How SEO works!

SEO - search engine optimization!

To briefly clarify the concept of SEO, it is simply an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization. But what is it?

Just as the name reveals, it's about optimizing your website for search engines to get as good a hit as possible when people search for something that you might be selling through your webshop. Let's play with the idea that your business sells fitness clothing and accessories. If a person searches for 'gym bag' (which is something you sell!), you obviously want your webshop to appear as high as possible in the search results and at the same time look as relevant as possible so that the person visits your site.

Keeping up with Google is more important than ever

In Sweden, the search engine Google is used by the vast majority of people. A full 97% of internet users search for information on Google - in other words, it's safe to say that it's important to have a website that Google likes! Furthermore, according to the Swedish Internet Foundation's annual survey "Swedes and the Internet", one in four Swedish internet users shopped online to a greater extent during the pandemic than they usually did before, one in five also believe they will shop online to a greater extent after the pandemic. What can we conclude from this? Well, firstly that it's a very exciting time to be an e-retailer, and secondly that it's incredibly important to be at the top of the results on Google if you want to benefit from the increasing e-commerce. Time to search engine optimize!

A few basic tips that will take you far

Of course, it is possible to completely geek out in the promised land of search engine optimization and it is also possible to do an incredible amount to customize your web to the smallest detail. However, here are a few simple tips that will take you a long way:

• Create good and relevant content. Try to understand how both Google and the person searching on Google think. The searcher naturally wants to find what they are looking for and Google in turn wants to provide as good and relevant suggestions as possible. To make both Google and the person happy, it is important that the content on your website is as good as possible with clear headlines and relevant content with the right keywords and so on. Simply adapt the content to what people are searching for and make sure they are not disappointed when they visit your page.
  
  
• Use the right keywords. Keywords are words that people usually google to find web pages like yours. Therefore, try to use the right keywords in both the headings and text of your page. If you are selling a gym bag called "Athletic trunk X5", it might be wise to at least include the words "sports bag" or "gym bag" in connection with the product. Keywords can sometimes be difficult to figure out yourself, then you can, for example, take the help of various analysis tools - Google's own variant is called Google Analytics. There you can see, among other things, what people have searched for to find your particular website.
  
  
• Don't be too broad. Try to stick to as few topics as possible per web page, but write properly and fill in with good and relevant information on the specific topic. Don't mix up a lot of different topics, but rather split it up over several pages. Google prefers it when it is clear what a specific page is about because then Google can feel more confident that the result presented to the person googling is relevant. Again, it's about the content itself, which should be as good and relevant as possible based on what the visitor googled in the first place.
  
  
• Write a meta description for your pages. There are functions for filling in so-called meta descriptions of the pages on your website, which in short is a shorter description of what is on each page. It is also the description that appears on Google when people search and get your page as a suggestion. Let's say you have a page where you find all your gym bags - here it would be good with a meta description of the page that briefly describes that you sell lots of good gym bags at really nice prices. The meta description is not visible on the website itself, but only among the search results on Google. Keep the description short and concise and - if possible - make sure to have meta descriptions on all pages of your website!
  
  
• Put alt-texts on your images. Just like you can make meta descriptions of your web pages, you can put so-called alternating texts, "alt-texts", on the images that are on your web. The alt text briefly describes what the image represents or what the purpose of the image is, mainly to help people who, for various reasons, cannot see the image without an aid, such as a reading tool. Google also appreciates when images have alt text, as this makes your website appear more user-friendly - which in turn can give you a boost in search rankings.
  
  
• Analyze, test and redo. Do an environmental analysis to find out who your competitors are, how they work and what words visitors search for. How can you niche yourself and what keywords do you need to compete for? What can you do better? Then just test it out, even if you only make small changes to your website, it can make a big difference in the long run. Try it out, change, redo and be patient!

Are you stuck? Let us help you!

Can't find the right settings to optimize your e-commerce for search engines? Do you not understand Google Analytics? Or maybe you just need some help? We are here for you! Our customer service is more than happy to guide you through the features of the platform so you can make the right settings just the way you want it. If you want further help with SEO, keyword analysis or getting started with Google Analytics, we have partners who can help with that too. Get in touch with us and we'll help you out!