Why SEO Is More Important Than Ever for E-Commerce Sellers

Did you know that 39% of all e-commerce traffic comes from online searches? This means that there is something to be said about effective e-commerce SEO.

SEO - or search engine optimization - is the series of strategies that helps a website get to the top of the search results page on search engines like Google and Yelp. E-commerce SEO is the same idea but for e-commerce businesses.

Even though SEO is a commonly-used tactic in the world of websites and search engines, a lot of people don't recognize how useful it is for e-commerce businesses and sites. 

If you keep reading, you'll find out why SEO is still important for e-commerce businesses. In fact, it's more important than ever.

Why SEO Is Important

SEO is the industry standard for every kind of website. No matter what you're selling, the best way to get people to your website is through a solid search engine optimization strategy. 

SEO is important because it is one of the top factors pulling people to your website. It determines what ranks on search engines. It looks at customer experience on your website.

SEO is the king of determining the best, most popular, and most helpful websites for customers to visit based on their search terms. Because the industry has claimed SEO as the driving force in the rankings on different search engines, there's no getting around how important it is if you're looking to get your website out there.

Importance of SEO for Ecommerce

E-commerce stores will particularly benefit from SEO. In fact, many people argue that e-commerce stores need to focus even more on SEO for ranking and customer acquisition purposes.

Ranking an e-commerce website is hard. You have to squeeze keywords into small descriptions, ensure that your website is user-friendly, check for lagging images, and more. SEO for e-commerce is not easy.

However, SEO for e-commerce is also necessary, especially if you have a new e-commerce business and website. So, it's in your best interest to learn about the ins and outs of e-commerce and how to optimize your website for proper, effective SEO.

Let's dive into some of the most recent changes in the world of e-commerce SEO and discuss why effective e-commerce SEO strategies are becoming more and more important as a new world of marketing for a new set of consumers rolls in.

Reduced CPAs and Lower CAC

Those who are well-versed in SEO can actually reduce their cost per acquisition (CPA). Therefore, it can lower their customer acquisition cost (CAC). 

If you're looking to lower advertising and marketing costs, you need to make an effective SEO plan. We're not talking about the old school SEO. We're talking about the new SEO that focuses on what customers and searchers want.

With tactics and strategies like those listed below, you'll find a difference in your search results ranking and the number of potential customers you bring in:

• Decrease load times

• Write keyword-rich titles

• Create a business listing with Google My Business

• Link to websites other than your own

• Write and link to great content

• By practicing better SEO, you're increasing the chance that potential customers are going to find your business regardless of the advertisements that you put up. In fact, 91% of searchers and customers claim that they intentionally don't click the advertisements that pop up.

That 91% could be the collection of people in your target audience who are missing out on your content and services.

Focus your efforts on SEO for e-commerce rather than spending a lot of money on advertisements and pay-per-click programs. You're going to end up spending less and investing your money into something more useful for today's audience.

New iOS Tracking Rules

If you haven't been keeping up with the biggest news in technology over the past few months, you've likely missed the conflict between Apple and Facebook. With the controversies surrounding data tracking and privacy settings, the feud between Apple and Facebook could not have formed at a better point in the consumer timeline.

Let's break down the argument. First, Facebook's advertising system uses consumer data to pinpoint the kinds of ads that each user should get. From location to search results, Facebook uses consumer data to choose items that they might actually be interested in.

This strategy is also great for the companies that are advertising on Facebook. They are more likely to get sales when their advertisements are shown to people who already have an interest in the product or service that they're selling.

However, with Apple's new iOS 14 update, the company is making more transparent data announcements and allowing their users to choose what they do with their data. This is known as Apple's App Tracking Transparency.

You'll see information regarding data tracking in the App Store before buying and downloading an app. Plus, you'll receive a prompt when you open that app that allows you to choose whether or not you allow the app to track your data in other apps.

How These Affect E-Commerce Sellers

The new iOS 14 update is great for consumers who have been looking for ways to improve their data privacy. However, it's not the most popular update in the business world.

For those businesses and companies who depend on data tracking to reach their target audience through marketing online, the new update is a death sentence for their business. However, those businesses and companies who have strong SEO throughout their websites won't be affected too strongly by the change.

Obviously, any business that has invested in advertising via data tracking will be disappointed. However, as long as you have a strong SEO strategy, these advertisements won't matter much in the long run.

This is why you can spend less on all of your advertising campaigns by investing in better SEO practices.

The Relationship Between Traffic, SEO, and Sales

Bringing traffic to your website gives your company the ability to make more sales. Making more sales increases your authority with search engines. Increasing your authority is part of a great SEO strategy.

Everything is interwoven together. You need a strategy to get more people that will get more people to make more sales to get more people. Does that make sense?

If not, don't worry. We're going to break it down. Review these steps:

• You make a rock-solid, killer SEO strategy for your e-commerce website.

• You get more traffic to your page because people are finding your website through search.

• Those people find products and/or services that they like.

• Search engines note the traffic and sales.

• Your website's authority increases.

• Your ranking increases.

• More people come to your website because they are finding it through search.

• Do you see the cycle? It's an extremely effective way to take advantage of the new consumer-focused SEO strategy. 

Blogging Is the Answer

When it comes to website optimization for e-commerce websites, blogging is the answer. Search engines have most commonly become an answering machine. They are structured in a way that can answer almost any user's questions.

If you're trying to get your e-commerce site to rank, you need a blog. This is the easiest and most effective way to take advantage of how search engines rank content for users.

Plus, it helps build rapport and authority around your brand. Therefore, it helps your brand stick out as an authority in the space.

As you're blogging make sure that you're paying attention to your topics and customers' searches. For example, if you're selling baby clothes, your customers may be searching how to size their babies or how they know when to size up or size down.

Look at what kind of questions your existing customers are asking on your website, in emails, or on your social media. Use this for inspiration, because it's likely that others are asking these same questions to search engines.

Building Authority and Trust 

We've mentioned a couple of ways to build authority with search engines, but it's more complicated than fixing a few features in your favor.

More than ever, search engines are looking for credible websites that they can send their searchers to. Search engines have to think in their best interest, too. They are also a website.

If the search engine users find out that the search engines are sending them to bad websites, those search engines are likely to lose those users. Therefore, search engines make it their mission to find trustworthy websites that their users can go to to find the answers that they're looking for.

If you're looking to please these search engines, you need to show them that you're a user-friendly website that searchers should go to to find answers about your industry.

To build trust and authority with search engines, you need to make sure that you're following the rules of search engine optimization and creating quality content that searchers will want. The more visitors you get that read your pages and stay on your website for a while, the more likely it is that search engines will trust your website as credible.

Shoppers Are Online

Now, more than ever, consumers are shopping online. Lives are moving at a fast pace, and people are looking for a quick and easy alternative to going into the store. This means that they're looking all over the Internet for fun places to shop and new things to try.

This is one of the best times to invest in search engine optimization. Reeling these key consumers in is the way to grow your business and get your website off of the ground.

Take advantage of search engine optimization rules and social media marketing strategies to ensure that you're preparing your business for success when it comes to online shopping. By linking to your website on social media and using social media marketing techniques like Instagram Reels, you'll be sending people directly to your website. This shows search engines that you're popular and trustworthy in your industry already.

Believe it or not, this kind of outward linking can boost your SEO without you even having to touch your website. There are even social media sites that are made for outward linking like Pinterest. Using Pinterest for your e-commerce website could amount to a ton of traffic and - therefore - a ton of credibility.

As trends change and businesses in the market fall out, you'll be setting yourself up for long-term success in any kind of market. The trend of online shopping isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and you should take advantage of it.

SEO for the Long-Haul

The prime idea here when it comes to SEO is that everything that you're doing is meant to work for you in the long-haul. It's very unlikely that the SEO work that you're doing today will pay off tomorrow. In fact, it's quite impossible.

It takes a while for hard work to set into search engines.

That all being said, you need to hold on until the hard work does pay off. Performing strategic SEO tricks on a couple of pages every now and then isn't going to cut it.

Take advantage of every single page and every single paragraph of your e-commerce site if you want to reap the benefits of SEO. This includes taking advantage of your e-commerce platform. Even if those benefits aren't reached until years from now, you can rest easy knowing that your entire website is prepared for the influx of new customers that it's going to get.

You have to think about SEO in terms of long-term goals and long-term progress. As you continue learning and growing, your website will be able to expand with you.

Hiring SEO Services

After learning all of this information about e-commerce SEO and the importance of it, you may be feeling overwhelmed. Building an effective search engine optimization strategy is difficult, especially when you're a part of a saturated market, like e-commerce.

That's why we're here to help. With our e-commerce SEO services, your e-commerce website can succeed in the saturated market. Contact our team at Bluetuskr, an  e-commerce marketing agency.

To learn more about the world of e-commerce, check out our e-commerce tutorials.