One of the two main contributors to shopper disengagement and revenue loss is site speed coupled with search engine optimization.

Site speed: Brand "X"

Consider an imaginary fashion brand named “Brand X (not the Twitter X, just an X”). Assuming it has 100,000 daily visitors, a 2.5% conversion rate, and an average order value of $100. With an average page load time of 5 seconds, Brand X would register 2,500 orders daily, equating to a daily revenue of $250,000.

A 1-second page speed improvement could elevate the conversion rate to 2.7%, as suggested by industry statistics. This slight enhancement would raise the daily orders to 2,700, boosting the daily revenue to $270,000. Over a year, this 1-second improvement translates into a whopping additional $7.3 million in revenue!

Reality check: SEO in ecommerce 

Merchants often assume that merely listing a multitude of products will automatically attract search engine traffic. This is a misconception. SEO for ecommerce sites demands a different skill set compared to blogs or small company websites.

Unbxd SDK: The holistic solution

So, when your catalog boasts over a thousand products, how can your IT systems effectively map your URLs? This is where first principles thinking comes into play. We can reassemble complex problems from the ground up to understand the core issues by breaking down complex problems into their fundamental elements. 

Unbxd's SDK for SEO does just that, addressing crucial elements like server response time, image optimization, SEO, and code minification. The result? A comprehensive solution that optimizes SEO ensures clean tracking, provides precise analytics, and improves site speed.

Many businesses grapple with challenges related to their SDK-generated URL structures. 

These include:

• Non-user-friendly and non-SEO-friendly URLs
• Unreadable and bulky URLs
• Inconsistent navigation leading to a disjointed customer journey
• Creation of duplicate URLs

These issues underscore the need for an efficient SDK solution. A solution that not only addresses these problems effectively but also enhances user experience and boosts SEO performance. 

When a shopper is browsing, the web address or URL can shift with each click, depending on how the user interacts with the webpage. For example, when you switch from grid view to list view on a product listing page, the web address might get updated to match this new view. 

Let’s take an example of pagination. A clean and SEO-friendly URL for the first page of a 'tech gadgets' product listing on www.unbxd.com might look like this:

www.unbxd.com/tech-gadgets?page=1

"In this case, if a shopper has searched for specific criteria like brand or price range, these can be incorporated as query parameters in the URL. This results in pagination URLs that also retain these search filters, looking something like this:

www.unbxd.com/tech-gadgets?q=tech-gadgets&manufacturer=Apple,Samsung&price=0-20,20-40&rows=12&page=1"

As you navigate through the pages, the URL will change to represent the current page:

This clean URL structure is user-friendly, easily shareable, and helps search engines understand the page’s content, thus positively impacting SEO.

Broken URLs

A broken URL doesn’t lead to a live webpage and often results in a 404 error page (Page Not Found). A broken URL might look like this:

www.unbxd.com/?q=tech-gadgets&manufacturer%3A%22Apple%22%20OR%20manufacturer%3A%Samsung%22&filter=%3A%5B0%20TO%2020%5D&rows=12&start=0

Before and After URL Examples

The “Before” URLs are cluttered with complex parameter names and use the “OR” operator for multiple options, making them difficult to read and less SEO-friendly.

The “After” URLs, on the other hand, have simplified parameter names and use commas to separate multiple options, resulting in cleaner, more structured, and SEO-friendly URLs. This enhances the website’s search engine ranking while improving user experience.

Examples:

1. Default view: When a user first lands on the page, the URL might be straightforward like: www.unbxd.com/?q=tech-gadgets&rows=12&page=1&viewType=GRID

This URL indicates that the user is on the first page of the product listings, with no filters or sorting applied and the default view (e.g., grid view).

2. Applying filter: If a user applies filters, such as selecting a particular color and size, the URL will dynamically change to reflect these filters: 

http://www.unbxd.com/?q=tech-gadgets&rows=12&page=1&viewType=GRID&color=red&size=medium

This URL indicates that the user has applied filters for red color and medium size.

3. Changing page: When the user navigates to the next page of products, the URL will update to reflect the current page: 

http://www.unbxd.com/?q=tech-gadgets&rows=12&page=2&viewType=GRID&color=red&size=medium

This URL shows that the user is on the second page of the product listings with the same filters applied.

4. Changing view:  If the user changes the view from grid to list, the URL will change again:

http://www.unbxd.com/?q=tech-gadgets&rows=12&page=2&viewType=LIST&color=red&size=medium

This URL shows that the user is on the second page, has applied filters for red color and medium size, and changed the view to list view.

5. Sorting products: If the user then decides to sort the products by price, the URL will update once more:

https://www.example.com/products?page=2&color=red&size=medium&view=list&sort=price-asc&sort=price-desc

By making the URL SEO-friendly and clean, it becomes more understandable for both users and search engines. Additionally, users can share or bookmark the URL to return to the exact state of the page they were viewing, which enhances the user experience.

SEO-friendly URLs in ecommerce offer multiple advantages over non-optimized URLs, primarily impacting API calls and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). What are the benefits? 

• API calls: Using SEO-friendly URLs allows for targeted API calls based on user interactions like filters, sorting, and views, streamlining data retrieval and speeding up response times. In contrast, without SEO-friendly URLs, the system resorts to more generic API calls, requiring client-side data manipulation, which increases load and slows down response times.
• KPIs impact: Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): SEO-friendly URLs boost user experience and organic traffic, contributing to higher CLV.
• Average order value (AOV): Improved discoverability and navigation due to SEO-friendly URLs can elevate AOV.
• Zero search results: Proper indexing with SEO-friendly URLs reduces occurrences of zero search results
• Search exits: Better user navigation leads to fewer search exits.
• Retention rate: A more user-friendly URL structure correlates with higher customer satisfaction and retention rates.
• Recommendations and discovery: Better indexing due to SEO-friendly URLs increases product recommendations from search engines.
• Structured navigation: Logical URL structures aid in seamless site navigation and better search engine indexing.
• Social sharing: Well-structured URLs are more shareable, enhancing your backlink profile.
• Mobile consideration: Clear, meaningful URLs are crucial for mobile users.
• Duplicate content: SEO-friendly URLs minimize duplicate content issues.
• Voice search: Descriptive terms in URLs align with natural language queries, aiding in voice search visibility.

The key to succeeding in ecommerce lies in balancing SEO efforts with a focus on delivering an exceptional user experience. Unbxd's SDK is designed to meet these dual objectives. By optimizing your URLs and improving site speed, you lay down the building blocks for both immediate and long-term success in the ecommerce realm. 

To know more about how this works, drop an email to the Unbxd Support Team - suport@unbxd.com