Ecommerce SEO is constantly evolving. With the pace of change in search algorithms and shopping behavior, strategies that work today may not work tomorrow. So what should businesses focus on for ecommerce SEO success in 2024?
Key factors likely to impact ecommerce SEO in 2024 include:
- Leveraging AI and machine learning
- Optimizing for voice search
- Personalization and localization
- Enhanced content and faster sites
- Video marketing
- Social media and community
- Mobile optimization
- Quality link building
By focusing on these key factors, ecommerce sites can future-proof their SEO and gain a competitive edge in 2024 and beyond. In this comprehensive guide, we dive into the essential ecommerce SEO strategies for the next few years.
Ecommerce SEO factors to focus on in 2024
AI and machine learning
Search engines like Google are rapidly developing AI and machine learning to better understand searches. This allows them to go beyond keywords to context and user intent.
To optimize for AI-driven search, focus on natural language and conversational content. Also, ensure your site architecture and product taxonomy make intuitive sense. Clearly highlight your unique value proposition and competitive advantages. Think about what provides the best experience for your customers.
AI tools will also help ecommerce stores increase efficiencies and analysis. AI content tools are already assisting with ideation and content creation, saving time for writers.
AI can also analyze data like sales numbers, traffic sources, and engagement metrics to optimize marketing campaigns and site content. And chatbots and product recommendation engines that leverage machine learning are improving the on-site experience for customers.
Overall, AI gives ecommerce stores more insights from data, drives automation, and enhances personalization.
Voice search optimization
Voice search usage is rising exponentially thanks to smart speakers and mobile. According to Search Engine Land, 48% of consumers are using voice for “general web searches.”
To target voice search in 2024:
- Include longer, more conversational queries within your content. Think about how people actually speak to each other
- Optimize titles and meta descriptions for conversational long-tail keywords.
- Create blog and video content that answers common customer questions.
- Ensure your site offers compelling answers to search queries.
Personalization and localization
Personalized, relevant experiences are becoming expected and localization for different geographies is also increasingly important. The more relevant and engaging your content is for a visitor, the less likely they are to bounce from your site and click on a different search result. This is great for your SEO.
To optimize for personalization and localization:
- Provide geo-targeted content for different regions.
- Localize sites for local currencies, languages, shipping options, etc.
- Customize on-site experiences and product recommendations with user data and context.
- Personalize content for different audience personas and funnel stages.
Enhanced content quality and user experience
Google has been placing ever greater emphasis on user experience. It would not be wise to ignore improving user experience if you’re looking to improve your SEO in 2024. And a huge part of your user experience is the quality of the content you provide to your customers.
To improve your content and UX for SEO
- Produce in-depth long-form guides and FAQs answering buyer questions.
- Optimize page speed by minimizing HTTP requests, enabling compression, reducing server response time, etc. Check out Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to test your pages.
- Improve site navigation and on-site search to help users easily find products.
- Add curated collections, quizzes, configurators and interactive content tailored to your products.
- Continuously test and optimize page layouts, calls-to-action, and checkout flows using A/B testing.
Video marketing
Video marketing is growing tremendously, and it is important to remember that Google isn’t the only place that people search. YouTube is actually one of the largest search engines in the world.
It would make a lot of sense to include video in your SEO campaigns in 2024. Here are some ideas for how to optimize for video:
- Produce YouTube videos to answer buyer questions and demonstrate products.
- Optimize video titles, descriptions and tags for target keywords.
- Feature videos prominently on-site and share natively on social media.
- Run TrueView video ads on YouTube for greater visibility and engagement.
Social media and community
Online communities are a great way to build your brand and share your content. This is only expected to increase in the coming years. Increased brand searches and driving traffic to your content can only benefit your SEO.
Here are some tips to optimize your social and community presence in 2024:
- Use popular social platforms like Instagram and TikTok for brand building.
- User-generated content and influencer marketing on social sites will help drive awareness. Think about customers sharing images and videos of your products.
- Develop brand advocates and loyal customers by nurturing an engaged community.
- Promote UGC using branded hashtags and campaigns.
- Share engaging lifestyle content that connects your brand values with your target audience.
Mobile optimization
In Q1 2023, smartphones accounted for 74% of retail site traffic worldwide and generated 63% of online shopping orders, according to data from Statista. It is clear that mobile SEO is more vital than ever.
Here are some ways you can optimize your online store for mobile:
- Ensure a fast mobile site with streamlined navigation and minimal steps to purchase.
- Optimize site speed by reducing server response times, enabling compression, and eliminating render-blocking resources.
- Target buyers on-the-go with location-based campaigns and geo-targeted content.
- Adapt product descriptions for small screens using expandable text or tabs.
Link building
High-quality backlinks remain a crucial ranking factor. But low-value manipulative tactics can hurt your SEO. This will remain true in 2024.
To optimize your link building:
- Build links naturally by creating resources people want to link to and sharing your best content.
- Produce in-depth guides, product reviews, data studies and other amazing resources in your space.
- Identify relevant high-authority sites to pitch guest posts and contributor content.
- Build relationships with influencers and brand advocates to drive word-of-mouth content sharing.
- Monitor links to avoid low-quality directories and spammy networks.
To recap, the most critical factors for 2024 include:
- Optimizing for AI and machine learning with natural language content.
- Targeting voice search with conversational, long-tail keywords.
- Enhancing personalization and localization.
- Improving content quality, site speed and UX.
- Implementing video marketing.
- Leveraging social media and community.
- Advancing mobile optimization.
- Pursuing high-quality links through content marketing.
With the right strategies aligned to future search behavior, ecommerce sites can achieve sustainable growth and remain competitive. The brands that adapt fastest are poised for success in 2024 and beyond.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most important ecommerce SEO factor for 2024?
Optimizing for AI and machine learning will likely be the most critical factor. As search becomes more semantic and conversational, content needs to focus on natural language and effectively answering user questions. Also, ecommerce stores that leverage AI tools for content creation and greater efficiencies will gain a significant competitive edge over businesses that don’t.
How can ecommerce sites improve personalization and localization in 2024?
Key steps include geo-targeting content for different regions, localizing sites for local currencies/languages/shipping, customizing on-site experiences with user data, personalized content for different funnels and personas, and highly segmented email campaigns.
Why is site speed becoming more important for ecommerce SEO?
Faster load times directly impact both SEO rankings and conversion rates. Mobile usage continues to climb, so delivering a fast mobile experience is essential. Core speed optimizations include compression, caching, image optimization, using a CDN, and removing render-blocking resources.
What kind of content helps voice search optimization?
Longer, conversational, natural language content performs better for voice search queries. Focus on blog posts, videos, and tools that answer common customer questions in detail. Also, ensure your product content is compelling enough to engage voice searchers.
How can ecommerce sites earn high-quality backlinks in 2024?
The best ways are creating truly useful, in-depth resources that get links naturally, pitching relevant guest posts to authority sites, building relationships with influencers, and promoting user-generated content. Avoid low-quality directories or link schemes.
What are some important technical SEO fundamentals for ecommerce sites?
Mobile-responsive sites, proper on-page optimization, XML sitemaps, clean internal linking, fast and secure hosting, eliminating errors/broken links, enabling compression, implementing schema markup, and setting up ecommerce tracking are some key technical fundamentals.
Why will site architecture grow in importance for ecommerce SEO?
As search becomes more semantic, having an intuitive site structure that follows natural taxonomy and user intent will help search engines better understand the site. Optimized architecture aids crawling, indexing, and ranking.
What are rich snippets and how can ecommerce sites use them?
Rich snippets are formatted structured data that can display enhanced product info, reviews, price, images, etc. in search results. Implement JSON-LD markup based on schema.org standards for products, breadcrumbs, images, reviews and more.
Need help with your SEO?
Implementing these ecommerce SEO best practices takes time and expertise. If you need help improving your ecommerce SEO and ranking higher in 2024, contact me to discuss your SEO goals. I’m always happy to help fellow businesses succeed online. Let’s connect to explore how we can work together to build your SEO roadmap and prepare your site for even greater success in 2024!
