Running an e-commerce store is thrilling, but a little stressful, especially when your traffic isn’t as much as you want it to be and your sales aren’t growing quite like you’d hoped. A lot of store owners believe the issue is in their products, ads, or website design. Yet in fact, one of the main reasons online stores fail is much simpler:

SEO Mistakes:

Indeed, E-commerce SEO mistakes can slowly drag down your rankings. And they could potentially prevent consumers from finding your products and send people directly to the retail shops of your competitors. The good news? Nearly all of these mistakes can be corrected once you become conscious of them.

In this guide, we’ll cover the top SEO mistakes that can kill online store sales and how to avoid them so you can increase online store sales faster and easier. Let’s dive in.

Ignoring Keyword Research

Online retailers frequently create product pages without looking first to see what people are actually searching for. It’s one of the e-commerce SEO mistakes you see most.

For instance, you may think of your product as a “Midnight red Dress,” but shoppers might be looking for “red party dress” or “dark red evening dress.” If you don’t match the product with the search terms people use, they will never be able to find it.

How to fix it

  • Utilize basic keyword search tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Uber Suggest, or even suggestions from Google Search.
  • Focus on keywords that have decent search volume and low or medium competition.
  • Incorporate these keywords naturally into your product title, description, and image alt text.

Remember, the keywords are chosen by your customers, not you. Speak their language.

Poor Product Descriptions or No Product Description

Many store owners paste the manufacturer’s description or write a single sentence. This is a big mistake.

Google dislikes duplicate content, and your customers will not appreciate the poorly written descriptions. Poor descriptions break trust and prevent buyers from purchasing. That leads to fewer conversions and lower sales.

How to fix it

  • Write short, clear, human-friendly descriptions.
  • Highlight benefits, not just features.
  • Use keywords naturally.
  • Include dimensions, material, and colour, how to use the product, and any small details that customers might care about.

Good product descriptions can help improve its ranking and increase online store sales.

Slow Website Speed

You may have a beautifully designed website, but a slow load time will send customers away in seconds. In e-commerce, speed is equal to sales.

A slow site results in high bounce rates, people leaving as soon as they arrive, which tells Google that your website is of poor quality. This damages rankings and leaves sales for dead.

How to fix it

  • Compress your product images.
  • Use a lightweight theme.
  • Remove unnecessary plugins.
  • Go with a fast hosting company and have caching turned on.

The faster the site, the better it ranks and converts.

Not Optimizing Product Images

Images are necessary when selling online, but too many store owners use large, unoptimized images with random file names such as “IMG_20120512. jpg.”

This kills SEO in two ways:

  • Slow pictures, slow down your site.
  • Google can’t tell what your product is because there’s no Image name and Alt Text.

How to fix it

  • Make sure you rename an image with keywords (i.e., “women-red-gown.jpg. jpg”).
  • Include alt text, for example, “Women Red gown with sleeves.”
  • Compress images before uploading.

Great image SEO makes Google understand your product and enhances its appearance in Google Images, as well.

On-Product Page Customer Reviews not available

Reviews are gold in e-commerce SEO. Google loves fresh, user-generated content. If you have reviews on product pages, they will be automatically fresh and reliable. This helps you rank and sell more in your online shop.

Plus, stores that show real experiences from other buyers are trusted by customers.

How to fix it

  • Encourage customers to leave reviews.
  • Utilise basic review plugins or already built-in review capabilities.
  • Features are prominently reviewed on individual product pages.
  • More reviews are equal to more trust and higher sales.

Not Using Internal Linking

Internal links are simply hyperlinks from one page on your website to another. It’s a tool many store owners forget they have.

It’s an opportunity lost because internal links:

  • Assist Google in exploring your site more efficiently.
  • Keep customers browsing longer.
  • Attract traffic to key product pages.

How to fix it

  • Link related products together.
  • Include “You may also like” or “Similar products” sections.
  • Interlink blog posts and product pages with each other.

Smart internal linking assists with rankings and stimulates more purchasing.

Poor Mobile Experience

Over half of shoppers browse and purchase straight from their phones. If your mobile site is slow, confusing, or difficult to navigate, they bounce back immediately.

Even worse, Google favours mobile-friendly sites in its search rankings.

How to fix it

  • Use a responsive design.
  • Simplify menus.
  • Maximize button size, and ensure taps are easily made.
  • Get checkout optimized for mobile.

A quality mobile experience can sharply boost online store sales.

Overlooking Schema Markup

Schema markup is a code that you can add to your site, which will help search engines understand what your products are. When done properly, it can lead to rich snippets, additional information, such as star ratings and pricing and availability details, that appear in search results.

Lots of e-commerce websites neglect schema markup or implement it incorrectly. Product schema helps you increase online store sales and click-through rates by appearing more attractive in search results.

Dead Links and 404 Errors

When Google sees broken links on your site, it assumes the site is outdated or not maintained very well. They frustrate shoppers who want to browse or buy.

How can you fix it

  • There are good tools, such as Screaming Frog or Google Search Console, that will help you locate broken links.
  • Repair or redirect to a related page.
  • A clean website not only elevates SEO but also user experience.

Thin Category Pages

Category pages are really useful for SEO. They make it easier for Google to understand your product groups and help users find exactly what they’re looking for faster.

Yet a lot of online stores turn their category pages into vacant lots with only a few products but no text. Google considers these to be thin pages and ranks them low.

You can fix it by adding:

  • A short introduction
  • Short paragraph about the category
  • Insert Keywords naturally
  • Links to popular products

This is great for both rankings and user experience.

Not Handling Out-of-Stock Products Properly

Out-of-stock product can be bad for SEO when not handled correctly. Having these pages still live and not updated or redirected can lead to customer confusion, as search engines may begin to rank your site lower.

Provide a clear message on when products will be back or promote alternative suggestions. You can also go back for temporary noindex tags or redirects, so your SEO remains strong while you move your inventory.

Correcting these e-commerce SEO mistakes is a simple yet effective way to boost online store sales. Begin to evaluate your website for these basic problems and do what you can to fix them. If you’re looking to drive more traffic and sales to your store, good SEO is the best place to start.

For professional e-commerce SEO support and technical assistance, allow Agreed Technologies to lead you to greater sales and a more powerful online presence.