Creating an independent website is not a difficult task, but it can be a challenge to do a good job of independent website and optimize it for SEO to increase organic traffic. Today, we will share some tips on SEO optimization for independent websites and discuss in detail how to increase traffic.
In this article, we will focus mainly on Google SEO, but please don’t forget that SEO techniques are also applicable to other different platforms, such as Baidu, Toutiao, Taobao, Amazon, and entertainment platforms like Douyin and Xiaohongshu, which all have search mechanisms. Although the operating logic behind each platform is roughly similar, we cannot generalize because different platforms have different properties and algorithms. Therefore, this article will mainly discuss how to perform Google SEO optimization. The optimization techniques mentioned here are also of great reference value to other platforms . I hope it will be helpful to you.
What is SEO?
The full name of SEO is Search Engine Optimization, which is a process of optimizing a website with the aim of getting a higher ranking in the search engine results page (SERP) for specific keywords and phrases, thereby getting “free” . In short, when potential customers search for these keywords through search engines such as Google, your website will be displayed at the top of the search results. A higher search ranking means that more potential customers who are interested in your products will be able to find your website, which helps to increase the number of visits to your website and improve the conversion rate, thereby achieving the goal of increasing sales. Search engine optimization is one of the best ways to get organic traffic from search engines .
The main search engines include Google, Baidu, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Among them, Google ranks first among all search engines, occupies a dominant position, and almost monopolizes the entire search engine market. Therefore, SEO optimization mainly focuses on Google.
Why does an e-commerce independent website need SEO optimization?
The goal of SEO optimization is to bring traffic to your website, but the methods of traffic acquisition are not limited to SEO optimization, but also include keyword advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, etc. So, why do you still need SEO? First of all, SEO is a free way , and secondly, it ranks second among various traffic acquisition methods. In addition, search engines work for your website 24 hours a day, every day of the year. As long as your website is effectively optimized, it can continuously bring you traffic and convert these visitors into potential customers .
How to perform SEO optimization on an e-commerce independent website?
In fact, SEO optimization has already begun before building a foreign trade website, including the selection of domain names (it is recommended to choose a domain name with a brand name), the selection of hosting space (it is recommended to use SiteGround ), and the selection of WordPress themes (it is recommended to choose the Astra theme with excellent performance ). In addition, the SEO optimization of foreign trade websites mainly covers three key parts: on-page SEO , off-page SEO, and technical SEO . These three aspects together determine the ranking of the website in the search engine results page (SERP).
On-page SEO
It is mainly on-site website optimization to improve its position in search rankings. It includes optimizing content or improving meta descriptions and title tags, etc.
1. Keyword research: How to find low-competition, high-conversion keywords?
If your foreign trade website uses little-known or highly competitive keywords, then your SEO efforts may go nowhere. If you want your foreign trade website to really achieve results, the first step is to conduct keyword research and then select long-tail keywords with a certain amount of traffic but less competition.
Keyword research is not complicated, and there are many methods that can be used. Below I will share some personal experience.
Initial screening:
First, list the main keywords related to your industry and products. Next, enter the sorted main keywords into search engines such as Google, Alibaba, Amazon, etc. to search and view their suggested variations.
Use keyword tools to sort out long-tail keywords. These tools include Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, keywordtool.io , KWfinder , etc.
Google Keyword Planner : Formerly known as Google keyword tool, it has now been upgraded to Google Ads Keyword Planner, which requires a Google Ads account to use. It is still powerful and can view keyword search volume and bidding costs in various countries/regions. It is very useful for keyword research and can easily collect minority language keywords in different markets.
KWfinder : This is a very useful keyword tool, and the price is relatively low among paid tools. It is part of the SEO tool suite produced by Mangools.
The entire Mangools tool suite includes: KWfinder (keyword research), SERPChecker (search result page analysis), SERPWatcher (ranking tracking), LinkMiner (external link analysis) and SiteProfiler (website analysis).
Further screening:
Use SEMrush to search for the long-tail keywords sorted out in the first two steps, check the traffic and paid clicks of the keywords, and understand the situation of competitors. Avoid using keywords used by large companies such as Amazon and Alibaba, and record the competitor websites with higher rankings.
Enter the URL found in the previous step in follow.net , analyze the competitor’s website, and check the keywords that the competitor ranks highest. Avoid using these keywords repeatedly, and then modify the initial screening of long-tail keywords according to the competitor’s keywords, or directly select keywords that the competitor has not used yet but are related to your business.
From main keywords to long-tail keywords, sort them into categories and determine their relevance. Based on a comprehensive consideration of traffic and competition, delete some unimportant or irrelevant long-tail keywords and select keywords with commercial value. Repeat the above steps, and it won’t take long before you can sort out dozens or even hundreds of low-competition, high-conversion long-tail keywords.
2. Website structure optimization: Make sure that each page of your website is relevant so that search engines can more easily find your website content
. Website structure is very important for SEO. On the one hand, it can make it easier for search engines to understand the content of your website and retrieve relevant information. On the other hand, an effective website structure can control duplicate content to avoid pages with the same content competing for the same keyword ranking.
A good website structure is like a pyramid. The top of the pyramid is the homepage, followed by category pages, such as About Us, Products, Services, Blog, Contact Us, etc. Next is the sub-category page, such as the sub-category for products can be Product A, Product B, etc. Finally, the page can be a specific product model or content.
If there are multiple names for the industry, you can check the traffic of these words on Google Trends and then decide which one to use. Usually, choose keywords with larger traffic. Try to use long-tail keywords to name sub-category pages. All pages should be hierarchical. The closer to the top of the pyramid, the more important the page, and the same-level category pages should balance the weight. It is best to control the hierarchical structure within 3 layers. Too many layers will be detrimental to search engine spider crawling and user experience.
To create a good website structure, you need to optimize menu navigation, breadcrumb navigation, and product classification. It is recommended to check the websites of foreign peers and refer to the ideas of websites such as Alibaba and Amazon. If these settings are not clear, your visitors will feel confused and unable to quickly return to the homepage or find relevant content pages. When they lose patience, they may directly close the website.
There is a popular saying abroad: “Keywords are crucial, content is king.” To optimize SEO, your website needs to continuously add new content and ensure that the pages of new content contain new keywords. However, pages such as About Us, Services, and Contact Us are usually unable to continuously publish subcategories or new content, and even product pages cannot publish new products endlessly. Therefore, the most effective way is to focus on blog pages, write page content by sorting out a series of relevant long-tail keywords, and classify and tag them. In this way, your website will continue to add new content, which is conducive to search engine optimization and inclusion.
3. WordPress SEO: WordPress SEO settings, page content optimization, and installation of SEO plugins
- URL structure optimization: Fill in /%postname%.html in the custom structure.
- Install the Yoast SEO plugin: This is a very important step! Yoast will provide you with suggestions for optimization. Of course, you can also choose Rank Math SEO, just choose one of them.
- TDK three major label optimization: Title, Description, Keywords. Their importance is as follows: Title is the most important, Description is the second, and Keywords are the least important.
- H tag optimization: A page can only have one H1 tag, and other titles can use H2, H3 and other tags, which can make the page content clearer.
- Image Alt tag optimization: Search engines themselves cannot recognize images, but some images can be included in search engines because of the setting of Alt tags.
- Anchor text optimization: Anchor text is the text link in the website that can better tell search engines what the link points to.
- Internal link optimization: By using anchor text to connect pages within the site, the weight of each page on the website can be reasonably distributed, ensuring that important pages receive more attention.
- 301 Redirect: If a webmaster changes the URL link of a page, such as changing page A to page B, but does not set up a redirect on the server, it will result in a 404 error page, which is not good for SEO.
- 404 page optimization: A 404 page with good user experience should contain navigation links to effectively reduce the website bounce rate.
When you start creating a WordPress website, please turn off search engine indexing and turn it on after the website is built. This can prevent unprepared content from being indexed by search engines to avoid unnecessary problems.
Off-page SEO
Off-site optimization mainly involves external link building and social media marketing. If other websites link to your website, it means that these sites trust your website and recommend your website to other users. The quality of external links directly affects the ranking of the website. External links can be anchor text or URL links. Links from highly trusted authoritative websites are more valuable than links from low-authority websites. Therefore, the number of external links is not the only key factor, but the quality is the most important. One high-quality external link is far better than hundreds of low-quality external links. The key to obtaining high-quality external links is to create valuable content so that others will be willing to recommend your website on the Internet.
There was once a famous saying in the SEO industry: “Content is king, and external links are emperor.” Many people try to quickly increase the weight and ranking of their websites by increasing external links in large quantities. External links can increase the weight of the website, attract search engine spiders to crawl, improve keyword rankings, increase website visibility, and bring traffic to the website. In the past, many websites relied on a large number of external links to improve their rankings in a short period of time, but if you still adopt this strategy today, your website will be punished. For methods to obtain high-quality external links, you can refer to this article ” How to Get High-Quality External Links “.
Technical SEO
Compared with on-site optimization, it focuses more on the optimization of the website backend, mainly including website speed, mobile optimization, website architecture and other aspects.
1. Website speed optimization
Website speed is very important for Google ranking. If the website loading time exceeds 3 seconds, 50% of visitors will choose to close the webpage. You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to check page speed.
If your website is hosted in China, it is recommended to consider switching to a US hosting provider. If you are already using a US host, consider using SiteGround, which provides excellent technical support and after-sales service. There is a close relationship between website speed and hosting providers, and many people make mistakes when choosing a host, such as choosing a domestic host or an unreliable host. SiteGround is a recommended US virtual hosting provider with a price of $3.95 per month, providing strong performance and support. If you want to create a foreign trade website with a European and American style, marketing orientation, and suitable for SEO optimization, SiteGround is the first choice.
Regarding website speed, here are some commonly used website speed test tools: Google PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom, and GTmetrix. These tools can not only test website speed, but also provide detailed information about speed issues.
To improve website speed, in addition to choosing a high-quality US virtual hosting provider SiteGround, you can also consider installing a static cache plug-in and a global content delivery network (CDN). For detailed steps, please refer to the article ” 10 Minutes to Optimize WordPress Access Speed “.
2. Mobile optimization
Most searches occur on mobile devices. Mobile optimization is as important as website speed. If your website is not optimized for mobile, the bounce rate of visitors will almost reach 100%. In April 2015, Google launched the “Mobilegeddon” algorithm, which completely changed the search result ranking. This marked the end of the desktop era and ushered in a new era of mobile search. If you are not sure whether your website supports mobile devices, use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to test it.
Mobile optimization is actually not complicated. Foreign trade websites built using WordPress usually have responsive designs and can be displayed correctly on mobile phones, tablets, and computers.
3. Submit the sitemap to Google Search Console
Google Search Console is actually Google Webmaster Tools, which provides important information related to search engines. When using Google Search Console for the first time, you need to add and verify your foreign trade website to prove that you are the owner of the website and enable other features. Before submitting a sitemap, you must add and verify your website in Google Search Console. The purpose of the sitemap is to help search engines better crawl your website information. Submitting a sitemap
to Google Search Console is very simple. You just need to follow the steps in this article ” Tutorial on How to Quickly Get Indexed by Google “.
If you can’t access Google for some well-known reasons, you can use this magic tool .
4. Use Google Analytics.
In the era of big data, your foreign trade website is your small data. Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool provided by Google that tracks and reports the behavior and interactions of website visitors. It is widely used for website analysis. Using Google Analytics can better understand your users, website traffic and user preferences. The detailed setting method of Google Analytics is also introduced in detail in the article ” Tutorial on How to Quickly Get Indexed by Google “.
5. Set up HTTPS
For websites that use HTTPS security, Google has a certain advantage in search results. According to Mozcast, about 98.5% of the homepage search results have enabled HTTPS encryption to protect user data. When users visit an unsecured website, Google Chrome has begun to display a large warning.
Therefore, if your website has not enabled HTTPS secure connection, I suggest that you set it up as soon as possible to improve the protection of user data and the search engine visibility of the website.
- If you built your website with SiteGround, you can refer to this article ” How to build a WordPress website using SiteGround ” to set up HTTPS.
This article will show you how to quickly build a WordPress website using SiteGround. Compared with using a VPS to build WordPress, using SiteGround is significantly easier because it can be done without writing code. This tutorial covers purchasing a domain name, purchasing a SiteGround server, configuring domain name DNS resolution, and generating an SSL certificate, helping you quickly build a complete and usable WordPress website.
- If you purchase a VPS and build a website manually, you can refer to this article ” Latest VPS WordPress Tutorial ” to set up HTTPS.
Latest VPS WordPress Tutorial
If you want to build WordPress with better performance, then you can choose to build WordPress on a VPS. This article will take you from scratch, step by step to build WordPress on a VPS. First, you need to register a VPS, log in to your VPS and build a LAMP environment; then you need to resolve your domain name to your VPS. After the domain name is resolved successfully, you need to create a MySQL database, then install the PHP plugin and configure Apache, then download and configure WordPress, and finally install an SSL certificate.
Final Thoughts
SEO optimization is a long-term task, and search engine algorithms are constantly evolving. However, there is no need to worry too much, because despite the constant changes in the algorithm, some core factors, such as high-quality backlinks, recommendations from authoritative websites, keyword matching, etc., are always the most important. These are still the elements you need to focus on when doing SEO optimization.
As you can understand, the field of SEO covers a wide range of knowledge and techniques. However, considering that it can bring highly targeted traffic to your website, it is completely worth investing time and energy. Therefore, I recommend starting with the basic steps to ensure that search engines can fully crawl your website . Next, work on creating keyword-optimized content . Finally, work hard on external link building to obtain backlinks . These three steps form the foundation of SEO.
Once you feel that you have mastered these basic techniques, you can start to delve into more advanced things, such as YouTube SEO and voice search optimization, to further enhance your website’s visibility and attractiveness in search engines. I hope the content introduced in this article is helpful to you.