[intro]In the process of improving the SEO of your EKM online shop, you need to first begin with the shop content itself. In this Guide, you’ll learn about the tasks that you need to complete to improve the visibility of your EKM online shop in search engine results. [/intro]

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Before you begin to work on the Off-Site SEO, it’s essential that you start by improving the content of the actual shop itself. This will:

  • Improve the visibility of your EKM online shop in search engine results;
  • Give you a solid foundation to work from when you invest in an online advertising strategy (such as Google Adwords). 

In this Guide, we’ll be working through the different elements of your EKM online shop that you can work on which will optimise your content for search engines and successful online advertising campaigns.

Navigation

A good navigational system of Categories, Subcategories and Products is essential for good on-site SEO. To summarise it simply - customers will spend a maximum of just three seconds on your Homepage looking for what they want, and whatever that thing is should be no more than three clicks away from the page they landed on when they entered your shop. If your EKM online shop is not at this basic standard, it’s essential that you have a look at the Navigation Guide to get your shop content up to scratch.

Product Descriptions

If your Product Descriptions are not up to scratch they can be disallowed for online advertising campaigns, so it’s important that they all achieve that standard to improve their visibility in search engine results. Click here for the Guide for writing quality Product Descriptions, and work through your Products gradually to ensure that each Description is up to standard. 

Category and In-Category Descriptions

You need to ensure that if your Theme has Category and In-Category Descriptions these have had content added to them. As well as human visitors, search engines do read this text and it further illustrates to them what content is on your EKM online shop. If you’re not sure how to do this, click here for the Guide. 

Meta Data

Your EKM online shop automatically generates meta data for you, using the Category and Product titles, Product Descriptions, titles and content from your Webpages. However, if you wish to add in your own custom meta data so you can use specific keywords, you need to install the Custom Meta Data feature. You will also need to add in your Shop Meta Data if you have not done it already. 

Update your Content

Once you have populated your EKM online shop with Homepage text, Products, Categories and links to your social media profiles, the next task is to work out how to keep this content fresh. It’s still a widely held belief amongst some that once an online shop or website has been built, the crowds will come - but this is sadly not the case. For the first few weeks of an online shop being created, search engines will rank it well - as the site is being updated with ‘fresh content’ (i.e., more Products and Categories) on a daily basis, it’ll be labelled as a constantly updated presence and will enjoy a decent amount of traffic. 

However, when the shop is complete and all of the Products and Categories have been added, the traffic will begin to die down if regular updates are not performed. This is because search engines value online shops and websites that are constantly updated with fresh, new information, and leaves those with ‘stale’ content by the wayside. There are three main reasons for constantly updating the content on your EKM online shop:

  1. Search engines like shops that grow steadily as it indicates that the shop is reliable, current and useful for visitors;
  2. For first-time customers to your EKM online shop who are searching for a specific Product or service, it’s your responsibility as the shop owner to offer the most relevant and recently released lines. 
  3. If you are constantly up-to-date in terms of content, news relevant to your industry or trade and recently launched Product Lines, you’re providing customers with a very good reason to keep returning to your shop time and time again. Keeping constantly updated will see your shop regarded as a hub for all of the latest news and releases.

When you have resolved the content using the Guides referenced above, you can then move on to the next step and start taking a look at your Off-Site SEO and how you can optimise your EKM online shop using different platforms. 

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[contact] If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Account Manager or Customer Support, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm on the weekends. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions board. If you have a non-account specific question ask the EKM Team, join us in EKM Community.  [/contact]