2025 Best Practices for SEO

Ask Me Anything Q&A SEO Office Hours Repo

Topic summary

A merchant seeks to improve direct website traffic and conversion rates, as most sales currently come from eBay. Despite high SEO rankings, sales remain poor.

Core SEO recommendations include:

  • Conduct keyword research using tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush, or Key Search
  • Build product collections based on how users search (gender, fit, style, color, etc.) - aim for 3-5+ products per collection
  • Set up Google Merchant Center feed via the Google & YouTube app
  • Ensure proper internal linking with important collections in main navigation
  • Add customer reviews and FAQs to product pages

Common mistakes to avoid:

  • Thin product pages lacking descriptions and reviews
  • Missing collection descriptions
  • Insufficient collection variety
  • Not activating or monitoring Google Merchant Center feed quality
  • Weak title tags and headings without keyword targeting

One respondent suggests the issue may extend beyond SEO to competitive positioning, recommending competitor analysis tools to understand pricing, product movement, and promotional strategies.

Summarized with AI on October 26. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

What are updated SEO best practices for 2025?

We are seeking more traffic to our direct website since we currently get most sales from eBay.

We have used apps and programs to run reports on our site & it usually says our SEO is pretty high ranking with Google but we still have very poor conversion rates for sales.

We are looking for any and all advice relating to SEO and improvements we can make to our website.

Thanks in advance!

1 Like
2

It’s difficult to provide highly useful advice without looking at a site (and unfortunately I don’t have time to do site reviews during these), but here are the basics that I’d suggest for everyone:

  • Learn how to do keyword research with a tool like Ahrefs, SEMRush, or Key Search. This gives you a foundation in data.
  • Build collections for all of the ways that a user might describe your products. If you’re not sure, type the base name of your product into Google (e.g. if you sell specialty denim, you might search for [jeans]) and see which filters Google displays on the lefthand side of desktop results. These are the dimensions that you should be building collections for (
    • e.g. for [jeans] you’ll see target gender, fit, style, color, etc.) - build collections for all of those different values as long as you have 3-5 products to display. So you might build collections for “mens jeans,” “womens jeans,” “skinny jeans,” “black jeans,” you get the idea. This is the biggest opportunity for most merchants.
  • Make sure you have a Google Merchant Center feed set up. The Google & YouTube app can help you do this for free.
  • Make sure you’re linking to all pages throughout your site, with your most important collections (or all, if you can) linked from your main navigation.
  • Collect and display reviews on your product pages.
  • Answer FAQs on your product pages.

Most common mistakes I see:

  • Thin product pages (minimal description, no reviews, no useful information)
  • No collection descriptions
  • Not building enough collections
  • Not activating Google & YouTube or similar Google Merchant Center feed app
  • Not checking Google Merchant Center to make sure feed quality is ok (they’ll flag things for you to fix)
  • Not having descriptive, keyword-targeted title tags and headings.

^Those are the basics you have to get right before you start thinking about other stuff.

3

We were in a similar situation: SEO seems to be normal, ratings are OK, but traffic does not generate sales. It turned out that it’s not just about optimization, but about how you look compared to your competitors.

We are currently using the IceStoreLab service. It collects information on competitors: what products they have moving, how they change prices, and which promos they launch. It helps a lot to understand why you don’t have sales, even if you’re at the top. If you want, I can send you detailed information, it’s a really great solution.

5

I found that updating my collection and product pages with more natural, question-based language helped get picked up better in voice searches. It lines up more with how people talk, which I think is what answer engine optimisation is aiming for. I also replaced generic headers with ones that actually match search intent—like turning “Our Products” into something people would search, like “Affordable handmade candles.”