Where am I going wrong?

[EdwardoUK]

Hi guys, I am hoping that someone can provide me with some suggestions as to how I can get my site www.purelycaviar.co.uk ranking on both Google and Bing for 'caviar' 'caviar online' 'buy caviar online' and associated phrases that you'd expect people to use when looking to purchase caviar online (in the UK). As it currently stands the site ranks extremely poorly for most associated keywords. The thing is I don;t really have any budget and am feeling a bit overwhelmed with where to start. I am willing to put the time in to understand all this stuff but would love someone to give me a plan of action. Its also worth mentioning that I'm with Shopify so am limited with no server side access.

A list of 'To Do's' would be great with an additional list of things which need constant input such as link building and blog posts...

Any help massively appreciated!

[TommyTan]

Hi Edward,

Here is a good source to start learning SEO for E-commerce sites: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/seo-for-ecommerce-websites/ 

In summary, you should conduct keyword research and target low competitive keywords and also create unique content and unique product description.  Furthermore, optimize on-page SEO with keywords and most important of all, build quality backlinks.

You can also learn more about SEO from this guide; http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

[artdivision]

Hello mate,

The answer is fairly easy tbh, your backlink profile is completely empty, you have in total 4 domains linking to your site and thats it. It will take some time for your site to take off and building links is something you will have to do if  you wish to rank. You will need to pay attention to your onpage optimisation vs anchor texts, make sure that 1% of your anchors are referring to the exact keywords you wish to rank (Increase that to 2-3% if you dont have 100% onpage optimisation).

If I were you, i would start by driving traffic to my web site via other channels (relevant to caviar blogs, comments, forums about food and recipes, social media) and links will come naturally.

best of luck

[EdwardoUK]

Thanks for that. Will read up on link building then...

[CommT]

Hello Edward,

First of all, you've joined the right community! In my experience Mozzers are incredibly friendly and helpful.

I can't give you a complete SEO strategy, but these suggestions may help:

1. Check out your competitor's backlinks. 
   I have no idea about your industry, but you must have competitors. Use the Moz backlink tool (Open site explorer) to see the backlinks your competitors have. This will give you a list of potential sites you can then try and get a link from. In my experience, it's easier to get a link if you actually speak to the site owner so if they display their telephone number then ring it!
2. Blogging
   You already mentioned blog posts. If you have the time to, you should be posting something regularly on your blog. I believe it is better to publish high quality blog posts less frequently (but still on a regular basis) than poor quality ones more frequently. Make sure you write for your human visitors first - the search engine robots have no interest buying your cavier!
3. Online review sites
   There are several independent review sites where your customers can leave a review of your products and services. Although this won't increase your rankings, if the reviews are good it will increase the conversion rate of your site. Some have an agreement with Google, where once a reviewee has 30 positive (I think 4.3 or higher rating) reviews, then the star rating will be displayed in the SERPs. This can increase CTR which means even if you're not in the top spot your listing will stand out and the stars will encourage visitors. We use Trustpilot, but they are quite pricey - the other company we were looking at at the same time was reviews.co.uk who I believe are a little cheaper. You can also use your Google business page to gather reviews but customers have to create a google account if they don't already have one so the take-up may not be as strong.
4. Reach out
   There are about a gazillion foodie blogs out there. I know because I love food and I read them! Why not send some samples to some carefully selected blog owners (pick the most popular) for reviews / tastings? The reviewer will get some free caviar (not to be sniffed at, eh) and you get some tasty links.
5. Reach out some more
   Why not do the same with your favourite national newspaper foodie columnists? They all have online versions of their columns and may provide a link. At the very least they may include your site in their supplier lists which would be nice.
6. Winter Olympics!!!
   You sell caviar, the most luxurious Russian food available. Use the upcoming winter olympics to your advantage (though you will have to be careful about copyright).
7. Start an online recipe book
   This doesn't need much explanation... Make sure to use the rich-snippet recipe mark-up (or the data-highlighter tool in Webmaster Tools) to 'tell' the search engine's that it's a recipe (if you have a picture of the recipe then this will display in the SERPs increasing CTR.)

I hope these help! Do let us know how you get on!

Best wishes,

Amelia

[EdwardoUK]

Hey Amelia, that's really nice of you to provide such detailed advice. Thanks a million, will get my butt in gear...

[CommT]

It's a pleasure

[CommT]

Edward,

I just had another thought. If you have good photography it would probably be worth starting a Pinterest board for your products and recipes.

Best of luck,

Amelia