How to Improve Your Ecommerce SEO: 5 Essential Fixes

Tips To Improve Ecommerce SEO

Ecommerce SEO can feel impossible to wrap your head around. Google’s algorithm is constantly evolving, and no one knows its exact formula. So how can the average online merchant optimize their store and improve organic rankings?

Improving your site’s organic rankings is definitely a long game, but, fortunately, there are plenty of small steps you can take to start optimizing your site. 

Improving your site’s organic rankings is a long game, but there are plenty of small steps you can take to start optimizing your site.

1. Not Having An SSL Certificate

Does your site’s URL start with HTTP or HTTPS?

Google has favored HTTPS encryption for years, prioritizing secure websites in search rankings. In fact, in 2017, Google Chrome began flagging non-HTTPS sites as ‘Not Secure’, warning users before they even enter your site.

If your ecommerce store isn’t secured with an SSL certificate, it could hurt your SEO and scare off potential customers. Some ecommerce platforms, like BigCommerce, offer free SSL certificates, making it easy to upgrade and protect both your customers and your search rankings.

How to Fix It:

• Check if your site URL starts with HTTPS instead of HTTP
• If not, take the steps to enable an SSL certificate
• Ensure all pages redirect to HTTPS to avoid duplicate content issues

2. Broken Links Or Images

Broken links and missing images create a poor user experience—and Google notices. If a visitor lands on a page with 404 errors or images that fail to load, they’re more likely to leave, increasing your bounce rate (which negatively impacts SEO).

How to Fix It:

• Use a site audit tool, such as Ahrefs, to scan for broken links and images
• Remove or 301 redirect broken pages
• Fix broken images with optimized image files

3. Poor URL Structure

Google wants everything on your website to be readable. This goes for URL structure, too. Google prefers URLs that use words rather than URLs that use random numbers or letters. Users should be able to quickly get an idea of the page content they’re going to see when they click the link.

For example, a user-friendly URL like: example.com/women/tops/sweaters
….is much better than: example.com/5237134

How to Fix It:

• Use descriptive URLs that include relevant keywords
• Avoid stop words (e.g., “the,” “and,” “of”)
• Keep URLs short and structured (e.g., category/subcategory/product)

Optimizing your URLs improves search engine readability and enhances the user experience—two key factors in ecommerce SEO success.

4. Not Using Header Tags Properly

Have you ever looked at your website’s HTML and noticed that some of the headings are wrapped in code labelled with h1, h2, h3, etc.?

These pieces of HTML are called header tags and they aren’t meaningless labels. Using header tags properly is an important part of improving your site’s technical SEO, signaling to search engines the most important content on your site.

How to Fix It:

• Each page should have one unique H1 (usually the main title)
• Use H2 tags for major sections, and H3-H6 for subsections
• Include keywords naturally in headers to improve SEO

5. Not Updating Your Site Content

Google rewards fresh, high-quality content. If your site hasn’t been updated in months, it may struggle to rank competitively.

Consistently adding new blog posts, product descriptions, or category content signals to search engines that your online store is active and relevant.

How to Fix It:

• Post SEO-optimized blog content at least 1-2 times per month
• Update product descriptions and category pages with fresh content
• Repurpose old content by adding new insights, FAQs, or media.

But remember, quality matters—thin, low-value content won’t help. Invest in thoughtful, keyword-driven content that adds value to your audience.

Google knows the difference between high-quality content and low-quality content.

Ready to Improve Your Ecommerce SEO? Let’s Get Started.

Know you need to rank higher but don’t know where to start? Our ecommerce SEO experts are ready to help.

Contact us to get started with your SEO audit today. We’ll help you plan and implement the right strategy that will keep you at the top of Google and above your competitors.