In the Brisbane retail landscape, the competition isn't just the shopfront down the road in Fortitude Valley—it’s every global giant and local competitor appearing on page one of Google.
For ecommerce managers, SEO is often viewed as a 'set and forget' task or a matter of stuffing keywords into product descriptions. However, by 2026, the algorithm has shifted. Google no longer just looks at what you sell; it looks at how effectively you satisfy a shopper's specific journey. If your site is built on outdated tactics, you aren't just losing rankings—you are actively leaking revenue.
Here are the most common ecommerce SEO mistakes we see at Local Marketing Group and the direct actions you can take to reclaim your market share.
1. Using Manufacturer Product Descriptions
Many Australian ecommerce sites import thousands of products and use the exact descriptions provided by the manufacturer. This is a recipe for 'duplicate content' disaster. If fifty other Australian retailers are using the same blurb for a pair of RM Williams boots, why should Google rank yours?The Fix: Rewrite your top-performing product descriptions. Focus on unique selling points, local Brisbane delivery times, and specific use cases. Personalised, high-quality content beats generic specs every time.
2. Neglecting Technical Foundation for Scale
As your inventory grows, so does the complexity of your site. Small errors that go unnoticed with 50 products become catastrophic with 5,000. Broken links, messy URL structures, and 'infinite scroll' issues prevent Google from indexing your most profitable items. Many businesses find that their technical SEO fails are the primary reason new product launches never gain traction.The Fix: Perform a monthly crawl of your site. Ensure your 'Out of Stock' items aren't just throwing 404 errors, which kills your link equity. Instead, keep the page live but offer related alternatives to keep the user on-site.
3. Targeting High Volume Over High Intent
One of the biggest budget-wasters in Australian ecommerce is chasing high-volume keywords that don't convert. Ranking #1 for "shoes" is great for the ego, but ranking for "waterproof hiking boots Brisbane" is what pays the bills.In 2026, the focus has moved toward intent mapping rather than just broad search terms. If you are a niche retailer, your power lies in capturing the user at the exact moment they are ready to swipe their card.
The Fix: Review your Search Console data. Identify long-tail keywords where you are on page two and optimise those specific pages with better imagery, clearer pricing, and customer reviews.
4. Poor Internal Linking and Site Hierarchy
Your homepage is likely your most authoritative page. If your most important category pages are "four clicks deep," Google’s crawlers (and your customers) will struggle to find them. A flat site architecture is essential for ecommerce success.The Fix: Use a logical 'hub and spoke' model. Link from your homepage to main categories, and from those categories to sub-categories and top-selling products. Ensure your 'Breadcrumbs' are correctly implemented so users can always find their way back.
5. Ignoring Schema Markup for Retail
If your search result doesn't show price, availability, and star ratings, you are losing clicks to competitors who do. Schema markup is the 'translator' that tells Google exactly what your product data means. Many Brisbane SMBs ignore this, making their search results look plain and untrustworthy. When schema blunders occur, Google might even display incorrect pricing, leading to a high bounce rate and lost trust.The Fix: Implement 'Product' and 'Review' schema immediately. This allows for 'Rich Snippets' in search results, which significantly increases your click-through rate (CTR) without needing to move up a single rank.
Actionable Checklist for Brisbane Retailers
1. Audit your mobile experience: Over 70% of Australian ecommerce traffic is now mobile. If your checkout is clunky on an iPhone, your SEO efforts are wasted. 2. Optimise for 'Near Me' intent: If you have a physical showroom in Brisbane, ensure your local SEO is tied to your ecommerce categories. 3. Speed is a baseline, not a feature: Ensure your high-res product images are compressed. A three-second delay can cost you 20% of your conversions.Summary
Ecommerce SEO isn't about tricking a search engine; it's about creating a seamless, authoritative, and technically sound shopping experience. By moving away from generic descriptions and broad keywords, and focusing on technical health and user intent, you can turn your website into a high-performance sales machine.Stop letting technical errors and poor strategy stall your growth. Contact the experts at Local Marketing Group today to audit your ecommerce store and start dominating the Brisbane market.