You wish to master the use of search engine optimization techniques and get more shoppers for your online store. As a digital marketing company with a decade of experience, we believe e-commerce stores can immensely benefit from SEO practices. You can get traffic even from sources other than search engines.
Here’s a four-step guide that can improve organic traffic for your store:
- Get core web vitals in place
Shift to a light website template
The website’s architecture plays a crucial role in achieving good page rankings. Website pages load faster on all devices if they do not have heavy content. A light website template can do the trick.
Your online store product pages probably have a large number of images in place. No doubt, these pictures are crucial. Thus, you can considerably balance the loading time with a light template.
Graphics should be impressive enough to motivate visitors to spend more time on the site. However, avoid bright colors for improving UX.
Improve loading speed
You wish to control the chances of visitor abandonment, right? Do you know that your website pages should load in 2.5 seconds to reduce visitors’ abandonment?
You need to conduct an SEO on-page audit if even one of the site’s crucial pages takes too much time to load.
The audience should be able to visit various pages, look at the catalog, and make purchases within the shortest time possible. A decent page loading speed is crucial for the same.
The content on your website can impact speed. Compress all the images, use short videos to reduce loading speed. A lighter version of these elements can load pages quickly on all the devices.
Another prominent factor influencing the loading time is the bandwidth offered by the hosting service. Websites that expect a large volume of traffic should have sufficient bandwidth. The server should have zero downtime.
Mobile optimization
Half of the purchases made online are via mobile devices. Google has already implemented mobile-first indexing.
The website theme needs to be responsive to mobile devices. However, administrators and SEO services providers need to tweak pages and ensure the site loads quickly. Text content, images, and videos should restructure accurately on mobile screens.
- Focus on four types of keywords
Keyword research is the most critical process in search engine optimization campaigns. Phrases are selected for optimization depending on the target audience’s user-intent stats.
Once you understand the user intent and select the correct phrases, you can expect a lot of qualified traffic, resulting in better sales.
Don’t know what the user’s intent is? What is your target audience trying to accomplish with their search? That’s what user intent is all about. Based on the user intent, keywords are divided into the following four types:
Navigational phrases
Search engine users prefer using such keywords when they intend to visit a specific website. For example, someone might type “Verizon Fios Broadband” as keywords to visit the broadband service provider’s page.
Informational
These phrases start with “What is” and “How to.” Searchers use these keywords during the awareness stage in their buying journey.
Commercial keywords
These phrases reflect the consideration stage in the consumer’s purchase journey. For example, search engine users looking for broadband suppliers in Surfside town in Florida might use “Best “broadband service provider Surfside,” “AT&T Fiber vs. HughesNet,” or “Earthlink Fiber review,” etc.
Transactional phrases
Consumers who wish to buy something immediately often use transactional keywords. These can be product-specific, long-tail phrases as well. For example, “buy Hershey’s milk chocolate online,” or “buy Whirlpool 4.3-cu ft Top-Load Washer online.”
Depending on the results from keyword analysis, you should ensure your e-commerce site remains ready to cater to relevant product searches. Focusing on product-focused, long-tail keywords can be a good idea. You can target customers with buying intent.
- Use content to answer audience queries and concerns
Studies have already highlighted that most people prefer using Google for answers.
Category and product description pages do not have content designed to answer questions and solve problems. And this is where a website blog comes into the picture. Yet, most e-commerce websites do not have a blog.
Several online sellers miss out on a massive chunk of traffic because they ignore content marketing with a blog.
Content improves the site authority. You can also increase the rankings of your main pages by linking them with relevant blogs.
Content can be in the form of knowledge base, blog posts, infographics, videos, etc.
Your keyword research should help you with topic suggestions. Develop blog posts on topics that your target audience searches for. You can also publish tutorials, product reviews, how-to guides.
Website visitors appreciate helpful, detailed information. Such pieces with long-tail keywords attract traffic and result in better ranking as well.
High-quality blog posts also help with backlinks from good-ranking websites. Let a reputed digital marketing services provider develop a content strategy for you.
- Link building
External links (backlinks) pointing to your e-store remain relevant for search engine rankings. They help in determining the authority of your site.
Besides SEO purposes, links also assist in product promotion and improving direct sales.
Getting backlinks for product pages is pretty tricky. Here are three link-building approaches that can work in your favor:
Join them if you cannot beat them
The strategy, best described with the above quote, involves analyzing the backlinks of your competitors.
Make a list of e-commerce sites in your niche, and check what’s working for them. You can use SEMrush Backlinks to find the same.
Note down details for the websites and pages that your competitors have backlinks from. Also, check the pages that they connect to.
Yes, you guessed it right; you should reach out to those websites, blogs, and influencers and pursue them to provide a backlink to your store. Hopefully, the strategy can help you get a few valuable links in the first go while you develop your plan.
Rope-in influential bloggers
Link building with the help of influential bloggers is a tried and tested technique. You can engage reputed bloggers in your industry to get coverage for your store.
Remember, never pay for backlinks. Let bloggers write genuine reviews. Offer them discount coupons, allow them to order something from your store.
Bloggers enable you to take your offerings to a largely untapped audience. So, let them cover both positive and negative aspects concerning your e-store.
Once reviews are in place, you can surely get traffic, links, and engagement for your site.
Backlinks with video marketing
Video content consumption and appreciation are growing due to easy access to the internet in most countries. In-depth instructional videos, product description clips can bring your brand’s products to life.
For instance, if your e-commerce store sells beauty products, you can create product review videos with Instagram influencers. Top tips and tricks to improve appearance can also generate interest in audiences. Sharing the same content on YouTube and embedding the same with your product pages, blog posts can be a good idea.
In Closing:
Why spend on paid campaigns when you can get organic traffic without emptying the bank? Let a reputed digital marketing agency implement these strategies for you.
