Improving SEO for Ecwid site and store
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your site's ranking in search results to get unpaid traffic. If you use Ecwid Instant Site and ecommerce, some things are taken care of automatically. For example, your website’s robots.txt files and sitemap.xml, ALT-tags for product images are automatically generated, your products have clean URLs, and you also have social media linking and sharing options to make it easier to market your store. Read what we do for SEO →
But you certainly can improve your site’s ranking even more by adding custom content with keywords and connecting to Google SEO tools. Go through this list below to ensure your store is optimized for search engines and visitors alike.
Add keywords to products name and description
Describe your products and services in a way that addresses people’s searches. It means that your product names and descriptions should contain relevant keywords – words and phrases that match searches. Include your target keywords and strongest copy at the very beginning of your meta description. Here are a couple of ideas on how to find relevant keywords:
- brainstorm words and phrases potential customers may search that match your products.
- discover social media hashtags used when sharing your products or similar goods.
- check search queries in Google Search Console to collect keywords that people used to find your website.
- check related terms that appear at the bottom of Google search result pages:
Add custom meta tags to product pages
When analyzing a webpage, search engines get information about its content from the so-called “meta tags”. This includes the title and description. Search engines use this information to describe pages as they appear in the search results and rank them by relevance:
Visitors read these descriptions to decide if they want to click on the result. You can edit meta tags for every product in your store to make your store more inviting.
To add custom meta tags for your products:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Catalog → Products.
- Click Edit Product to view its details.
- Switch to the SEO tab.
- Write your texts in the Page title and meta description fields. The text should be short and readable (50-400 characters). We recommend keeping it under 155 characters, so it’s not cut off on the Google results page. Include your main keywords in product names and early in the description. Make sure to avoid keyword stuffing and using the same keyword in every sentence.
- Check how the product will look on Google when indexed:
- Click Save.
- In your Ecwid mobile app for iOS, go to Products.
- Create a new product or choose a product from the list.
- Scroll down and tap on the SEO section.
- Write the text in Page title and Meta description fields. The text should be short and readable (50-400 characters). We recommend keeping it under 155 characters, so it’s not cut off on the Google results page. Include your main keywords in product names and early in the description. Make sure to avoid keyword stuffing and using the same keyword in every sentence.
- Check the preview of how the product will look on Google when indexed.
- Tap Done.
- In your Ecwid app for Android, go to Products.
- Create a new product or choose a product from the list.
- Scroll down and tap on the SEO section.
- Write the text in Page title and Meta description fields. The text should be short and readable (50-400 characters). We recommend keeping it under 155 characters, so it’s not cut off on the Google results page. Include your main keywords in product names and early in the description. Make sure to avoid keyword stuffing and using the same keyword in every sentence.
- Check the preview of how the product will look on Google when indexed.
- Tap Save.
Add custom meta tags to category pages
Categories allow you to organize products in your store and help visitors navigate the site. By default, Ecwid creates meta tags automatically from category names and descriptions. You can add custom meta tags to individual product categories to make them look more attractive to potential customers on the search results page.
To add custom meta tags for your categories:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Catalog → Categories.
- Find the desired category in the left panel and click it, or create a new category.
- Switch to the SEO tab.
- Write the text in Page title and meta description fields. It’s best to keep the title under 80 characters and the description under 160 characters. This way, they won't be cut off on the search results page.
- Check how the product will look on Google when indexed:
- Click Save.
Add alt texts to product and category images
Alternative text allows you to describe images for search engines and visually impaired users. It also displays if the image fails to load. This way, alt texts help users decide on a purchase and improve your site ranking, making it easier to find your products via images online.
By default, a product or category name is used as alt text for each product or category image. You can provide your own text instead. Learn how you can add alt texts to products and categories in your store →
Add custom meta tags to Instant Site pages
When you are using Instant Site, you can assign the following SEO settings to each page of your site:
- SEO title creates the title tag for the page.
- SEO description creates a brief summary of a page to help search engines and people better understand what your site is about.
- Site image is displayed as a preview when someone shares a link to a specific page of your site on social media.
Ecwid automatically adds meta tags to each page based on SEO settings you set up in the Instant Site editor. Make sure you include relevant keywords to SEO titles and descriptions so tags give more context for search robots and help visitors use your site more effectively.
Please note that SEO settings for the homepage and custom pages are set up separately. If you leave the homepage SEO fields empty, tags will be automatically generated from your site’s content. If you don’t create SEO settings for custom pages, then the page will get the homepage SEO settings.
Add custom meta tags to Instant Site homepage
A homepage is the first page your visitors see when they open your site. A one-page site consists of the homepage only, while a multi-pages site consists of the homepage and custom pages you add on Instant Site.
To create SEO settings of the Instant Site homepage:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Website → Edit Site.
- At the top left, click Settings → SEO.
- Add site title, description, or image.
- Click Publish.
Add custom meta tags to Instant Site custom pages
Custom pages are pages that you add to your Instant Site. It’s recommended to add a page-specific description and title since that copy is displayed in search results. A relevant and catchy description affects whether people click through to your site.
To create SEO settings of the Instant Site page:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Website → Edit Site.
- At the top left, click Page and select the page.
- Switch to the Settings tab.
- Click the title to add relevant SEO texts or images.
- Click Publish.
Collect product reviews from customers
When ranking websites in search results, search engines consider self-published content as well as what others say about your site – and your products. Make it a priority to create space for customer feedback:
Through customer reviews, ratings, and comments you can increase your store’s rankings. Customer-generated content also provides relevant keywords and lots of backlinks to your online store. On top of that, customer reviews build a sense of trust, help people make purchase decisions, and increase conversion rates in your store.
HelpfulCrowd: Video Product Reviews and Q&A, Trustami: One Seal for All Reviews, and TargetBay Product Reviews are three apps from the Ecwid App Market that help collect customer feedback. All apps will help organic traffic rates by showing ratings for your products in Google search results.
Read more: Collecting customer reviews and ratings →
Add your location
Your site has a better chance of appearing in searches for your area if Google and your customers can see your location. If you have a business with a physical location, we recommend you add your address and a map to the Contact us section on your Ecwid Instant Site.
Add a favicon
A favicon is a small icon that shows in a browser tab before the website name, in bookmarks, in search results, and elsewhere on the web. It gives more visibility to your site's brand.
Here is a step by step guide on adding favicon for Instant sites →
Register a custom domain name
To succeed in search your site needs its own domain (rather than a default .company.site URL). It helps collect your content, links, keywords, and other SEO components to support your website.
Learn how to buy a domain from your online store →
Learn how to connect your own domain →
Set custom URL slugs for products and categories
Ecwid automatically generates SEO-friendly URLs for products and categories based on their names. If you use Ecwid Instant Site, you can also set custom URL slugs for products and categories to boost your SEO and make the customer experience more engaging (for example, create easier-to-remember URLs or even add emojis to them).
To set custom URL slugs for a product or category:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Catalog → Products or to Catalog → Categories.
- Open the product or click on the category in the list.
- Go to the SEO tab and click Customize product URL or Customize category URL.
- Enter your custom URL slug.
- Save the changes.
That’s it! The URL for this product or category on your Instant Site is updated. All the previous slugs will now redirect to this one.
Set up 301 URL redirects for your Instant Site
Permanent redirects, also known as 301 redirects, allow you to send visitors and search engines away from one page to another. This way, visitors can always get to the active product pages and Google and other search engines keep your site SEO ranking high even if you migrated your store to Ecwid. You can also use redirects when running marketing campaigns.
Learn how to add redirects for New-Gen Instant Site →
Connect to social media
By sharing your products on social media, you can improve your store’s visibility to search engines and increase your reach. Due to the strong web authority of social sites, Google and other search engines consider your product shares on Facebook or Instagram as higher-quality links. This helps to rank your online store higher in the search results.
You can set up social sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to encourage people to share your products.
To enable share buttons on product pages:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Design.
- In the Sidebar section, enable the Share buttons option.
You can add plenty of other share buttons (Instagram, Linkedin, Tumblr, Blogger, Reddit, and more) to your store with the 20+ Promotional Sales Tools app by Zotabox. To encourage people to share your products, you can use the Social Boost and Gratisfaction apps.
Verify your domain with Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free service that helps you manage your site's presence in Google search results. You need to verify your domain to let Google know that you are the correct owner of your Ecwid site before they provide services for you.
Learn how to verify Instant Site ownership in Google Search Console →
Submit a sitemap to Google
A sitemap is a file containing a list of individual pages of a website. It tells Google and other search engines about the structure of your site content and when it was last updated, helping search robots to index and crawl your products faster. All Ecwid Instant Sites automatically generate a sitemap file, moreover it is already submitted to Google internally (via robots.txt file). Still, if you wish search engines to find it a bit faster, you may want to submit your sitemap to Google manually via Search Console following this instruction.
Use Google Analytics to track SEO efforts
With Google Analytics you will have access to lots of stats and insights on how your existing and potential customers find and use your store. Create a Google Analytics account to set up a property and set up a tracking code so Google can collect your website data. Once connected you can find referral sites, see a number of store page views, search queries, what shipping method visitors choose, and other reporting on your site through our built-in integration with Google.
Work on building backlinks
It is important for SEO to have external links to your store from relevant, high-quality sites. You can reach out to bloggers in your niche to offer some of your best-selling products in exchange for a review or write a guest blog post on popular blogs or media. Here are more ideas on getting backlinks for your online store:
- Write a guest blog post on popular blogs or media.
- Consider your own blog – write about what your store is about and provide links to your products.
- If you sell products for another company, ask the manufacturer to link your store to their list of retailers.
List your physical location
If you're a business with a physical location, adding your address on your site contact page and other services like Map Blocks or Google My Business could potentially help visitors find you in location-based services. Especially important for everyone who sells to a local market, as Google “pushes” local results. To maximize how often users find your business in local search results, ensure that your business information in Google My Business is accurate, complete, and engaging. Visit the Google My Business Help Center for step-by-step instructions.
Ensure SSL is enabled
If you use the Instant Site with an Ecwid domain (like https://example.company.site), you already have an SSL certificate by default. If you want to use the Instant Site with your custom domain, like https://example.com, you can just connect your domain to your Ecwid Instant Site. Ecwid will provide HTTPS for your domain for free. Websites without SSL may be penalized.
If you added your Ecwid store to an existing website on another platform, you keep our free SSL certificate for the store page. Although the rest of the website is a separate matter. You need to purchase an SSL certificate to protect sensitive information or even boost search engine rankings. Learn more here.
Related articles
Content marketing guide (our blog)
SEO 101 for Online Merchants: Creating Content (our blog)
Google’s Core Web Vitals in Brief (our blog)