planning / Is SEO still necessary for your ecommerce website in 2020?

Is SEO still necessary for your ecommerce website in 2020?

Andy Thorne
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A shop down a dark alleyway, with a tiny sign, is likely to fail. Even if sells superb goods at great prices. The modern equivalent is a website that’s hard to find. We explore the relevance of seo for ecommerce sites in getting people to your digital ‘shop door’.

There are around two billion websites (though not all of them are active). There are well over four billion internet users worldwide, visiting those sites. People use the internet to find information, for entertainment and increasingly to buy!

How do internet users decide which website to go to? How do they connect with eCommerce businesses selling the items they want and need?

In 2019, 93% of all online activity had a search of some kind as the starting point.

Also, before making substantial purchases, 81% of internet users report that they searched for relevant information before they made their decision.

Now the figures get mind-boggling, Google clocked up 2.3 trillion searches in 2019

These sorts of figures show just how vital it is to make sure when customers search for your types of products, they find you in their results.

This is called organic website traffic – a flow of potential customers who locate your business via relevant searches.

Even if you have the budget for digital ad campaigns like Pay per Click, you should still aim for a high volume of organic website visitors.

How SEO connects products to customers

How SEO connects products to customers

Did you know 75% of internet users don’t look at page two!

Google constantly shifts and improves the systems it uses to ‘rank’ web pages. From this process, it then dictates how high up your web page will appear in search results.

Yes, you do have to know how to play the game, and get Google Bots to value your Content highly! However, some of the simpler things you need to do include having swift page load times and a website optimised for mobile phones.

The fact that you appear high in search results is enough to give your eCommerce venture a degree of kudos.

It’s worth reminding you at this point, that few people venture off the first page of search results. In fact, 75% of internet users don’t look at page two, let alone further along! The click-through rates also diminish the further down the first page of results you appear, this is where you will start to understand the importance of seo for ecommerce sites.

Having sufficiently well-conceived keywords on your website and strong page optimisation ensures that you stand out from your eCommerce competitors. You also need to ensure that you practice techniques needed to make wording within search results compelling.

Knowing what drives website traffic, and doing it!

Knowing what drives website traffic, and doing it!

Making your website responsive to mobile phones is a key factor to driving traffic, a poor responsive design has the potential to deterrent users.

There are various ways to drive traffic right to your shop ‘front door’, including self-promotion and link building that’s part of general marketing activity. However, seo for ecommerce sites should always be a central plank.

Yet, there is a tendency to concentrate on contemporary website design and build on different priorities. Making your website responsive to mobile phones and optimising User Experience (UX) is vital to lead conversion – turning site visitors into customers, boosting sales. Though you can’t expect customers to engage with your website – on any device – if they can’t find you in the first place!

After saying that, seo for ecommerce sites has evolved and become more complex over the years. So, there can be a considerable gap between knowing how important it is and doing it in an effective way.

Put it this way, for every 100 visitors to your website, around two or three will complete transactions. Your seo for ecommerce strategy needs to be sufficiently well defined to not only bring a high enough quantity of visitors but also sufficient quality of leads.

Don’t think that throwing money at this is the quick-fix solution either. In fact, ill-conceived digital ad campaigns provide little or no SEO value and create a mass of people at your ‘shop doorway’ who have no intention of buying from you!

Incidentally, it would be a good investment of your time to read our blogs on understanding ROAS – Return on Advertising Spend – and ROI improvements, when you consider paid search projects.

Making the magic happen

Done properly, seo for ecommerce sites can refine and focus your organic website traffic to generate genuine leads at no cost to you. If you build SEO techniques and tools into your website from day one, and constantly update your searchability, it’s a highly sustainable way to keep your sales figures on an upward trajectory.

It’s a simple formula really. SEO brings website traffic. Website traffic brings leads. Lead conversion creates sales. Which part of that process is letting you down?