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Guide To Ecommerce SEO Services

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Why Your Business Needs A Professional Ecommerce SEO Agency

Your ecommerce business depends on customers finding you online. Agencies specializing in SEO for ecommerce give you the advantage over competitors and get you more visibility online.

Get More Traffic To Your Website

Your webpages already have titles that display at the top of each page. These titles let your customers know what information you’re about to give them so they can find what they’re looking for. There’s a very important step before this, though. Your customer has to get to your webpage first and that’s likely through the search engine results pages (also known as the SERPs).

Customers are going to see what’s called meta titles and meta descriptions for each website that shows up on Google after they search for something. If your meta titles and descriptions aren’t enticing enough, your potential customer is going to move on to someone else. Your meta information also helps Google and other search engines learn what your page is about. By keeping your meta titles and meta descriptions on brand, in active voice, and by including the right keywords, your website gets boosted in the rankings as well.

A major step towards getting more people to click on your website from a Google search results page is drawing them in with the right titles and descriptions. SEO agencies specialize in writing meta information to get you ranking and get more website traffic.

Increase Website Sessions

Now that your customers have made it to your website from Google, it’s time to keep them there for a while and keep them coming back. There are several ways to accomplish these goals. The general rule of thumb is to make your website engaging and easy. What do your customers want from your ecommerce website? What are their goals? Once you’ve narrowed down what customers are looking for, give it to them.

You’ll need precise and informative content, that’s also entertaining, easy to read, and nice to look at. Build your internal links so customers stay engrossed in your website, opening multiple tabs. The more helpful you are, the more likely your customers are to bookmark pages from your site and even share them with friends or family.

Some of this you can do on your own. But to do it well, ecommerce sites should invest in using an SEO agency as an extension of their team. Not only can an experienced ecommerce agency do this faster and better, it’s usually less expensive than hiring another employee of your own.

Rank Better On Google (And Other Search Engines)

Obviously this is what most people think of when they realize they need SEO services. Ranking better on search engines increases the chances of customers reaching your website, which increases the changes of them making a purchase. Adding or sprucing up your meta titles and meta descriptions are certainly helpful and necessary. Ensuring that your content is top notch is imperative. But what about ongoing SEO maintenance? What about your competition who is constantly optimizing their website?

Even if your content is outperforming your competitors, they’re going to catch on. Google algorithms impact keyword rankings overnight and out of the blue. Technical issues come up with your website. SEO isn’t a “one and done” process. It’s ongoing and necessary as long as the Internet is still relevant (and we don’t see the Internet going anywhere any time soon), especially for ecommerce stores.

Only the best ecommerce SEO agency is going to actively monitor your SERP performance, research your competition, and keep up with important SEO trends and changes. If you don’t have an SEO agency on your side, it’s time you get one. If you already have an SEO agency, think about the results you’re getting, evaluate whether it’s time to make a change, and partner with an agency who gives you quality and longevity.

Grow Ecommerce Sales

You’re an ecommerce business and you want to generate revenue. Customers can’t purchase your products if they don’t know who you are or can’t find you. Most of the time, customers know the product they want but don’t know where to find it. Ecommerce business owners need to guide customers towards their own online store. Whether you have a Shopify or BigCommerce store, you need SEO to help generate revenue and improve visibility.

When is the last time you looked at your product descriptions? Do you have an ongoing news, events, or blog section on your website? Search engines look at your content, compare it against their algorithms, and rank you based off of how helpful they think you’ll be to someone searching the Internet. By constantly improving your content and adjusting to important SEO updates, you become more helpful to customers which increases your changes of generating revenue.

Ventura Web Design & Marketing is the best ecommerce SEO agency in the Tampa Bay area. For decades, we’ve been helping our ecommerce clients rank better in the search engines, improve their content, and generate website traffic and revenue through customized SEO. Contact us today and start growing your ecommerce business is more ways than one with SEO services tailored to your needs.

Exterior of Google building

Guide to 2020 Google Algorithm Updates

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What Changes With Each Algorithm Update

Our team at Ventura Web Design & Marketing is dedicated to keeping your website up to date. We actively research algorithm updates when they are released and analyze your website to see which changes are necessary.

Below is a guide to each Google algorithm update beginning in 2020. Bookmark this page or check back frequently as we continuously add updates.

January

February

March

JANUARY 2020

January 2020 Core Update

Estimated Rollout: January 13, 2020

What changed?

The January 2020 Core Update was announced, per Google’s new initiative beginning in 2019 to be more transparent with their algorithm updates. They’ve aimed to announce updates before rolling them out, and so far this seems to be true.

The update, according to Google, was a broad initiative to better ensure quality content for people seeking information.  This means Google continues to push content creators and websites to evaluate what they’re publishing in order to give people the best “answer” possible when searching.

Some SERP layout changes were included in the update as well. Google decided to include a website’s favicon next to its result, and display the site’s breadcrumbs in lieu of the specific URL. For example, instead of https://www.venturawebdesign.com/responsive-vs-mobile-website-design/ appearing just above the meta description, this displays:

Google search result with breadcrumbs

What does this mean?

It’s up to specialists to look at the data and adjust where necessary. Google has indicated that a drop in rankings following this update isn’t necessarily a penalty, per se. But rather a drop in rankings indicates that your information isn’t meeting certain standards as well as it used to according to previous standards.

You will need to evaluate your content and update it to ensure it’s high-quality and providing value to whoever is reading it. This includes showing you are a trustworthy source, proofing your content, presenting your information in a readable and useable way, and more.

Favicon Update

Estimated Rollout: January 24, 2020

What Changed?

Remember the favicon update on January 13? Google rolled this back so favicons no longer show up in the SERPs.

Snippet & Deduplication Update

Estimated Rollout: January 22, 2020

What changed?

Featured snippets that were once known as position zero are now included in the main organic search results and known as position one. URLs for the snippets are no longer displayed (i.e. duplicated) anywhere else in the core search results. For example, if a website held positions zero and one for an article, following the update they’ll only hold position one.

This update also included changes to whether images are deduplicated. Images aren’t impacted by this as long as the URL for the image is different from the URL associated with the text of the snippet.

What does this mean?

The purpose of this update, according to Google, is to declutter the search results page so that people aren’t seeing multiple the same information more than once.

Website owners can choose to alter their SEO strategy accordingly. For example, depending on the strategy, snippets can be opted out of. This would mean that websites would be competing for position 2, instead of positions zero or one prior to the update. This can be done primarily by using the “nosnippet” tag.

Be sure to carefully consider your online strategy before making drastic changes. It’s recommended you discuss this change with a specialist to avoid making mistakes that could penalize you on the Google search result pages.

FEBRUARY 2020

Unconfirmed Local & Maps Update

Estimated Rollout: February 14, 2020

What changed?

Neither officially announced nor confirmed by Google, many websites experienced movement in rankings and traffic fluctuations during/after February 14. Most of these changes impacted local SEO in Google Maps and Google local packs.

What does this mean?

It’s speculated that the unofficial February 14 update was an adjustment to the January 2020 Core Update. Many SEOs sat with the local update for a few days in order to make changes once the dust settled.

MARCH 2020

Nofollow Update

Estimated Rollout: March 1, 2020

What changed?

Prior to the March 1 update, Google treated nofollow tags as law. Nofollow links weren’t crawled, however, that’s changed. Now, nofollow tags are mere suggestions and there’s a possibility Google will visit those links.

What does this mean?

You may want to review how you’ve set up your website to be indexed. Nofollow tags are sometimes used to prevent crawlers from looking at account pages or pages without value to visitors. However, maybe a noindex or meta norobots tag would be more appropriate for your purposes. This change may impact rankings depending on what Google crawls and indexes moving forward.

Man searching Google on laptop

Using Google Search for COVID-19 Business Updates

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Add Structured Data and Submit Announcements To Keep Your Customers In The Loop

Just recently, Yelp introduced custom alerts so business owners could keep their customers in the know about operations during COVID-19. Google is doing the same and has announced a few different ways businesses can update information relevant to the coronavirus.

By taking advantage of this update, business owners can highlight their hours, changes to services, and more. This helps customers find information about your business quickly and easily.

First, you can add structured data to your website which shows customers who find you through Google Search a rich result. A rick result contains a summary that customers can then expand to see more information. Rich results will also update automatically if you makes changes to your page, and can be monitored with reporting.

While this method is recommended, as it gives your updated COVID-19 information to Google faster, it can take a little more time. Think of adding structured data as the long-term solution.

For a short-term solution, you can submit an announcement through Google Search Console. Adding an announcement is easier and faster than adding structured data.

Unlike rich results, your announcement must be updated manually each time you want to post a change to business information. Announcements can’t be monitored through reporting.

If you aren’t sure how to add structured data or submit an announcement, contact Ventura Web Design & Marketing today.

We stay on top of industry trends and help your customers stay informed during this difficult time.

How the January 2020 Google Snippet Update Impacts Your Business

What You Need to Know About Google’s Featured Snippet Update

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On January 22, 2020, Google announced via Twitter that they have rolled out an important core algorithm update impacting the relationship between featured snippets and organic results. Naturally, this update announcement caused quite a bit of stir in the SEO community and sparked many questions.

What is a Google featured snippet?

Featured snippets, also known as answer boxes, are search results that appear in the very first position on a search results page (in a box) below any ads that may be present. This is also known as position zero.

The purpose of a featured snippet, from Google’s perspective, is to directly answer a user’s question or address their inquiry in the best way possible so that a user doesn’t need to keep searching. From an SEO perspective, “winning” a featured snippet gains you more visibility and likely traffic to your website.

The coveted position zero gives your brand and business more exposure should you be able to address an inquiry better than your competitors.

How did featured snippets work before the January 2020 update?

Even though Google announced the featured snippet update on January 22, it’s likely that the update began rolling out several days before.

Prior to the update, websites that earned a featured snippet also had their site appear in the organic results beneath the snippet if appropriate. This meant that websites could potentially score two spots on the first page of search results for a single inquiry or question from a user.

How will featured snippets work after the January 2020 update?

The purpose of the January update is to improve the user’s experience by removing duplicates from the search engine results. Websites that have a featured snippet for a specific inquiry, and appear in the organic results for that inquiry, now only hold on to their snippet and lose their organic result. Websites can no longer score two spots for a single inquiry or question from a user.

How does the January 2020 update impact me? Do I need to adjust my SEO strategy?

The change to featured snippets and organic results has understandably stirred up a lot of questions and panic amongst ecommerce business owners and website owners.

Because of the widespread prevalence and reliance on Google to find information, users have gotten used to its patterns and adjust their online behavior accordingly. For example, users are used to seeing advertisements directly above snippets and organic results. If users are disinterested in ads, they will scroll past them in order to reach the results they’re looking for. Some users even prefer to skip past the featured snippet and choose the first organic result to get a better understanding of the information they’re seeking out – even if the featured snippet and first organic result are the same.

If you owned a featured snippet and first organic result for a keyword, users who skipped over the snippet were likely still visiting your site anyway. However, because of the most recent update, you may not own the first organic result anymore. Your competitor may own it. So even though you have the best answer to someone’s question, your competitor may see more traffic.

Although this update means different things for different online businesses and websites, it’s likely going to require some re-evaluation at the very least. Because the update is so new and we are still studying the impacts, there are several strategies to consider.

Should I opt to deoptimize or tag my content with “nosnippet”?

Deoptimizing your content is definitely a risky move and we recommend discussing it with a specialist before committing to this strategy. If your content used to rank for both position zero and position one, and it would be better for your site to not hold the snippet, you could opt to lose your snippet in favor of hanging onto position one.

There are a few ways to do this. You could either apply a “nosnippet” meta tag to the content you no longer want to appear in position zero. A “nosnippet” tag means that your content won’t be included in the answer boxes, even if it’s a qualifying answer box winner. Or you could play around with keywords to try and lose the spot. The latter choice of course is riskier than the former. Intentionally losing the snippet through content rewrites, keyword research, and edits will be very time consuming and you could harm your organic rankings.

Deoptimizing and forfeiting the featured snippet feels and seems like the opposite of core SEO values and practices. It’s also likely a drastic measure to take in order to stabilize after the update. You’ll have to consider whether it’s better for you or your competitors to hold positions zero and one.

However, it’s very important to note that there are other strategies aside from rewriting your content or using the “nosnippet” tag to avoid position zero. You’re going to need to do some research to determine how well your snippet would perform in the organic search results should you implement a “nosnippet” tag.

The Google algorithms that determine how and why a website makes it to the top of the search results mostly focus on whether content provides a useful and valuable user experience. Does the content answer a question? Is the content easy to access and read? Is the inquiry addressed?

These are the guidelines that you can use to develop a more broad strategy towards acclimating to the January 2020 update. If you focus on the needs of your customers, clients, and users, and you’re actively providing them with the best online experience you can, you’re more likely to make Google happy as well.

To determine which strategy works best for you and your ecommerce business, we recommend reaching out to us for a free consultation today. We will take a look at your online traffic and performance to determine which move is the best for you.

The Importance of ADA Website Accessibility Compliance

The Importance of ADA Website Accessibility Compliance

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You care about your business and you care about who is visiting you online to learn more. It’s important to consider how your potential clients and customers are using your website so you can improve their experience.

By thinking about who is visiting you online, you can better accommodate their needs and make sure each individual has reasonable accessibility to your site. This is where ADA compliance comes in and why it’s so important.

What is ADA?

The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, is celebrating its 30th birthday this year in 2020! The ADA was enacted in order to protect individuals with disabilities from discrimination. This ensures that businesses, employers, etc. are held to a set of standards in order to prevent discrimination based on ableness, and make sure that environments are accessible.

The act contains several different titles, each of which prohibit and outline discrimination in specific ways. These include but are not limited to: employment, state and local governments, public transportation, public areas, and public telecommunications.

Why is website accessibility important?

Adopting ADA best practices with respect to your website or e-commerce site improves your customer’s experience with your business and ensures accessibility. Accessibility in this case refers to addressing the needs of individuals who may be using your site, and who may also have a visual or auditory (or other) disability or limitation.

Accounting for accessibility makes it easier for individuals to navigate your site and consume content. For example, adjusting the contrast of the text and background colors of your website makes it easier for individuals who are colorblind to read your articles or product descriptions.

Is ADA compliance mandatory? What could happen if my website is non-compliant?

ADA compliance can be punishable by law. Non-compliance may be enforced through several channels such as litigation by a private citizen, litigation by the federal government, and/or investigations based off of complaints made to federal agencies.

The number of web accessibility lawsuits appears to be growing. Target, Amazon, and even Beyoncé are among some of the more well-known cases. ADA website accessibility cases nearly tripled from 2017 to 2019. If you aren’t compliant with the ADA website standards, you not only are neglecting a valuable percentage of potential customers and clients, but you also open yourself up to a lawsuit.

What are some of the guidelines to follow for my website?

Interestingly enough, by improving your website’s web accessibility, you’re also improving your website’s SEO. Your general goal is to make your website as user-friendly as possible to as many users as possible.

You’re going to want to pay attention to the way you’re writing and how that text is presented.

  • Headings and titles should appropriately describe the published content
  • Recognize who will be reading your content and adjust your style as necessary
  • Avoid giant walls of text and use a bulleted list (just like this one!)
  • Use colors and formats to break up the text

Pay attention to visual elements, other than plain text, on each page of your website

  • Use alternative text, or alt text, to describe images (or buttons, logos, etc.) so that individuals with visual impairments can use a screen reader to read the descriptive text aloud
  • Provide transcriptions, descriptions, captions, and narrations for video content
  • If you’re using tables, make sure to label the columns correctly
  • Avoid using PDFs as they can’t be read by screen reading software

Take a look at your site navigation as well

  • Ensure your site can be navigated by using a keyboard, as well as a mouse or trackpad
  • Include “Skip Navigation” links at the top of each page so that individuals may jump to the beginning of the main content

What about the social media accounts for my business?

There are several ways to improve accessibility for your social media accounts as well

  • Use alt text to describe the images you’re posting (Facebook, Instagram, and other social media giants allow you to do this)
  • Follow the same rules about video content on your social media as you do for your website (i.e. transcriptions, descriptions, captions, and narrations)
  • Think about your use of emojis, if you use them at all, as if they were being read aloud to you
  • Doing this: #VenturaWebDesign is better than doing this: #VENTURAWEBDESIGN

Please keep in mind that the lists above are simplified. For a more complete list, we suggest visiting ADA.gov.

How can I make SURE my website is in compliance?

Aside from auditing your own website against the ADA.gov web accessibility best practices and guidelines, there are other ways to ensure you’re in compliance

  • Use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to take an in-depth look at your website
  • Take advantage of free online tools such as Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE). You can install WAVE as a browser or extension, which you can then run against webpages to determine their level of accessibility
  • Hire a professional to audit and improve your online business so you don’t have to do any guesswork

ADA compliance is an important part of digital marketing and the online world. We know that you value ADA standards because you also value your customers and audience. By improving accessibility, you’re improving the experience for anyone who visits your e-commerce site.

Here at Ventura Web Design and Marketing, we have quality experience improving and establishing ADA website accessibility compliance. Click here for a free consultation today.

This publication is not intended to be legal advice or to replace the advice of a competent attorney.  While Ventura Web Design aims to help your website be as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, we make no guarantees of 100% accessibility, nor do we make any claims that our work or advice will be suitable for your specific purposes or needs.

Get More Website Traffic

Get More Website Traffic

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Get More Website Traffic
Get More Website Traffic

What is website traffic?

Website traffic is the term used to describe the flow of visitors to and from your website. It includes some simple information, but answers important questions. For example, how many visitors has your site had? What pages had the highest amount of visitors? Where did they find your site?

Ready to find out more about website traffic, and how to get more of it? We’ve put together an easy to follow guide on the subject below.

Why care about web traffic?

Health Indicator

Web traffic can be a good indicator of your website’s health & popularity.

Sales & Services

Traffic flow directly affects your sales. More traffic = more potential sales.

Idea Validation

When you start getting traffic, it means people are interested in your products or services.

Getting More Traffic

SEO

Put in the work to optimize your site & be rewarded

Niche Down

Target only the people who are most passionate

Create Content

Make interesting content, better than your rivals

Update Often

Keep your site up to date and relevant

Gain Influence

Work with influencers to promote the site

Guest Blogs

Write for industry blogs and build your audience

Podcast

Speak your mind and become the authority

How do I measure traffic?

All that is great, but how do you keep track of incoming and outgoing traffic? The best way to keep track is to let tools do the work…

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is by far the most popular tool for measuring traffic, and it’s no wonder why. Google is the largest search engine & has access to the more data than any other tool. Just install analytics on your site and you’re well on your way to getting more traffic to your site.

HotJar
Moz
BuzzSumo

Hotjar, Moz and Buzzsumo are some other tools you could use to improve your customer experience, find keywords & content for your site, and all 3 of these are great at what they do.

When should I get started?

If you want your site to be successful, you should get started getting more traffic and tracking your gains as soon as possible. If you’re not sure where to begin, or have any questions, please give us a call. We’re happy to help, so don’t hesitate to give us a call or submit a support ticket.

13 Ways to Sell Products Online

13 Ways to Sell Products Online

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Selling online can be tougher than it seems. For many store owners and service professionals, this can be daunting. Many solutions found online can be difficult or expensive.

Every day that your product isn’t selling is a loss in revenue. This is especially true for physical products! The frustration builds when you spend a lot of time trying to sell your product without results.
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5 Easy SEO Boosts

5 Easy SEO Boosts

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Whether your business is strictly online or it’s a combination of online and brick-and-mortar, you know you want to be at the very top of those search results when anyone Googles something related to your industry. Read more

How Do I Generate New Leads?

How Do I Generate New Leads?

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No matter what you sell or what service you provide, you won’t be selling much or providing service unless you can introduce potential customers to your offering. How will anyone find your website, let alone stick around to buy your product?
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