Keeping Up With the Rapidly Changing SEO Landscape

December 14, 2015

Posted by Carlos Munoa, Principal, Ecommerce Marketing, NetSuite 

Keeping pace with search engines as they tweak their algorithms is paramount for ecommerce(opens in new tab) retailers. Even the smallest change could mean less traffic to your site. That hasn’t changed.

At the same time, it’s become evident that search engines will rank your site based on the quality of your content, the performance of your site and the user experience you generate across all devices. Therefore, keep search engines and your customers in mind when optimizing your site by focusing on the following metrics:

  • Click-through rate (CTR) – Search engines can track how many times a user clicks on a site from a search result and then returns to the same results to look for another site. The more often this happens may indicate a site is optimized for search but doesn’t offer a relevant or quality user experience.
  • Page load times – This is a killer. If a user clicks on a page from their search results and it takes longer to load than a few seconds, search engines will notice. Again, it’s an easy metric to gather and could potentially be the beginning, or quick end, to a great user journey.
  • Mobile friendly – Search engines now penalize you for not having a mobile optimized site.(opens in new tab) Make sure mobile users get nearly the same functionality with a quality experience but with a version of your ecommerce website specifically designed for mobile.
  • Social media – Provide a great shopping experience and your delighted customers will let others know through blogs, forums and social media. We already know search engines still consider links to your page, and possibly simple citations, as an important metric..

In addition to the strategies above, you also need to be sure to stay on top of all the SEO changes. Below are my go-to resources that help me stay informed.

Remember, there are many things search engines monitor. Some we know about, but many we don’t. So stick to delivering a quality user experience that will drive revenue and keep search engines happy. And always test things before applying any changes to your ecommerce site and always have a back-up plan.

Want to learn more about SEO best practices? Read the other past articles from our SEO Strategy Series:



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