Organic traffic isn’t like other marketing traffic sources; every potential site visitor comes free of cost and could lead to potential sales. Moreover, organic traffic doesn’t come with any immediate marketing costs, which isn’t the case with paid campaigns.
However, online retailers often get stuck where e-commerce SEO growth is concerned. To start an online store and build landing pages that attract high-quality traffic that yields your desired search results is by no means an easy feat since, unlike paid traffic, trying to increase your visibility through organic methods isn’t just solved through an increase in advertising budget.
If you think you’ve reached a dead-end with regards to effective SEO strategies for your e-commerce business, you’re in the right place. Here are five strategies that’ll help you drive traffic:
IMPROVE YOUR SITE’S SPEED
Since July 2018, speed is one of the key ranking factors in Google’s mobile search results. Site speed doesn’t just impact your e-commerce SEO; in fact, it also has a significant effect on overall user experience. Research suggests that improving your mobile site speed by only a second can decrease your conversion rate by 3.5 percent, increase your site’s bounce rate by 8.3 percent, and decrease your pageviews by 9.4 percent.
According to Google’s best practices, a page should typically load within four seconds. It’s safe to say that the faster your site, the better. It’s crucial for SEO experts to keep an eye out for factors that could potentially slow down your site.
You can start by observing your load time, time spent on site, and bounce rate to determine any areas of improvement. You can also use various online tools available to identify any bottlenecks.
GIVE PRIORITY TO SOCIAL SIGNALS
Regardless of what industry you operate in, social media, today, has become a staple in marketing. Social media interactions are extremely beneficial in the sense that they help improve your business’s visibility, drive branded search, and allow you to build a community online.
Although there isn’t a direct correlation between e-commerce SEO and social media, social media can serve as an impactful traffic driver that directs social media users to your website.
What’s even more important is that social media gives you a chance to interact with your followers and build relationships. It helps you expand your target audience in a way no other medium can. Social media platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook allow users to witness the human side of your business. The most successful businesses today are those who’ve managed to create their personalities online and can connect with customers.
PAY ATTENTION TO VIDEO MARKETING
Video marketing is an excellent way to boost e-commerce SEO and improve brand visibility. Almost 64% of customers say they purchased a product after viewing a brand video on social media and 75% of millennials watch videos at least daily.
An important thing to remember is to always provide a written transcript with any video content you upload. While Google knows when you’ve posted a video, it won’t know the context without a transcript.
If you’re thinking of posting videos on a regular basis, you should consider setting up a YouTube channel and linking it your website with the transcribed audio posted below. The transcription text should be formatted, so it’s legible and easy to read.
Adding a transcript doesn’t just provide Google with context, but it also gives customers the chance to know what the video is about before the press the play button. Use different formatting options, such as subheadings and bullet points, and small paragraphs to separate ideas. The video content you’ve just created serves as a blog post for the video you’ve posted on YouTube.
DON’T FORGET TO PROMOTE YOUR CONTENT
While traditional outreach tactics aren’t taken seriously by retailers, they are, in fact, effective link building tactics and traffic driver that can have a significant impact on your e-commerce SEO.
If your content appeals a website, blog, or influencer with a huge following, they’ll share it and drive traffic to your page, expanding your reach and building backlinks to your pages.
Today’s SEO environment demands link quality over quantity. A backlink from a reliable website is more valuable than many artificial links placed in forms, sections, or low-quality sites.
To build authoritative links naturally, you need to generate content that’s worth linking to. Whether it’s original research, an infographic, or an interactive page, it needs to be able to engage readers. By providing content that’s educational rather than promotional, the chances of partner publishers sharing it to their audiences will increase. You have to put in your effort if you want people to link to it.
USE EFFECTIVE KEYWORDS
In simpler terms, keywords help indicate what your content is precisely about. When a user looks up a query or phrase, a search engine, such as Google, returns results that match what the user is looking for.
Hence, it isn’t just important for you to conduct keyword research and know what your field’s most popular keywords are, but it’s also vital for you to incorporate these keywords into your content. Some of the best areas to include these keywords are the title tag, alt-text of images on the page, H1, and meta description.
USE VOICE SEARCH
With 20 percent of all search queries on mobile devices being conducted through voice search, it’s no longer an option for businesses to skimp out on this aspect. Such queries are usually longer than text queries and are in the form of a conversational question. For instance, on Google you may type out “best taco restaurants nearby,” but when through voice search you might ask “what are the best taco restaurants nearby.”
To optimize your content for voice search, you need to place yourself into your customer’s shoes and think about how they would talk about your products and services. Once you do that, create content that can answer these queries.
Mastering SEO is not easy. Remember, if you’re stuck in a rut you can always outsource internet marketing to someone who specializes in SEO to help you out. With the world evolving at such a rapid pace, SEO is growing, too and it is the only way you can generate leads and drive traffic the way you want.
Remember, every business has its DNA, and not everything will work for everyone. However, once you know what works for your e-commerce business, the only way is up!
Have you tried any of these strategies before? Or do you have suggestions of your own? Sound off in the comments below!
