Why SEO Matters for E-commerce and How to Do It Right
Key Points
- SEO is crucial for visibility: E-commerce businesses need SEO to rank higher on search engines, increasing visibility and driving more traffic to their website.
- Cost-effective marketing: SEO provides affordable brand awareness, especially for small businesses that can’t afford expensive advertising campaigns.
- Expert agencies save time and money: Hiring an SEO agency brings expertise, reducing the need for in-house teams and adapting quickly to search engine updates.
Like any other business, a new e-commerce company cannot simply set up shop and just expect customers to start buying.
It will need a marketing strategy to build awareness and desire.
Usually, e-commerce businesses will focus on digital marketing, which aims to get internet users to click on the company’s website from other sites they use.
One of the most effective digital marketing strategies is search engine optimization (SEO).
This works on the simple principle that many people will search for the product they want to buy, but they will not look through all of the results, only the first few.
The higher in the results your company’s website is, the more people will see it and click on it.
If you’re the owner or manager of an e-commerce business, this short guide will explain how SEO can help you and how you can use it most effectively.
The benefits of SEO for e-commerce businesses
SEO is one of the oldest and most straightforward digital marketing strategies.
These qualities have caused many companies to start wondering whether SEO still works.
The answer is plainly yes, although the way it is implemented has evolved over time.
Nonetheless, SEO continues to provide a number of benefits for companies.
Affordable brand awareness
If you’re a small or medium-sized ecommerce business, chances are you don’t have the budget for a national ad campaign.
If you want to make people aware of your business, you’ll need low-cost options like SEO.
Google’s first page of results controls an enormous share of global web traffic, which implies that few people bother looking any further than the first page.
If your company is not on there, you’re going to have a hard time making people aware of it, let alone visit it.
Effective endorsement
There is evidence to suggest that a high ranking in the organic search results, as opposed to the ‘sponsored’ ones, is viewed by many consumers as an endorsement.
This makes sense, as many people know that trustworthiness, relevance, and authority are factors that search engines use to decide what results to show you.
Further evidence for this comes from the fact that even if you make it onto the first page of results, the number of clicks declines with your position on that page.
The top result receives about 28% of the clicks, while the second and third get 15% and 11%, respectively.
Lasting results
One advantage SEO has over other types of digital marketing is that it doesn’t suddenly stop after a certain period of time, which is what happens with some other digital marketing strategies, such as paying to appear above other search results.
How to Use SEO Effectively
An effective SEO campaign involves a lot of work and expertise.
The first step is keyword research, which basically involves finding out what your customers are searching for online.
Content must then be produced that uses these search terms.
And it can’t just be anything because you will want other websites to point their visitors towards your content by providing backlinks.
Essentially, the more of these you have, the more the search engines trust your site.
But this content is of little use unless your website is SEO-friendly.
You may need to make changes to your site’s layout, page titles, meta descriptions, and overall user experience.
This is a lot of work and really requires a department of full-time employees to be done most effectively.
This is why most businesses choose to use an ecommerce SEO agency instead. These are often better because:
They save you time
By hiring an SEO agency, the many tasks outlined above are carried out by a team of experts, allowing you to focus on your core business and serving your customers.
Also, one of the biggest benefits of going with an experienced agency is that they have worked with dozens or even hundreds of companies already.
This means they already have a good understanding of what will drive results, and there is no need for lengthy periods of trial and error while they try to figure out what works.
They save you money
Alongside salaries for your potential new department of in-house SEO experts, you will also need to invest in equipment, software, and subscriptions that they need to do their jobs.
However, an agency can spread those costs across many clients, so the fees you pay to outsource are typically much lower than they would be trying to do everything in-house. That means a greater return on your investment.
Adaptability and flexibility
Search engines regularly update the algorithms they use to order search results, which means SEO tactics that worked in the past can become ineffective overnight.
It is essential for SEO experts to keep up-to-date with changes, and those in agencies know where and how to look for changes and new best practices.
Conclusion: SEO for E-commerce Businesses
As an e-commerce business, improving your search engine rankings can drastically alter your fortunes.
It is not really a question of whether it is necessary but how to do it.
There is a learning curve, and it requires patience, but it is possible to do it yourself.
However, many businesses outsource to agencies because of their expertise.
