Aspects of the Top-Ranked E-Commerce Sites

Google rankings can be difficult to understand, but navigating what makes your business pages rank higher can work wonders for your marketing. Not only will understanding ranking mean a higher place among search engines, but the suggestions that lead to a higher ranking can help you in optimizing your website overall. They’re high-ranking because they contain factors search engines deem as good qualities, so adding these good qualities to your site can only be helpful regardless of ranking factors. Searchmetrics recently conducted and published a study regarding the top-ranking Google e-commerce sites, analyzing which factors set them at the top of the list. Of the top contenders, these factors were exceedingly common:

– Most have the top-level domain (TLD) “.com”. Of the list, a vast majority end their web site URL with the .com extension. If your site is using this extension, it’s possible that you may be pushed further up along the search engine ranks simply for this.

– Many have an overall higher word count in their URL’s. Among the top of the list, their URL’s appear to be quite longer than the average. Trying to alter your URL word count and word choice may alter your SEO experience.

– The majority have an online store above the fold on their homepage. Placement of your online store can have a big impact on your ranking among other e-commerce stores, as it turns out. Trying a more upfront placement can certainly provide an easier user experience, which may affect your ranking.

– The average first page has more internal links than the others in lower rankings. Internal links are important not only for site organization and usability, but they can heighten engagement by leading a user through the other pages of your site with ease. This can be an important step for earning customers, but also for stepping up your SEO game.

– The typical file size is larger than the average file size for an e-commerce site. More content is typically better, so long as what’s there is meaningful. Try beefing up your existing media and other website content to make it a stronger contender.

– Many have a higher number of interactive elements. Engaging your customers is key to keeping their interest on your site, and search engines know that! Their top choices typically tend to have elements that customers can easily interact with, which will benefit both your ranking as well as your turn-over rate.

– Most have more bullets per list evident on their website. Content is king, and this is evident even if lists are commonly used on website pages. Beef up those lists by extending them to fully cover any loose ends, no matter your topic. You can even add sub-bullets or more information around your bullet points to make them more interesting. These alterations can catch the attention of customers and search engines alike.

From the study’s results, it’s unclear which of these has the biggest sway on ranking, but each aspect is incorporated by a majority of the top-ranked sites. If you’re looking to rank higher or just to touch up on what may make your website stronger, it’d be good to consider this list in making your choices. Focusing on many of these areas could be useful, search engines aside. If you need any help getting more information on this, or you would like us to revise any of these points on your site, contact i3 today!