Why You Need SEO for E-Commerce Websites

As you’re building your online business, you’ve probably wondered what the best way is to draw in new customers to your e-commerce website. Do you opt for pay-per-click services? Purchase more visible advertising spaces? Incorporate SEO into your ecommerce marketing campaign? While each option has its own benefits, one of the most effective ways to drum up new business is by optimizing your site for better search results.

In fact, a study done by New Media Campaigns found that when comparing organic search results to paid, organic was 8.5 times more likely to be clicked. This is one of several reasons why you need SEO for ecommerce websites over relying wholly on PPC advertising.

Why Do You Need SEO for E-commerce Websites?

If you’re looking for the benefits of ecommerce SEO, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to find out exactly why SEO is important for ecommerce.

1. Viewers Ignore Sponsored Ads

Unfortunately, this has been scientifically proven. Those expensive ads you’ve purchased hoping to make a quick return will often simply sit on the side or top of the search engine results page without even being looked at. Scientists have used heat-mapping technology to show where a viewer’s eyes move on the page, and it’s rarely to the areas where sponsored content lies. Why do viewers do this? Typically because internet users respect organic search results more than something that was paid to be in front of them.

Utilizing SEO for ecommerce takes an organic approach. To be organic is to seem natural. If people are searching for honest answers to their questions, they are more likely to click on something that isn’t a blatant ad trying to sell them something.

2. E-commerce SEO Offers Long-Term Benefits

PPC ads are a great way to get your company’s name out there when you’re just starting, but they can be expensive and competitive to maintain in the long run. In reality, click-through ads have been shown to hold a higher conversion rate, but that number is slight at 1.5 times that of search engine results. Rather than putting all of your money toward short-term sponsored ads, you should take a part of that marketing budget to invest in something that lasts by creating dynamic content that will be viewed again and again.

While the content on ecommerce sites is sometimes considered a flash in the pan, meaning that those products may go in or out of stock at any time, the lasting products and top-selling categories should absolutely be SEO optimized. When your product and category content starts to rank for organic keywords, you can keep it near the top of search engine rankings for a fraction of the cost of PPC. Not only that, it’s organic (natural), so it helps branding, authority and consumer trust.

3. You Can Outsmart the Competition

The same New Media Campaign study mentioned above found that only 11% of search engine dollars are spent on SEO, while 87% is put toward PPC. That means that your competition is likely focusing the majority of their advertising budget on sponsored advertising, something that has been shown to be less attractive to users than organic clicks.

One obvious way to get ahead of the game is to focus where others are neglecting and allow your site to rise up naturally through SEO and content creation. While you won’t reach the top spot overnight, patience and dedication can build your rankings till you’re the first option users see. SEO and ecommerce are definitely the long play, but once you reach the top of the mountain you’ll have real staying power that your competition won’t be able to approach unless they’re willing to spend a fortune on marketing ads. In either case, you win.

How to do SEO for E-commerce

Now we’ll talk about how to work effective SEO into your e-commerce advertising campaign. To do this, you need to realize that the easiest, least expensive route is to involve an SEO expert in your website design from the very beginning. There are so many aspects of your e-commerce website that will affect your rankings in the search results, so you really need a professional to make sure your site is completely optimized. Here are a few ways that SEO for ecommerce sites can help potential customers find you as well as boost your organic rankings.

HTML

There are many factors in the coding of your page that will affect your SEO rankings. For example, tags can cause your site to pop up in the results of multiple searches and boost awareness… or not. If you include valuable keywords in your description, URLs and title and image alt tags, search bots will find your page many more times than if your HTML is not optimized.

For example, if you sell nuts and your website is called PerfectPralines.com, a product page with a URL “http://www.perfectpralines.com/vanilla-spiced-caramel-pralines/” is much more likely to appear in search results than “http://www.perfectpralines.com/productid=2252/.” Having each of your product pages pop up on search results is one of the many ways to use HTML to maximize your site’s authority.

Page Design

There are certain aspects of the design of your ecommerce site that will also play a part in what your ranking is. For example, things like graphics covering certain keywords can make it more difficult for search engines to recognize your page. The layout of your page is also important. Google likes traditional looks, so using titles, headers, content, footers, etc., in the proper order and arrangement will make scanning your site simpler and quicker.

Google’s search mechanisms are becoming more sophisticated, but helping them by prominently placing keywords on your site can boost your position and sales. This may seem simple, but you’d be surprised how many companies miss this SEO tactic for their sites altogether.

In-Page Content

One thing that can set your site apart from the crowd is the content on each page of your site. Your shopping funnel and site navigation are just a few of the places that e-commerce SEO can be applied. There are many other areas of your site that benefit from optimization. Good content and commerce sites are inseparably connected.

Using SEO in ecommerce sites will help get people to your pages, but you need your SEO content to be well-written and high-quality to keep them there and ultimately make a sale. Invest in ecommerce writing services that provide SEO optimization AND great copywriting.

Product Descriptions

Having unique product descriptions that make the most of valuable keywords can not only drive traffic to your site but also make your site more attractive to viewers. Many websites simply use the manufacturer’s description, making them monotonous and boring. Make the most of each word on your site by optimizing everything on the product page, from the titles to the descriptions.

This provides benefits beyond just the organic rising of rankings for SEO purposes, but can also allow you to localize and improve your descriptions to help you convert on a more surgical level.

Build Links

When seeking to establish authority, links are a great addition to any site. Consider internal links to direct customers to the proper page they’re searching for, but also place external backlinks to sites that can support your business.

One of the best ways to build your link profile and increase the SEO for your ecommerce site is to utilize a blog that has relevant, informational, educational and entertaining content on it. Utilize social media platforms to share that content and you’ll find people will naturally link back to it if it is, indeed, a great resource on a certain subject.

Site Usage

What happens when a user lands on your site? Do they have to scroll through useless information to find what they’re looking for? Is the site slow? Is it accessible from any platform? Unless your product is truly one-of-a-kind, viewers will likely have many other options to click to if your e-commerce website is difficult to navigate. Having an expert ensure that your page is user-friendly will mean longer visits by potential customers and, hopefully, more sales.

Now You Know Why You Need SEO for E-commerce

So why do you need SEO for your ecommerce site? By completely optimizing your website for search engines, you’ll be increasing your opportunities to rise in organic rankings and drive more traffic to your site. Traditional SEO articles and blog posts can also bring in more viewers; just make sure it’s easy to navigate from them to the specific product pages.

Enlisting writing professionals to create SEO content for commerce sites can ensure that no detail is overlooked and your website has the best chance possible at claiming the top spot on Google.