It doesn’t matter whether your e-commerce venture is just starting out or already has a significant following, SEO is necessary for maximising your site’s visibility and improving profitability. It is one of the most effective online marketing tools that should be implemented both at the beginning of your e-commerce venture and during any new campaigns, re-designs and sales. Here’s how SEO can help your e-commerce site succeed.
1. Finding Customers
Simply put, SEO is vital for finding customers. Some 89% of online purchasers found their retailer and made their purchasing decisions based on search engine results alone. When you log in to your website’s analytics tool, it’s more than certain that you’ll find your top revenue sources come from organic searches. For many, this will be through Google. If you ignore the need for SEO, you risk your largest potential market and will seriously hamper your e-commerce site’s growth. In terms of a base supply of customers, SEO is key.
2. Prolonged Results
SEO delivers both cost-effective and long-lasting results. When you optimise your e-commerce site for search engines, the results are not designed to be temporary. It’s not like traditional advertising which drops off as soon as you stop funding it. With SEO, the results keep on going. This is particularly effective with niche marketing. Sites like 24mx didn’t become one of the leader’s of motocross e-commerce overnight and nor did they do so without SEO; it grew over time. Unlike other forms of advertising, SEO grows stronger as time passes, until you eventually carve out your niche and become a market leader. Even here, SEO sustains your growth.
3. Cost-Effective
An effective SEO strategy can help e-commerce sites become less dependent on costly advertising and paid clicks. SEO is essentially a free marketing technique. Of course, effective research needs to be undertaken to understand how to best grow your audience with SEO. Many companies employ the help of a professional SEO consultant. These costs will still be marginal when compared to paid advertising. Successful e-commerce business and sites prioritise this use of free SEO through Google, helping to build their niche market despite having tighter margins when starting up. Even local companies can then get international recognition. If you integrate SEO with other strategies, you’ll increase both the effectiveness of your marketing whilst saving time and money through SEO.
4. What to Take Away
SEO is one of the most important marketing strategies. After all, you may be selling the best quality products in the world at the best possible prices, but if you don’t rank on Google, nobody will find them. SEO needs to be done well with a deep understanding of the market to succeed. You can, of course, include popular keywords within your strategy in hopes of developing clicks, but the most crucial strategy involves information rather than content. Your content needs to be both intuitive, informational, timely and relevant. If you get SEO right at the beginning, you’re off to a good start, but don’t be afraid of implementing current ideas to stay fresh.
