SEO Office Hours: Real Questions eCom Brands Ask (and the answers you actually need)
If SEO has been sitting on your to-do list for… oh, roughly forever, you’re not alone 😅
I recently hosted an SEO Office Hours session and the questions that came up were the exact ones I hear from eCom owners again and again: “Will I lose my rankings if I revamp my site?” / “Do dropdowns hurt SEO?” / “How do I stop drowning in tools, errors and keyword chaos?”
So I’ve pulled the most helpful questions and answers together into this blog post.
Q: “I’m revamping my website, how do I avoid losing the SEO work I’ve already built?”
The biggest rule is: keep your URLs the same wherever possible.
If your product URLs stay the same and you’re simply changing the template/design, you’re usually in a safe place.
If you do need to change URLs (or you’re removing pages), then you’ll want to set up 301 redirects to make sure that:
customers (and Google!) don’t hit a dead end
any existing ranking value is passed to the most relevant new page
Think of redirects as a polite little signpost: “This page has moved, but here’s where you actually want to go.”
Q: “What should I include on a product page for stronger SEO (and to show up in AI search)?”
Start with this simple product-page tick list:
Does the page URL match your product name? (Shopify usually does this automatically, but always double-check)
Do your focus Keywords appear early on in your text? (ideally in the product title and the first couple of lines of copy)
Do your product description answer the questions your customer is quietly thinking? (not just what the product is, but why it’s for them)
And the big one right now…
Add a product-specific FAQ section
Even a small FAQ block can do a lot of heavy lifting because it helps customers make decisions (hello, conversion support 👋), while giving Google and AI’s a very clean “question → answer” form of content for them to use.
You’re basically handing search engines a neat little snippet on a plate.
Q: “If my product info is hidden in dropdowns / accordions, can Google still read it?”
Yes! if the content is on the page, it can be read by Google. It doesn’t matter whether it’s behind a “read more” button, a plus icon or a dropdown accordion
Search engines and AI can still access the content.
Honestly, dropdowns are a great solution for eCom websites because they let you include useful detail without spoiling the overall aesthetic of your page
Q: “My audit says my homepage is missing an H1. Is that a big deal?”
If your homepage is missing a H1 tag, it’s definitely worth fixing, and often it’s an easy win.
Most of the time you can take an existing headline/intro line on your homepage and format it as an H1.
And no, your H1 doesn’t have to be your brand name. In fact, it’s usually better to use keywords or a phrase that includes what you sell or who it’s for, because that ties in better with what potential customers are likely to be searching for.
For Example:
Using something like “Modern nursery wall art & kids prints for design-led homes”, tells Google (and humans) so much more than just using your Brand Name would.
Q: “Does a ‘related products / customers also bought’ section count as internal linking?”
Yes.
If you already have a “related products” block on product pages, that’s doing the job.
Google loves seeing pages all connected together (not every page being a lonely island), and these suggested-product sections help with that in a far cleaner way than cramming extra manual links into your product descriptions.
Q: “I have seasonal products that come back every year. Should I delete those product pages when they’re out of stock?”
If a page is already ranking and getting traffic I definitely wouldn’t recommend deleting it.
Instead, keep the product page live and add a way to capture demand, like:
a “notify me when back in stock” button
an email capture form (bonus points if it tags the product)
This turns SEO traffic into a “hot list” of people who are already interested, which is gold when the product returns.
Q: “Which SEO tools are actually worth it? They’re all so expensive.”
You can absolutely do a lot without paying hundreds a month.
A simple approach:
Use a tool like Ahrefs (free) for general health checks / site issues
Rank Tracker is another free software to help you keep an eye on your keyword rankings
For backlinks, use a dedicated backlink checker like SEO Spyglass
Q: “How do I find new keywords (not just see what I’m already ranking for)?”
A: One of the easiest free tools is Google Keyword Planner (inside a Google Ads account).
You don’t need to run ads, but you do need an account.
This tool helps you to check search volume and competition, find keyword variations you might not have thought of and avoid targeting super generic terms that don’t show buying intent
A practical workflow:
search a few seed terms
export the list
filter out: very high competition + very low search volume
focus on: medium competition + decent searches + clear intent
Q: “My rankings dropped but I didn’t change anything. Why would this happen?"
There are two main reasons why your site might drop rankings without you having made any changes.
Google updates and algorithm changes (they happen, they’re annoying, and if you’re lucky the dip in rankings may only be temporary)
Competition (other brands improve and squeeze you down the rankings)
Final thought
SEO can feel a bit unglamorous, baby being consistent, the optimisations you make will quietly stack up and make your website easier to find, easier to understand, and easier to buy from.
If you’re reading this thinking, “Ok… I get it when it’s explained like this, but I still don’t know what to tackle first on my own site”, that’s exactly why I created Found First.
It’s my 3-month SEO programme for independent eCom brands who want a clear plan (and proper accountability) to finally get their website found in Google, without needing to become an SEO expert overnight.
Inside Found First you’ll:
work through a step-by-step SEO framework (so you always know what to do next)
fix the stuff that’s actually holding your rankings back
and get support as you implement (so you don’t get stuck in “research mode” for another six months)
If you’d like to take a look, you can find the details on the Found First landing page.