Marketplace SEO is like trying to get noticed in search engines. There is no magic bullet to get there.
Only sites that invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tend to profit.
If you have an e-commerce site that lists products offered by a third-party vendor, and the site has buyers and sellers together (Airbnb, Amazon, Etsy, eBay, etc.), you are off to a good start. . .
You manage the Marketplace website.
If you want your site to rank high on Google for free, yes, this article is worth reading.
What is Marketplace SEO?
Marketplace SEO involves optimizing your product listings on e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy to increase awareness and increase conversions.
Marketplace SEO can be seen as its own niche specialization because marketplaces present challenges and opportunities unlike traditional sites.
Like ‘regular’ SEO, marketplace SEO requires a healthy website architecture that follows SEO best practices and on- and off-page SEO strategies to keep your page or product ranking at its best. am.
Is this possible? yes.
Is this easy? Not at all.
It’s focused work, it’s purposeful, it’s not a one-time effort.
However, your competitors are likely not doing the job, so the payouts for doing so are tremendous.
Like all digital marketing, a marketplace SEO strategy should form part of a well-crafted multi-channel full-funnel marketing strategy.
You can’t expect SEO to pull out all your growth KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
But it definitely helps!
How is Marketplace SEO different from eCommerce SEO?
There is a lot of overlap when comparing marketplace SEO and “regular” SEO.
By analogy, marketplace sites are ranked as “free” on Google (as opposed to paid search or display campaigns).
Another goal is to rank higher. This is to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your site at every stage of the buyer journey.
The similarities end here.
Whereas the goal of traditional SEO is to create content that responds to search queries so that your site can be found on search engine result pages (SERPs), the goal of marketplace SEO is to optimize for commercial purposes. am.
In other words, being found when someone is most likely to buy.
For example, if you search Google for “best outfits for year-end dinner,” articles and blogs appear in the first few places.
A search for ‘little black dress online’ returns results for marketplaces where the item is sold by a third-party supplier.
Clearly, these sites have worked hard to optimize their organic search.
However, compared to e-commerce sites, marketplace SEO specialists have some challenges that e-commerce sites do not.
For one thing, marketplace sites typically have far more products than a single brick-and-mortar e-commerce store. This is a time consuming ongoing project optimization.
For another, ecommerce stores have complete control over inventory, product listing quality, images, descriptions, and more.
Third-party vendors often mistakenly upload their products multiple times or use confusing URL structures and naming conventions.
For this reason, marketplace sites require ongoing vendor management, monitoring, and a rigorous onboarding process.
Tips for optimizing your marketplace listings
Came to the article meat and potatoes.
Here’s how to optimize your marketplace website so it ranks high on Google, Bing, and wherever you want it.
1. Use breadcrumbs like Hansel and Gretel
Breadcrumbs are an important part of clear, easy-to-use navigation on any website.
Breadcrumbs not only improve the user experience on your site and help you navigate through categories and subcategories, but they also help bots crawl your site with a cohesive product path.
In addition to ease of navigation and category location, which is convenient for users and Google bots, breadcrumbs are also displayed in SERPs so users can see where pages are located on your site.
2. Schema markup is mandatory
Schema markup is like a “cheat sheet” that allows search engines to identify what your web content is about.
In a room full of white unlabeled boxes, see it as a box label that tells you what’s inside the box.
Schema markup, structured data, and snippets improve your site’s indexing and give marketplace sites the opportunity to show more information about your SERPs.
For example, you can view product reviews, product details, and breadcrumbs.
Perhaps the most important schema markup to use for product visibility is the product structured data.
This allows you to list or display different aspects of your products in SERPs.
- image.
- Product name.
- Reviews and Ratings.
- brand or company name.
- Product Description.
- such as SKUs.
3. Be mobile friendly fast
I don’t need to explain this, especially in today’s mobile-dominated Gen Z market, but your website’s pages need to load fast and your site needs to look great on mobile phones.
understood. Now that it’s off your chest, here’s why – if you still need convincing.
Sadly you are the only one waiting for the site to load. no one else does.
Nearly 80% of online shoppers say their site loading speed influences their purchasing decisions.
Your slow site is hurting your sales.
Google also uses site speed as one of the UX metrics in its ranking algorithm.
A slow site sacrifices visibility.
Check the performance of your marketplace site using Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix.
4. Site security (SSL) is very important
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a security protocol that creates an encrypted link between your web browser and a site’s server.
If the URL contains HTTPS or the URL contains a padlock, you know that your site uses SSL.
Google doesn’t like websites that don’t use SSL or have old HTTP URLs.
Privacy errors typically occur and discourage users from visiting the site.
5. Don’t forget your sitemap
Marketplace sites have hundreds, if not thousands of pages that need to be updated regularly as new products and prices are loaded.
Update your sitemap to allow Google bots to index important pages on your site.
If your CMS doesn’t automatically create one, create it manually using an XML sitemap and upload it to Google Search Console.
Do this every time you add a new URL to your site or change product details.
6. Use Reviews to Increase Engagement
Ask your customers to review your products after they purchase them, and make it as easy as possible to submit these ratings and reviews.
Reviews are a great way to overcome fears and objections in the sales journey and help build trust and engagement.
More than that, ratings tell Google that your site is authentic.
7. Content is still king
We are not talking about product descriptions or return policies here.
Content marketing is an important part of online visibility for search engine optimization.
Good, well-written and relevant content improves marketplace site rankings.
Create articles, blogs, how-tos, and insights on specific customer pain points.
Share these blogs and customer reviews on your social channels like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Drive clicks to your site with influencers from various social media channels frequented by your ideal target audience.
Create an SEO blurb containing your LSI keywords at the bottom of each category or product page that supports your linking strategy.
final thoughts
You can’t escape SEO. SEO is essential for marketplace websites.
Building SEO on a marketplace site has its challenges, but it ensures that your product and category pages rank for competitive keywords that you would otherwise have to pay for.
Your efforts will bring more organic traffic to your site and help improve revenue and conversions.
We are confident that these tips will help you rank higher in search engines.
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Featured image: Surasak_Ch/Shutterstock
