Online retailers need as many visitors and potential customers as possible. One of the best and assured ways to make this a possibility is by using search engine optimization or SEO. Basically, SEO for online retail sites is the process of increasing the site’s potential so that it can grow organically in terms of getting more targeted and focused traffic. It is important to understand, however, that organic SEO takes at least six to nine months to start showing some results. Therefore, online retailers need to have patience and belief in organic SEO consultants.

6 Top SEO Ways To Generate Website Traffic For Your Online Retail Site

1.    Always make an informed hosting provider choice – Here’s why

·    Get a country specific IP in order to increase your regional (read local) search results.

·    Choose only fixed IP addresses even if they are more expensive.

·    Before paying for the IP address make sure it hasn’t been blocked or blacklisted previously. You can do this using Domain Tools.

·    Monitor your server response for accuracy. Here are a couple of examples:

-    “200 The request has succeeded” for your homepage

-    “404 Not Found” if the pages are broken

2.    Never forget to implement website design changes and update your website content on a regular basis. Keep uploading new promotional news, offers and any other content that can help grab more eyeballs for you. By adding fresh content on your website on a regular basis you are not just making your visitors happy but also the search engine spiders. Spiders love unique and fresh content and this helps with your goal of securing a position as one of the top 20 SERPs.

3.    Make sure your site’s coding is clean, optimized for quick loading with images and content. Slow loading websites are a put off. Using minimal images to ensure that a page loads quickly even on computers that have slow browsing speeds.

4.    Never have duplicate content on your website. Avoid two versions of pages as this is a spoiler, especially if the duplicate content is on 2 different URL’s. SEO works best when it is done in an honest manner and not with the objective of fooling spiders.

5.    Make sure you have a site map, a good option is XML. Google accepts site maps that are in XML and prefers them in this form.  The same objective can be accomplished with an HTML sitemap as well. Having a well thought of and clear site map helps to attract visitors and saves on time. A prospective customer will be able to find exactly what they are looking for using your online retail site’s site map.

6.    Many online retail websites overlook the need to optimize their images with tags and titles. This is a grave mistake. Since most search engines have a separate image search option, image optimization on every page of website will help you with better search results. Try to be as descriptive as you can be about the image in that short space. Also, you can place a short descriptive caption on the top, side or under the images. Saving images in .jpg format saves space as well as helps in loading the site faster.

7.    Build links to your website!  Links are the element that build the gap of trust between your website and the search engines. However, make sure you only obtain quality links from relevant and high quality websites.  If you get a link from an industry leading website that is relevant and has a high page rank, that link will likely be worth more than thousands or hundreds of lower quality links!

Keep reading this space for more such website marketing Tips. Coming soon!