Are you thinking about starting a new online uniform store, but unsure how to get to the top of Google or any other search engine? The answer is the same for you as it is for everyone else. It’s SEO.
For starters, SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization and it refers to the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from said search engines. There, we saved you a Google search.
Employing the latest SEO best practices is crucial in the beginning stages of creating any new online uniform store. If you get started on the right foot, you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble later. However, it’s something you’ll have to continue to work on and improve for the complete duration of your business. Welcome to the Internet.
But wait! What are the latest SEO best practices, you ask? We got you. Below are 17 initial steps you can take to creating an SEO-friendly online uniform store and to help you get started on your journey to the top of Google pages.
- Choose Your Domain Name – Google and other search engines prefer a carefully-selected and original domain name that’s easy to remember, relevant to your business, and incorporates all of the main keywords you want your business to rank for. Be specific, never generic.
- Perform Keyword Research – Write down a list of all the main terms and subject areas that accurately represent your business. This just became your initial keyword list. Now, you’ll want to refine that list by performing your own keyword research to find out what keywords are trending, how much traffic they’re getting other websites, and what kind of competition you can expect to endure with each one of them.
- Find Your Hosting Provider – Site speed is a surprisingly big deal for Google and they’ve been very upfront about it. Sites that have a high bounce rate because the site takes too long to load is a quick way to ensure Google pays your site no attention. That’s why you need to find a hosting provider for your uniform store that’ll deliver consistent loading speeds.
- Plan Your Site’s Architecture – Regardless if your site is going to have a lot of pages or only a few, mapping out your site architecture should still be a high priority. It should have a pyramid structure. Your homepage is at the top with the pages of secondary importance right below it. Underneath those can be your subcategories and individual pages.
- Prioritize Site Navigation – Think about what your customers will be thinking and doing on each page they land on when visiting your site. Make it easy to find things by ensuring your main menu lists the most important pages, creating categories based on the way your target audiences are most likely to browse, making sure those category pages employ the keywords your research shows people use when searching for your kind of products, and more.
- Define an SEO-Friendly URL Structure – When a search engine algorithm is trying to decide what a web page is about, one of the main places it looks is the URL itself. The URL is the main address for each page of your site on the web. Every URL on your site starts with your main domain name. For each page, that will be followed by additional characters unique to that page. For SEO purposes, you should always customize the URL you use for every webpage on your site based on the keywords you want to rank for.
- Design For Site Speed – We already addressed this, but it bears repeating. Your web design is just one factor in how fast your website will be, along with the web hosting package, and the plugins you use. A fast loading time creates a better user experience and is one of the ranking factors the search engine algorithms take into account. You can do this by minimizing features that slow down your site like animations, shrinking any JavaScript and CSS elements you use, reducing the number of HTTP requests you have on each page, and only using necessary widgets.
- Consider a Mobile-Friendly Design – As it turns out, searching on mobile phones has become the dominant form of web searching. Go figure. So, now it’s even more necessary that your new online uniform store is responsive and mobile-friendly. To ensure your pages work just as well on mobile devices, avoid the use of flash where possible and use big buttons so people can easily select them on a touchscreen.
- Employ A Visual Hierarchy – Most of the time, users will only see a small portion of the whole webpage – depending on the size of their screen and browser window. So, think carefully of what you want them to see in the first few seconds they’re on the page.
- Focus on Indexable Content – One of the challenges of SEO web design is that a lot of the visual components of design don’t translate well to how search engine algorithms read a website. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use visuals. That just means you need to think about how to make sure they can be indexed by search engines. Skip using flash animation entirely. If you use JavaScript, you should use a recommended framework like Brombone. If you include videos, fill in all available metadata with your target keywords including title and description. Include a transcript on the site, too.
- Target Primary Keywords – You have your initial list of keywords. Now you need to target the specific keywords for each individual web page for your uniform store. For example, if you’re a uniform manufacturer who creates officer-issued equipment and uniforms for public safety retailers, then you’ll want to consider using searchable keywords and phrases such as “public safety” and “police uniforms” and the like.
- Optimize Title Tags – The title tag is part of the website that Google looks at to learn what the page is about – which is another good spot for your target keywords. Keep the title tag short. Google only displays 50-60 characters on the search engine results page and even less of the title tag will show up in the tab at the top of your browser.
- Optimize Images – Every image you use on a web page offers further opportunity for optimizing your page for your main keywords. When choosing names for SEO, it’s important to include the keyword you’re targeting and update the alt text on the page with your keyword, as well.
- Optimize Headings – When writing for the web, headings are a good tool to better organize your copy – so that it’s easier to read and scannable for your visits. As an added bonus, your headings are another signal to Google regarding what your page is about.
- Write Unique Meta Descriptions – Supposedly, meta descriptions don’t directly influence rankings, but they do play a role in your click-through rates from the search results. When a person sees your web page in the search results, they’ll see your meta description below the page title and be influenced to click on it if they find the matching terms they typed into the Google search bar. Always write a relevant meta description for every page on your website and try to incorporate your keywords for the page naturally into the description to hopefully end up with some bolded text on the search results page.
- Submit your Sitemap to Google – Usually, Google will crawl your website over time, but you can speed up the process by submitting your sitemap through Google Search Console.
- Create an SEO plan for the Future – Like we said before, enhancing your online uniform website with SEO will be an ongoing and ever-evolving challenge. Google will always be changing its algorithm just like you’ll always be updating your site. So, that’s why it’s important to create an SEO plan going forward. It’s going to take some real hard work, but if you stick with it, you’ll find your new uniform webstore at the top of search engines in no time.
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If you’re finding this all a little too difficult to consider or it’s still not clear how to get started, you can always approach us for both your eCommerce and SEO requirements.
Yes, we also provide SEO services along with building SEO-friendly eCommerce stores that are specific to the uniform industry. Many top names in the uniform space like All Uniform Wear and many others have their eCommerce stores as well as their SEO requirements handled by us.
If you would like to discuss your eCommerce or SEO requirements for your uniform business, you may connect with an expert from here.
