Ecommerce websites are light on original, textual content, making it difficult for their webmasters to garner editorial links. And since content and links are so important in SEO, optimizing ecommerce websites may seem like an impossible feat. Fortunately, by following these 8 easy tips, you can get your ecommerce website to rank highly in no time.

1.Include expert product reviews of at least 300 words for each product you sell. Not only do product reviews make your site more linkable and improve the overall user experience, they also allow you to include more unique content, which search engines love.

2.Create unique product descriptions. Rather than utilizing the descriptions provided by a manufacturer or supplier, rewrite product descriptions so they are original and contain target keywords. Otherwise, the descriptions on your site will be duplicates of the descriptions on other people’s sites. The wordier your product descriptions, the better. Rewriting all of the product descriptions will be overwhelming, so start with descriptions of your 10 most important products.

3.Add descriptions to category pages. Category pages are important to ecommerce SEO, and you can make them even more valuable by adding descriptions of at least 100 words. The descriptions must be unique and contain target keywords.

4.Allow users to submit content. User-generated reviews not only enable you to fill your site with unique content, they also vastly improve the usability of your site. People love to read user reviews and contribute their own. Furthermore, user reviews often heavily influence people’s buying decisions.

5.Add a cool widget, tool, or piece of content to your site that attracts links. People will be more likely to link to your site if you provide something that is fun, useful, or valuable. For example, if you sell bandannas, you could provide a free information product that teaches customers 50 ways to tie a bandanna.

6.Add a buyer’s guide that educates website visitors about the products you sell. Buyer’s guides should be informative, unique, and keyword-rich. Buyer’s guides improve the linkability of your website in addition to providing your website visitors with valuable information that helps them make smarter buying decisions.

7.Optimize your website’s home page for your most important keywords or for the names of the most profitable products you sell. If you also own a local store, make sure to include local search terms (i.e. toys in Denver) so you can drive local search traffic to your site. Treat your home page like your storefront. Include direct links to the various categories of your site on the home page to make it easier for visitors to find exactly what they’re looking for. When you add text links to your home page, incorporate them into textual content because it looks more attractive than featuring a long list of text links.

8.Add an education and information section to your website to increase linkability. The section could include informative "how to" content and videos. For example, if you sell toys for toddlers, you can create a section that includes articles and videos that teach people activities and games that they can play with their toddlers.