Right, let’s tackle the elephant in the room straight away. With Google’s search results getting increasingly cluttered with AI overviews and various SERP features pushing organic results further down the page, plenty of people are wondering if SEO is still worth bothering with.
For most industries, these worries aren’t completely daft. Information-based search has become proper challenging, with zero-click searches going through the roof and featured snippets nicking traffic that would’ve once landed on your website.
But here’s the thing about eCommerce – it’s genuinely different.
While people might get their information fix directly on Google’s results page, you still can’t buy a bloody toaster without clicking through to a website. Google knows this, which is why they’re actually expanding their retail features rather than trying to keep shoppers on the SERP.
Having worked at Currys, one of the UK’s biggest online retailers, through the COVID mess and beyond, we’ve had a front-row seat to these shifts. Flogging everything from fridges and tellies to coffee machines and PlayStations taught us exactly how product search behaviour works in practice. And the truth is, eCommerce SEO might be one of the few areas where organic search is becoming more valuable, not less.
Google’s properly leaning into retail features, and the shops that get how to use tools like Merchant Center and optimise for product-specific search features are absolutely smashing it. No wonder searches for “eCommerce SEO agencies” and “eCommerce SEO specialists” keep climbing. Businesses are cottoning on to both the challenge and the opportunity.
This guide isn’t just generic SEO waffle that applies to any old website. It’s specifically about the unique challenges for online retailers in the UK, based on our experience working with major players like Currys and Disney Store across the UK and Europe. We’ll focus on what’s actually working right now in 2025 for eCommerce businesses looking to drive traffic that converts into actual sales.
Before I dive into the nitty-gritty, let’s get a handle on what we’re dealing with.
The UK is the third-largest eCommerce market globally, worth a whopping £195 billion in 2024. That’s an absolutely massive pie, and even a tiny slice can mean serious money in the bank.
What’s particularly interesting is how UK shoppers are proper dependent on search engines when they’re buying stuff. About 90% of UK consumers do online research before parting with their cash, and organic search typically drives more than half of all traffic to online shops.
These figures tell a pretty obvious story: if you’re not visible in organic search, you’re missing the boat on the main way UK shoppers find and evaluate products.
While the core principles still hold true, I’ve noticed some major shifts in how Brits search for products:
First off, mobile shopping has taken over. Most product searches now happen on phones, though plenty of people still complete their purchases on laptops or desktops (especially for pricey items).
Second, searches have got much more specific. Queries like “black Nike trainers size 9 with free delivery” are increasingly common as shoppers know exactly what they’re after and expect spot-on results.
Third, voice search is making inroads for product queries. “Hey Google, find me the cheapest Dyson hairdryer with next day delivery” is the sort of thing consumers are increasingly asking their smart speakers and phones.
Working with Currys, I saw first-hand how these changing search patterns affect traffic and sales. During mental periods like Black Friday, the retailers who adapted their SEO to match these new behaviours absolutely trounced those still doing things the old way.
Understanding how product search works in 2025 means looking beyond just Google’s standard blue links:
This complex ecosystem means your eCommerce SEO strategy needs to be broader than just optimising text on a page.
Technical SEO is the absolute backbone of eCommerce success, yet it’s where I see online shops making the most bonkers mistakes. Let’s get stuck into the essentials:
Your site structure needs to be logical not just for shoppers, but for search engines too. A proper eCommerce architecture typically looks like:
Homepage → Category → Subcategory → Product
This clear hierarchy helps search engines figure out the relationship between different pages and properly distribute ranking power.
While at Currys, I restructured their site architecture to create clearer category hierarchies for major product lines like laptops and tellies. The result? A 32% jump in organic traffic to category pages within three months.
The most common architecture cock-ups I see with eCommerce sites include:
Sorting these issues often delivers quick wins for organic visibility.
Large product catalogues create unique technical headaches that simpler websites don’t have to deal with:
With thousands (or even millions) of product pages, controlling what gets indexed becomes crucial. Common problems include:
I’ve audited online retailers with over 70% of their indexed pages being duplicates, thin content, or products no longer available. This proper dilutes your site’s authority and wastes your crawl budget.
Strategic use of canonical tags, robots directives, and XML sitemaps is essential for getting a grip on these issues.
Clean, consistent URL structures help both users and search engines. For eCommerce, I suggest:
Page speed is critical for eCommerce, directly impacting both rankings and conversion rates. Studies consistently show that every 0.1 second improvement in mobile page load time can increase conversion rates by 8%.
The biggest speed issues for eCommerce sites typically include:
I worked with a fashion retailer who improved their mobile page speed score from a pitiful 34 to a respectable 78, resulting in a 23% drop in bounce rate and a 17% increase in conversion rate. The impact on their bottom line was massive.
Different eCommerce platforms have their own SEO quirks and limitations:
Shopify is ridiculously popular in the UK market, but has some SEO limitations that’ll drive you mad:
The good news is that most of these limitations can be worked around if you know what you’re doing.
As a WordPress plugin, WooCommerce offers more flexibility but requires more hands-on management:
Popular with larger retailers, Magento offers powerful features but comes with eye-watering complexity:
Regardless of platform, understanding these limitations and implementing platform-specific best practices is crucial for eCommerce SEO success.
On-page optimisation for eCommerce needs a different approach than content-focused websites. Let’s look at the key bits:
Product pages are the workhorses of your eCommerce site. They need to rank well and convince visitors to buy. Yet most online retailers make an absolute hash of them.
Your product title (H1 tag and meta title) needs to balance SEO keywords with clarity for users:
❌ Poor Example: “XS1000 – Black” ✅ Better Example: “Sony XS1000 Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones – Black”
The latter includes the brand, product name, key features, and variant, all important elements for both search visibility and helping shoppers know they’ve found what they’re after.
While working with Currys, I found that including key specs in product titles for technical products like laptops significantly improved both click-through rates and conversion rates.
The biggest mistake retailers make is copying and pasting manufacturer descriptions verbatim, creating duplicate content across the web. Instead:
A home appliance retailer I worked with created custom, benefit-focused descriptions for their top 100 products, resulting in a 43% increase in organic traffic to those pages and a 27% increase in conversion rate.
Product images are critical for eCommerce, but they’re often badly optimised for search:
Proper product schema markup is non-negotiable for eCommerce SEO in 2025. It helps search engines understand your product information and can lead to rich results in SERPs:
Essential elements to include in your Product schema include:
I’ve seen proper implementation of product schema consistently improve click-through rates from search by 15-30%.
Category pages often target more competitive, higher-volume keywords, making their optimisation particularly important:
Most retailers make the mistake of having thin or no content on category pages. Instead:
I helped a sports equipment retailer add comprehensive, useful content to their top 20 category pages. The result was a 67% increase in organic traffic to those pages within four months.
Faceted navigation is powerful for users but can create SEO nightmares with millions of possible URL combinations. The key is finding the right balance:
For category pages, I recommend these formulas for titles and meta descriptions:
Title formula: [Primary Keyword] – [Unique Selling Point] | [Brand Name] Example: “Men’s Running Shoes – Free Next Day Delivery | SportsShop UK”
Meta description formula: Shop our range of [Primary Keyword] featuring [Key Benefits]. [Unique Selling Point]. [Call to Action]. Example: “Shop our range of men’s running shoes featuring top brands like Nike, Adidas and New Balance. Free next day delivery on orders over £50. Find your perfect fit today!”
As I mentioned earlier, Google is actively expanding its eCommerce features, creating new opportunities for visibility beyond traditional organic listings.
Since Google made standard Shopping listings free in 2020, there’s absolutely no reason not to take advantage of this channel. Yet I’m constantly surprised by how many retailers haven’t fully optimised their Merchant Center presence.
Key optimisation areas include:
At Currys, I saw a significant increase in traffic after optimising product feeds for Merchant Center, with some product categories seeing upwards of 30% more visibility through free Shopping listings.
Beyond standard product schema, additional markup can help you earn enhanced listings in search results:
These rich results can dramatically improve click-through rates compared to standard blue links.
For retailers with physical stores, showing local inventory in search results can drive both online sales and in-store visits:
This omnichannel approach is particularly effective for retailers with strong brick-and-mortar presence alongside their eCommerce operations.
Content for eCommerce serves a different purpose than in other industries. It’s not just about driving traffic, it’s about supporting the purchase journey.
These content pieces target shoppers in the research phase:
At Currys, I found that comprehensive buying guides not only attracted traffic, but visitors who engaged with these guides converted at a 24% higher rate than those who didn’t.
These pieces address specific pain points that lead to product purchases:
Supporting existing customers helps with retention and future purchases:
Reviews and user content are particularly valuable for eCommerce:
The authenticity of user-generated content helps build trust and provides unique content that competitors can’t easily replicate.
Many eCommerce businesses focus on vanity metrics rather than the numbers that truly impact their bottom line.
Based on my experience with major retailers, these are the metrics that truly matter:
A fashion retailer I worked with was celebrating traffic growth until I analysed their metrics more closely. While overall organic sessions were up 22%, revenue from organic traffic had only increased by 3%. Deeper analysis revealed they were gaining visibility for informational terms but losing ground on high-converting commercial keywords. Refocusing their strategy on commercial terms led to a 36% increase in organic revenue despite only a 7% increase in total organic traffic.
Let’s break down a practical approach to implementing an effective eCommerce SEO strategy:
Technical SEO Audit
Competitor Analysis
Keyword Research and Mapping
Google Merchant Center Optimisation
Product Page Enhancement
Category Page Optimisation
Content Calendar Implementation
Technical Refinements
Expansion and Scaling
Measurement Framework
While many industries are seeing diminishing returns from organic search due to zero-click results and AI overviews, eCommerce remains a significant opportunity for businesses that get their SEO right.
The transactional nature of product searches means users still need to click through to websites to complete their purchases. Google’s expansion of eCommerce-specific features further emphasises this reality. They’re enhancing the product search experience rather than trying to keep users on the SERP.
What I’ve observed working with major retailers like Currys and Disney Store is that most eCommerce businesses are still failing at the basics. They struggle with technical foundations, create duplicate content, neglect proper schema implementation, and miss opportunities with Google’s commerce-focused features.
This creates a substantial competitive advantage for retailers willing to invest in a comprehensive, strategic approach to eCommerce SEO. By addressing technical fundamentals, creating valuable content that supports the purchase journey, and leveraging the full range of available features, you can significantly outperform competitors who are taking a more haphazard approach.
Remember that for eCommerce businesses, SEO isn’t just about traffic. It’s about connecting with potential customers at exactly the right moment in their purchase journey. Every improvement you make to your visibility increases the chances of making that connection and securing the sale.
The online retailers that understand this and act accordingly will be the ones that thrive in an increasingly competitive digital marketplace. The rest will find themselves losing ground to more savvy competitors who recognise that despite the changing search landscape, eCommerce SEO remains a powerful driver of sustainable growth.
If you’re looking to improve your online store’s visibility and drive more qualified traffic that actually converts, we can help. With extensive experience working with retailers across the UK, we understand the unique challenges and opportunities in the eCommerce sector.
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