“Ecommerce growth and success hinges on two primary achievements. Building out a powerful marketing strategy for conversions, and creating a powerful ecommerce SEO plan that impacts your brand’s online visibility. Link building, influencer relationships, and on page optimization create traffic and visibility growth. However, that’s only half the battle. Conversion optimization is where brands WIN those marketing efforts”, says Matt Bertram, CEO of EWR Digital, an enterprise level digital marketing firm in Houston, Texas.
There is no debating the relevance of ecommerce in today’s ever-changing consumer climate. As we pull out of the coronavirus pandemic in the coming months, ecommerce will continue to be a staple among households. From ordering groceries online to purchasing family essentials, ecommerce may be the primary mode of shopping.
The growth of online shopping has led many business owners and budding entrepreneurs to venture down the ecommerce path. For some it is a must-do in order to stay competitive. For others, like new entrepreneurs, it is a chance to capitalize on a very profitable industry.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the total U.S. retail ecommerce sales in Q1 of 2020 amounted to $146.5 billion. And continued growth is evident.
There are certainly plenty of profits on the table when it comes to ecommerce. However, building a strong ecommerce site that drives sales can be challenging. Especially for those new to the ecom game.
Ecommerce growth and success hinges on two primary achievements. Building out a powerful marketing strategy for conversions, and creating a powerful ecommerce SEO plan that impacts your brand’s online visibility.
To help you master ecommerce SEO, we compiled the top search optimization tactics that drive more sales. Let’s dive in!
Keywords Play Critical Optimization Role For Ecommerce Sites
A powerful ecommerce SEO plan begins with keyword optimization. This is one of the most important tactics, because organic traffic to your site’s products equals unprecedented return on investment (ROI). Less reliance on expensive ads, more ROI positive campaigns.
But building out ecommerce keywords isn’t always easy. You need to target keywords that are moderately easy to rank for, as well as keywords that drive sales. How do you hit the market for both to get the most out of ecommerce keyword optimization?
First, you need to do the keyword research. There are a number of SEO platforms you can use for in-depth keyword research. Google Keyword Planner is free and can be valuable when searching for the right ecommerce keywords. You can also utilize paid platforms like Moz, SEMrush, and Ahrefs.
Next, you need to do the actual work. Remember, you need to find keywords that are moderately easy to rank for, as well as drive sales. Let’s say you have a running watch product. The obvious choice would be “running watch” for your keyword.
This keyword generates around 3,000 monthly searches, but the ranking difficulty is hard with some serious backlink work needed. It may not be the greatest keyword to drive sales either, since it is pretty generic.
Instead, you can use “best running watch” as one of your product’s keywords.
The monthly search volume is less at 1,800 searches. However, the ranking difficulty is easier with the sales trigger word “best” in play. This type of keyword research will help you build out a powerful list of optimized keywords that drive sales.
Make Site Architecture All About Ecommerce To Drive Sales
Site architecture is another search optimization tactic for ecommerce SEO success. With a robust list of keywords, you can put them to work by building a site architecture that emphasizes hallmark ecommerce practices.
Ecommerce website architecture is all about the structure of your site. For instance, it makes navigation a priority, setting up category and product pages for highest conversions.
The main goal when it comes to ecommerce site architecture is less user clicks to purchase. Optimized site architecture for ecommerce websites should look like this:
When it comes to an optimized ecommerce site, you want to make it as simple as possible for the user. No page on your site should be more than three clicks away from one another. This creates an ecommerce web that maximizes sales.
Ecommerce Content Synergizes SEO With Content Marketing
Content marketing may not seem like an optimization tactic in the traditional SEO sense. But make no mistake, content marketing is a powerful ally of search engine optimization, since they compliment each other for increased search engine rankings.
The problem most business owners and entrepreneurs make when it comes to ecommerce content marketing is lack of content. This seems impossible, but it happens fairly often. For many with ecom sites, they stop content marketing efforts once all web copy is complete.
This leaves out a lot of content marketing potential. Content marketing, when it comes to ecommerce, is multi-dimensional. The types of content that can be leveraged for more site traffic and sales include blog content on top products, social media posts, email content for deals and coupon codes, video content via YouTube, and timely podcasts.
To drive more sales, you need to get serious about content marketing. What are the top content marketing forms to employ? Blogs and videos.
Video content is huge for ecommerce. In fact, 80 percent of marketers agreed that video has directly increased sales. And utilizing those keywords can increase online visibility of your blogs and videos, synergizing SEO with content marketing.
Creating content, however, can prove challenging for ecommerce entrepreneurs and business owners with an online offering. The primary focus of your future content marketing strategy should be all about the user. Don’t be spammy. Instead, serve up actionable and informative blog and video content.
For example, an unboxing of a product you are selling on your site can highlight the features of a product that the customer will see as a solution to his or her problem. Showcasing how to use products via blogs and videos can be beneficial for driving more sales as well.
Leverage Voice Search Optimization Tactics For Long-Term Success
SEO has a number of elements that can be utilized to drive more ecommerce sales. Most of these tactics involve a text aspect. Category pages and product pages contain detailed text that maximizes keyword effectiveness. This is still very much necessary.
But new search optimization trends are emerging, especially in the space of online search and shopping. Enter voice search, an ever-growing feature consumers continue to use and rely on to find what they need online, especially when using smartphones.
Did you know that voice search is the second most popular way to search via mobile device? Other important voice search stats relevant to ecommerce:
- 47 percent of consumers search for businesses using voice search
- 44 percent of consumers research products using voice search
- 39 percent of consumers use voice search to make shopping lists
Voice search statistics like those above drive home the importance of optimizing for voice. But how do you do this? Voice search relies more on natural search queries, and they are often in question form like, “What’s the best vacuum for dog hair?”
You can find the questions people are searching for via voice by searching for a keyword that pertains to the product you’re selling, and then looking at the “People also ask” section in Google SERPs.
For example, “vacuum for dog hair” will showcase a number of questions in the “People also ask” section.
Once you have a few questions online consumers want answers to, you can create content around those questions to rank.
Is Eccommerce SEO Driving More Sales To Your Site?
The above search optimization tactics can certainly drive more sales. This is important, because consumers today are turning to online shopping to get what they want, and what they need. Your ecommerce site should be where they find those products.
Ecommerce SEO can help. Building a powerful search engine optimization plan is paramount to ranking above competitors and converting browsers into customers. What SEO tactics are you employing to maximize profits?
About the Author: MATT BERTRAM, C.P.C., is the Co-Host of the most popular SEO podcast on iTunes. He is the Lead Digital Marketing Strategist and CEO at eWebResults, a top internet marketing agency since 1999 focused on driving traffic though multi-channel marketing built on Organic SEO as the backbone.