Key Points - Google Analytics G4

Google has announced it will sunset the current Universal Analytics as it introduces it’s new GA4 platform. The data only starts collecting into the GA4 account on the day you create it.. The current UA (Universal Analytics) will stop working 1/7/23.

If you are confident you have set up the G4 account, but you are getting emails from Google Analytics telling you to take action, check out our step by step guidelines here.

There are 6 steps to creating your Google Analytics G4 property.

1. Log Into Google Analytics

Log into Google Analytics at https://analytics.google.com

2. Lets Go

Click on the blue "Let's Go" button on the analytics blue ribbon notice at the top of the analytics page.

3. Get Started - Create New

Click on the blue "Get Started" button to create a new Google Analytics 4 Property.

4. Create Property

Click on the blue "Create Property" button.

5. Log Out

Click on your round profile image to log out of your Google account.

Brainstorm Your Website

A customised 90 minute one-on-one brainstorming session with a professional copywriter.

An opportunity to discuss your strategy, your website and your marketing ideas. Get clear on your target audience and website plan.

Images for SEO

Images for SEO is your secret sauce to optimising your website for search engines.

In our Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) course and our SEO in 15 minutes video we talk a lot about the importance of text. Google loves text and the more keyword rich, and relevant text you can have on your site the better search engines will be able to find it.

How-ever images can also be optimised.

Image SEO is crucial for a website's engagement and user experience. Both these factors ultimately lead to higher traffic and better rankings.

You could be losing a lot of traffic by not optimising your images. So here’s our 6 tips to optimise images for search engines.

1. Choose an SEO Friendly File Image Format

There are lots of different image formats (eg. .tiff, .svg, .eps, .gif), but in this article we’ll focus on the main two file formats you'll come across on your website. They are:

• .jpg
• .png

JPEG

The most common file format is .jpg. Use .jpg in preference to .png, when the image file is a photo.

PNG

Graphic and logo files are often .png They support transparent backgrounds and this makes them ideal for logos, icons, and graphic files.

2. File Size

After selecting a file format, the next step is to resize or compress the images you want to use.

File size, that is whether your image is 100kB or 2MB, is very important to page load speed, and hence important to SEO. Most photos on websites need to be 100kB or under. Learn how to re-size your images using your own graphics software or using free online tools like jpeg.io.

3. Choose an SEO Friendly File Name

Unlike text, which Google can read instantaneously, with picture files you have to help the search engine crawlers understand the subject matter. The most effective way of doing this is to name the image file clearly, before you upload it to your website.

The best image file names

• Use keyword rich and descriptive words
• Don’t use stop words (such as in, a, an, as and the)
• Use hyphens, not underscores

The following are poor examples of image file names

• Dsc011345.jpg
• Image_rt_final.jpg
• Logo_v2.png

The following are good examples of image file names

• Mount-Fuji-In-Snow.jpg
• Texas-Plumbers-Bathroom-Renovation.jpg
• Bristol-Florist-Logo.png

Here’s an ok example of a product image file name

• Plastic-lid.png

Here’s a better example of the same product image file name

• Silicone-dog-food-can-lid.png

By re-naming the images before you upload them to the website, you will create a default URL path that has the keyword rich and descriptive text in it. For example, the image’s URL for our dog food can lid might be:
https://petfood.com.uk/silicone-dog-food-can-lid.png

4. Alt Text

Alt text (or alternative text) was originally designed, and still plays a large part, in giving access to image information to people who are using a screen reader (for example if you have low vision).

For best results for your images for SEO, add the alt text.

In most cases you can use the file name you’ve created earlier, and add it to the alt text field in you website media library. Most website builders, including WordPress, make it easy to add the alt text for an image.

5. Use Copyright-Free and Royalty-Free Images

Just because you find an image on Google does not mean it is free to use. Abiding by copyright is an essential aspect of good business, and for your image SEO.

Uploading photos from Google and ignoring their legal status can ruin your reputation and penalisze your blog or website if things get serious. Being careful is the key when selecting images for your site.

Any photo you have taken yourself can be used. If you have hired the services of a professional photographer ensure you have the appropriate documentation or sign off to use the photos on your website, social media channels, printed material and in your advertising.

Photos you have purchased from reputable stock images sites, like Stock Photos, and others, are a cost effective way to get copyright-free and royalty-free images to use on your site.

6. Good-Quality Images

Good quality photos provide a good website visitor experience, and therefore is good for your image SEO. Photos need to be:

• In focus
• Have good lighting
• Be well framed

Choosing high-quality pictures to begin with means that when they are resized and compressed, their colour contrast and resolution will still look good.

For the Professionals

There are even more things you can do to optimise your images for SEO, for example:

• add meta-data to your images
• use structured data on your website
• Create an image sitemap

If you are hiring an SEO expert, this is the type of thing they might look at for your site’s SEO.

The Opportunity

Given most websites don’t have their images optimised for search engines, you can make a surprisingly effective impact with the above 6 tips.

View our FREE SEO lesson

Like more? Check out our SEO course.

SEO Course

A practical, step-by-step video course with screenshots, examples, explanations and demonstrations. Carefully created and produced video tutorials for your learning.

Especially suitable for e-commerce sites or multi-page websites.

SEO in 15 Minutes

SEO in 15 minutes - or perhaps more aptly titled SEO for Dummies. This is a lighthearted look at a complex topic. Using Google's own starter guide we present Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for beginners in 15 minutes.

There are 12 chapters in Google's starter's guide. We skip the techy ones and get straight into the ones where you have half a chance of being able to do something about (and as luck would have it, they're some of the most important ones!).

1. Getting started
2. Help Google find your content
3. Tell Google which pages shouldn't be crawled
4. Help Google (and users) understand your content
5. Manage your appearance in Google Search results
6. Organize your site hierarchy
7. Optimize your content
8. Optimize your images
9. Make your site mobile-friendly
10. Promote your website
11. Analyze your search performance and user behavior
12. Appendix: Link URLs used in this paper

Help Google (and users) Understand your Content

In the video we skip the first 3 chapters and get stuck into the all important 4th chapter. It sounds easy doesn't it - help Google (and users) understand your content - but you'd be surprised how difficult this can be.

Organise your site hierarchy

This is all about prioritising your pages and how they appear in your navigation menu.

Optimise your content

This part of SEO is surprisingly easy.

Video

Checkout our lighthearted SEO for Dummies in 15 minutes by clicking on the video below.

View our FREE SEO lesson

Like more? Check out our SEO course.

SEO Course

A practical, step-by-step video course with screenshots, examples, explanations and demonstrations. Carefully created and produced video tutorials for your learning.

Especially suitable for e-commerce sites or multi-page websites.

Our location is:
Cove Civic Centre
1 Ragamuffin Drive
Hallett Cove, South Australia
ABN: 16 176 165 689

Find us on the Web

There’s a bunch of places you can find us on the web, beginning with our own website.

DIY Digital

Website
Get to see who we are and what we do by visiting our homepage.
https://diydigital.com.au/

Courses
Discover our range of do-it-yourself courses on our dedicated learning website
https://learn.diydigital.com.au/

Shop
Purchase our products and packages from our online shop
https://learn.diydigital.com.au/shop/

Subscribe to our newsletter
Keep up-to-date with our latest news and articles by subscribing to our newsletter
https://diydigital.com.au/subscribe/

Google and YouTube

Like what we do? Feel free to give us an online review
Review us on Google

Check out our video channel on YouTube
YouTube

Choose your video from our specific playlist for do-it-yourself marketers
DIY Digital YouTube Playlist

Book - Online Marketing for Baby Boomers

DIY Digital owner Fiona Blinco has written this book which demystifies the dark arts of digital marketing. Available in the following places

• Printed book posted from South Australia
• Printed book on Amazon
• Kindle Book on Amazon
• Printed copy through Open Book Howden

Social Media

We're not particulary active on social media, but you can find our channels here

• Facebook
• LinkedIn – DIY Digital
• LinkedIn – Fiona Blinco
• Twitter
• Instagram

Freelancer and Job Sites

Some of our clients have found us through these online job sites

• MailChimp Experts Directory
• Freelancer
• UpWork
  

Popular Australian Directories

As well as our own website and social media channels, there's a bunch of Australian directories we're listed in. Here's some of them.

• Adelaide Examiner
• Yelp
• Word of Mouth
• True Local
• Hallett Cove Business Association
• I Choose SA
• Go Digi
• Hot Frog
• Go Guide
• Switch, Start Scale
• Nice Local
• Adelaide Business Directory

Web Agency Directories

We're also listed in a few directories that specialise in listing website agencies. Here's a few of them.

• Website Advantage
• Which Web Design Company
• Website Designers

Business Directories

Being listed in business directories is a common Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tactic. The listing is called a citation. Below are examples of citations for DIY Digital.

• Yellow Place
• Yellow Site
• Zoom Info
• A to Z Business Finder
• 1 Business World
• Iformative
• Issuu
• Storeboard
• We Local People
• BrownBook

 The More Obscure Ones

There are a lot of business directories that accept citations. Below are some of the less known ones.

• MindMup
• PRsync
• Show Me Local
• Cybo
• Cylex
• Free Listing Australia
• Hello Listing
• ZipLeaf
• 2 Find Local

Maps

Several online map directories allow businesses to have a listing. Here's where you can find ours.

• Google Maps
• Apple Maps
• Bing
• Find Us Here
• BatchGeo
• ZeeMaps
• Open Street Maps

Citations

Citations is a fancy word for listing your business in online business directories. The above are examples of citations for DIY Digital.

Citations are one way to increase the likelihood of your website being found on page one of Google. They are one component of a local Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy. They are particularly useful for businesses who have a physical premise, i.e. a bricks 'n mortar shop, premise or office.

Australian SEO Citation List

Check out our list of recommended business directories at Australian SEO citations.

Citation Builder Package

Get your business listed in 35 high domain authority worldwide directories with this Citation Builder package. We'll choose a mix of generic, geo, niche and map directories.

Australian SEO Citations List

Citations is a fancy word for listing your business in online business directories. Being listed in plenty of online directories is particularly useful for bricks ‘n mortar shops and premises, for example:

• Retail shops
• Pizza places
• Accountancy and professional service providers with offices
• Physiotherapists, medical centres and other health providers
• Bike shops
• Gift shops

Anywhere there is a physical location that people can walk into, such as a store, premise or office.

For small cities with a population of under 1 million people, being listed in 30 or so directories is likely to be enough. For larger cities, or very competitive industries, aim to be listed in 100 directories.

How to List in the Directories

One of the important things when creating the listings is consistency. Each listing, at a minimum, will usually require:

• Business Address
• Business Phone Number
• Business Website
• Business Email
• Business Description (100 words is fairly typical)
• Business Logo

Ensure all the above (except the description) are consistent. This is very important.

Each directory will require you to create an account, with a username (usually an email address) and a password. Once you are listed, you are likely to receive a lot of emails from the directory. For this reason it is recommended you create a separate email account just for citation use.

We recommend you go back into the listings once a year to ensure the details are still valid and up-to-date.

Some directories work on a Freemium model, that is, the basic listing is free but to get more exposure or features from the listing you need to pay. For the most part, stick with the free version, unless the listing is particularly important to your business.

Local SEO

Citations are particularly useful for a local SEO strategy. If you are a mobile or online business, citations won’t be as useful to you in your SEO strategy. If you are based in a physical location and having people close to that location is the majority of your customers or clients, a local SEO strategy, including citations, is recommended.

Take a look at our example of a local SEO strategy for Adelaide businesses.

Business Directories

Some of the directories you can list in will be known to you and will be fairly obvious. But there are hundreds that you’ve probably never heard of before. Below are some of the better directories to be listed in for Australian SEO.

There are three types of directories

• Generic
• Geo
• Niche

Generic Directories

Generic directories can be further categorised by:

• Map based listings
• Social Media
• Worldwide directories

Map Based Listings

Google Maps, known as Google My Business, is the most well known of map based listings. But there are several others. Here’s our list of eight:

• Google My Business
• Apple Maps
• Bing Places
• A-Z Business Finder
• Batch Geo
• Open Street Map
• Zee Maps
• MindMup

Social Media

Using your social media pages as a citation reference is a good start, (but don't rely on this as your complete citation strategy):

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

WorldWide Directories

There are hundreds of worldwide directories. Worldwide directories will often have a higher domain authority than a country specific directory – so look to choose at least a few of these. We’ve picked out the best of the bunch using the following criteria:

• It’s free to list on the site
• The listing looks good
• The site has a high domain authority
• There is a good chance the site will be indexed by Google

Here’s our Top 10

• 1businessworld.com
• artofsaving.com
• find-us-here.com
• globalcatalog.com
• iformative.com
• issuu.com
• lacartes.com
• prsync.com
• storeboard.com
• welocalpeople.com

A number of directories are worldwide, but have a country specific sub-domain. A good example of this is Show Me Local.
Australia: https://au.showmelocal.com/
Canada: https://ca.showmelocal.com/
United Kingdom: https://uk.showmelocal.com/
United States: https://us.showmelocal.com/

Similar, but slightly different to Show Me Local is Cybo, which has each country listed as a child menu of the main domain, for example:
Australia: https://www.cybo.com/australia
Brazil: https://www.cybo.com/brazil
Fiji: https://www.cybo.com/fiji
Germany: https://www.cybo.com/germany
Egypt: https://www.cybo.com/egypt

Both Show Me Local and Cybo are good directories to be listed in.

Geo Directories

Directories that are geographically based are considered geo directories. They may not have the same domain authority as the worldwide directories, as they may not have as much traffic. But they are an important part of the mix for your citations portfolio.

Australian Business Geo Directories

For inclusion in this list, we’ve used the same criteria as our worldwide listings, that is:

• It’s free to list on the site
• The listing looks good
• The site has a high domain authority
• There is a good chance the site will be indexed by Google

Here’s our top picks

• True Local
• Yelp
• Hot Frog
• Start Local
• Dlook
• Word of Mouth
• Cylex
• Aussie Web
• Come On Aussie (Directory Coais)

The Yellow and White Pages, as available to Australian businesses, remain good listings for SEO purposes, but come at a cost. They have therefore not been included in our list.

Australian City Geo Directories

All capital cities in Australia have their own business directories, for example:

Adelaide, South Australia

• Adelaide Business Directory
• I Choose SA

To see more business directories for South Australian businesses, check out our Local SEO for Adelaide businesses article.

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

• What's On In Melbourne
• Melbourne Business Directory
• Directory Melbourne

Sydney, Australia

• Sydney City Directory
• Experience Sydney Australia

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

• Brisbane Small Business
• Brisbane Australia Directory
• Qld Business Directory

Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

• Enjoy Darwin
• Territory Proud

Perth, Western Australia

• Perth Australia Directory
• Perth Map

Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

• Tassie Local
• Tasmanian Life

Canberra, ACT, Australia

• Canberra List
• Canberra Times
• Canberra Weekly

WorldWide City Geo Directories

Being listed in directories in your local town, city, state, province or region is recommended as part of your local SEO strategy. Most capital cities have directories specific to them, for example:

Portland, Oregan, USA

• Business Finder Oregan Live
• Shop Small PDX

Manchester, UK

• Manchester Evening News
• Trading Manchester

Wellington, New Zealand

• Wellington Today

Edmonton, Canada

• Edmonton Chamber
• Edmonton Made

Google your city name and add in the phrase “business directory” to find the right directory for you.

In addition to the big cities, many suburbs, councils or country regions have their own directories. For example, in South Australia there is:

• Directory for the northern suburbs of Adelaide, Shop Salisbury
• Directory for the country wine region of Clare Valley
• Directory for the Adelaide Hills region
• Directory for the coastal tourism are of the Copper Coast

Be sure to find out what business directories are available in your local area and get listed in them.

Niche Directories

Many of the niche directories require membership, fees or some other sign up process. Some may require you to be a member of their association. Most industries and sectors have their own directory – below is a sample of some of them to give you a few ideas.

Tradies

• Service
• Service Central
• Service Seeking
• HiPages
• One Flare

Health Providers

• Health 4 You
• Health Engine
• Australian Physiotherapy Association

Freelancers

• Flying Solo

Gym and Fitness

• Local Fitness

Real Estate

• Local Agent Finder

Business Women

• Business and Professional Women
• SA Women

Restaurants and Cafes

• Zomato
• Tupalo

Lawyer

• Law Referral Connect
• Legal Reach

Google your industry and add in the phrase “business directory” to find the right directory for your business.

Citation Builder Package

Get your business listed in 35 high domain authority worldwide directories with this Citation Builder package. We'll choose a mix of generic, geo, niche and map directories.

Real Business Examples

In this article we explore how many website visitors you can expect to get using 18 real life business examples. We take a look at their Google Analytics to find out how many visitors a website gets and where they are coming from.

The 18 businesses used in this case study come from the city of Adelaide in South Australia, which has a population of 1.3million. They vary from a lawyer, medical supply company, gift shop, business consultant to a software agency. We’ve taken a year’s data (from 1/6/20 – 31/5/21) and divided the results by 12 to give an average monthly result.

The number of visitors these websites had, on average per month, varied from 65 to 8,462.

Website Visitor Numbers

The most important number in Google Analytics is the number of visitors a website gets. It goes without saying, but let's say it anyway, the more visitors a website gets, the better.

Less than 200 visitors

A business with a website that is getting fewer than 200 visitors a month cannot usually expect to get any new leads or sales from their website.

Some of the 7 businesses in our list with less than 200 visitors are month are:

• An established business consultant who has a website to establish her authority and knowledge in her industry. She does not expect, or promote her website with a view to getting new clients. It is there should a member of the government or prospective board wish to research her and discover her expertise and skill set.
• A newly established side hustle for online courses based out of an existing business
• A sole trader who has established a very niche business that is struggling to find traction
• Two e-commerce sites that have struggled to find the best way to promote their businesses and get the online sales they were hoping for

Except for the consultant, who doesn't expect or need large numbers of website visitors, the websites for the businesses in the list of less than 200 visitors a month would be deemed to be failures.

300 - 1,000 visitors

We can see from the list of businesses in this category that they are starting to get some traction with their website. However this is still not enough website visitors to sustain a viable operation as we can see by the low numbers of sales for the online shop.

Some examples of the six businesses with 300 – 1,000 visitors a month are:

• An online shop that is getting about 2-3 sales per month
• A small charity
• An international keynote speaker and author who pivoted during Covid-19 from face-to-face speaking and training engagements to online courses

Over 1,000 visitors

At over 1,000 visitors a month, we see a website really starting to pull its weight in the marketing mix for businesses. The website is getting traffic and the business is getting leads.

1 in 4 of the businesses in our study had over 1,000 visitors a month. That means, 3 in 4 had less than 1,000 website visitors a month. This in itself is a telling statistic. It means that it's hard work to get to over 1,000 visitors a month.

Not surprisingly it is the established businesses (over 5 years) that are in this category. It can take time to build a business and for a website to get traffic.

The five businesses who had over 1,000 website visitors a month are:

• An established small law firm
• A successful niche education training provider
• A small manufacturing business
• A small website agency
• A medium sized, national (i.e. Australia wide) medical supply company

So what conclusions can we draw from the above?

Newer businesses and newer websites tend to get less website visitors than established ones. When a business starts out it has to get known – and this takes time. I speak to a lot of businesses through the advisory sessions I give in Adelaide and I find it usually takes two years before a business is viable. This is reflected in the website visitor numbers. Not surprisingly, the established businesses get more website visitors.

The businesses who have struggled to find success, even after two years, are generally not getting many website visitors. Low visitor numbers can be seen in our examples with businesses that

• are a side-hustle with less investment than what would be given to a full-time committed effort
• are selling a product or service is not well known or desired by consumers
• have not been successful with their marketing and promotion

Blog writing example

The website agency provides an interesting example getting just over 5,000 visitors a month. 4,000 visits to the website are to one blog article. I’ve spoken to a number of blog writers and there is often 1 – 3 articles that end up being very successful because they just happened to be the ones that pick up a lot of traction in Google searches. These articles often get people from all over the world reading them. If this website agency is only providing services to customers who live locally, these website visitors are not likely to become customers. So one could argue, that even though blog writing is great for your SEO, it could be wasted energy. How-ever if you have products or services that can be delivered to anyone anywhere in the world, blog writing could be an attractive option.

Online course example

The keynote speaker who pivoted to online courses provides an interesting example especially compared with the niche education training provider and the website agency who had online courses as a side hustle. All three are established sole trader or partnership businesses who have been speakers, trainers, workshop facilitators and moved to online courses and seminars during Covid-19. The two who worked in the education sector, and could provide authorised professional development to teachers, managed to make the transition fairly well. This is reflected in their website numbers. The website agency who created a side hustle of online courses didn’t fare so well probably because

• the content in the courses can, to some degree, be found for free on YouTube
• they do not add points towards a worker’s professional development requirements
• they didn’t have quite the same tenacity and effort put into the marketing and promotion of the courses

How you market your services and how valuable those services are to your customers remain important factors in a business’s success. The two businesses who were more successful in launching their online courses provide a good example of this.

Where do the website visitors come from?

Organic searches are the most popular way people find websites. For 11 of our businesses this was the case. These people may have googled your business name or the type of product you sell or service you provide. If you have your Google Search Console connected to your Google Analytics account you can drill down to see what searches people use to find your site. To see this go to
Google Analytics>Acquisition>Search Console>Queries

For the remaining seven businesses, most of the visitors came directly to the website. This means they typed in the website address directly into their browser or used a bookmark or favourite they may have set up on their computer. Even though email can show up as a separate source in Google Analytics, I’ve often seen clicks from emails show up as direct visits.

Organic and direct combined, accounted for over ¾ of website visitors in all 18 of our business examples.

This is a typical chart from Google Analytics for a website that gets most of its visitors from organic searches.

This is a typical chart from Google Analytics for a website that gets most of its visitors from direct.

To find the chart for where your website visitors are coming from for your business go to
Google Analytics>Acquisition>Overview

What about website visitors from social?

Overall social accounted for very few visits to websites. The highest percentage of visitors from social was for our small charity which had 7% of visitors from social, as seen in this graph.

What about referrals?

People who show up as referrals are visitors to your website that have come from another website. Most of our businesses had very little referral traffic, only 5 had enough visitors from referrals that were of significant enough interest. The software agency had the most, at 20%, but over 65% of this is spam referral, which is not uncommon to see. The business who had the most legitimate referral visitors was the medical supply company at 16%.

By clicking on the Referrals link in Acquisition>Overview you can see which websites your referral visits are coming from.

Knowing how many visitors your website has, and where they are coming from, are the two most important statistics to look at in Google Analytics. To understand a little more about these two measurements as well as another three that are good to know, head over What to Measure in Google Analytics.

Book - Online Marketing for Baby Boomers

...and anyone else who doesn't speak geek

• 17 case studies - from lawyers to aged care products to an engineering firm to a cake shop
• Next steps to inspire you to get started, or re-energise, your marketing.
• 9 templates to hone in and clarify your ideas and thoughts for social media content, Google advertising and your marketing strategy.

SEO for Online Shops

A high priority for an online shop is to get more visitors to the website. This can be done through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Google loves text – so writing text for your product descriptions is the focus of this article on SEO for online shops.

SEO is great for online shops, as each product and category (or collection) page is able to be optimised. If your shop has 50 products, that’s 50 opportunities to optimise the site.

Search Terms

Understanding what search terms people use to find your products is an important first step in optimising the site for search engines. The method is to write these search terms into the text as part of the product description. The key is to optimise different pages for different search terms.

Let’s use an example of an Australian bodycare retailer, specialising in premium, gift boxed skincare. This shop sells:

• Mousse
• Lip Balm
• Moisturisers
• Soaps

If this was your shop, you may wish your site to rank well on Google for the search terms:

• Organic Bodycare
• Organic Skincare
• Australian Soap
• Australian Gift

You may also want the product pages to rank well for their particular brand or description. For example:

• Lip Balm
• Vegan Friendly Moisturiser
• Charcoal Soap
• Olay Regenerist Moisturizer

To help you determine what search term to aim for, run your ideas through Google Trends. Google Trends is a free, online tool that is very easy to use. Find it here https://trends.google.com.

In this example, we can see the search term ‘lip balm’ (blue) gets a lot more searches than either ‘Australian soap’ (red) or ‘organic bodycare’ (yellow). Therefore optimising a page for lip balm is likely to get you more traffic than optimising it for organic bodycare.

How-ever you don’t want to optimise every page for lip balm. If you have 50 products, use 50 different search terms, one for each product page. Avoid using the same search term more than once on the site. As you get more experience, you may consider broadening out the search term beyond the product name or type, to use search terms like 'valentine gift'.

Read more about keywords here

Page Types – Homepage vs Category vs Product

The online shop is likely to have:

• A homepage that features a broad cross section of products
• Several category or collection pages that group products together, by type or brand.
• Lots of product pages

The homepage is likely to be optimised on the business name. If this shop is called 'Australian Skincare' then that is likely to be a good search term to optimise the homepage on.

The category or collection pages provide the best opportunity to optimise the site. For example, if this online shop sells 5 different shampoos, then it will probably have a category page for shampoo. This category page will group together products like:

• Aloe Vera Shampoo
• Lavender Shampoo
• Vegan Friendly Shampoo
• Anti-Dandruff Shampoo
• Children’s Shampoo

5 products that are grouped together by type.

As the category page provides the best opportunity to optimise the site, we’ll start with is.

Category (or Collection) Pages

Most category pages will group together a bunch of like products. There will be a product image, and on top of that image, or directly underneath, there will usually be the product name and price. A visitor to the website will scan or scroll through the images until they see one that interests them and then click on it to be taken to that product’s specific page.

Google loves text. Category pages, by default, often don’t have much text. They have a lot of images. To optimise your online shop for Google searches you’re going to need to write text on the category page which includes the chosen search term or keyword.

Write 300 words or more about the category and add the search term in 3 times. We don’t want these 300 words to appear at the top of the category page, as this will spoil the experience for the person visiting the site, who really doesn’t want to read a lot of text. Google might love text, but often the human gets bored after the first 10 words!

So what to do?

And here’s the trick. Place the text at the bottom of the page. Neat eh? Don’t believe me? Well here’s an example of a big online retailer that does just this thing.

The iconic is a big online retailer in Australia for women’s fashion. Here’s their category page for handbags. This page has 52 handbags on page one of the category search – not a paragraph of text to be seen until you scroll right down to the bottom.

If the big online retailers are doing it, you can be fairly sure they're doing it for a reason – and the reason is to optimise the site for Google searches.

Product Pages

Product pages are much harder to optimise, as writing a 300 word description is going to sound like you are waffling on.

Some product pages only have the text to the right of the product image available. But some product pages allow for a longer description below the image, main description and Add to Cart button. If your site allows for a longer description, take advantage of that and use it. If not, aim for 150 words for the description, adding the search term in twice.

Here’s a few product description ideas to get those 150 words.

• Ingredients
• Size, length or volume
• Packaging
• When best applied or used
• Great for……
• Ideally……
• If you like this product you might also like…
• This product matches, goes with, fits on, connects with…

Ideas for the longer description

• Guarantee
• Accessories
• What it’s made out of
• Does it need any special treatment
• Does it match something really well
• Who’s ideally going to like this
• When and where does this product excel?
• What size is it
• What is the product code
• Shipping info

Further Reading

Woocommerce, a popular WordPress plug-in has its own strategies about SEO for online shops. Read their article here.

Final Thoughts

It’s mighty hard to go through 50 or more products in one go. Give yourself a goal of optimising 2-3 products a week or a month, prioritising your best sellers.

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