To increase organic traffic to an ecommerce website, you need to make it easy for Google to find and understand your products, target the searches shoppers actually make, write unique product and category content, keep the site fast on mobile, and build trust through reviews and links. Done consistently, this brings in visitors you do not pay for each time they click, which makes every sale more profitable.
Online shops have particular SEO challenges. Large numbers of similar pages, filters that create endless URLs, manufacturer descriptions copied across hundreds of sites, and products that come and go all make life harder. The good news is that fixing these issues often gives a clear lift, because many competitors never tackle them.
Here are the areas that make the biggest difference for UK online retailers, whether you run WooCommerce, Shopify or another platform.
Start with the right keywords
Shoppers search in different ways at different stages. Cover each one:
- Category searches: “women’s waterproof walking boots”, “oak dining tables”. These usually belong on category pages.
- Product searches: brand, model or specific product names. These belong on product pages.
- Research searches: “best walking boots for wide feet”, “how to care for an oak table”. These suit buying guides and blog posts.
Use Google Search Console, Google Keyword Planner, autocomplete and competitor sites to build your list, then map each keyword group to one page.
Make category pages your strongest pages
Category pages often have the most search potential, yet many shops leave them as a grid of products with no text. Improve them by:
- Writing a clear page title and heading using the main category keyword.
- Adding a short, useful introduction above the products and more helpful detail or FAQs below.
- Linking to related subcategories and buying guides.
- Keeping URLs short and logical, for example /walking-boots/womens/.
Write unique product descriptions
If you use the same manufacturer description as every other retailer, Google has little reason to choose your page. Write your own descriptions that answer the questions customers ask:
- What it is, who it is for and what problem it solves.
- Key specifications such as size, materials, compatibility and care.
- Delivery, returns and stock information.
- Genuine customer reviews and questions.
For large catalogues, prioritise your best sellers and highest-margin products first.
Fix technical issues that waste your visibility
Technical SEO matters more for ecommerce than almost any other kind of site.
Filters and duplicate pages
Filters for colour, size and price can create thousands of near-identical URLs. Control which ones Google can index using canonical tags, sensible URL settings and robots rules, so your important pages get the attention.
Out-of-stock and discontinued products
Keep temporarily out-of-stock pages live with a clear message and alternatives. For permanently discontinued items, redirect to the closest replacement or category rather than leaving a broken page.
Structured data
Add product schema with price, availability and review information. This can help your listings show extra detail in search results and supports free product listings in Google Shopping.
Site structure and internal links
Every product should be reachable within a few clicks of the homepage. Use breadcrumbs, related product links and links from guides to categories. Our article on internal linking for SEO explains how to do this well.
Speed up your site, especially on mobile
Most shoppers browse on their phones, and Google uses the mobile version of your site for ranking. Slow pages cost you both rankings and sales.
- Compress and properly size product images, and use modern formats such as WebP.
- Remove unused apps, plugins and tracking scripts.
- Use good-quality hosting and caching.
- Monitor Core Web Vitals in Search Console, including Interaction to Next Paint (INP), which replaced First Input Delay in 2024.
Our guide on why page speed matters goes into more detail.
Use reviews to build trust and content
Product reviews give shoppers confidence and add fresh, unique wording to your pages. Ask every customer for a review after delivery using a simple follow-up email. Display reviews on product pages and consider a trusted third-party review platform. Avoid offering rewards in exchange for positive reviews, as it can break platform rules and UK consumer law.
Create helpful content
Buying guides, comparisons, size guides and how-to articles attract shoppers earlier in their research and can appear in AI Overviews and other AI search results. Link each guide to the relevant categories and products so readers can buy when ready.
Earn links and mentions
Links from relevant blogs, suppliers, industry publications and gift guides help build your authority. Good routes include sharing genuinely useful guides, supplying products for honest reviews, and getting listed as a stockist on brand websites.
Track the right numbers
Set up GA4 ecommerce tracking so you can see revenue from organic search, not just visitors. Use Search Console to monitor which pages and searches are growing, and fix any indexing errors it reports.
FAQs
Should I write descriptions for every product?
Ideally, yes, but start with your best sellers, most profitable products and those with the most search demand.
Is SEO or Google Shopping better for ecommerce?
They work well together. Shopping ads bring sales quickly, while SEO builds traffic you do not pay per click for. Many shops run both.
Does my platform matter for SEO?
WooCommerce and Shopify can both rank well when set up properly. How the site is built and maintained matters more than the platform itself.
How long does ecommerce SEO take?
Technical fixes can help within weeks, but significant growth usually builds over several months of steady work.
Grow your shop’s organic traffic
Pure Marketing is a Google Partner agency in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. Our ecommerce SEO service covers technical fixes, category and product content, and links, and we also run Google Shopping campaigns for online retailers. Get in touch to talk about your store.
