If you run an ecommerce business, you can never afford to overlook the potential of SEO for attracting organic traffic. 

Provided you plan and implement it properly, SEO can help you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), generating a lot of qualified traffic for your online store and boosting sales as a result. But how exactly do you increase the search visibility of your ecommerce store? We’ll explain all of it in detail in order for you to understand the importance of SEO for store owners. 

A Brief Introduction to SEO

Abbreviated as SEO, search engine optimization is the process of improving the search visibility of a website in top search engine results such as those of Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo. It involves conducting keyword research and optimizing the content for the target keywords as well as doing the technical setup (coding, user experience, page speed etc). Key benefits of SEO include increased website visibility and traffic, higher rate of conversion and better ROI.

If a potential customer searches for a product you sell, your online store should appear at the top of search engine results pages. Otherwise, you’ll lose a customer and one of your competitors will gain one. 

Proper SEO helps potential customers or clients find your ecommerce store and make a decision whether they should check it out. By optimizing your online store and content to show prominently in search results, you can indeed lead customers through various stages of the buying process and influence their decisions. Not just that, SEO also helps you build trust and authority.

Why SEO is So Important for Online Stores

Among all digital marketing strategies, SEO is one of the most effective one online store owners can deploy to increase traffic, boost sales and beat out the competition. It is through search engine optimization that you can build a solid foundation for your online store to grow and succeed. 

Whether you plan to start an online store soon or already have one, it is crucial to apply SEO in a proper manner. You should first understand how SEO actually works for online stores and devise an effective strategy and then implement the strategy in a tactful way to maximize benefits. All major search engines focus on providing the most relevant and high-value results to searchers. Therefore, your ecommerce needs to have lots of useful and optimized content in order to help users with what they look for. With a firm SEO foundation, you can also deepen your business relationship with customers by way of earning their trust in the long term. 

How SEO Can Boost Your Ecommerce Business

SEO offers several significant benefits for online stores. The best thing about SEO is that it is a cost-effective and sustainable strategy for ecommerce businesses to adopt for continued growth and success. 

Drive Qualified Traffic

Organic search traffic isn’t just any traffic. In fact, this traffic consists of those customers who are specially looking for your products and are considering buying your products. A well-planned SEO strategy helps you attract exactly the type of audience you seek for your online business to grow.

Combined with content marketing, effective SEO can provide your online store with an extra edge you need to succeed online. It puts your business in front of the right people who can be potential buyers. So, you should make it a point to create content that is top quality and relevant to your customers’ needs. Focus on creating content that answers the queries of your target audience. 

Increase Brand Awareness

Appearing in top search engine results isn’t just about getting clicks. There’s much more to SEO than meets the eye. Reaching the first page of Google boosts the visibility of your ecommerce brand. 

It’s a fact that the majority of clicks go to the top results. According to analyses, 50% of all Google clicks go to the top three organic search results pages. Mostly, searchers can find what they look for in those results, they don’t bother to look at or click the other links in the results. The visitors that you attract to your store through organic searches may or may not make a purchase right away. But your high search appearance alongside other competitors increases awareness about your brand over the long term and boosts your online brand reputation as a result.

Boost Lead Generation

Among other benefits of SEO, one major benefit is that it helps ecommerce businesses generate qualified leads. Just as people search online for information, they also search for products and services. Using the right keywords, store owners can capture potential buyers to increase conversions. 

First, you need to find those keywords that relate to the products you sell. Then, you can optimize both your ecommerce website and its content for those keywords in order to attract potential buyers. One key factor that you should always keep in mind is the search intent, which refers to the goal a user wants to fulfill when he enters a query into the search box. Understanding the user intent is vital for creating content that is a good match for specific user expectations.

Get Competitive Advantage

There are many online stores that fail to capture organic traffic, the reason being a lack of proper optimization. Their focus remains on social media and paid ads. By creating and implementing a robust SEO strategy, you can quickly get ahead of all such online stores or ecommerce businesses.

Improve User Experience (UX)

User experience (UX) refers to the user’s perception of a business. As the user interacts with your online store, they should feel happy and satisfied. The overall experience of the user should be positive. 

One of the best things about SEO is that it helps you deliver a positive experience to the visitor. For example, ease of navigation enhances user experience. Well-structured and easy navigation allows visitors to browse various sections and pages of an online store without any difficulty at all. An easy and intuitive website that allows visitors to complete tasks quickly and easily enhances user experience. Likewise, there are many elements of technical SEO that you should take care of in order to provide your website visitors with a highly satisfying experience. 

Improved website experience ultimately reduces the bounce rate and increases the rate of conversions. Whether it is making a purchase or signing up, positive website UX will help you convert more prospects.

How to Level Up Your Online Store SEO Game

Now that you are fully aware of the importance and many benefits SEO can bring online store owners, you should start taking action. Whether you look for more organic traffic and product sales, increased brand awareness, improve brand visibility or enhance user experience, SEO can prove to be a potential game changer. All you need to do is create an effective ecommerce SEO strategy.

While developing an SEO strategy for your online store, you should keep the focus on three things in particular:

High-Value Content: Content can be created in multiple forms and formats. To level up your online store SEO game, you should explore written, visual, audio and interactive content. Whether it is your website, blog content or social media content, you shouldn’t just limit it to written content. Include images, videos and infographics to keep your intended audience interested. Make sure the content you publish offers real value and is properly optimized for relevant keywords.

Website Optimization: Along with a clean and user-friendly layout, optimize your online store for fast loading and implement a clear navigation. Ensure potential customers have no difficulty browsing the website and finding the products they need. Most of all, select a responsive layout for your ecommerce website for proper rendering across various devices and screen sizes.

Quality Backlinks: High quality content will not just drive traffic to your online store, but it will also attract quality links unasked. As you continue to acquire more links over time, your online store will become visible to a larger audience and you will start to see a boost in your product sales as a result.

Having a well-planned SEO strategy in place is crucial to ensure the long-term success of your ecommerce store. The best thing is that solid SEO will reduce your need to rely heavily on paid advertising.

Online Store SEO: Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is ecommerce SEO?

A: Ecommerce SEO is the process used to optimize an online store for getting higher search visibility and attracting more organic traffic from major search engines. The more people can find your website in searches, the more traffic and qualified leads you can generate for your online business.

Q: What are some ecommerce SEO best practices?

A: Focus on long-tail keywords to significantly increase the conversion rates. These are search phrases that contain three words or more. For any online store, these keyword phrases are priceless.

When deciding which keywords to target, take search intent into consideration. Search intent matters a great deal in SEO. By understanding and identifying a searcher’s intent, you can elevate the SEO of your online store, discover ways to defeat the competition and attract qualified search traffic.

Write detailed production descriptions along with unique meta titles and descriptions for each product page to boost the SEO of your online store. This will enhance the product experience and boost the CTR.

Q: How do I improve the SEO of my online store?

A: To improve your online visibility, you should begin with a content audit of your online store or ecommerce website. Get rid of duplicate and shallow content and optimize all product descriptions in a proper manner. Create and publish top quality content both on your ecommerce website and blog. 

Contact Us for Your Ecommerce SEO Needs

Owing to multiple factors such as algorithm updates and changing user behaviors, SEO never remains the same. If you lack the time and resources to handle the SEO of your online store on your own, let us help you with all your content creation, search engine optimization and marketing needs. Please don’t hesitate to give us a phone call or send an email for your free consultation.