to another page. This will redirect users trying to access the deleted page to another page.

However, there may be cases where the product detail page cannot be redirected by 301 due to the balance with the customer. In such cases, status code 404should be treated as

Also, when displaying a 404 error page, it is recommended to display the original error page instead of the page prepared by the server.

By displaying the original error page, it also helps to avoid leaving the user.

There are ways to leverage error pages to get conversions. See the article below for details.

How to leverage 404 error pages to generate conversions

Also, as a point to noteAvoid redirects to the TOP page about it.

Redirects to the TOP page are recognized as redirects to less relevant pages. Therefore, please note that it is not subject to SEO evaluation.

The bottom line is that leaving an end-of-sale page will hurt your SEO ranking, but if you take care of it properly, your SEO ranking will go up.

In addition, it is also possible to dare to leave the end-of-sale page in a state where users can see it. This is effective when considering strategic use, such as collecting users on the end-of-sale page and recommending other products from there.

It is not possible to say unconditionally which option is better, but it is important to choose the best option depending on the situation of the site and business model.

Internal SEO measures for ECommerce sites

So far, we have discussed countermeasures for each page on EC and portal sites. Now let's get into the technical side of things one step further.

We will explain the following seven items as SEO internal measures for EC / portal sites.

Conductor design
mobile friendly design
Internal link optimization
Structured data markup
Improved display speed
Dealing with duplicate content
SSL

If possible, it would be preferable to implement all measures. However, there are some cases where considerable expertise is required. Therefore, if it is determined that you cannot implement everything in-house, it is recommended that you consult with a specialist such as a consultant.

Conductor design

There is a purpose in establishing an EC/portal site.

Ultimately, the site visitor must serve its purpose. The path to that end is "lead wire"is. The important thing is how to guide the user to the destination point.

Here are some possible final destinations:

Excursion within the site

Application for products and services

If you can guide the user from the starting point to the goal point without getting lost, user satisfaction will be high. Crawlers will also get a good evaluation of a site with high usability, and as a result, it will be displayed at the top.

So, what kind of page should be created to specifically guide users?

The following five points should be paid attention to when designing conductors.

page making
button placement
Button top microcopy
banner placement
banner design

First, the entire page must flow to guide the user to the goal. In addition, it is necessary to place buttons and banners at the end of the induction.

Of course, it goes without saying that buttons and banners are designed to make users want to press them.

Make good use of microcopy and design so you know what happens when you press a button or banner. It is essential to remove user anxiety.

The wiring design is explained in detail in the article below. Please take a look.

・What is UI/UX? Introducing the points of difference and improvement!

・Explanation of site improvement from the basics! Introduce current situation analysis methods and specific improvement points

mobile friendly design

In terms of market trends for ECommerce and portal sites, I mentioned that site visits via smartphones are increasing rapidly. Therefore, currently, along with the site conductor design mobile-friendly site designs are required.

It goes without saying that mobile-friendly site design also leads to user satisfaction. Mobile friendliness is also important from an SEO point of view. Mobile-friendliness also has a big impact on Google rankings.

Mobile-friendly means that your website will look great even when users are viewing it on their smartphones

Screen size
button position
character size

You can see if the above elements are easy to see and use even when the site is displayed on a smartphone.

You can check if your site is mobile-friendly with Google's official mobile-friendly test tool.

Source: Google Mobile-Friendly Test

There is no problem if the test result says "page is available on mobile".

One way to make your site mobile-friendly is to implement a responsive design. Check out our article on the responsive design below.

・[Template included] Responsive support is a must!? Thorough explanation of implementation methods and points

・Optimal breakpoints for responsive design [latest version]

Internal link optimization

in SEOThe conversion rate within the site is also important becomes.

It is internal link optimization that improves the migration rate.

It also leads to smooth crawling and improves SEO evaluation as a site with high crawlability.

In addition, usability will be improved by giving the information that the user wants to know as an internal link.

However, you should refrain from blindly connecting pages. Internal links should be relevant pages and information that users want to know.

Also, when setting up an internal link, describe the linked page's content so that you can understand it, and use it as the anchor text. You can also use blog cards to make them stand out but refrain from turning every internal link into a blog card.

Optimizing internal links is important for SEO, but it's pointless if you don't consider usability at the same time.

If internal links can be optimized on EC/portal sites, the quality of both the link source and the link destination will improve.

Structured data markup

Structured data is about users, not users make it easier for search engines to understand it. It is information written in HTML that is tagged so that it can be organized and understood by search engines.

So what are the benefits of using structured data markup?

For example, consider marking up structured data for product pages on an e-commerce site. Let's say you have the following structured data for a product page:

stock status
Product review
commodity price

By marking up this information, it becomes possible to display it in search results.

Also, structured data markup will make it easier for users to see. As a result, you will be able to differentiate your website from your competitors and increase your click-through rate.

However, marking up structured data requires special work. There are three types of markup methods, but the support tool is the easiest to use.

Use assistive tools

The following is a "structured data markup support tool" that can be used in Google Search Console.

Source: Structured Data Markup Tool

It will also be reflected in Google search results, so please use it.

Improved display speed

Among the things that have long been considered important in SEO is site speed there is.

Google has done a "speed update" in the past and said that the display speed of the site also affects the search display.

Page speed not only affects SEO but also user satisfaction. Slow display speed can lead to user withdrawal.

You can check the display speed of your site with PageSpeedInsight. First of all, it is recommended to check the display speed of your site and improve the site.

Source: PageSpeedInsights

What is lazy loading of offscreen images? Explain how to improve the items displayed in PageSpeed Insights

There are four main ways to improve display speed:

image optimization
External file optimization
Lightweight source code
Take advantage of browser caching

We recommend shrinking images and external files to the smallest possible size. Also, remove unnecessary source code and plugins. It is recommended to use a free tool to compress and lighten the source code.

Using the cache of the browser also leads to improvement of the display speed. Recommended for sites with many revisits, sites with large images, and sites with many images.

Dealing with duplicate content

In order to make an EC / portal site evaluated by SEO, the content on the site must be high quality.

So what does quality content look like?

Unlike other sites, it refers to content that contains useful information. In Google's algorithm, Duplicate content is not high-quality content.

So, when creating pages, you should avoid duplicate content on your site. So what is duplicate content? Google's definition is as follows:

Duplicate content refers to blocks of content that are precisely the same or very similar to other content in the same language within or across domains.

Quoted from Google Search Central

Duplicate content, especially malicious duplicate content, may also be subject to the following penalties:

Decrease in search ranking
Doesn't show up in search results
It should be noted that even if there is no malicious intent, it may be judged to be malicious. This means that pages with similar content can be considered duplicate content.

For example, if you unintentionally create a large number of products with different sizes or colors on separate pages, you have to be careful.

Therefore, when creating pages that can be duplicate content, it may be necessary to aggregate them on the same page or change the design on each page.

SSL

Communication over the Internet is not always secure.

In particular, EC sites handle information such as credit cards, so you should pay close attention to safety.

Therefore, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is important. What is a technology for encrypting Internet communications is. By encrypting the communication content with SSL, it is possible to prevent interception and falsification by a third party.

So what is the difference between a site with SSL and a site without it?

Of course, from the point of view of safety, SSL-encrypted sites are more advantageous. Currently, sites such as Chrome display a warning for sites that are not SSL-enabled. In other words, it is recognized that sites that are not SSL-enabled are dangerous. Google now recommends SSL for all sites.

Also, the URL is different in terms of display, so you can tell at a glance. The URL of the site that is not converted to SSL is "http://~", but the site that is converted to SSL is "https://~".

In addition, on SSL-enabled sites, a key mark is locked on the left side of the URL. However, sites that are not SSL-enabled will be marked as unlocked. The unlock mark gives the impression that the site is not secure, so it will definitely lead to the user leaving the page.

Content marketing on EC sites

As the ECommerce site market expands, competition increases, making it difficult to attract customers.

Meanwhile, what is attracting attention is content marketing. In recent years, more and more companies are incorporating content marketing into their e-commerce sites.

Content marketing is a method of creating and marketing content that is beneficial to users. Below is an example of the content.

Blog Articles (Owned Media)
e-mail magazine
brand magazine
SNS linkage
Video distribution

In particular, blog articles ( owned media ) and video distribution have a direct impact on e-commerce sites.

Content marketing in Japan has a large market size, and there are merits such as raising awareness of products and e-commerce sites and making customers fans. Therefore, if you run an e-commerce site, you should also work on content marketing.

Content marketing also benefits from an SEO perspective. If the evaluation of the content page to be produced increases, the evaluation of the entire EC site will increase.

Therefore, when creating content pages, you should do so within the same domain as your EC site. The content will grow the domain and improve the evaluation of the EC site. As a result, it will lead to improved search rankings, so please work on content marketing.

However, content marketing also has its drawbacks.

Need to secure resources
Requires regular content delivery
not immediately effective

In particular, content production requires a lot of resources. Also, since the effect often appears in proportion to the amount of effort, it must be implemented continuously.

If the above disadvantages can be dispelled, content marketing will bring great benefits to EC sites.

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