Best SEO Strategy for Ecommerce Website 2020

Ecommerce SEO in 2020 requires a fundamentally different approach than traditional website optimization. The core challenge is that you're not just ranking a handful of pages—you're competing with thousands of product pages, category pages, and user-generated content. The best agencies recognize that ecommerce SEO isn't about chasing rankings on generic keywords like "shoes." It's about capturing high-intent traffic at every stage of the customer journey through a combination of technical excellence, strategic content architecture, and conversion-focused optimization. This means your strategy needs to address on-page elements specific to product pages, implement proper schema markup for rich snippets, optimize for voice search and featured snippets, and build internal linking structures that distribute authority intelligently across the site. The difference between an agency that understands this and one that doesn't directly impacts whether clients see actual revenue growth or just vanity rankings.

For agencies, ecommerce SEO matters because it's where you can genuinely move the needle on client revenue. Unlike brand awareness campaigns or traffic-focused strategies, ecommerce clients care about qualified visitors who actually purchase. This creates an opportunity to position yourself as a revenue-focused partner rather than a traffic vendor. Clients will pay premium fees for SEO that directly impacts their bottom line, and ecommerce is the clearest place to demonstrate that connection. Additionally, ecommerce websites typically have higher ongoing optimization needs than standard websites, which creates recurring revenue opportunities through monthly retainers and continuous improvement work.

Practically, the best ecommerce SEO strategy for 2020 involves three interconnected elements. First, conduct detailed keyword research that separates broad informational keywords from commercial and transactional intent. Build pillar content around informational topics that address customer questions before they're ready to buy, then cluster product pages and category pages around commercial keywords. This creates a topology that Google understands and rewards with better rankings. Second, implement structured data aggressively. Product schema, price schema, availability schema, and review schema directly impact click-through rates from search results because they enable rich snippets. Clients often underestimate this element, but properly implemented schema can increase CTR by 20-30% without improving rankings at all. Third, optimize your site architecture for both crawlability and user experience. Many ecommerce sites have internal linking problems that waste crawl budget on low-value pages. Conduct a crawl audit, identify pages receiving no internal links, and rationalize your navigation structure so authority flows to revenue-generating pages.

The mistake many agencies make is treating ecommerce SEO as standard website SEO with more pages. Instead, recognize that ecommerce sites have unique technical requirements, conversion expectations, and competitive dynamics.