Run an online business? Well as you know, you’re not quite alone. With the right SEO strategy, you can translate it into higher conversation rates and build online traffic in general. Here’s a quick guide to improving the SEO on your e-commerce site, and getting those products to move off the metaphorical shelves:

1. New Stock

Have a clear website structure and make sure that your products are divided clearly and logically into categories so that consumers can find them. User experience comes first and foremost  for e-commerce sites, so make sure your navigation system is nothing less than stellar. These links need to be accessible from your home page to make it easier for Google to find and index your products quickly. As mentioned before, Google loves new content, so make sure new product pages are linked directly from your home page.

2. Product Content

It’s easy to get complacent with product copy when it’s provided to you by manufacturers. But what you can do is rewrite or rejuvenate what’s been provided. Search engines aren’t really fans of duplicate content (it’s bad for your SEO), and in any case, you want to give the product your own personal branding too.

If you’re running a small business with limited staff, it’s understandable that you may not have all the resources to spend your time rewriting copy. What you can do instead is add unique copy through the addition of user reviews, and social media plugins.

3. Out-of-stock Items

If it’s likely that the product is going to come back at some later stage, leave it there. The reason behind this is because, this product is presumably popular. Keeping the product page up tells consumers that you do stock it, and if appropriate, it’ll be making a comeback at some later stage. Another advantage is you can put related or alternative products to offer customers in the meantime ­– this will help you build inbound links. Perhaps it comes in another colour or a newer model – either way it’s only going to be an advantage.

If a product isn’t going to be restocked, redirect it to a newer model, or just delete it completely. Use a 404 status code to let Google know that it’s gone, or otherwise recycle the same URL if possible so you don’t lose SEO value.