As a retail business owner, not having a website in today’s world can mean that you are basically invisible to your audience. After all, online shopping has grown significantly in popularity over the years, with up to 1.92 billion people shopping online to date. However, being found online is not easy if you rely solely on a well-designed e-commerce website.Â
In order to make your e-commerce website stand out from the competition, you also need to implement an SEO (search engine optimisation) strategy. You might be thinking that SEO does not apply to retail, you customers already know where and how to find you, but SEO plays a bigger role than you might think in the success of an e-commerce website. Keep reading below for just some of the reasons why SEO is important for an online store.Â
Help Customers Find You
When your e-commerce website is being built, your website design agency will use keywords and descriptions for your products and services. This is what is known as organic SEO and is one of the most popular and commonly practised forms of search engine optimisation.Â
These keywords help Google to find and index your website and content, allowing the search engine to show your website and products in their search results. Organic searches often rank as one of the top sources of revenue for your e-commerce website, and if you are not using SEO, you are likely not being found in organic searches. While using paid search (Google Ads) can increase your online visibility, organic search lasts for longer.Â
Better Performing Website
Having well-written, relevant content and accurate product descriptions are only part of a good SEO strategy for your e-commerce website. Google, and many other search engines, will look at the page load speed, the image sizes, and the overall size of your website in order to rank it and display it correctly.Â
But what does all of this mean for your website? It means that your website has to perform well all of the time, which is great for customer experience. By keeping your SEO up-to-date, such as adding in meta-descriptions and title tags, compressing images for pages, and ensuring the site loads quickly, you are also ensuring that your website performs at a higher level. This will encourage more consumers and provide a positive user experience for your customers.Â
First Page Means Better Visibility
If your ecommerce website does not appear on the first page of search engine results, you are likely missing out on a significant number of consumers. Relying on the fact that your audience will use the right search terms to find you is no longer an option, and will not improve your rank.Â
Using both organic and paid SEO techniques will help you to appear on the first page of search results, which will make it more likely that consumers will choose your website for their purchases. Being at the top of the first page can also help, but simply being on page one can work wonders for your business. Not using even the most basic SEO for your e-commerce website will lose you your spot as a high-ranking retail business.Â
It Is Highly Cost-Effective
In highly competitive industries, website traffic can be hard to achieve. Using paid ads alone can reach exorbitant fees for pay-per-click campaigns, and while banner ads are effective, they can also become expensive. However, using well-researched and planned SEO tactics combined with these paid methods can be cost-effective and provide a good ROI.Â
Using organic techniques, such as writing blog articles or simply ensuring that your web pages have the relevant keywords on them, is free and can help to improve customer engagement and gain more leads and conversions. Search engine optimisation is cost-effective in another respect: without it, you will not be reaching your audience and you could be losing out on sales, ultimately costing you money.Â
Traffic Creates More Sales…
…and SEO brings in more traffic. The more targeted potential customers that visit your website, the higher the likelihood that they will make a purchase. You should start off using paid search options if you are interested in seeing fast results or if you have a campaign that you would like to promote.
An organic SEO campaign might take up to one to two months to show results, but it is worthwhile as a tool for gaining repeat customers. Your e-commerce website should already have keywords chosen, as is part of the website design process, but utilising these keywords in content such as blogs and social media posts can drive your website traffic.
Combining both paid and organic for an e-commerce website is the ideal solution for both an established and new e-commerce website. If you would like to reap the benefits of a professionally crafted SEO strategy, speak to NetMechanic today to find out how we can help you.
