3 SEO Mistakes Dropshippers Should Avoid

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a hard game to play. The rulebook isn’t 100% laid out and Google, the main one at the dance we’re trying to impress, changes their ranking algorithm often.

A quick Google search will return enough information on the subject to overwhelm you. Not everything you read is accurate and more importantly, not everything you read is permissible by Google. The best way to verify what you read is to actually apply it and monitor your results. But sometimes you don’t have the technical knowledge or you don’t want to be patient and build natural, unique content. So you do what looks easiest or take someone’s advice who says, “do this and you’ll be at the top of search engines in an hour!”

Do not believe anyone who tells you that.

You get in trouble because the person making things look easy isn’t the professional, they’re the scam artist. If you’re just getting started, here’s an easy-to-follow guide from Google that will help you set your site up the right way. Below, we’re going to explore some other common SEO mistakes dropshippers should avoid.

1) Buying low quality links

We’re not saying that buying links hasn’t worked in the past or that it won’t work in the future. What we’re saying is that buying links is a gamble. Google has been known to punish sites with low quality inbound links from link farms, where most paid links come from. If you have a Google-friendly URL (meaning it includes a major keyword for your niche) and you’ve been putting work into it for any period of time, you don’t want to risk Google punishing you for buying low quality links.

Gaining backlinks isn’t necessarily easy, in fact it can be downright difficult. However, it is arguably the most important part of your digital marketing strategy if you plan on utilizing organic traffic from search engines. Below are three articles from reputable blogs outlining 30+ ways you can earn backlinks. Notice that none of them advise paying for links! Read these and gain links like the pros:

• 20 SEO Linkbuilding Tips for 2016
• 7 Proactive Ways To Get Backlinks That’ll Actually Boost Your Traffic
• 7 Content Archetypes That Generate Natural Links

2) Using bland, unoriginal manufacturer’s copy

Many dropshippers are not creating/building/manufacturing their products from scratch, they sell someone else’s products. If that’s the case for you, the quickest way to get a product live on your website is to copy and paste all manufacturer’s material – including product descriptions. This is wrong. Duplicate content is a NO-NO to Google. They want to see you create unique, original content. That doesn’t mean rearranging the words or adding your company name instead of the manufacturer’s. It does mean rewriting product descriptions in your own voice, using your own adjectives, and your own idea of the benefits to customers.

This will take some time if you have 10,000 products, no doubt. But, just behind inbound links, having unique content is crucial to the success of your online store. Start with your best-selling products and write a few each week. The more unique content you have, the more relevance Google will give you. If you can’t stand typing product descriptions, you could hire a professional from Upwork.com, Freelancer.com, or some other site to do the writing for you. Once you have created new product descriptions, be sure to update your meta titles and descriptions to make it easier for Google to identify these changes.

3) Not tracking data

If all you’re tracking is your revenue, you are missing out on big opportunities. Google’s Webmaster Tools can identify which pages users initially land on and Google Analytics can tell you which pages they exit from. If lots of users never purchase something between those two events, maybe there are opportunities to improve your site. Maybe this is through better copy, split-testing button colors, varied pricing options, or free shipping options. You can also see where things are already working and duplicate that page’s success. Maybe you wrote a blog post that attracted a lot of users but you didn’t realize that’s where your traffic was coming from. Write another one!

Each website is unique and it’s impossible to tell without reviewing your current performance. You’ll never know where these opportunities are unless you are tracking data. There are a number of tracking software companies out there, but Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools are the best free options available and there is a plethora of information out there to help you get started.

Don’t be fooled by SEO scam artists. Do your research and know which seo mistakes dropshippers should avoid. If you’re just getting setup, use this article to kick things off right. If you’ve already made one of these, stop what you’re doing and take the time to fix them.