Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t easy for any website, and e-commerce sites have some unique SEO challenges to overcome.

These 11 SEO tips can help you tackle your e-commerce site’s SEO so you can rank higher in search engine results, and get more visitors, customers and sales for your online store.  Many of these tips apply to just about any type of website, too.

1.     Create unique content on each of your product and product category pages.
2.     Discover what shoppers are actually searching for.
3.     Create pages for categories people are searching for.
4.     Interlink your pages using good anchor text.
5.     Allow people to share your products on social media sites.
6.     Get valuable backlinks.
7.     Avoid duplicate content issues.
8.     Use descriptive URLs.
9.     Let visitors leave reviews.
10.     Include a sitemap to help Google find all your pages.
11.     Update your website content regularly.

We all know that design is the first thing to attract the users to a site. Depending on the success of the design, the other parts can work for sure. Whether it is your ecommerce site to showcase and sell the products or a site through which you provide various services, the design has to leave a mark in the mind of the users.

So when making your website keep in mind a couple mishaps that can detour your website visitors. Here are the top ten website building mistakes we see most commonly.

1. Browser compatibility: The first and vital mistake that may have a deep impact is the compatibility of the design in several browsers. It is found that either for the lack of experience of the designers or for your hurry the designs are not made compatible to all the popular browsers. Mainly the “Internet Explorer”, one of the most used browsers, creates design break issues. So whatever hurry you are having, do not forget to make design of a webpage browser compatible. Otherwise, users will have a bad impression for your website; being irritated, they may not return again.

2. Splash page: Try to avoid in having a splash page (introductory page) for your website. Remember whatever beautiful the ‘intro’ is, those take time and visitors have less time in their hands (just 30 seconds in general). They may not push the “skip” button and enter your site to see more relevant information! So concentrate or let the designers put effort on the design of the home page.

3. The color: In whatever structure a webpage is designed, it has to have the sober color in use. Otherwise, the highly glossy or the gloomy colors may irritate the viewers. Do not try to force your personal taste of colors on the site; better try to go by the purpose of the site. In other words, there are some specific match of colors according to the convention of the designs; say the ‘sky blue’ for corporate, ‘red’ for medical purposes, the multi colors for fashion business etc. The color depth and glossiness should not poke eyes.

4. Animations and JavaScripts: For making a site interactive designers tend to use the animations. The animations may be of Flash, javascripts, 3D and etc. But remember these the excess use of things should not become bar against the overall performance of the site. Many a times JavaScripts are blocked by several browsers while flash players may not be present in user’s machines; even larger 3D and Flash files take time to load and users see the blank pages! These create bad impression in visitors mind.

5. Missing contact info & irritating forms: It is very much necessary that the websites prominently put the contact information in proper places. The visitors do not have so much time to find out the contact info; rather they should find it prominent in front of their eyes. Whereas sometimes the contact forms are long and do not work properly and users feel bored to fill them up. So it is necessary that you check out that the contact information is well displayed and several forms are well designed and not long for sure.

6. Irritating Advertisements: It is evident that the advertisements are needed for sure in a webpage. They bring revenue for the owners of the sites. But does it mean that ads have to irritate the viewers with their wrong placements? Sometimes in the layout structures the ads are misplaced among the valuable information or they are paneled in a way that viewers feel irritated. So try to instruct the designers or understand that proper placements of the ads and relevancy with the page information are a must.

7. Navigation and link : It is more than necessary that the page navigation menus are nicely designed and the links are properly clear to the visitors. Many a time it is found that designers forget to design the navigation menus properly or use the lengthy dropdowns. On the other hand, the links are designed as images (not texts) which create problem for search robots in crawling your links. Even when there are some links in the body texts the colors of those does not change on clicking for helping the visitors understand the visited links. These mistakes somehow may mislead the visitors. Try to avoid these.

8. Frames and scrollers and fixed width:   Sometimes just for the enhancements of the design the frames are used or for fixed width horizontal scroll bar appear on the user machines. Do you think the users have time to scroll horizontally to know your hidden information? No, many a time they avoid these things. So try to convert your fixed width layouts into liquid layouts (100% to fit all the windows) and do not use frames.

9. Fonts and text format : Most of the times it is found that the designers do care to use light weight images and graphics but do not care the font size, type and text formats. Due to fixed font size or type the viewers feel uneasy to read the information. At the same time there should not be the use of any font family that is not commonly available in user computers. Tyr to always keep the Ariel, Verdana, Tahoma as default. Again you should look into the paragraph format of the texts. The text should not be in long paragraphs. The bulleted texts and small paragraphs help users understand your business motto.

10. Pop-ups and new windows : Last but not the least is the unnecessary use of the pop-up and opening of the new windows for explanation purposes. Generally in many cases the pop-ups are blocked in user machines and when users are provided with new windows, they either tend to see those or forget coming to the main pages. So your designs have to use “page refresh” on the same window the users have landed.

Having a great website is not necessarily easy. Free templates tend to be generic and not compelling where paying for a website design is like a shot in the dark for most companies. At DWHS we highly recommend taking on the task on yourself. Try to just be patient, eventually it will all make since and get easier the more you do it. Here is some tips for you do it yourself website owner.

1.   Enhance Credibility: A professional and easy-to-navigate website conveys credibility to prospective and returning customers.
2. Differentiate your Brand: The look and feel of your website distinguishes your company from your competitors. The content and design of your site can play a major role in establishing your company’s identity. If done effectively, customers will remember you and you can build customer loyalty more effectively.
3. Expand Market Reach: Can your brick and mortar store in your town compete with a retailer in Manhattan? The Internet has leveled the playing field in the marketplace. You can sell your products and services to people anywhere in the world. Multilingual websites allow you to communicate with non-English speaking consumers and merchant processing and ecommerce solutions make it easy and safe to conduct transactions with individuals globally.
4. Increase Lead generation: A website is a great tool for generating sales leads. Content is key in this instance. An easy to navigate, clutter-free site can help drive sales. Tools such as pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns can effectively drive traffic to your site and result in high conversion rates if you choose the right keywords. Google™ and Yahoo™ both offer conversion tracking or ad tracking software.
5. Provide Free Market Research: If you want to know what your inventory should look like, just check your site’s activity. What do your customers want? They tell you with every click. If you need specifics, conduct an online survey.
6. Enable Real-Time, No-Cost Promotions: You can promote new or enhanced products or services quickly, effectively and inexpensively online. Your customers can find, redeem and/or print out coupons online. This substantially reduces high printing and distribution costs, as well as the wait involved for printed material.
7. Open your doors 24/7: A winning website should allow you to transact business and provide customer assistance around the clock, 365 days a year.