So you’ve decided to create an online store, and have spent countless hours looking through shop themes, making sure the colours are just right, and uploading photography that shows your products in the best light. But what good is all of this work if no one is going to see it?

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is through search engines. There are entire industries devoted to improving the Google rankings of ecommerce websites, but the truth is that there are many things small business owners can do to raise their Google rankings in order to boost sales and ensure that their hard work is seen -- all without breaking the bank.

Tips

1. Submit Your Site To Google

Of course, the all-seeing eye of Google will likely index your ecommerce store for search purposes without you doing anything, but it’s a good idea to submit your page to Google so that you know for sure that your brand is searchable. Re-submitting your link whenever you make a major change is also a good idea to ensure that Google is indexing the latest version of your website.
Check out our support article to verify your store on Google WebmasterTools.

2. Start A Blog

While it may seem like having a blog has nothing to do with your jewellery or photography boutique, content is king when it comes to Google search rankings. Having loads of up-to-date, interesting content that makes sense with your brand is one of the best recipes for ensuring that your online boutique will show up in Google when your potential customers type in the magic words.

In addition, the importance of curating a blog makes a lot of sense if you think of your online boutique as a physical store, with each unique website URL as its own separate door. Uploading useful content regularly gives your store a new entryway every day or week, depending on how often you do it. That means more ways for customers to find you, on top of the other points of value that blogging can add to your brand.

Vapour a SupaDupa fashion based store have their very own fashion blog, showcasing seriously, stylish, fresh fashion.

3. Pay Attention To Keywords

While the internet seems to be awash with a mind-numbing amount of articles on SEO, don’t let that scare you off. Search Engine Optimisation, or the art of using keywords in your content that match the phrases that people Googled to get to your website, is one of the most important things you can do to improve your search rankings. Plus, despite all of the services and tools that charge fees, paying attention to what keywords are driving traffic to your website and making sure to use them in your content is absolutely free.

Consider a person who wants to find an Indian restaurant in Nottingham. They would Google “Indian restaurant Nottingham” or some combination of these words, and Google will know to list all the restaurants in the area. What keywords would someone use to find you? ‘Handmade fine leather goods’? ‘Custom wall decals’? Here it’s important to choose keywords that describe your brand, but remember that highly searched words like ‘handmade jewellery’ have loads of competition. If you have a trademarked name for your product, or a quirky name that no one else uses -- like calling your handmade blanket with sleeves a ‘slanket’ -- you should definitely include them in your keywords.

Use the free Google Adwords tool to find out what terms people search to get to your website the most, and then select your best keywords from there. Once you create an account, go to Tools & Analysis, and choose Keyword Planner for tips on the best keywords for your brand from Google itself.

Top Tips To Keep In Mind

• Use Lowercase Letters And Never All Caps
  Some search engines are case-sensitive and almost everyone searches in Google with lowercase letters.

• Choose One- Or Two-Word Keywords
  When you start your online store, choose one-or-two word keywords as three-word keywords are most often used by sites with a lot of content.

• Use A Mixture Of Competitive And Non-Competitive Keywords.
  Remember, SEO is all about selecting the best keywords and then using them in your content consistently to boost your rankings. Your titles are also key, and should as often as possible have a keyword in it -- but don’t overdo it.
  
  

  4. Still, Don’t Keyword Spam!

It’s easy to overdo the use of keywords, especially in the title of your article because you want to make sure that web users who type in a wide variety of things into Google can find you. But think of eBay sellers who list a simple pair of headphones under the title ‘iPhone Samsung Galaxy headphones earphones Beats Sennheiser earbuds smartphone tablet.’ You don’t want to sound like that.

Doing so makes readers not trust you because they feel they’re being spammed or that their time is being used for clicks. You want people to feel like customers, not numbers. That’s why it’s important to consistently add useful content that your customers would actually want to see, not a string of paragraphs stuffed with keywords. In fact, having keywords comprise more than 10% of your content can be detrimental to your Google rankings, so beware! Google ‘punishes’ businesses that are obviously trying to get seen through SEO without offering any real content by burying their pages lower in the rankings.

5. Use Tags

If your logo and keywords are contained in pictures or graphics, Google won’t be able to read that -- but they will be able to use “tags” like title tags and descriptions. Ensure that your title tags incorporate a keyword, are less than 100 characters -- most websites recommend 60 - 75 -- and that your descriptions don’t exceed 250 characters.

6. Get People To Link To Your Website

Do you have friends in your industry, or contacts with bloggers that create content that makes sense with your brand? Get as many of them as possible to put up a link to your website on their website, as each counts as a little red flag telling Google how important your website is. The more times another website links to yours, the more important they assume you are, and your search rankings go up. One great tip is to offer bloggers exclusive coupon codes for their readers. This lets them offer exclusive content and deals to their readers, and lets you get your website linked on influential websites.

Hide Your Arms featured the Spring Summer line collection from SupaDupa fashion based store Vapour. HYA is a great site for keeping up to date with the freshest of garments being released.

Resources

SEO Moz
Learn about SEO and track social, brand and content marketing.

White Spark Blog
Provides great advice and tips on SEO.

Google WebMasters Tools
How to verify your store with Google.

Word Stream
Provides marketing software and tools which are designed to make your search marketing campaign profitable.

Crawling and Indexing
Support article provided by Google.