SEO for e-commerce is not that much different than SEO for anything else, but it does have some unique aspects you'll want to bear in mind.

With quite a few new players in the e-commerce game lately, the importance of getting your site noticed and ranked above the others is crucial.

The fundamentals of SEO, such as great content, quality inbound links and a good social media campaign, undoubtedly apply for e-commerce sites, too. But there are other important strategies that need to be applied in regards to SEO for e-commerce sites.

Related: 5 Hosted E-commerce Software Solutions

5 Best Practices in SEO for E-commerce

Unique content – Don't make the mistake that most newcomers to e-commerce make when building their product pages, that is simply copying and pasting an Amazon or other product description they find somewhere onto their pages. This doesn't sit well with Google, and you won't rank well. Make unique content for your pages!

Reviews and social proof – Very often the factor that tips the sale in your favor is the inclusion of product reviews and other social proof in the form of testimonials. These are gold: use them!

Use redirects on dead product pages – Too often when a product is no longer being sold, the page lives on, though usually in the form of a 404 error page. This is a bad on-site SEO signal to Google, and will hurt you. Instead, us a simple 301 redirect to send that traffic to new or current pages.

Related: 5 Mistakes That Can Kill Your Sales Conversions

Use unique imagery – Use unique images on your pages too. Like duplicate content in the form of text, using the same images found on Amazon won't help you. If you can tackle some image editing, it's simple enough to alter the images enough to make them unique, and perhaps adding a message of your own.

Use diverse content – Make an effort to use as many different types of content as possible. Infographics, customer video testimonials, and product demos can all lead to a richer customer experience in Google's eyes.

Using these small changes together with traditional on-page SEO can lead to your pages leapfrogging over the competition. All it will require is a little more work!

You need to set up an online e-commerce store for your business but are simply overwhelmed at the choices laid out there before you. Hosted or self-hosted? Expensive all-in-one solution or piece it together?

We feel your pain, and in the interests of making life a little easier in this regard, we've come up with a list of 5 hosted e-commerce software solutions that will do just that.

We're only going to consider hosted e-commerce software solutions this time, as self-hosted is a much more daunting endeavor, requiring a great deal more technical savvy than many new e-commerce entrepreneurs possess. Never fear though, as after looking through these choices, you'll be far better armed to make a smart decision on what's best for your company and business!

5 Software solutions for E-commerce stores

Shopify

Photo Credit: Flickr/Daniel Weinand | CC BY-ND 2.0 License

Shopify is well known as the being dog in this space, and it's definitely an earned reputation. Possessing all of the tools necessary for you to make an attractive and easy to use platform, they also have a lot of awesome themes to give your store the perfect look. Not the cheapest, but clearly the best. So far they have more than 160,000 stores online.

BigCommerce – Another in the drag and drop variety, BigCommerce is similar to Shopify, but in my opinion a bit more complicated to use. Still they have their adherents, as 90,000 stores will attest to!

Wix E-Commerce

One of the easiest to use tools with Wix you can literally have your store up in a matter of a few hours, depending on the number of your offerings. They offer tons of flexibility and a fully integrated shopping cart. Learn more about Wix E-commerce here.

Weebly E-Commerce – The e-commerce tool of choice for more than 440,000 sites, Weebly makes it easy to produce a store, but in my experience the building platform can be slow and unresponsive. Still, a good tool for beginners. Click here for more information.

SquareSpace

Photo Credit: Flickr/SATOSHI TOMIYAMA | CC BY-SA 2.0 License

This solution offers some spectacular looks and can help you produce a good-looking store in no time. Although they may not have as many features as Shopify and BigCommerce, you can picture Squarespace as a lower-cost little brother. Learn more about Squarespace here.

We all want more sales conversions, but some times we wind up being our own worst enemies in this area. Mistakes are easy to make here, and usually irreversible. So in the spirit of continuing to learn the craft of conversion, let's check out how we can avoid making mistakes we can do something about.

Related: Check Out These 10 Tips For Small Business SEO

5 Mistakes That Can Ruin the Sale

Not listening – Many times people spend far more time talking than listening. This is a big problem in sales calls. Not only do you need to hear what they are saying and decipher exactly what they really want or need, you also don't need to spend a lot of time talking about yourself, as they likely don't care!

Not providing a solution – Concentrate on providing a solution for the problem the person is wanting to solve, rather than selling your product. If you establish how your product or service can solve their most pressing problems, you'll be a lot more successful.

Related: 7 Ideas For Thanking Your Clients Using Social Media

Be prepared – Take it upon yourself to do your homework, and understand as much as possible about the company and the person you'll be talking to as you can. Check out their website, social media pages and Google the people. This minimizes the chance you'll be blindsided by information you could have easily found out.

Not staying focused – While it's always a good idea to do a bit of relationship building in a sales call, this can backfire if you don't remember why you're actually there. Remain focused on the reason for being there, and don't use up their available time without having to rush your pitch at the end.

Ask for the sale – The biggest reason many sales calls don't convert is they didn't ask for the sale. Fully understand why you're there, and don't be shy about asking for a decision. You just might get a yes!

Opening up shop on the internet can be a fearsome task if you're unfamiliar with all the tech involved, and who is? Particularly when you are looking at e-Commerce solutions and payment portals. Unless you've dealt with this kind of software before, you are pretty much in the dark about what you need and how much it should cost.

To help diminish this task a bit, see these 5 e-commerce platforms for you to begin your search. There are many more, certainly, but these are solid solutions that will get you started.

5 Terrific E-Commerce Solutions for startups

Volusion – Volusion is a good place to get your feet wet. Very economical at just $15 a month and no transaction fees, they have lots of of templates, a powerful website builder, along with numerous other features including SEO built right in, and a shopping cart, as well as 24/7 support.

Square Market – If you want a solution fast, then Square Market could be right for you. You can be accepting sales within a few minutes, with a surprisingly large number of features as well. You can use your own logo, imagery and more. They are a mobile ready solution, with all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a more expensive choice. They don't charge a monthly fee; only 2.75% per transaction.

Shopify – Starting at $14 a month with no transaction fees, Shopify is another choice at the entry level. One nice addition from them is Shopify Mobile (Shopify's own mobile credit card reader) and Shopify POS (Shopify's iPad point-of-sale system) which let you be making sales on the road or wherever you are.

WooCommerce – If you are using WordPress as many of us are, one of the best choices available would be WooCommerce, which effortlessly integrates into your existing WordPress site, and can take advantage of the many plugins and advantages WordPress has to offer.

BigCommerce – One of the initial and now serving the mid-level market and over 55,000 websites, BigCommerce has a lot more features, but can also be a tad more complicated. Primarily designed for mid to high volume businesses. Prices start at $29.95 with a 1.5% transaction fee.

Understanding why individuals purchase online is crucial for anybody striving to earn money selling online. Not just does it make forming your sales materials a lot easier, you'll have a leg up when thinking about how to spend money on marketing.

It might seem evident to you why people decided to make their purchases online. But you'll be shocked at some of the top factors individuals show why they make the choice to buy online.

So without additional hoopla let's take a peek at 5 of the leading reasons people buy online.

5 Reasons individuals buy online

Normally a far bigger selection and choice– Most online shops bring a far wider option of products for sale than a brick and mortar establishment is able to show within their walls.

People want to read reviews and evaluations from other purchasers – Individuals will certainly search for whomever they can discover for a viewpoint on the item, as long as it's not from the business itself.

Time cost savings – These days everyone is crazy busy, and the thought of having to get into your vehicle, head out to shop from shop just to find the items you're interested in at the right rate and model is downright daunting. It's now far easier and time effective to do all of it online, and have it sent directly to your door instead of battling traffic and using up gas.

Free shipping – One of the top factors people provide for buying online is the accessibility to obtain free shipping. In many cases, it's been demonstrated that totally free shipping trumps even a more rewarding rate discount! Go figure!

Easy return procedure – Face it, you might not like it. If one trip outside the house was too much, think of how much you'll hate two! Having a rock solid assurance and simple return process is a huge aspect for individuals deciding to buy online.

Going to all the trouble and work of convincing a prospective buyer to the checkout page, and then seeing them abandon the cart, as some 67 percent of them do, is a real problem.

Sometimes the reasons are none of your doing: second thoughts, insufficient funds, kids spilling face paint all over the floor. We get it. But more often than not, it is likely something we've either done or not done that leads to shopping cart abandonment. Here's 7 ways to help keep you from creating problems for yourself, while improving your checkout page conversions many times over.

7 Ways to improve checkout page conversions

1. Free shipping – If at all possible, you need to be able to offer free shipping for any physical product you can. Of course if you're selling tractors, we can fudge some here, but high shipping costs and the lack of perceived value in that are the #1 reason people abandon shopping carts.

2. Words matter – The text you use on your calls to action and especially any buy buttons needs to be carefully planned and tested. It can be the difference between a purchase or an exit.

3. Clutter free forms – Make sure you're not asking for anything you don't really need in your shopping cart forms with respect to information. People are only going to give you what's needed for the transaction, and if you press for more, they're outa there.

4. Reassurance works – Trust seals and especially guarantees near the credit card fields make a huge difference.

5. Easy contact information – Give prospective customers ways to contact you if they need more information. This can be an email, phone or webpage.

6. Images sell – It's comforting for a person to see what they're buying before they pull the trigger. Including a small product thumb nail on the checkout page can suffice.

7. Live chat – If you find that your product offering is getting a lot of questions, check your sales copy and consider offering a live chat solution to help. The mere act of connecting with another human may be all the impetus they need to complete the sale.