Key Takeaways

• Ecommerce SEO is the process of optimizing an online store to increase visibility in search engines and drive qualified traffic to product and category pages to boost conversions and grow brand authority.
• Modern ecommerce SEO strategies include optimizing product category pages for buying-intent keywords, creating individual product pages with EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), developing informational buying guides and listicles, using product pages to target bottom-of-funnel shoppers, leveraging user-generated content (UGC) to build trust and boost rankings, building a strong internal linking strategy, embracing seasonality, optimizing for mobile use, and meeting Google’s Core Web Vitals.
• Ecommerce SEO focuses on improving KPIs like organic traffic, cart abandonment rate from organic traffic, average order volume (AOV), bounce rate from organic traffic, sessions, and users, pages per session, average session duration, the conversion rate from organic traffic, organic impressions and CTRs, target keyword rankings, and revenue from organic traffic.

What is Ecommerce SEO?

Ecommerce SEO is the practice of optimizing an online store to increase its visibility in search engine results, ultimately driving more organic traffic to product and category pages. Fine-tuning elements like site structure, product descriptions, and technical SEO helps ecommerce businesses connect with customers searching for products like theirs. 

Unlike traditional SEO, ecommerce SEO specifically targets buyers actively seeking products. This makes aligning with search intent crucial for conversion. 

The Value of Ecommerce SEO in Today’s Marketplace

Ecommerce SEO is essential for standing out and reaching customers in a landscape that’s increasingly competitive. With more consumers browsing and buying online than ever, organic visibility becomes critical in capturing a larger market share. By investing in SEO, ecommerce brands can build a more sustainable, long-term customer base without the constant expense of pay-per-click advertising. This boosts brand visibility and trust, positioning the business as a go-to option in its niche.

Key Differences in Ecommerce SEO & Traditional SEO

Traditional SEO and ecommerce SEO differ in many ways, which affects how you approach them. We’ve outlined the key differences below.

How Ecommerce SEO Supports the Customer Journey

Ecommerce SEO guides customers from initial interest to purchase by aligning strategies with each stage of the buyer’s journey.

• Discovery & Awareness: Attracts potential customers from SERPs by targeting high-intent keywords that match exactly what people are looking for.
• Consideration: SEO-driven content gives users the necessary information to compare options and make informed decisions.
• Conversion: Optimization reduces friction on the path to purchase.

KPIs for Ecommerce SEO

KPIs (key performance indicators) help you understand what parts of your SEO strategy work. Ecommerce SEO KPIs focus on insights that communicate how well your site guides potential customers from discovery to purchase. The main KPIs you should track include:

• Organic Traffic
• Cart Abandonment Rate
• Average Order Volume (AOV)
• Bounce Rate
• Sessions & Users
• Pages Per Session
• Average Session Duration
• Conversion Rate
• Organic Impressions & Click-Through Rates (CTRs)
• Keyword Ranking Improvements
• Revenue From Organic Traffic

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic represents the volume of users reaching your site through unpaid search results. It gauges how effectively your SEO strategy attracts potential buyers. This metric reflects the success of keyword targeting, content quality, and overall SEO health to show how well you capture search engine visibility. You can track organic traffic using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console (GSC). They monitor visitor behavior, session durations, and how users navigate your site so you can make targeted adjustments.

Cart Abandonment Rate From Organic Search

Cart abandonment rate measures how well your site holds organic visitors’ interest. A high abandonment rate indicates issues that disrupt the buying process, such as unexpected pricing, slow page speeds, or a complicated checkout. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Shopify’s analytics can track and diagnose cart abandonment, providing insights into drop-off points in the checkout process. By addressing abandonment causes, you can improve conversion rates and make the most of your organic traffic.

Average Order Volume From Organic Search

Average order volume (AOV) measures how much each organic visitor spends per transaction to determine the value generated from SEO-driven traffic. Higher AOVs reflect a successful strategy for attracting high-value shoppers or encouraging customers to purchase additional items. GA4 excels at tracking AOV.

Bounce Rate From Organic Search

Bounce rate indicates how well your content aligns with user intent. If organic visitors quickly leave a page, it suggests a mismatch between the page’s content and what users expect to find. This highlights issues with keyword targeting or content relevance. You can use GA4 and GSC to identify which pages have high bounce rates and work to optimize them.

Sessions & Users

Sessions and users provide insight into overall site engagement from organic search. Sessions track the number of individual browsing periods, while users count unique visitors. Monitoring these KPIs helps you understand the size of your organic audience and how often they return. An increase in sessions or users from organic traffic can suggest that SEO efforts are capturing and retaining attention effectively. 

Pages Per Session

Pages per session measures the depth of user engagement by showing how many pages a visitor navigates through in a single browsing session. A higher number indicates greater interest in your content and products, often leading to higher conversion potential. This metric reflects the quality of internal linking, content relevance, and overall site navigation. Analyzing pages per session helps identify which pages capture visitor interest and guide users to explore more products so you can prioritize your optimization efforts.

Average Session Duration

Average session duration shows how long users stay on your site. A longer duration indicates that your content and product offerings are relevant and interesting to visitors. Optimizing page load speed, content layout, and product descriptions can improve session duration by keeping users engaged. You can use GA4 to track changes in session duration and refine your approach.

Conversion Rate From Organic Traffic

Conversion rate shows how well your site turns visitors into buyers. A high conversion rate suggests that you’re attracting the right audience and meeting their needs through targeted, relevant content. This metric helps you fine-tune SEO efforts to better serve customer intent, maximize sales, and achieve business goals.

Organic Impressions & Click-Through Rates (CTR)

Organic impressions and click-through rates (CTR) reveal how often your pages appear in search results and how compelling they are to users. High impressions with a low CTR suggest room for improvement in title tags, meta descriptions, or content relevance. Tools like GSC track these metrics to help you identify which pages need optimization to improve visibility and capture user interest more effectively.

Ranking Improvements for Target Keywords

Tracking ranking improvements for target keywords gives insights into how well your site performs for specific search terms. Higher keyword rankings drive visibility, increase credibility, and attract more traffic from search engines. With keyword tracking tools, you can see how improvements in ranking align with other KPIs like organic traffic, click-through rate (CTR), and conversion rate, which ensures your ecommerce SEO strategies contribute to reaching your business goals.

Revenue From Organic Traffic

Revenue from organic traffic shows the direct financial impact of SEO by combining metrics like traffic volume, conversion rate, and AOV to reveal the true dollar value of organic visitors. It also points to areas where optimized strategies can unlock greater returns. Essentially, this metric provides actionable data for scaling your tactics and driving growth.

Ecommerce SEO Strategies

Understanding ecommerce SEO and KPIs is important, but how do you turn theory into practice? We’ve outlined the top ecommerce SEO strategies below to help you get your project off the ground:

• Optimizing product category pages using buying-intent keywords
• Creating individual product pages with EEAT
• Targeting bottom-of-funnel shoppers with product pages
• Developing informational buying guides and listicles to target shopping keywords
• Leveraging UGC to build trust and boost SEO
• Building a strong internal linking strategy to improve product page rankings
• Embracing seasonality
• Optimizing for mobile use
• Meeting Google’s Core Web Vitals

Optimizing Product Category Pages Using Buying-Intent Keywords

High-converting keywords signal a user’s readiness to buy, such as “buy,” “best price,” or specific product names. Focusing on these terms attracts traffic that’s closer to making a purchase. Using keyword research tools like Ahrefs or Semrush can help you identify these keywords, assess their search volume, and evaluate competition levels. Once you’ve identified these keywords, use them to:

• Structure category pages
• Optimize title tags and meta descriptions
• Add short product summaries

This improves the user experience while providing more content for search engines to index. Consistently reviewing and refining these elements as market trends shift will help you stay relevant, competitive, and visible in search results.

Creating Individual Product Pages With EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust) Factors

Building EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) on individual product pages establishes credibility and drives conversions. Product pages optimized for EEAT reassure users and search engines that your brand is reliable and capable of delivering on its promises.

To build EEAT, add the following to your product pages:

• Customer Reviews: These provide social proof and help customers make confident purchases.
• Unique Product Descriptions: Using well-written descriptions rather than manufacturer-standard ones highlights your brand’s expertise and authenticity.
• High-Quality Images and Videos: These give customers a detailed look at the product and reduce uncertainty. 

Targeting Bottom-of-Funnel Shoppers With Product Pages

Product pages are prime real estate for targeting bottom-of-funnel shoppers—those who are ready to buy and just need that final push. Your product pages should aim to seal the deal by addressing their specific needs and removing any remaining hesitation. You can do this by:

• Focusing on clarity and transparency
• Prominently displaying key details like price, availability, and shipping information
• Including clear calls-to-action (CTAs) that guide customers to checkout

Developing Informational Buying Guides & Listicles to Target Shopping Keywords

Creating informational buying guides and listicles is a powerful way to target shopping-related keywords while capturing top-funnel traffic. These educational resources answer common customer questions that align with search intent. Addressing queries like “how to choose the right [product]” or “best [category] for [specific use case]” helps shoppers make informed choices and establishes your brand as a trusted resource.

When creating buying guides and listicles, include cross-selling opportunities by linking to relevant products naturally within the content. This way, as readers move from informational content to purchase intent, your products are already top of mind.

Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC) to Build Trust & Boost SEO

Authentic customer reviews, photos, and testimonials provide social proof that resonates with prospective buyers. When customers see real people sharing their experiences, it humanizes your brand and reassures them that your products are legitimate. From an SEO perspective, UGC creates fresh, keyword-rich content that boosts organic visibility. Search engines recognize the value of updated, relevant content, and incorporating UGC helps keep your product pages dynamic and engaging. Tap into UGC by encouraging customers to leave reviews and feedback post-purchase.

Build a Strong Internal Linking Strategy to Improve Product Page Rankings

Internal linking improves product page rankings and creates a seamless user journey. When users land on a blog post or guide, internal links act as natural pathways to explore products related to the topic they’re already interested in. This makes it easier for top-funnel visitors to transition into the buying mindset and improves the chances of conversion. A well-crafted internal linking strategy turns your content into a cohesive ecosystem where every link supports your SEO goals and keeps customers engaged.

Embracing Seasonality

Seasonal SEO aligns content, keywords, and promotions with specific holidays and events when shoppers actively search for products. By optimizing your content around seasonal trends, you can reach potential customers exactly when demand peaks, boosting your visibility and relevance. Use seasonality to your advantage by creating keyword-rich landing pages, blog posts, and product collections for key holidays that showcase timely, seasonal offers and exclusive deals. This drives short-term engagement and contributes to long-term authority as customers return year after year.

Optimizing for Mobile Use

With a growing number of shoppers using mobile devices to browse, compare, and buy, a seamless mobile experience is critical for capturing and retaining customers. Mobile optimization requires a holistic approach that ensures every part of the user journey is smooth on smaller screens. Focus on fast load times, streamlined navigation, and easy-to-tap buttons. This improves the user experience and positively impacts your SEO rankings.

Meeting Google’s Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals focus on three essential metrics: loading performance (LCP: Largest Contentful Paint), interactivity (FID: First Input Delay), and visual stability (CLS: Cumulative Layout Shift). Each of these metrics measures how quickly and smoothly users can engage with your content, reflecting the overall quality of the browsing experience. 

Making the following optimizations will  satisfy Google’s ranking algorithm and reduce friction for your customers:

• Compress Images
• Minimize JavaScript
• Ensure Page Elements Don’t Shift Unexpectedly

Ecommerce Technical SEO

Effective technical SEO practices ensure search engines can crawl and index your pages efficiently, boosting visibility and maximizing the reach of your content. Let’s explore the key areas of technical SEO that will support your ecommerce site’s overall performance:

• Review GSC Insights
• Build a Comprehensive XML Sitemap
• Schema Markup Implementation
• Crawl Issue Identification
• Check Crawl Depth
• Align Keywords for Better Keyword Mapping
• Page Speed Optimization
• Check for HTTPS
• Fix Broken Links
• Implement Breadcrumb Internal Linking
• Build a Robust Global Navigation Menu

Review Google Search Console Insights

Google Search Console (GSC) is a powerful resource for monitoring your site’s health, search performance, and visibility. Regularly reviewing GSC data allows you to spot and resolve indexation issues, understand which search queries bring in the most traffic, and prioritize pages for optimization. When you leverage GSC insights, you can keep your site optimized for both search engines and users, ensuring that each SEO adjustment supports your site’s growth.

Build a Comprehensive XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap ensures search engines can locate and prioritize key pages across your site. This is particularly valuable for ecommerce, where new products, categories, and/or updates are frequent. By maintaining a clean, up-to-date XML sitemap and submitting it to GSC, you ensure search engines stay in sync with your site’s structure. This helps keep every part of your product catalog within reach, maximizing visibility where it matters.

Schema Markup Implementation

Schema markup, or structured data, enables search engines to better understand your product details. By using schema, you can display rich snippets in search results, such as product ratings, pricing, and availability, which can significantly enhance click-through rates. Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool makes it easy to verify that your schema markup is properly implemented.

Crawl Issue Identification With Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog SEO Spider allows you to conduct in-depth crawls to identify and resolve problems like broken links, duplicate content, and orphaned pages—issues that can negatively impact SEO if left unchecked. Regular crawls ensure that key pages are accessible to search engines. 

Check Crawl Depth

Crawl depth—how many clicks it takes to reach a page from the homepage—plays a significant role in making your key pages discoverable. When essential pages are buried too deep, they risk being overlooked by search engines. Keeping important pages within three clicks of the homepage ensures search engines and users alike can easily access your high-value content. 

Align Keywords Using Ahrefs for Better Keyword Mapping

Keyword mapping with Ahrefs lets you align target keywords to specific pages using search intent, preventing overlap and keyword cannibalization. This ensures each page has a clear keyword focus, which strengthens its relevance and potential ranking power. Monitoring keyword trends over time keeps your strategy fresh and your site competitive.

Page Speed Optimization

Slow pages lead to high bounce rates and missed conversions. Optimize page speed by compressing images, minimizing code, and enabling browser caching. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Core Web Vitals in GSC help identify speed bottlenecks, giving you actionable insights to keep your site fast and responsive.

Check for HTTPS

HTTPS protects customer data and builds trust. Google prioritizes sites with HTTPS, making it a critical component of your SEO strategy. Every page on your site must be secured with HTTPS to create a safe shopping experience. 

Fix Broken Links

Regularly audit your site for broken links and redirect users to relevant pages to maintain your site’s authority and traffic flow. Fixing broken links using Screaming Frog ensures users and search engines can navigate your site smoothly. This supports a seamless experience that keeps visitors engaged and improves your SEO performance.

Implement Breadcrumb Internal Linking

Breadcrumbs are essential for both user navigation and SEO. They help users move back through your site’s structure easily and provide additional context for search engines, creating a network of internal links that improves crawlability. Adding breadcrumb links enhances user experience and builds a hierarchy that search engines can understand, giving your site a competitive advantage in the search results.

Build a Robust Global Navigation Menu

A well-structured global navigation menu is essential for ecommerce sites. It guides users to key product categories and important pages, enhancing their overall browsing experience. Use clear and descriptive anchor text for each link to make it easy for users and search engines to understand each page’s purpose. By creating an intuitive and accessible menu, you support better user engagement, boost conversions, and strengthen your site’s SEO visibility.

On-Page SEO for Ecommerce

On-page SEO involves structuring content to guide users through a seamless buying journey while helping search engines understand each page’s purpose. Let’s examine:

• Entity SEO & Semantic Relationships
• Internal Linking for Better Site Navigation & SEO
• Building Topical Authority to Compete in the Market
• Meta Titles & Descriptions That Drive Clicks
• H1 & Page Structure for Readability
• Information Gain Opportunities
• High-Quality Images

Entity SEO & Semantic Relationships

Entity SEO is key to building topical relevance and clarity. It requires defining unique entities—such as products, brands, and categories—to help search engines identify and understand the relationships between them. This improves your site’s relevance for specific topics and increases your visibility. Tools like Google’s NLP API and Ahrefs can help analyze entity relationships to help keywords and concepts reflect the content’s theme.

Semantic SEO connects related keywords and pages, helping search engines better understand the context of your content. Instead of relying solely on exact phrases, use related terms—such as synonyms, product features, and complementary items—to add depth and relevance to your content. Optimize each page by naturally integrating these terms within headers, body text, and meta tags. 

Add Semantically Related FAQs at the Bottom of Product & Category Pages

Adding FAQs with semantically related questions at the bottom of product and category pages enhances relevance and meets user intent. These FAQs should address common questions and use long-tail keywords to increase the likelihood that users will find the answers they need without leaving the page. This improves user satisfaction and gives additional content for search engines to index, which improves visibility.

Internal Linking for Better Site Navigation & SEO

Internal linking improves site navigation and distributes link equity. By linking product pages to related categories, blog content, and buying guides, you create a logical flow that guides users through the buying process. Effective internal linking also strengthens the SEO value of your most important pages. Building a network of links that connects content clusters increases the chances users will explore additional products and resources, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.

Building Topical Authority to Compete in the Market

Building topical authority in ecommerce SEO is about creating an ecosystem of highly relevant pages that consistently meet user intent and add value. Google evaluates each page individually, looking closely at signals like engagement, dwell time, and information gain to understand whether the content truly answers user queries. When a website generates hundreds or thousands of product and category pages, optimized with high-value information, those individual scores collectively boost the domain’s authority. 

Meta Titles & Descriptions That Drive Clicks

Meta titles and descriptions play a crucial role in search visibility and click-through rates (CTRs). Craft engaging, keyword-optimized meta titles that clearly convey the benefits of the product or category. For meta descriptions, use concise, action-oriented language that highlights the page’s value and provides a quick preview of what users will find. This approach makes your listings more attractive in search results, encouraging users to click and explore your offerings.

H1 & Page Structure for Readability

A well-structured H1 tag helps set the page’s focus and supports readability by aligning with primary keywords and user search intent. Use subheadings (H2s, H3s) to break down content logically. Structure content hierarchically, starting with the most important product information at the top, followed by details, specifications, and FAQs. This layout makes content digestible and allows users to find what they’re looking for quickly.

Optimizing Page Structure for Quick Answers

An easy-to-navigate page layout keeps users engaged by helping them quickly locate essential information like product details, pricing, reviews, and related items. Techniques such as using bullet points for specifications, tabbed content for descriptions and reviews, and sticky “Add to Cart” buttons can enhance the experience. For lengthy pages, include anchor links or quick navigation menus to address common questions or highlight key points.

Information Gain Opportunities

Information gain is about going beyond the basics to offer users unique insights or details they can’t find elsewhere. Identify gaps in competitor content and provide value-added information, such as in-depth product comparisons, usage tips, and data-driven insights. This approach not only appeals to users but can also improve rankings by positioning your content as a comprehensive resource.

High-Quality Images

High-quality images showcase your products and improve SEO when optimized with relevant alt text and file names. Use multiple angles, zoom features, and lifestyle images to give users a better understanding of each product. By providing rich, detailed visuals, you create a more engaging experience that increases the likelihood of conversions while supporting your SEO goals.

Topical Authority for Ecommerce SEO

When a large volume of your ecommerce site’s pages scores highly in user engagement metrics, such as clicks, dwell time, and bounce rates, it elevates your entire domain’s reputation in the eyes of Google. This demonstrates both depth and expertise on a broad set of topics, driving domain authority and organic rankings upward.

How Topical Authority Reduces Dependence on Backlinks

Although backlinks are valuable, search engines are increasingly prioritizing the depth and relevance of content as measures of authority. By developing content clusters around key topics—such as detailed product guides, FAQs, and reviews—ecommerce sites can build enough expertise to reduce the need for heavy backlinking. For instance, creating a robust content cluster around “home office furniture” with comprehensive guides, buying tips, and comparisons can elevate the entire category’s rankings, allowing multiple pages within it to perform better without extensive link-building efforts.

Google’s Information Gain Patent & Its Impact on Content Evaluation

Google’s Information Gain Patent (US20200349181A1) underscores the importance of content that delivers unique or additional value compared to what’s already available online. With this patent, Google assesses pages based on the “information gain” they provide, prioritizing content that fills gaps or adds fresh perspectives. For ecommerce, this means producing value-added content, like detailed product comparisons, unique insights, and thoughtful FAQs that go beyond typical market offerings.

Google’s Helpful Content Processor & User Signals

Google’s Helpful Content Processor evaluates how genuinely helpful content is to users by analyzing engagement metrics like time on page and bounce rate. If content is deemed useful and engaging based on these user signals, it’s more likely to rank well under Google’s emphasis on “helpful content.” For ecommerce, this translates to creating content that quickly and effectively addresses user questions with concise answers and valuable insights. 

Building Topical Authority Through Content Clusters & Interlinking

Creating content clusters with strategic interlinking is a powerful way to build topical authority. These clusters consist of related content, such as educational guides, product FAQs, and expert tips, all interconnected to signal comprehensive coverage to search engines. Aligning content with user search intent at various stages of the buying journey and linking it to relevant product pages enhances SEO and user experience. This approach allows shoppers to easily navigate through helpful, relevant content while boosting your site’s topical authority and visibility across related search terms.

Earning Backlinks for Ecommerce Stores

Backlinks from reputable sites boost your authority in the eyes of search engines, improving rankings and driving qualified traffic. To develop a strong backlink profile, ecommerce sites need content that naturally attracts links and proactive strategies for reaching out to relevant industry sources. Let’s take a closer look.

Creating Link-Worthy Content to Attract Natural Backlinks

Creating valuable and unique content is one of the best ways to attract natural backlinks from industry websites, blogs, and publications. Content that is data-driven, visually engaging, and/or provides unique insights into your niche has a higher likelihood of being referenced by others. Data reports, industry statistics, and trend insights are particularly attractive to other sites because they offer ready-made information to share with audiences. 

Developing Industry Statistics & Reports

Original research and industry-specific statistics are highly linkable because they provide exclusive insights that other sites want to cite. Gathering data on niche trends, seasonal shopping behaviors, and user preferences allows you to create shareable content that other sites refer back to. Present this information in engaging formats, such as infographics, to increase its visual appeal and shareability. Use tools like Google Surveys, social media polls, and direct user feedback to gather data and transform these insights into unique resources that industry sites naturally want to link to.

Creating Comprehensive Buying Guides & Product Comparisons

Buying guides and product comparisons are linkable content types because they help users make informed purchasing decisions. Structuring guides around specific needs, like “Best Office Chairs for Home Use” or “How to Choose an Eco-Friendly Mattress,” increases their appeal to both users and publishers. Other websites, including blogs and review sites, often link to these resources to support their own content. When writing buying guides, aim to make them informative yet approachable, targeting users at various stages of the buying journey and positioning your content as a valuable resource for industry sites to reference.

Outreach Tactics to Build Backlink Profiles

Building a strong backlink profile requires proactive outreach to bloggers, influencers, industry-specific publishers, and more that could benefit from linking to your content. Start by identifying websites with audiences that align with your products, then reach out with personalized messages that explain the unique value of your content. For example, you could offer a relevant buying guide or industry report that would benefit their audience, creating an authentic reason for them to link back to your store. Personalize each email, keep it brief, and focus on the value for the recipient’s audience to increase your chance of securing quality backlinks.

Leveraging Press Coverage & Media Outreach

Press coverage is a reliable way to get high-authority backlinks from reputable media outlets. Reach out to journalists, bloggers, and media contacts who cover your industry with newsworthy updates, such as product launches, unique research findings, and exclusive promotions. HARO (Help a Reporter Out), now Connectively, is an excellent platform for connecting with journalists actively seeking expert insights or industry sources. By providing value to media outlets, you increase the likelihood of earning backlinks from top-tier sites that strengthen your brand’s authority.

Collaborating With Influencers & Bloggers

Partnering with influencers and bloggers who align with your brand can generate valuable backlinks, especially when they feature your products in reviews or other content. Focus on influencers whose followers overlap with your target audience and who could genuinely benefit from the products you offer. Offering perks like unique discount codes, early access, and product samples encourages them to create authentic content that links back to your store. This strategy not only builds backlinks, but also taps into the influencer’s community, increasing exposure and trust for your brand.

Common Questions About Ecommerce SEO

Does AI content work for ecommerce SEO?

AI-generated content can be a valuable asset in ecommerce SEO—when used properly. While AI tools can efficiently generate product descriptions, basic FAQ responses, and even blog content, relying solely on AI without proper oversight will lead to generic, low-value content that doesn’t meet Google’s Helpful Content standards.

AI tools can produce content quickly, making it effective for initial drafts or repetitive elements, like similar product descriptions within a category. However, Google’s algorithms are increasingly sophisticated in recognizing valuable content that genuinely addresses user needs. For ecommerce SEO, this means AI content needs to offer insights, accurate information, and a smooth user experience. AI is a useful tool, but the goal should always be to enhance the relevance and usefulness of your content.

To meet Google’s Helpful Content Standards,  AI-generated content should be reviewed and edited by human experts. This ensures the content is accurate, consistent, and aligned with the needs of the target audience. For example, product descriptions benefit from a human touch that adds unique details and persuasive language to encourage conversions.

Human review is also essential for maintaining brand consistency across your site. AI might lack the context to understand your brand’s unique tone or the subtle differences in products that matter to customers. By refining AI content, ecommerce brands ensure that it reflects their brand identity while providing a quality experience that builds trust with users.

Should FAQs get added to product category pages?

FAQs should be added to product category pages to enhance user experience and SEO. FAQs address common customer questions directly on the page, providing the information shoppers need to make confident purchasing decisions. For ecommerce, where frictionless experiences are key, well-crafted FAQs help answer questions quickly, which keeps users engaged and reduces the chance they’ll leave the page to search for information elsewhere.

FAQs also allow ecommerce sites to target a wider range of search queries related to the products in that category. These questions often reflect long-tail keywords that customers type into search engines, such as “How long does it take for [brand] products to ship?” or “Is this product eligible for returns?” By addressing these questions directly on the page, you increase the likelihood of ranking for these queries, potentially driving more organic traffic to the site. 

To maximize the effectiveness of FAQs, it’s best to place them toward the bottom of the category page. This location keeps the main focus on products while ensuring that users who need more details can easily find the information they’re looking for. Effective topics for FAQs include shipping times, return policies, product care instructions, and payment or purchasing options. You can also incorporate People Also Ask (PAA) questions found in Google search results. These questions frequently arise and, when answered preemptively, will help create a smooth shopping experience.

What are entities in Google & how do they help ecommerce stores with entity SEO?

In Google’s search algorithm, “entities” refer to distinct concepts or “things” that the search engine recognizes and understands independently of keywords. For an ecommerce store, entities might include specific brands, product types, or unique attributes like “organic cotton” or “water-resistant.” Understanding these entities allows Google to better interpret and categorize content, making it easier for users to find relevant products and information.

Entity SEO is the practice of building and reinforcing these associations on your site, which helps Google understand the relationships between products, brands, and categories. This helps search engines understand your product offerings and bolsters your EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness). It also allows Google to present your offerings to users more accurately and improves your chances of ranking well.

For ecommerce stores, implementing entity SEO can significantly enhance search visibility. Establishing entities involves structuring product information to clarify what each item represents and how it relates to other products. Schema markup and structured data play a crucial role here: by adding schema to your pages, you provide Google with structured, context-rich information about your products. Schema helps Google differentiate between “Nike running shoes,” “Adidas soccer cleats,” and other brands or types within your store. With schema markup for entities, Google can more easily connect these details, improving the accuracy and relevance of your search listings and enhancing your site’s authority in your niche.

Consistent product descriptions are also essential for entity SEO. By using standardized terms for product types, features, and benefits, you reinforce these entities across the site, helping Google recognize them consistently. For example, if your store sells outdoor gear, repeatedly labeling items as “hiking boots,” “backpacks,” or “weatherproof jackets” helps Google understand that these are specific entities in your inventory. This consistency contributes to clearer associations, increasing the likelihood that your pages will rank for relevant keywords.

Does topical authority work for ecommerce stores?

Yes, topical authority can significantly benefit ecommerce stores by positioning them as comprehensive resources within a niche or product category. Building topical authority means creating content that covers your core products and related topics comprehensively, giving users the depth of information they’re looking for. By publishing valuable resources like guides, FAQs, how-to articles, and reviews, ecommerce sites not only provide helpful information for shoppers but also boost their relevance in Google’s eyes for searches related to their products. This approach can significantly enhance search rankings, especially for competitive keywords, by aligning with Google’s preference for authoritative, in-depth content.

When a site becomes known for its expertise in a particular product area—say, eco-friendly home goods or outdoor gear—Google is more likely to display its pages across a range of related search terms. This extends beyond primary keywords to long-tail and related terms that capture a larger segment of potential customers. For example, a site focused on “eco-friendly cleaning products” could start ranking not only for those primary keywords but also for queries like “non-toxic bathroom cleaner” or “sustainable kitchen supplies.” This broad keyword coverage helps attract more organic traffic and supports ongoing growth.

One of the key advantages of topical authority is that it reduces the need for backlink acquisition. While backlinks are valuable, Google increasingly values the depth and relevance of content within a subject area. By focusing on topical authority, ecommerce sites can attract high-intent traffic without extensive backlink-building efforts.

Users are more likely to purchase from brands they view as knowledgeable and reliable sources, especially in specialized niches. Investing in topical authority helps ecommerce sites achieve long-term SEO benefits, a stronger competitive position, and a more loyal audience.

What are the most modern SEO strategies for ecommerce stores?

To thrive in the ecommerce industry, stores need to leverage modern SEO strategies that align with Google’s evolving algorithms and user expectations. These advanced strategies focus on building authority, relevance, and a seamless user experience—key factors that improve rankings, drive traffic, and enhance customer trust.

Topical authority is essential for ecommerce sites that aim to establish expertise within a specific niche. By creating in-depth content clusters around core product categories, such as guides, FAQs, and reviews, ecommerce stores can demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of their products and industry. Covering these topics thoroughly improves relevance, allowing stores to rank across a wider range of related keywords. Google favors sites that serve as authoritative resources, making topical authority a smart, sustainable approach to capturing organic traffic from high-intent searches.

EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) is another critical strategy. Google prioritizes content that reflects these qualities, especially for ecommerce. Building EEAT means providing transparent and trustworthy content, such as detailed product descriptions, user reviews, and expert insights. These elements reassure customers that they’re buying from a reputable source, and Google takes note of this credibility. An EEAT-focused approach can help improve your search rankings and increase conversions by fostering user trust and loyalty.

Entity SEO capitalizes on Google’s understanding of entities—distinct concepts like product categories, brands, and attributes. By establishing clear associations between entities on the site, ecommerce stores can make it easier for Google to interpret and categorize their offerings. Tools like schema markup and consistent product descriptions help define entities and connect related products, boosting relevance for category-wide and product-specific searches. Entity SEO enhances visibility, especially in competitive spaces where a clear understanding of product relationships can set a store apart.

Technical SEO enhancements are foundational yet essential for modern ecommerce SEO. Ensuring fast load times, using schema markup, optimizing site structure, and resolving crawl issues all contribute to a search-engine-friendly site. A technically sound site not only ranks better but also improves the user experience, which is increasingly important as mobile shopping grows. Technical SEO should be an ongoing process, with regular audits to ensure the site is optimized for both users and search engines.

Information Gain and User-Centric Content focuses on creating unique, valuable content that provides new insights, which aligns with Google’s Information Gain principle. By offering content that fills knowledge gaps and/or presents fresh perspectives, ecommerce stores can stand out from competitors. Prioritizing user-centric, insightful content ensures customers find value in your site beyond basic product information, reinforcing topical authority and supporting a long-term SEO strategy.

Get Ecommerce SEO from Go Fish Digital

Want to learn more about our ecommerce SEO services? Head over here to learn how we can help.

Modern Ecommerce SEO Guide (For 2025) is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

According to public data found on IBISWorld, “There are 3,776,498 Construction businesses in the US as of 2023, an increase of 2.4% from 2022.” That’s quite a bit of competition. Deploying a search engine marketing strategy (for both organic and paid) can certainly help a construction business to stand out from competitors and get more visibility around its offerings.

Key Takeaways

• Construction company SEO is the act of improving a website’s performance and relevancy for keywords and questions Users put into Google to be more visible in SERPs (search engine results pages).
• Newer concepts around construction company SEO include building out topical authority maps and creating a number of highly-targeted service pages and location pages to assist clients in finding you through Google.
• Local SEO tactics include optimizing Google Business listings for relevancy utilizing reviews, custom photography, and keywords to appear in “Business” packs when “near me” searches occur.

What is SEO for Construction Companies?

SEO for construction companies is the act of optimizing a construction company website for its presence in search engine results pages (SERPs). A construction company’s SEO strategy entails thinking about multiple ways that a client may find you using Google search queries. This includes specific services to the construction industry as well as specific geographies.

High-level SEO Strategy for Construction Companies

At a high level, to perform SEO for construction companies we’re going to want to take a look at a few different aspects of our overarching strategy. They can be broken down into:

1. Ensuring the construction companies website is optimized for SEO

It’s often easy to overlook small components of a website that could prevent it from appearing in search engines correctly. Optimizing a construction company website for SEO is simply helping Google’s engines better comprehend what a webpage is about. And who the webpage is for.

For example, let’s say we have an H1 on the homepage it says something like the following:

H1 – A Construction Company You Can Trust

While that’s a great start to describing who you are, a wonderful construction company that your customers can trust. When it comes to Google’s crawlers, they’re going to have a more difficult time comprehending who to serve your page to.

We can adjust that H1 to something like this:

H1 – Trusted Construction Services in Chicago, IL

That H1 now contains our target local market and more insights on what we offer to our customers.

Use this as a general example of what constitutes optimizing a construction company website for SEO. We’ll get more into optimization techniques further in this guide.

2. Knowing which target audience and keywords we want to optimize for through keyword research

The good news is that if you’re the owner of a construction company, there’s a good chance that you already know who your target customers are. And what they’re looking for. However, it’s important to reverse-engineer how your target customers are trying to discover you.

For example, if we’re a local construction company providing residential home building services, what a User might put into Google to discover us is going to vary compared to if we offer commercial construction services.

Keywords for Residential Home Builders and Construction Companies

Here are some keywords that a local residential home builder (still a construction company) might want to target:

1. Residential home builders near me
2. Residential home builders in [target geography] (Ex: Residential home builders in Chicago, IL)
3. Custom home builders near me
4. Residential construction near me
5. Residential construction in [target geography] (Ex: Residential construction in Chicago, IL)

Keywords for Commercial Construction Companies

Here are some keywords that a local commercial construction company might want to target:

1. Commercial construction companies near me
2. Large commercial construction companies near me
3. Small commercial construction companies near me
4. Commercial construction companies in [target geography] (Ex: Commercial construction companies in Chicago, IL)
5. General contractors near me

We’ll get more into your keywords and how we target them with particular strategies further into this guide. However, a general idea of the different types of ways that clients may find you are a helpful level-set in what we’re trying to accomplish with our construction company SEO campaign.

For the sake of this guide, we’re going to discuss more of the commercial construction business strategy with SEO. However, if you’re a residential home builder or general contractor, your approach will be somewhat similar.

3. Using the right construction company SEO strategies to help clients discover us

When most people think of “SEO,” they think of blog posts. However, that’s not always the best way to get in front of prospective clients. Often, customers who are looking for you won’t just be looking for the keywords above. They’ll be looking for something very specific to their need. Usually, this is a client who already has some knowledge about construction.

For example, a construction company that’s doing SEO quite well is APX Construction Group. One of the main ways that they’re getting in front of clients is by having highly targeted and helpful service pages.

This pre-construction planning service page ends up being very useful when a client puts into Google, “pre-construction planning mankato mn.” While tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush might tell us that the keywords don’t have any monthly search volume, that doesn’t mean that we don’t receive any benefit from creating these types of service pages.

In short, we need to map out what types of pages we need to create to show Google that we’re experts and authoritative figures in the space that we service. In short, E-E-A-T is defined as, “a framework that Google’s machines use to evaluate the quality of content and websites. It stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google’s human reviewers, known as Quality Raters, use E-E-A-T to assess content quality and provide feedback on search results pages (SERPs). While E-E-A-T signals aren’t ranking factors, they can turn into directly impacting rankings.”

More on this as we continue…

4. Ensuring our website is rendering appropriately for crawlers

I wouldn’t normally bring this up in just any SEO article. However, it’s more common to see on construction company websites—a website that’s not rendering properly for mobile devices or generally not built with quality.

If a Google crawler can’t properly render a website for mobile devices or has trouble reading the contents of a website, it’s going to prevent any optimizations that are made to our SEO strategy from working. This is more common in these types of industries (like construction) just simply due to the fact that the website is not usually a top investment for a construction company.

Doing a simple check for some of the following will be helpful:

1. Is the website mobile-friendly? Is it responsive to multiple device viewports?
2. Is there a sitemap that’s available? Is it submitted to Google via Google Search Console.
3. Can the pages get indexed by search engine crawlers? Is there anything in the source HTML code that would otherwise stop crawlers? Is there anything in the robots.txt file that would prevent crawlers?

Using a tool like Ahrefs or ScreamingFrog, you can determine if there are any core issues that might be plaguing the website from appearing in search engines.

5. Having a local SEO strategy with GMB listings

It’s impossible to discuss any local search marketing strategy without including GMB listings. Generally, these are the listings that appear when you perform any type of local or “near me” search. They’ll be under “Businesses” and usually include anywhere from 3 to 4 business listings.

Optimizing a Google Business listing for SEO usually includes some of the following:

1. Ensuring that you have a healthy amount of reviews.
2. Ensuring that you have unique custom photography.
3. Ensuring that your listing contains your target geographic location.
4. Ensuring that your listing contains part of your service types.

As an example, we can see “Commercial Construction” appear in the business name of this listing (G. Fisher Commercial Construction, Inc.). This may be a useful way to attract the right target audience that we spoke about prior. I.e., are you in commercial construction, general contracting, or residential construction?

While optimizing Google Business profiles can be a process in itself. You’ll want to make sure that you have one of thes profiles claimed and that you start driving clients to leave you reviews. If you want to create one, here’s where to start.

Top Tactics for Construction Company SEO in 2024

I’ll do my best here to bring new concepts to the table when it comes to optimizing a construction company website for SEO. You’ve probably heard about most of the basics we covered above. But what are some real ways to start bringing in leads? Let’s jump in:

1. Create as many service pages as you can

When I look at APX Construction Group, one thing I really like about their approach is that they created a number of service pages that speak to everything they offer. From agricultural construction to PEMB construction (Pre-Engineered Metal Buildings).

Think about this for a moment. If you’re working with a bank or potentially getting staffed out by an architectural firm, they’re going to know industry-specific terminology. It’s not just going to be simply, “construction companies near me.”

PEMB construction, as an example, is a very industry-specific term. And even though tools like Ahrefs may tell us that “PEMB Construction in Chicago, IL” has very little to no search volume, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t create that service page.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. It creates EEAT signals: By creating more service pages and connecting them together through a robust internal linking strategy, we are developing topical authority for our area of expertise. For example, pre-construction planning, PEMB construction, construction project management, and more. All of these are related subject matters. Having pages for each of these, that are well designed for search, helps to establish both topical and domain authority that can be far more powerful than off-page or link-building strategies.
2. It goes beyond just SEO: If a customer finds you through SEO, however, doesn’t know what you offer (complete services list), what are the chances they’re going to contact you? It could be quite low. We want to make sure that we think holistically about our website, outside of just “doing SEO.” Meaning, creating a robust list of services that we offer to encourage prospective clients to call us, email us, or sign up for a newsletter.

Basic services that you might want to consider adding to the website would be construction management, general contracting, master planning, specialty services, and complete design-build. In addition, any specific commercial construction or residential construction services that you offer in the area.

2. Create individual “construction” pages for the areas and geographies that you service

When someone puts into Google, “Construction companies near me” — often, Google will automatically locate that User based on geospatial rendering. This is where Google uses the mobile device or computer to reverse engineer the IP address of the Searcher and then serve up highly relevant webpages.

This means that when you design a website or page to appear for “near me” search terms, you don’t actually create “near me” pages, you create pages around specific locations and then let Google do the rest.

For example, using APX Construction Group as our example once more:

We can see that they created pages describing the construction services they offer for every city in the surrounding area they serve.

Here are some of the pages that they created:

1. Rochester, MN
2. Mason City, MN
3. Mankato, MN
4. Fairmont, MN

By creating individual service pages we not only get the added benefit of appearing when someone in our local area looks for a construction service we offer, we also get the benefit of continuing to build out our topical map and topical authority.

3. Create vertical-specific service pages

We’ve spoken about clients finding you by searching for something highly specific like “PEMB construction.” As well as clients finding you by searching for construction services in specific and local geographies. What’s left on the list? Construction services by business type.

“Hospitality Construction Companies” as a keyword, for example, might be searched for by an architectural group that might use if they’re looking to partner with construction groups that have hospitality construction experience.

“Office Building Construction Companies” as a keyword, for example, might be searched for by another architectural group looking for construction firms that have office building experience.

When building out our service pages, we should also consider building out vertical-specific landing pages and optimizing those for SEO (H1, meta description, meta title, and the content of the page).

Here are the examples we can see from the same APX Construction Group:

1. Office and Retail Construction
2. Hospitality Construction

Take the same strategy as you would creating a service page, outlining what you offer, and reformat that to speak to your process and approach for construction with certain verticals. Include relevant projects, white papers, or video interviews and testimonials from customers or other partnered firms.

4. Create a robust internal linking strategy

Internal linking is one of the most forgotten-about on-page SEO tactics. Used correctly, in combination with topical authority, can be far more effective than any off-page SEO strategy for construction companies.

Once you’ve created all of your service and location pages, it’s important to determine a clear and effective internal linking strategy. Our favorite is to consider a dropdown menu in the top navigation bar that includes groups like, “Services” and “Service Areas”.

This simple approach can create highly relevant relationships across pages, giving Google’s rank engines a better understanding of how to process your expertise and authoritativeness (think of this as displaying to Google that you’re highly focused on one subject and that you have a complete and comprehensive understanding of that subject).

Construction Company SEO is About Generating Leads

Let’s not forget that SEO as an acquisition channel should be measured the same way that all other marketing acquisition channels get used, by determining ROAS. The only way to get that is by measuring the effectiveness of generating calls or lead form fills.

When optimizing our construction company website for SEO using the tactics and strategies outlined above, it’s important not to forget a few things:

1. Make sure we have a portfolio of projects

If we’re targeting specific needs in our industry, it’s important to support what we can do through a portfolio of projects. Highlight the individual completed projects by building, construction project, or need. Consider this to be your case study.

Having these projects on the website can assist in taking the lead that came through Google and converting them into someone who contacts you.

2. Make it easy to get in touch with you

Once the construction SEO visitor comes into the website, are you making it easy for them to call you? Make sure to include simple things like your office location, your phone number, or an easy-to-use contact form that can get filled out quickly.

Your goal is to take this visitor and turn them into a marketing-qualified lead (MQL). Make sure that you’re putting the right tools in front of them to make this happen. Or else all of your construction company SEO efforts might go unnoticed by the business.

3. Use Google Analytics

This should go without saying, however, having Google Analytics (GA4) appropriately set up for call tracking, click tracking, and knowing where your leads came from can truly help to invest in this channel. For example, you may find some of the above tactics are working better than others. Without these quantitative insights, its difficult to know where to invest your time. Or potentially determine if you have a conversion rate problem (i.e., the queue to spend time on conversion rate optimization). Rank, impressions, and clicks are all great. However, you really want to drive business results.

Common Questions

Common questions about construction company SEO:

1. Should I be focusing on other search engines, like Bing and Yahoo!?

Answer: In reality, making your website optimized for Google tends to optimize it for other search engines, as well. Many of the other top search engines take best practices from Google. If you rank highly on Google, there’s a good chance you’ll rank highly on Page 1 for other search engines, too.

2. Do off-site or off-page factors matter very much?

Answer: Not as much. Tactics like creating a local citation (i.e., through online directories) to get a backlink can certainly help in validating your Google Business Profile information and potentially helping you rank higher in “Business” listings (on the “Business” pack). However, you need to focus more on building authority for your domain. The way to do that is by executing the strategy mentioned above. Create highly targeted service pages, location pages, and tailor them to your audience in a very thoughtful and insightful way. Usually, this is done by bringing new insights to those individual pages and creating the most helpful resource available.

SEO for Construction Companies: More Leads in 2025 is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Key Takeaways

• Basic missed opportunities like making sure your H1 includes your local city, neighborhood, or state—is an easy optimization to correct and can increase the odds of someone finding your website on search engines by more than 30%.
• Remembering to do basic tasks like submitting your sitemap to Google through Google webmaster tools, ensuring that you don’t have any “no-index” tags on your website, and making sure that you optimize your meta description to include pest control services keywords and local geographies are some other great ways to optimize your pest control company for SEO.

Top 8 Ways to Optimize Your Pest Control Website for SEO

Here are some of the top ways to optimize your pest control website for SEO:

1. Include your local geography in the H1

Most commonly, it’s easy to forget to include your service area in the H1. For most people, they simply want to say, “Pest Control Services” because that feels the most targeted. However, Google wants to help local customers connect with your website. And to help optimize your website for best results in the SERPs, it’s useful to give Google’s crawlers a boost.

Here’s some H1’s that you might already have on your pest control website:

1. Pest Control Services
2. Local Pest Control
3. Pest Control
4. Pest, Insect, and Rodent Control

While those are great, consider some of these elegant alternatives:

1. Pest Control Services in Columbus, OH
2. Pest Control in Columbus
3. Pest, Insect, And Rodent Control in Columbus

The inclusion of the primary geography that you service can be helpful in Google’s crawlers contextualizing where you offer your pest control services.

Here’s a great example of an optimized H1 for SEO by Broadway Pest Control in New York, NY.

2. Include your local geography in your meta title

Very similar to the tip above, including your local geography in the meta title of your website can be another helpful indicator for Google’s crawlers to contextualize the services that you offer. And where you offer them.

Page titles might look like the following:

1. Chip’s Pest Control Services
2. Done & Done Pest Control
3. Pest Control by John

Instead, think of something like the following:

1. Chip’s Pest Control Services | Columbus, OH
2. Done & Done Pest Control in Columbus, OH

These simple adjustments can go a long way in helping Google match a prospective customer or caller with your pest control website.

Related: Complete pest control SEO guide

3. Don’t forget about your meta description

Often, most meta descriptions are generated by whatever content management system you use. However, it’s best to optimize your meta description to both include your local service areas as well as ensure it’s a clean, well-written, and “clicky” description. While Google might not take your meta description verbatim and show it to Users on the search results page, it’s still a helpful signal especially when combined with your H1, meta title, and now meta description update.

Here’s an example of a helpful meta description that stays under 150 characters:

Call us today for same-day pest control services in Columbus, OH. With 1,000 reviews and a 5-star rating, you can trust in Chip’s Pest Control.

This simple meta description is only 143 characters in length and calls out the number of reviews and overall rating for the business. Making highly “clicky” to the User who might see it in the SERPs.

4. Optimize your website for pest control keywords

It can be useful to consider what keywords prospective customers put into Google and other search engines to find you. Here’s a short list of potential keywords that someone might use:

Using this list you can see variations like “affordable” and “cheap,” which could make for a great way to include these word variations in paragraph text throughout your website. Or, potentially adding entire sections of your pest control website that speak to coupons, special promotions, or other offerings for new customers.

It’s most common to see pest control companies want to appear for “near me” search terms. However, if you follow some of the optimizations above, you’re already well on your way to increasing the odds of appearing for those searching “pest control services” on their mobile device (automatically geolocates them and localizes the search).

Related: 100 pest control keywords for SEO

5. Create a very helpful website

While the optimizations above will take you less than 30-minutes to complete, it’s also worth spending time thinking about how well your website is designed to take a visitor and convert them into a caller. Most frequently, pest control companies want to get lead calls that either go directly to the owner or a service agent.

It’s useful to include helpful video, imagery, and links to ratings and reviews so that customers who land on your website are compelled to make a call. Remember, all of your customers are going through a “diligence” phase when they first land on your pest control website.

They most likely want to know the answer to a few questions:

1. Can this pest control company fix the particular issue I’m dealing with?
2. How much does it cost to work with this pest control company?
3. Is this pest control company trustworthy? Do local customers use them and appreciate working with them?
4. What is the phone number to call them and get services?

Broadway Exterminating does a great job of making sure they speak to trust for website visitors. Leaning into the number of years they’ve been in business, real pictures of real employees, and providing a promise to customers for all services rendered.

We can see the presence of the local service area’s once more. However, not “over doing” it. To where the website loses its ability to answer the diligence questions a prospective customer has.

6. Have a mobile-friendly website

This is often overlooked as well. Google’s crawlers will start from a mobile-first perspective. And do render websites into actual HTML. If they see issues with your mobile rendering, they’ll not necessarily prevent it from appearing in search results, however, they might not prefer the page as highly as others.

You can use Google Chrome’s inspector option to render your website in mobile devices and see how it looks. Try to resolve any overflow issues or issues where the User might have a more difficult time navigating through the website or making a phone call to you (your primary call-to-action).

To check this in Google Chrome do the following:

1. Right click on the body of the website.
2. Click “Inspect” from the drop down list
3. Toward the top of the page,  choose “Dimensions” and select your device

7. Submit your sitemap to Google

Google utilizes sitemaps to know which pages to crawl and in what order. Without submitting a sitemap to Google, you’re going to be relying on their crawlers to naturally find your website through the external links that point to it as well as your internal links that go deeper into your website.

By simply claiming your website through Google Webmaster Tools and then submitting a sitemap, you increase your odds of the pest control company website getting put into Google’s index. And once it’s in the index, you have a far greater chance that all of your optimizations above get noticed.

8. Don’t over optimize your website for SEO

This is my last and best tip—don’t try to “over do” pest control SEO. Instead, try to aim for making a very helpful website that speaks to all of the pest control services that you offer. Create individual pages for all of the rodent, insect, and pests that you deal with. And create individual service area pages that align with the nearby cities that you’re willing to go to.

By creating a naturally helpful website, you’re doing more modern pest control SEO. Try to avoid keyword stuffing your service areas into every single paragraph. Remember, if a customer does land on your website, you want it to be professional, elegant, and worthy of them making a phone call. An over-optimized website might not “look real” or may “look fishy” to the customer who lands on the page.

Keep the prospective caller, their questions, and what you offer in mind. Avoid extremely long websites with unnecessary website text. However, don’t go too short to where you don’t describe and explain everything that you offer in detail. Keep it balance, informative, and focused on good User Experience.

Pro tip: Go through a small A/B test by asking friends and family to view the website. Ask them questions like, “Do you know what services we offer?” Or, “Were you able to find the page that spoke to our ant prevention services?” Questions like this can be useful in grading the balance you have around SEO and overall quality of User Experience.

Improve Your Pest Control Company Website for SEO is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

These pest control search terms and keywords are used to help find local service providers who can address pest control issues a customer might be facing. We’ll cover some of the most common pest control keywords, and which device types we see them searched in (as of July 2024). Lastly, I’ll include my best tips for what you might want to consider utilizing these pest control keywords for.

Key Takeaways

• Top search terms for pest control services include “pest control near me,” “best pest control near me,” and “affordable pest control near me.”
• Local variations may be added to these terms. For example, if you’re in the Chicago, IL area—you would see search terms for “pest control chicago” or “pest control chicago il.” Matches pages with the proper page intent will also get shown for local searchers who are in the Chicago, IL area and use the “pest control near me” query within Google.
• These pest control keywords can be used for pest control SEO campaigns, paid search campaigns, and market research to optimize existing websites for search marketing purposes.
• Some of the more interesting keywords include terms like “organic pest control” and “flea pest control” or “bed bug pest control” that contain highly specific issues that a customer is dealing with.

Top 100 Pest Control Keywords for SEO and Paid Campaigns

Here are the top 100 pest control keywords that can get used for SEO and paid search campaigns:

Free Download (CSV)

If you want to download a complete CSV/Excel file of these pest control SEO keywords, you can do that right here.

Best Tips for Utilizing These Pest Control SEO Keywords

Here are some of our best tips for utilizing these keywords:

1. Use for Topical Authority Building

Looking at these keywords give us specific issues, insects, and animals like:

1. Raccoon
2. Mice
3. Mole
4. Bird
5. Ant

Using these as opportunities to build out individual service pages for your pest control website could be a great way to utilize these keywords. Connect them together using an internal linking strategy and present a world-class website to your visitors by speaking to your specialities and what services that you provide.

2. Optimize Your Website

Using these keywords can help you to align your website to what the User is looking for. For example, “eco” or “organic” is a great keyword to see. And may help us better understand what other types of services or information a User might be looking for when they land on your website. If you provide these types of services. Or maybe your core business is all about these types of services, then it gives you a great opportunity to optimize parts of your website.

Optimizations should include looking at:

1. The H1 on your homepage or internal pages (like service pages or service area pages)
2. The meta description of your homepage (to help with click-through rate of when you’re presented on the SERPs)
3. Other opportunities to include services that you offer, however may have missed as being part of your website

3. Come Up With Other Service Offerings

If you’re in Arizona, as an example, however don’t offer scorpion pest control—this could be a great opportunity to talk with your team and consider offering this. It gives you a sense of the local demand in your area and for some service business or business owners, this may have simply been something you didn’t initially consider. Or maybe disregarded just due to the fact that you gauged the demand would be low.

Think of this as a type of market research and learning how to become more competitive in your local area by utilizing these keywords. Lastly, we can see the mention of some brands in frequently searched terms. Brands like “Orkin” or “Viking” might appear. This could be a queue to consider franchising opportunities if you’re starting a new business. Especially as the demand for these service providers is consistent and relevant to what you want to offer for your venture.

100 Pest Control Keywords for SEO and Paid Campaigns is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Key takeaways

• “Pest Control SEO” is the act of optimizing pest control service websites for their presence in Google’s search engine results pages.
• Many pest control SEO campaigns fail to look at the domain’s overall authority as a factor that’s contributing to the lack of success for the service provider.
• Creating key supportive pages can increase a pest control company’s SEO authority by ensuring that they have designated pages around their residential and commercial offerings, the service areas they service, and the specific insect or rodent issues they help resolve. As a byproduct, creating entity (or embedding/vector) relationships across multiple pages under a single domain.

Keyword research and your pest control SEO targets

The primary objective of most pest control SEO is to fill a gap between customer demand and your offering whether it’s a service, product, directory, or some other type of business opportunity. Where most fail with keyword research is that they lean a little too heavily into the keyword. Rather, use it as a guide to understand how your target customer might find you. And how you can get a target page that you have in front of them.

According to a study by WebFX, “46% of Google searches are looking for local businesses.” And according to DemandSage, over 8.5 billion searches happen on Google every day. For those who might be thinking that “SEO” isn’t an ideal acquisition channel to invest in, the data would suggest otherwise.

Here are a few target keyword types that you might want to consider for your pest control company. A favorite tool to use for all keyword research is Ahrefs. Below, I’m going to include screenshots of those terms I discovered while thinking about offering pest control services in the Birmingham, AL area.

Related: 100 Pest Control Keywords for SEO

1. “Pest Control Near Me”

“Near me” pages are often linked to city and state pages. Most people fail with their pest control SEO endeavors by “over-optimizing” for keywords rather than over-optimizing for the customer journey. In fact, much of Google’s latest quality rater guidelines suggest that they’re looking for their teams to try and optimize the best web experience for Searchers rather than find or discover the most relevant pages. Tip: If you’re curious about what and who the “quality raters” are in Google, this is a wonderful resource on the task this team has in front of them.

I’ve seen homepages with meta titles (or page titles) that say things like, “Pest Control Services Near Me | Birmingham, AL”. It’s best to avoid that type of over-optimization in modern pest control SEO. It’s usually a key signal to Google’s rank systems that a page could be “spam potential.” Rather, like mentioned above, align your SEO strategy with the best customer experience. Google’s perspective could be, “We have enough pages to choose from, which is the best page to choose?”

When wanting to go after your “near me” terms, consider adjusting and targeting your homepage to these “near me” searches. 

As an example, some of the most common pest control SEO best practices that a homepage might lack are:

1. A lack of the city or state name in the meta title: If your page title is “Joe’s Pest Services,” Google is going to have a harder time creating a geospatial understanding of that page. Instead, choose something like, “Joe’s Pest Services | Birmingham, AL | Call Us Today!” A reference to the city and state in the homepage’s meta title will (at least in 2024) start to give you a presence for nearby customer demand and lead generation.
2. Failing to include target geographies in meta descriptions: While a meta description is no longer told to be a ranking factor, it does present another data point for the BERT engine to determine relevance. It’s an easy win to adjust your meta description over adjusting content on your homepage.

We’ll get more into your tactical optimization of these pest control service keywords shortly…

2. “Pest Control in [City/State]”

Just like with “near me” searches, you’re probably going to want to target specific city and state demand. Keywords like, “Pest Control in Birmingham” or “Pest Control in Birmingham AL.” If you’re a larger service provider, however, you may have multiple service areas that you serve.

And this should adjust the way that you think about your pest control SEO strategy. As an example, we suggested above that your homepage would target your “near me” searchers. However, if you have multiple cities that you serve, it’s probably best to create individualized pages that speak to your service areas.

Ahrefs and other tools may lack giving you great visibility into the cities that have search volume. However, don’t completely rely on Ahrefs or SEMrush for this.

You might come up with a list that looks like this:

1. Pest Control Birmingham AL
2. Pest Control Tamworth AL
3. Pest Control Coventry AL

As a result of these keywords, your top-level navigation may change and as a byproduct, the very healthy internal linking structure comes along with it. For example, a top-level navigation dropdown that says something like “Service Areas” with each individual service area page being designed to target those ideal customer personas.

Here’s an example of Chemwise playing out this exact SEO strategy for their pest control services:

We can see a few page titles ready to optimize to further their strategy forward, as well. Note: Naperville (229) which appears to be a phone number, however, not being loved by Google.

3. “Pest Control in [Neighborhoods]”

Similar to the above, another strategy for keywords that is often overlooked is the application of neighborhoods as a target for your pest control services. Usually, tools like Ahrefs will show very small volumes of monthly search presence for these types of keywords.

However, building neighborhood service pages only for extremely large cities (like New York City, Los Angeles, or Chicago) can certainly help in getting demand from those who might be looking for same-day services or emergency pest control services.

Avoid doing this if you’re not in a large city. Mostly because there simply won’t be any purpose for your effort. You’ll need to consider whether neighborhood names make it part of the regular vocabulary. For example, “West Village” (New York City) would be a good one to consider. However, some boroughs are also thought of as cities.

In that case, you might have something of a pest control website structure as something like this:

1. Homepage: Pest Control Services in New York City
2. Service Page: Pest Control Services in Manhattan, NY (Borough)
3. Service Page: Pest Control Services in Brooklyn, NY (Borough)
4. Service Page: Pest Control Services in West Village, NY (Neighborhood)

These supplemental service pages give you the right page targeting for your campaign.

Before we get into how to begin optimizing your pages and website for these target terms, let’s talk about a few foundational components that will increase your chances of success…

GMB listings and your brand’s foundation

There’s no avoiding this fact, when your pest control customers start their local service search journey, they’ll be immediately slammed with the “Businesses” panel that shows up in Google. This is often called “GMB” or “Google My Business.” These are the GMB listings that will most likely receive most of the first-clicks from Searchers:

Because of this, you’re really targeting your SEO strategy around targeting the “first clicks” that happen after the scroll of local businesses:

It’s important to make sure that you do have a presence in that “Business” panel listing (GMB optimization). And here’s the main reason: your GMB optimization helps your organic SEO efforts. Let me explain…

1. Real people with real reviews

“Gaming” GMB reviews is quite a difficult task (and never recommended). Google has done a tremendous job of ensuring that very little spam is available in GMB reviews. Because of this, they’ve utilized some of these reviews to draw connections between entities (more on that soon, think of an “entity” as a noun — a person, a place, a thing).

The real reviews of real people act as a type of “brand mention” very similar to the effect of earning a backlink. These brand mentions, think of a review like, “Using Pete’s pest services was really amazing. I appreciated everything they do for the Birmingham area” gives a lot of clues for Google’s rank systems to put weight toward your overall authority (site authority or domain authority).

In fact, you can see this sometimes when you Google certain services and the BERT engine decides to bold certain keywords in the User reviews.

2. History of your pest control company in Google’s results

Thinking about “reputation management” or optimizing your Google My Business presence can also help to draw connections between your entity and your website. For example, your Google My Business listing should have:

1. Accurate business hours
2. Accurate phone number
3. Accurate business address
4. A linked website URL
5. A linked phone number to call

When these data points are also present in your global footer or top navigation it creates a nice relationship with the GMB profile and your business. This relationship helps Google to connect any additional dots that might be available. For example, the length of time that you’ve been in the pest control business.

You’d be surprised at how some of these factors are being considered in the overall potential to rank your website for your target keywords.

3. Real (and unique) photography of you and your pest control service employees

Similar to how phone numbers, social media profiles, and other “validating” information can be connected to your GMB profile and the website, this can be done through photography, too. An “About us” page might include pictures of your team. Or real pictures of your service members.

If you place stock photography inside these listings, there’s a chance that this “less unique” photography not only does a disservice to your CTR (Click Through Rate) but also the overall call rate.

4. Because people do click on GMB listings!

There’s just no avoiding the fact that there are a lot of clicks that happen on those GMB listings. Especially on mobile. And when thinking about your SEO strategy, it’s best to think about it holistically. As a channel in addition to all the other marketing channels you have and how they play a role together. Many businesses who are just solely focused on SEO actually have a more difficult time getting traction than those who are adding pest control SEO as an acquisition channel into their marketing tactics.

Foundational pages, your topical authority, and what you might be missing in your pest control SEO approach

Aside from simply ranking target pages to target keywords (i.e., “pest control services in Birmingham AL”), there’s usually a miss when it comes to service providers’ websites and why they’re not performing.

I mentioned I would start to speak about entities. A simple way to think about this is persons, places, or things. When you search on Google, they often know that one thing has a relationship to many other things. For example, if you search New York City, they’ll know population size, zip codes, and other key information about the geography. FatJoe does a great job of explaining it, “An entity in SEO is a record on a search engine database that represents something. An entity can be a person, place, product, event, idea, or brand. Google defines an entity as ‘a thing or concept that is singular, unique, well-defined and distinguishable.’” We’ll get into why that’s important in a moment…

Just to give you a visual for this concept, you can see these entities appear in the SERPs in this example when searching New York City:

These relationships are often referred to as vectors, embeddings, or “entities.” For the sake of this article, I’ll refer to them as entities.

So let’s say we’re discussing pest control. Then there are some potentially aligned entities that we can think about. The directory might go as follows:

1. Animals and Insects:
   1. Rats
   2. Mice
   3. Bed Bugs
   4. Cockroaches
   5. Fleas
   6. Spiders
   7. Ants

If I were to ask you, “What types of insects and animals would you consider to be pests?” You would probably come up with a list very similar to this. And then if you were to ask an expert on the street, “What types of insects and rodents are considered to be pests in the area?” They should be able to recite a list very similar to this as well, right?

And that’s the concept and purpose behind this whole “entity” and “entity SEO” thing…

The way that Google’s engines are beginning to work is by looking at entity presence and relationships across multiple pages of an overall domain. And then using that as a scoring mechanism for the entire website to give it that “authority” status.

In short, this gives them the ability to put higher-quality websites higher up on the search results. Pages that are “from experts.”

This is how it plays out for you on the other end of this as a Google Searcher. Let’s say were a prospective pest control customer or lead, you’re probably going to want to look into whether the company you’re about to call can actually service the type of rodent or insect issue you have (i.e., a mouse problem, a rat problem, etc.) Voila, the website you’ve landed on addresses those questions!

We can see this exact type of “entity SEO” play out with Broadway Pest Services in New York City. They rank #2 for “pest control in Manhattan” and this is what their top-level navigation looks like:

We can see individual pages that speak to these “entities” and have unique, insightful, and helpful content on each of these individual pages. In addition, they interweave between each other using a clear internal linking strategy.

For many business owners looking to optimize their SEO presence, they might not be considering these internal or lower priority pages as important to their SEO campaign. However, they should be!

1. Service pages and topic coverage

Very similar to having specific service pages that align with our “entity SEO” approach, individual city pages have the same effect. A general rule of thumb is to create a service page and internal linking structure of your website that properly reflects your subject matter expertise for pest services.

For example, if you’re in Arizona, you might include “scorpions” as a service page. Not only does this do a service for any searchers who are looking for something like the following:

• Scorpion Pest Control in Chandler AZ

It also provides you with authority around this type of keyword, too:

• Pest Control Chandler AZ

The key difference is merely the target page you’re using to focus in on these keywords. Think of it as a pretty simple best practice:

1. Homepage: Should always target your “top-level” keyword. Things like “Pest Control in X” (which will also target any “near me” keywords).
2. Service Pages: Targeting local specific rodents or insects, like “scorpions,” “ants,” or something else.
3. City and Local Pages: Targeting a specific city, borough, or neighborhood pending your service area coverage.

You can see this very same strategy playing out with Broadway Pest Services as well. Their inclusion of “Service Areas” in the top-level navigation gives Google’s engines everything it wants to know.

Is the website authoritative around the subject it speaks to? (EEAT) In the quality rater guidelines, “The authoritativeness of the creator, the main content itself and the website.”

We can see that the answer is yes! And here’s how Broadway Pest Services did it:

1. 1. Broadway Pest Services — Areas We Serve
      1. Brooklyn
      2. Queens
      3. And so on…

Why don’t more pest control companies do this when thinking about their SEO strategy? Generally, most SEO campaigns begin with a keyword. And that’s an older way of thinking about SEO. Thanks to the improvements Google’s made to its engines, we have to think more holistically about our website experience and authority and ensure that we’re providing Google with both target pages that aim to meet specific keywords and indirect pages that don’t target keywords and rather, target authority.

2. “About us” pages

Very similar to service and city pages, “About us” pages give Google’s engines even more understanding of the overall authority of the publisher of the website. These “About us” pages are often forgotten about as part of the core strategy for service provider pages. Why is that? Generally, the assumption is that Search visitors aren’t going to an About page.

And while that’s most likely true, these types of pages still hold a lot of value for Google’s engines to help increase overall site authority.

Here’s another great example of this by Broadway Pest Services:

We can see phrases like “50+ years of expert pest control solutions.” When I think about Trust or Authority (per Google’s EEAT factors), phrases like this really stick out to me. In addition, a “customer promise” that appears on the page is another way to really speak to Trust.

If you were shopping on an e-commerce website and it didn’t have any pages that speak to its refund policy or product guarantee are you going to potentially better or worse experience with that brand? There’s a greater chance that it will be a worse experience than a brand that prioritizes telling you about their refund policy.

The same thing applies to an “About us” page. It’s your opportunity to show passion, trust, authority, and security in what you provide. And Google’s engines (while we don’t know the exact percentage) certainly take these things into consideration.

Pest control SEO best practices to target your ideal keywords

If you’ve gotten all the way down here, then you’ve made it past the newer concepts regarding Google’s analysis of all of your pages under a given domain to give it authority (that will help it perform the best). However, what are some of the basics to look for? Many GoFish clients have some missing best practices that don’t give them the best shot of being performant. Let’s use our example website, Broadway Pest Control, and break down what they did well when it comes to their “pest control SEO” efforts:

1. Presence of their target keyword in the H1

Often overlooked and simple enough. Ensure that there’s a presence of your target keyword for the page intent type in the H1:

We can see the presence of “pest control in Manhattan” as part of their headline.

Read more: Improve your pest control company website for SEO

2. Not over-optimizing what they offer for SEO

Injecting “pest control in Manhattan” over and over again into the page is just going to trigger some of the spam controls Google has in place (yes, there are obviously systems to prevent spam from appearing in SERPs).

Broadway Pest Services does a great job of thinking about what questions the customer has. And how to properly address those questions. Yet, including small adjustments that mention locations that they service. Making them relevant to their target keyword.

In short, think about your H2’s and H3’s. These are simple areas to add some relevancy to your page. These minor adjustments won’t trigger those age-old “keyword stuffing” tactics that are “long gone” in the world of SEO.

3. A helpful internal linking strategy

For someone dealing with a particular problem, there’s an individual service page that addresses each of these issues. In addition, a clear and well-designed internal linking strategy that connects these pages together (once again, creating that site or domain authority that Google prefers).

We can see a well-designed way to learn more about all the types of insects, bugs, and rodent problems that the company services.

4. Helpful and relevant paragraph text on internal pages

It’s a fairly common mistake to think about “unique content” as being something other than what the customer is looking for. For example, a common tactic when targeting city or state local searches is to describe the city or the state’s facts or figures (like their population, average income, and facts about the cities history). However, that’s not relevant content to include on the page. 

Broadway Pest Services does a great job of speaking to their services in the area and including their target terms (i.e., “Fordham Heights, NY”) without it becoming irrelevant text. For example, think if you went to look for a birthday cake recipe and were being told the history of eating with forks. It’s just simply not what you’re looking for.

Keep all of your page content relevant AND optimized for your target audience and keywords. However, don’t overdo it. Think about the common questions that someone wants to know when investigating your services and answer them (and no… that doesn’t mean including FAQs at the bottom of the page—try to integrate answers to the common questions throughout the entire page itself).

Other things potentially impacting pest control SEO performance

I’ve spoken a lot about some rather “new” strategies here. However, these ones are certainly being embraced more widely already. And have great supportive evidence for showing that they work.

However, it’s important to note that if you’re not seeing success with your campaign, a few other reasons could be:

1. Technical SEO: Is your HTML up to par? Simply put, technical SEO audits can help to ensure that Google’s crawlers are properly picking up your page content. And if they can’t properly pick up your page content, then there’s very little chance that the automated engines can assess what I spoke about above. Make sure that you have a foundation to build on. Do you have a properly formatted XML sitemap submitted to Google? Are all of your pages indexable? These basic questions can go a long way in eliminating the “guessing game” of SEO (as it sometimes can feel).
2. Reputation Management: If you have a brand new service offering in the area. Then you’re not going to have as many reviews of your business. Or mentions of your business. This could be acting as a type of “backlink” strategy that you don’t really have. It’s important to consider how building reviews, ensuring your GMB listing is optimized, and the overall length of time that you’ve had customers (especially if you’re new) is having an impact on your SEO campaign.
3. Search Intent: If you’re writing blog posts and hoping to target keywords like “Pest Control in Birmingham,” you’re probably not going to do very well. Google has a great way of determining this. Stamford Digital does a great job of summarizing this. Saying, “Google knows when a user carries out a search and doesn’t find what they are looking for. They get a signal sent back each time this happens, and it is these signals that help the search engine giant understand that the intent and results are likely mismatched.” Relevance, User satisfaction, and lower bounce rates play a role here. If a User lands on your “blog post” page and expected to see a service page, this would send them back to Google, creating a negative “point” for the page to Search match. In short, make sure that you know what these page intent types are and how your search queries align with them.

GoFishDigital is happy to help pest control companies with their SEO, reputation management, and local listing campaigns. Request an RFP today.

Guide to SEO for Pest Control Companies (2025) is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.