How to improve the SEO of your website

SEO is a critical factor in the profitability of an e-commerce business, reducing reliance on paid media and boosting organic presence. With a strategy that includes keyword research, on-page SEO, technical health and backlinks, traffic and sales can be increased. Improving speed and proper use of internal linking are equally important, as they link SEO to user experience and business strategy.

Contents

The article summarizes the most important points and turns them into practical steps for businesses that want better organic visibility, a cleaner user experience and more reliable content.

Why SEO is a profitability driver for e-commerce

Practical reading: Keep from the topic of the article what can be turned into a cleaner user experience, better documentation and a more measurable business decision.

For an e-commerce owner, SEO is not just a traffic channel. It's a mechanism for steady demand, measurable growth and reduced dependence on paid media. As the cost of advertising on Google Ads, Meta and marketplaces increases, organic presence becomes a strategic asset: it brings users who are already searching for products, comparing options and being close to the marketplace. The point, however, is not to “do SEO” in general. It's about improving specific pages, for specific searches, in a way that drives clicks, trust, good session signals and ultimately revenue. See also: Digital Marketing & SEO, website construction, e-shop construction.

Semrush's article on improving SEO gives a practical basis: it starts with keyword research, moves on to on-page SEO, technical health, content improvement, internal linking and getting quality backlinks. For an online store, these translate into day-to-day decisions: which product categories deserve priority, which pages have impressions but low CTR, which product descriptions don't answer search intent, which filters create indexation problems, and which content can gain links. SEO improvement is a systematic process, not a single task.

The importance of ranking is clearly shown in the CTR data. According to Backlinko's research, the first organic result on Google has an average CTR of 27.6%, and the drop from position to position is pronounced. For an e-shop, this difference can mean hundreds or thousands of additional visits per month, with no increase in media budget. As shown in the graph below, SEO disproportionately pays off when the strategy leads to top positions rather than just “presence” on the results page.

Average CTR of Google organic results per position

Source: Backlinko, Google Organic CTR Study

Position 1
27.6%
Position 2
15.8%
Position 3
11%
Position 4
8.4%
Position 5
6.3%
Position 6
4.9%
Position 7
3.9%
Position 8
3.3%
Position 9
2.7%
Position 10
2.4%

The 11-step strategy to improve SEO

From generic content to SEO asset that responds to real intent

Content to fill the page

The article targets keywords, but does not fully cover the search intent or lead the user to a more mature decision.

KeywordsLow intent

Content with an SEO/AEO strategy

The structure answers questions, links internal pages, documents claims and helps search engines, AI answers and users understand the value.

Search intentAuthority

An effective SEO strategy starts with a proper SEO audit. Before you write new content or change titles, you need to know what is currently happening: which pages are bringing organic traffic, which have impressions without clicks, which have good positions but low conversion rate, which load slowly, which have duplicate titles, which don't have proper canonicals and which are orphaned without internal linking. An audit in Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, Semrush Site Audit or similar tool shows where there is real opportunity and where there is just “noise”.

The first step is keyword research. For e-commerce, it is not enough to choose keywords with high volume. You need intent-based mapping: informational searches for buying guides, commercial searches for product comparison, transactional searches for categories and products, branded searches for users who already know you. The focus keyword can be generic, like SEO for this article, but in practice an e-shop should work clusters: “men's sneakers”, “white leather sneakers”, “walking sneakers”, “how to clean leather sneakers”. This creates thematic coverage rather than fragmented content.

The second step is to match each keyword to a proper page. If two categories target the same query, cannibalization is created. If a category targets a very general query but has thin content, it will not stand up against strong competitors. If a blog post tries to rank for transactional keyword, it may bring visits without sales. The right architecture includes category pages for main commercial keywords, subcategory pages for more specific needs, product pages for branded or model-specific queries, and blog content to support the customer journey.

The third step is on-page SEO. Every important page needs a unique title tag, clean H1, descriptive URL, improved meta description, structured content, images with alt text, schema where appropriate and clear internal links. The meta description is not a direct ranking factor in the traditional sense, but it does influence the user's decision to click. For e-commerce, a good description should combine value proposition, availability, product range, shipping, returns or some differentiating element. It's not written for the search engine; it's written for the person comparing results.

The fourth step is to upgrade existing content. Very often, the fastest SEO improvement comes not from new articles, but from pages that are already in positions 4 to 15. These pages have proven that Google considers them relevant, but they need better content, cleaner intent match, better internal links or a more engaging snippet. Analyze the top results, identify what they cover that you're skipping, add useful sections, answer real customer questions and remove generic text that doesn't help the market.

The fifth step is internal linking. In an e-shop with hundreds or thousands of URLs, internal links act as a priority map. If your most profitable categories are several clicks away from the original, if they are not linked from relevant articles, or if your anchor texts are unclear, you lose crawl efficiency and authority flow. Link buying guides to categories, categories to subcategories, products to related products, and important landing pages with descriptive anchors. A good internal linking plan can move pages up without the need for immediate external link building.

Step-by-step 30-day implementation plan

To make the strategy workable, a practical 30-day plan is followed. Days 1-3: extract data from Google Search Console for queries, pages, impressions, clicks, CTR and average position. Filter pages with many impressions and average position 4-20, because that's where the biggest direct opportunity is usually found. Days 4-6: do keyword research and group queries by search intent. Create clusters and decide which page to target each group. Days 7-10: perform SEO audit for technical issues such as 404 errors, redirect chains, canonical conflicts, duplicate titles, pages without meta description, slow speed and indexation problems.

Days 11-15: select the 10 most important pages based on potential revenue impact and not just traffic. Improve title tags, H1, introductory text, product/category copy, FAQ blocks and internal links. Days 16-20: refresh content that is old or inadequate. Add comparisons, selection tables, user instructions, answers to objections and trust elements such as return policy, warranties, reviews and shipping details. Days 21-24: work on technical SEO and Core Web Vitals, prioritizing mobile experience, image compression, lazy loading, caching and reducing unnecessary scripts. Days 25-27: plan outreach for backlinks from vendors, partners, industry media and helpful guides. Days 28-30: create dashboard with KPIs, compare baseline to new data and plan the next round of improvements.

On-page and content: from search intent to sales

Main decision

How to improve the SEO of your website: what does it mean for business?;

The important thing is not only to understand the news or trend, but to see if it affects content, UX, SEO, brand, automation, sales or the related service.

Content marketing in SEO for e-commerce should serve the market, not just information. A “how to choose a child car seat” guide can bring users to the beginning of a search, but it should lead them naturally to categories, filters, comparisons and products. A “child car seat” category page should be transactional in nature, but also have sufficient supporting content to help users understand selection criteria. This is where search intent meets commercial strategy.

The winning pages today are not necessarily the largest in word count. They are the ones that answer the search intent more completely and more clearly. For a transactional query, the user wants products, filters, prices, availability, reviews, photos, shipping information and trust. For an informational query, he wants instructions, examples, comparisons, error avoidance and objective guidance. Improving SEO requires reading SERPs like market research: what types of results appear, are there featured snippets, do videos appear, do People Also Ask appear, do marketplaces or niche brands dominate?;

Content quality is now directly linked to E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authority and credibility. For an e-shop, this means real product descriptions, not copy-paste from suppliers. It means guides written with product knowledge, photos or observations from actual use, clear policies, company information, easy communication and reviews. If you sell technical products, add specifications consistently. If you sell fashion, explain line, fit, materials and styling. If you sell B2B equipment, show compatibilities, specifications and use cases. SEO is not separate from the customer experience; it's its organic reflection.

Technical SEO, speed and user experience

Technical SEO is often where e-shops lose momentum without realizing it. Filters, product variations, pagination, faceted navigation, discontinued products and dynamic URLs can create thousands of low-value pages. If Google spends crawl budget on useless variations, if important categories are not indexed correctly or if there are canonical errors, even the best content struggles to perform. That's why every SEO audit should look at index coverage, robots.txt, XML sitemaps, canonical tags, redirects, status codes, structured data and mobile rendering.

Speed is not only a ranking consideration. It is a commercial factor. Core Web Vitals, such as LCP, INP and CLS, help evaluate whether the page loads quickly, is responsive and remains visually stable. In an e-commerce environment, a slow category page, a heavy product gallery or a delayed checkout can affect sales. Deloitte documented that improvements of just 0.1 seconds in mobile site speed were associated with significant increases in conversions and average order value in industries such as retail and travel. As the graph shows, technical improvement is not a “detail” for developers, but a business KPI.

Effect of 0.1 second improvement in mobile speed

Source: Deloitte, Milliseconds Make Millions

retail conversions
8.4%
Travel conversions
10.1%
Retail average order value
9.2%

Practically, start with the pages with the most commercial relevance: homepage, top categories, bestselling product pages and checkout entry points. Compress images in modern formats, limit third-party scripts that don't perform, use caching, improve server response time and check what loads above the fold. For product pages, pay attention to structured data for Product, Offer, AggregateRating and Breadcrumb where real data exists. Schema doesn't guarantee rich results, but it helps search engines better understand the content and can boost the appearance in SERPs.

Practical steps for exploitation

  1. Step 1Identify the main effect.

    Connect the topic to a real audience need: awareness, trust, product choice, experience improvement or increased conversions.

  2. Step 2Turn it into energy.

    Define what changes in content, service pages, product pages, internal links, CTA or technical implementation.

  3. Step 3Measure the result.

    Track organic visibility, engagement, leads, conversions and user behavior so the article has practical value.

Backlinks are still important, but the logic has changed. It doesn't make sense to chase massive amounts of low quality links. For an e-commerce brand, the best opportunities are often found in relationships that already exist: manufacturers who can refer you as an official partner, suppliers, industry guides, interviews, market research, useful tools, original data and content that solves real problems. A good backlink should have relevance, natural context and a chance of bringing referral traffic, not just “authority”.

Measurement is where a mature SEO strategy is distinguished from piecemeal actions. Don't just track rankings. Track organic revenue, assisted conversions, organic conversion rate, clicks, impressions, CTR, average position, indexed pages, crawl errors, core web vitals, revenue per landing page and share of non-branded traffic. Google Search Console shows where you're gaining or losing visibility, while GA4 helps you see if organic traffic is converting to revenue. Semrush or similar tools can be used for competitor gap analysis, backlink tracking, keyword tracking and technical monitoring.

The most practical approach is a monthly optimization cycle. At the beginning of the month, you select 5-10 pages with high business impact. Then, you set a hypothesis: “if we improve the category content and add internal links from three relevant leads, will the CTR and position for the main queries increase”. Then you implement changes, note dates, wait a sufficient amount of time and evaluate. SEO needs patience, but not ambiguity. Every action must be tied to a specific measurement.

For e-commerce owners, the most important advice is to treat SEO as a development function rather than a “technical package”. Keyword research shows demand. On-page SEO converts demand into relevant pages. Technical SEO ensures that Google and users can leverage them. Content marketing builds trust before buying. Backlinks reinforce authority. Internal linking directs power to where there is commercial value. And continuous measurement keeps the strategy tied to revenue. If these work together, SEO becomes one of the most efficient and durable growth channels for your online store.

Sources: Semrush - How to Improve SEO, Backlinko - Google Organic CTR Study, Deloitte - Milliseconds Make Millions, Google Search Central – SEO Starter Guide, web.dev - Core Web Vitals, Google Search Console Help

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Frequently Asked Questions

How does SEO improve the profitability of an e-commerce?;

SEO reduces reliance on paid advertising, increases organic traffic and brings users closer to the market. Thus, it boosts revenue without increasing advertising costs.

What are the key steps to improve SEO on an e-commerce site?;

Start with keyword research, continue with on-page SEO, content improvement, internal linking and backlink acquisition. These steps help to systematically improve organic presence.

Why is ranking on the first page of Google important?;

High ranking increases CTR, with the first result having an average CTR of 27.6%. This can bring hundreds of additional visits per month, boosting traffic and sales at no extra cost.

How does technical SEO affect the performance of an e-commerce site?;

Technical SEO ensures proper indexing, loading speed and good user experience. This helps content perform better in search engines and improves sales.

What is the importance of content marketing in SEO for e-commerce?;

Content marketing helps to meet user needs and build trust. It links search intent to sales strategy, driving users to products and categories.

How are backlinks related to the success of an e-commerce site?;

Backlinks enhance the authority and relevance of the site in search engines. They are important when they come from credible sources and can bring additional referral traffic.

How can an e-commerce store maintain continuous SEO optimization?;

Through a monthly optimization cycle that includes evaluation and improvement of high-impact pages, use of analytics tools and continuous monitoring of KPIs such as conversions and organic traffic.

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