Ecommerce websites face a unique set of challenges when it comes to SEO, including product page optimization, category management, and content diversification. The data from leading SEO-friendly ecommerce websites in the U.S. reveals valuable patterns in keyword targeting, traffic distribution, and organic performance that can guide businesses aiming to improve their visibility on search engines.
The insights below are drawn exclusively from the rankings, keyword volumes, and traffic distributions of well-established online retailers. These findings offer a factual and data-driven perspective on how top-performing ecommerce sites leverage SEO to capture and retain organic traffic.
Organic Traffic and Keyword Performance of Leading Ecommerce Sites
Several large U.S.-based ecommerce websites demonstrate consistent performance in organic traffic and keyword rankings. These sites optimize for both branded and unbranded search terms, ensuring broad visibility across various product categories and user intent types.
Michaels: A Case Study in Product and Category Page Optimization
Michaels, a top-performing ecommerce site, ranks highly for numerous product-specific keywords. For example, the site ranks first for terms like “picture frames,” “shadow box,” and “beads,” which collectively generate millions of searches per month. The traffic distribution across the site shows a strong emphasis on the homepage and product pages, with the coupons and store locator pages also contributing significantly to the overall traffic.
Key organic traffic distribution for Michaels:
- Homepage: ~49% of total organic traffic
- Coupons page: ~9.17% of total traffic
- Store locator: ~4.13% of total traffic
- Picture frames page: ~1.49% of total traffic
- Shadow box picture frames page: ~0.48% of total traffic
This distribution highlights the effectiveness of optimizing product and category pages for high-volume, specific keywords while leveraging the brand strength of the homepage to capture general traffic.
Costco and Sam’s Club: High Traffic Volume with Optimized Landing Pages
Costco.com and Sam’s Club both demonstrate strong organic traffic performance, with their homepages capturing a significant portion of their total organic traffic. Costco’s top-performing pages include product-specific categories like “full size mattresses,” “leather sectional,” and “murphy bed with desk,” all of which rank highly for high-volume keywords.
Traffic distribution for Costco:
- Homepage: ~49% of total organic traffic
- Coupons page: ~9.17% of total traffic
- Store locator: ~4.13% of total traffic
- Picture frames page: ~1.49% of total traffic
- Shadow box picture frames page: ~0.48% of total traffic
Sam’s Club similarly benefits from strong traffic on its homepage and specific product categories like “members mark” and “restaurant supply near me.” The traffic is distributed across a variety of pages, showing that these sites have a well-diversified organic strategy.
Ulta Beauty: Diversified Traffic and High Keyword Volume
Ulta Beauty is notable for its ability to maintain consistent traffic across a vast number of keywords. The site ranks for over 1.1 million keywords, which results in approximately 9 million organic visits per month. Its top pages include the homepage, which captures the majority of traffic, and product-specific pages like “eyelashes” and “browning lotion.”
Traffic distribution for Ulta:
- Homepage: ~30.13% of total organic traffic
- Coupon page: ~3.09% of total traffic
- Store locator: ~2.68% of total traffic
- Eyelashes page: ~0.83% of total traffic
- Browning lotion page: ~0.63% of total traffic
The data indicates that Ulta Beauty has successfully diversified its organic traffic across multiple product pages, reducing the impact of potential drops in traffic for any one category.
The Role of Product Pages in Ecommerce SEO
Across all the studied sites, product pages play a crucial role in driving organic traffic. These pages are often optimized for long-tail, high-intent keywords that lead directly to conversions. For instance, Michaels ranks highly for “watches for men,” and Ulta Beauty ranks for “press on nails” and “bio oil.” These keywords are typically searched by users who are closer to making a purchase decision, which makes them valuable for both traffic and conversion rate optimization.
The success of these sites can be attributed to their ability to create product pages that are not only keyword-rich but also provide relevant, user-focused content. This includes product descriptions, reviews, and additional media such as images or videos that enhance the user experience and increase time spent on the page.
Ecommerce SEO Best Practices from the Source Data
While the source material does not explicitly provide a step-by-step guide to ecommerce SEO, it does highlight several best practices that can be inferred from the data:
Keyword Research and Targeting
High-performing ecommerce sites focus on both branded and unbranded keywords. They target high-volume, product-specific terms that align with user intent.Homepage Optimization
The homepage consistently captures the largest share of organic traffic, indicating the importance of optimizing it for general and branded searches.Landing Page Strategy
Product and category pages are optimized to capture traffic for specific keywords. This includes using clear, descriptive titles and content that aligns with user search intent.Traffic Diversification
The best-performing sites distribute traffic across multiple pages, reducing reliance on any single source and mitigating the impact of algorithmic changes or keyword performance drops.Coupon and Store Locator Pages
These pages serve as secondary traffic drivers and are optimized for high-intent searches related to discounts and location-based queries.
SEO Tools for Ecommerce Optimization
The data also includes references to tools that can help optimize and scale an ecommerce SEO strategy. These tools provide insights into keyword performance, traffic distribution, and page optimization opportunities.
1. Surfer for Ecommerce
Surfer offers a Content Audit tool that allows users to assess the SEO potential of pages. It identifies high-value pages and provides recommendations for improving rankings. This tool is particularly useful for optimizing product pages by identifying keyword gaps and content opportunities.
2. Google Analytics
Google Analytics provides detailed insights into how users reach an ecommerce site, including the effectiveness of different traffic sources. It also offers ecommerce-specific features such as purchase tracking, which allows businesses to measure the impact of SEO on actual sales.
3. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool that provides data on search performance, including impressions, click-through rates, and rankings. It also helps identify technical issues such as crawl errors and broken links that can affect SEO performance.
Conclusion
The SEO strategies of top-performing U.S. ecommerce websites highlight the importance of keyword targeting, product page optimization, and traffic diversification. These sites leverage their brand strength while also capturing high-intent, product-specific traffic through well-optimized landing pages. The data shows that a balanced approach to SEO—focusing on both general and specific keywords, as well as branded and unbranded searches—can lead to strong organic performance.
For businesses looking to improve their SEO, the insights from these top-performing sites offer a clear roadmap for optimizing product pages, improving site structure, and using SEO tools to scale their efforts.