Are Ecommerce SEO Services Worth it?

Did you know that on average, moving up one spot in the search results will increase click through rate (CTR) by 30.8%? That’s according to BackLinko who conducted research on the organic click through rates of 5 million Google search results.

Why is that important, though?

Well, your position in the search results is ultimately what helps generate exposure and drive traffic to your site. The more traffic coming to your site, the higher potential for sales.

So, it makes sense if you run an ecommerce site, that you’d want to invest in ecommerce SEO services to take advantage of this. An ecommerce SEO agency will devise a tailored SEO strategy to improve your search engine performance and get your site ranking for relevant keywords.

The PESO model: An integrated approach

Image source: https://spinsucks.com/the-peso-model/ 

The PESO model stands for paid, earned, shared and owned media. It’s an integrated approach to the communication mix, commonly used in digital marketing.

These 4 channels work together to create authority, trust, credibility and thought leadership to ultimately build a brand reputation.

Owned media includes any marketing efforts that are entirely owned by you – this includes content marketing, webinars, podcasts etc.

It also includes activities related to ecommerce SEO services (search engine optimisation) such as optimising for SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), following the E-A-T principles (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) and building your domain authority.

Phew, that’s a lot of acronyms!

You own your organic traffic

Owned media such as SEO, is incredibly valuable to an ecommerce business.

There’s a sense of stability with owned media that other media types don’t give you. You aren’t relying solely on Google Ads to drive traffic and sales (what if Google decides to switch them off?), or social media (what if Instagram shuts down?).

What’s more, due to the nature of SEO, the results you get from it tend to compound over time – making SEO a long-term game. This is in contrast to the short-term results often gained from tactics like influencer marketing or PPC advertising.

However, like the PESO model suggests, the best approach is an integrated one. Each marketing tactic has its place and drives value for ecommerce businesses in different ways.

SEO and UX: Name a better duo

It seems as though SEO is intertwined with many disciplines, including user experience (UX). What makes SEO and UX such an iconic duo when it comes to ecommerce sites though?

Firstly, SEO for ecommerce sites involves making sure your target audience can find and visit your site.

Next, UX for ecommerce sites involves making sure your target audience stays on your site and enjoys an easy and pleasant shopping experience.

Naturally, SEO activities should also incorporate a positive user experience.

For instance, on-page SEO focuses on:

Usability

SEO helps improve the usability of the site by removing broken links and implementing redirects.

Not only is this helpful for search engine robots, it’s also beneficial in improving the user experience.

That’s because it removes dead ends and redirects them to relevant pages.

Internal linking

Internal links are pages found on a website that link to another page on the same website.

It’s important to have a solid internal linking strategy because it provides a better experience for both users and crawlers alike.

Internal linking also provides more authority to smaller pages, helping those pages rank higher in the search results.

Valuable content

Ensuring your website contains relevant, information-rich content helps create value for your website visitors.

They’re more likely to stay on your website, engage with and browse the rest of your content.

This indicates to search engines that your site is trustworthy and an expert in your industry.

Ecommerce UX

The above are examples of what on-page SEO focuses on that also impacts the user experience, whereas ecommerce UX tends to focus on areas such as:

• Conversion rate optimisation
• Reducing the site speed
• Reducing the bounce rate
• Mobile optimisation
• Optimising the entire user journey on your site

These different disciplines come together to produce an excellent user experience from finding your site in the search results, to completing the checkout process.

Final thoughts on whether ecommerce SEO services are worth it

It’s clear to us that ecommerce SEO services are an invaluable resource that all ecommerce sites should be interested in.

Not only is SEO a valuable strategy in its own right, it helps lift up other forms of media such as PPC and social media.

SEO works with other disciplines like UX to provide the best experience for your customers.