SEO Concerns when Owning a Retail Website (Part 2)

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When it comes to SEO, you are not 100% sure of the outcome. It could fail or it could flourish! Search engine optimization is a gamble and if you aren’t ready to give it your all, it’s not for you. It takes tremendous time and effort to see noticeable results in your SEO campaign.

person shopping online using his credit card

Before reading the tips below, be sure you have read SEO Concerns when Owning a Retail Website (Part 1).

Page Speed

Speed is not just a ranking factor provided by Google, but it is also what your customers demand. Of course, no one would want to shop on a slow website. You want to your purchase journey to be accomplished as soon as possible.

Last January 2018, Google emphasizes on page speed as an important factor on both desktop and mobile devices because they realized that people care about how fast a website is. A fast website is equals to a better user experience.

Google recommends the following tools to assess a website’s speed:
  • Chrome User Experience Report – This will show you the real-world experience of Google Chrome users when browsing popular websites.
  • Lighthouse – This is an open-source tool that will assess the website in terms of accessibility and performance. You can access Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools of your Google browser.
  • PageSpeed Insights – The PageSpeed Insights (PSI) will let you know the desktop and mobile performance of your website. A PSI score of 90 or above would mean your website is fast, and a score from 50 to 89 is just average. Meanwhile, a PSI score that is below 50 would mean a slow website.

Remember, speed is not just a ranking factor. Website speed also increases your conversion rates. If pages load within the 3-second threshold, your customers will interact with your website more. If not, then expect that customers will immediately leave your website.

The Page Title and Meta Description

These things will not directly affect ranking, but users will depend on the page title and meta description whenever they need to decide whether they click a search result or not. If the page title and meta description do not appeal to the searchers, how will your website get enough clicks then?

Of course, if the searchers find the title interesting, then they’ll read the meta description to get more details. Find ways to make your titles grab the attention of the searchers. If you need tips in optimizing your meta description, I’ve listed 3 Unique Ways to Present Your Meta Description.

For example, someone searches for “buy maxi dress” on Google. Most likely, web pages with title “maxi dress” will appear in the search results. Now, it is all in the hands of the meta description. If the meta description is vague, the searcher will skip to the next result.

You also have to take into consideration that Google will not include the whole description. It will only show the first 160 characters of the given description. So, if you are not direct to the point, then the searchers will be confused on whether or not your website is an online store.

What is the ideal product description then?

In an ideal setting, it would be the search result that addresses ambiguity and assures the users of its validity. Of course, adding the magic words “free shipping” can also increases the chances for your website to be clicked.

At the end of day, take time to test what titles and descriptions work for your audience. Because page title and meta descriptions help you get page clicks and sales, it should be on your priority list. More clicks would also mean higher rankings for your website in the SERPs. That should give you enough reason to take your page titles and meta descriptions seriously.