Why Do E-commerce Websites Need Seo?

SEO Makes Users Find You

The way customers make purchase decisions today is quite different from the way they did 10 years ago. For example, over 80% of customers will look for a product online before making a buying decision. If e-commerce sites ignore SEO, it simply means they are invisible to buyers during the key phases of their buying journey.

Search engine optimization makes you visible among search engines. In the absence of that, fewer people will know about you and your growth will slow down.

Not just that, without SEO your competitors are likely to steal the sales and customers that could have gone to you.

SEO Effects Are Long-lasting

SEO is a combination of practices that aim to make you visible for as many relevant searches as possible. While some efforts will get you immediate results; many of the practices are aimed at ensuring consistent results.

That means the traffic and the sales you will be getting are there to stay with you for years. For a one-time investment, you can enjoy long-term benefits.

SEO Is Cost-Effective

Conventional marketing and branding are rather expensive. Besides, you can only target a limited area. But, with a website that is accessible from anywhere; there’s no limit to the kind of demographic you can target. It’s accessible 24/7. Plus, SEO makes it a point that you can be found by customers no matter where they are in the world.

In this way, you are getting a big bang for your bucks. For a comparatively small investment, you can get big results. In the end, SEO is a highly cost-effective way of getting found by a large audience.

Drives Branding Awareness

There’s no point in having a shop if no one knows about it and what it has to offer. In the same way, having a website is not enough if people cannot discover or find you for the right keyword searches. SEO strategy helps to do that by bringing customers and sales to you via search results.

It aims to make your e-commerce website appear ideally on the first page of search results. It gives you the kind of visibility that is needed to keep those big bucks coming in. What’s more, you can always figure out what kind of store you want to be known for. Do you want to be known as a brand that sells ethnic clothes?

Or do you have a more hip image? SEO gives you the freedom to go with any kind of branding and image that you decide. Once customers start coming, the visibility will keep increasing and your branding will also strengthen.

Social Media Following

SEO works on multiple levels. It doesn’t just boost the online presence and visibility of your site, but it also improves the positioning of your social media pages. This is essential because people like to connect with their favorite brands via social media platforms.

Social media and SEO go hand in hand. They both help each other. The better your optimization, the more people will want to associate with you. And, higher the visibility on social media, the more organic traffic your site will enjoy. Let’s not forget, you can always use social media as a referral mechanism from where you can divert traffic.

SEO Gives You A Competitive Edge

Every day new e-commerce stores are hitting the market. That means yours is not the only brand that’s striving for the top position in the SERPs.

This means you’re dealing with cut-throat competition. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a global brand or a local one; having a website and optimizing it against relevant keywords and search terms is no longer an option.

If you want to attract new customers and keep them coming, SEO is the biggest tool in your arsenal. Moreover, customers will expect to find you online.

SEO Offer Better User Experience

A major aspect of SEO is how good of a user experience you can offer. By user experience we mean, how much time – on average – people feel like spending on your site. Is the navigation intuitive? Does it facilitate easy browsing?

Are the products and information well-displayed? Is it neat or too cluttered? Does the site load nicely on all screen sizes (especially mobiles)?

SEO takes care of all these things and more so you can appear on the first page of search results. And, if you can manage to grab that spot, that means your site is offering a fine user experience.

SEO is the Only Way to Rank Organically

Paid ads are one way to get your e-commerce store found on Google and Bing. But, these methods will last only as long as you have funding. When you run out of budget, you cannot run any more ads. SEO is the only method of securing organic search rankings that offers long-lasting results.

No other method of promotion provides organic traffic or rankings. As long as you follow Google’s guidelines, the results from your optimization strategy can easily last for years.

Strategies to Include in Your Ecommerce SEO

Keyword Research

During this phase, you pick all the right keywords that target customers are actively searching for.

To do this, you can use three ways:

  • Amazon
  • SEO tools
  • Competitor Research

Site Architecture

When it comes to site architecture, be sure to take care of these things:

  • Keep it scalable and simple
  • Make sure it takes less than three clicks to move between pages
  • Create relevant URLs that are optimized for keywords

On-page SEO

In this practice, you look into the SEO health of your website pages and product descriptions. The goal is to make sure that all keywords are placed across all the right places.

This is crucial to make sure that Google can understand what the pages are all about and show them against relevant searches.

Content Marketing

Content marketing can take all kinds of forms for an e-commerce store. It can be in the form of a blog, product description, social media posts, newsletters, email campaigns, etc.

Content marketing does a lot of things. It helps in pushing up the rankings and it also informs the users about what the site has to offer.

 Best Tools for eCommerce SEO

  1. Google Analytics
  2. Google Search Console
  3. Google AdWords Keyword Planner
  4. SEO Site Checkup
  5. Google PageSpeed Insights
  6. SEMrush
  7. Moz Pro Keyword Explorer
  8. Moz Pro Link Explorer
  9. Ahrefs

Bottom Line

For e-commerce stores, SEO is inevitable. There’s no way your store can attract visitors naturally unless you work at it. And, search engine optimization is the only way to achieve that.

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