Marketplace SEO is the same as trying to get search engine visibility, there is no silver bullet to get you there.
Only those sites that invest in search engine optimization (SEO) tend to reap the benefits.
If you have an e-commerce site with products listed on it that are provided by third-party sellers, and your site brings together a buyer and seller (eg Airbnb, Amazon, Etsy, eBay), then we’re off to a good start.
You run a marketplace website.
If you want your site to rank well for free on Google, then yes, this article is worth your time.
What is Marketplace SEO?
Marketplace SEO involves optimizing product listings on e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy to increase visibility and increase conversions.
You can look at market SEO as its own discipline, because markets have challenges and opportunities, unlike traditional websites.
As with “normal” SEO, the market SEO must have a sound website architecture aligned with SEO best practices, as well as on- and off-page SEO strategies to ensure your page or product ranks first.
Is this possible? yes.
Is that easy? not at all.
It’s focused work, it’s intentional, not a one-off exercise.
However, your competitors probably aren’t doing the work, so the profits are enormous if you do.
As with everything related to digital marketing, your Marketplace SEO strategy should form part of a well-constructed, multi-channel, full-funnel marketing strategy.
You can’t expect your SEO to pull all of your growth KPIs (KPIs)
However, it can definitely help!
How is Marketplace SEO different from Ecommerce SEO?
There is a lot of overlap when it comes to comparing the SEO on the market to the “normal” SEO.
For the sake of similarities, your marketplace ranks as “free” on Google (as opposed to paid search campaigns or display campaigns).
On the other hand, the goal is to get a good ranking. This is so that you have greater brand visibility at every stage of the buyer’s journey, and that you drive traffic to your site.
This is where the similarities end.
Where the goal of traditional SEO is to create content that answers the search query so that the site is found on the search engine results page (SERP), with market SEO the goal is to improve the business purpose.
In other words, it can be found when someone is most likely to buy.
For example, if you Google “best dressed for year-end dinner,” you’ll get articles and blogs in the first few positions.
If you search for “little black dress online,” you’ll find results for a marketplace where third-party suppliers sell their wares.
It is clear that these sites have made an effort to improve organic search.
However, when compared to e-commerce sites, market SEO professionals face many challenges that their e-commerce counterparts do not face.
First, a marketplace site usually has more products than a single storefront e-commerce store. This makes optimization an ongoing and time-consuming project.
On the other hand, an e-commerce store has complete control over the inventory, quality of product listing, images, descriptions, etc.
Oftentimes, third-party vendors mistakenly upload products too many times, or use confusing URL structures or naming conventions.
For this reason, marketplace sites need constant control, monitoring, and rigorous vendor onboarding processes.
Tips for improving your marketplace listings
We’ve come to the meat and potatoes of the article.
Here’s how to optimize your marketplace to rank well on Google, Bing, and anywhere else you want.
1. Like Hansel and Gretel, use breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs are a vital part of clear, user-friendly navigation on every website.
Not only does breadcrumbs help improve users’ experience on the site and help them find their way through categories and subcategories, but a cohesive product path also helps bots crawl the site.
More than just useful navigation and easy category location for people and Google bots, breadcrumbs also appear in the SERP so users can see where a page is on your site.
2. A characterization scheme is a must
Schema markup is a bit of a “cheat sheet” for search engines to help them identify your web content.
Think of it as a label on a box telling a person what’s in the box, in a room full of unlabeled white boxes. help!
Schema markup, structured data, and snippets improve site indexing, and also give marketplace sites the opportunity to show more information about the SERP.
For example, you can view product reviews, product details, and navigation crumbs.
Probably the most important schema markup to use to gain product visibility is Structured product data.
This allows you to list or show different aspects of the product in the SERP:
- Pictures.
- product name.
- Reviews and ratings.
- Brand or company name.
- Product Description.
- SKU and more.
3. Be quick to be mobile friendly
I don’t have to tell you this, especially in today’s mobile-dominant Gen Z market, but your website pages need to load quickly, and your site needs to look good on mobile.
Well, now that I’ve got this off my chest, here’s why — if you still need convincing.
Unfortunately, only you are willing to wait for your amazing but slow site to load. Nobody else will.
nearly 80% of online shoppers say website loading speed influences their purchasing decision.
Your slow website costs you sales.
also, Google uses site speed as one of their UX metrics in their ranking algorithm.
Your slow site costs you visibility.
Uses Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix To see how your marketplace site is performing.
4. Website security (SSL) is very important
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a security protocol that creates an encrypted link between a web browser and a website server.
You will know that your site is using SSL when there is HTTPS in your URL or when there is a lock in the URL.
Google doesn’t like websites without SSL, or websites with archaic HTTP.
You will usually get a privacy error and users are discouraged from visiting the site.
5. Don’t forget your sitemaps
Your marketplace site has hundreds, if not thousands, of pages that need to be updated regularly with new products and prices uploaded.
Update your sitemap so that Google robots can index the important pages of your site.
Uses XML sitemaps To create one manually if your CMS doesn’t do it automatically, upload it to Google Search Console.
Do this whenever you add new URLs to your site or change product details.
6. Use reviews to boost engagement
Ask your customers for feedback after they purchase products, and make it as easy as possible for them to submit these ratings and reviews.
Reviews are a great way to overcome fears and objections on the sales journey, and they increase trust and engagement.
More than that, ratings tell Google that your site is the real deal.
7. Content is still king
I’m not talking about product descriptions or return policies here. number.
Content marketing is still an important part of your online visibility for search engine optimization.
Good quality, well-written content improves the ranking of your marketplace site.
Create articles, blogs, how-tos, and insights into the weaknesses of your specific customers.
Share these blogs and customer reviews on your social channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Leverage influencers on different social media channels frequented by your ideal target audience to drive more clicks to your site.
Create SEO semantics with LSI keywords at the bottom of each category or product page that also supports your linking strategy.
Final thoughts
There’s no escaping it: SEO is vital to your website’s market.
As you build your market site SEO, it will help your products and category pages rank for competitive keywords that you have to pay for.
Your efforts will bring more organic traffic to your site, and help improve revenue and conversions.
I am sure these tips will help you to rank well in search engines.
More resources:
- Amazon SEO: A Comprehensive Guide for Sellers
- Etsy SEO: How to Optimize Your Store and Listings for Search
- Shopify SEO – How to optimize your Shopify site for Google
Featured image: Surasak_Ch / Shutterstock
