In today’s competitive online world where every company is trying to get a part of the user’s wallet share for their products and services, it has become increasingly important to be visible on platforms where users are looking for your products/services. This is true and even more important if you are an online seller and want to reach out to users searching for your kind of products or services.
Typically, a user’s search for a particular product or service starts from Google search and if you as an online seller are not visible to these users, then you are surely missing out on a large sales opportunity. Being visible on search engines is not an option but a must for every Ecommerce company today and it should be considered as a building block for your Ecommerce marketing strategy.
I’m sure you must have heard about Search Engine Optimization or SEO which can help you reach out to these users on Google search, but a regular SEO strategy may not be very effective and get you the best results for your Ecommerce business.
Before you plan your search engine optimization strategy, it is extremely important to first understand the user behavior. You must understand what keywords they use on Google search, what is their intent when they search, etc. Understanding this behavior is extremely important before you start your SEO process since it will help you finalize your strategy and help you define which users to target, what keywords to optimize for, etc.
Ideally, you should not try to target all users searching on Google, and target only specific users looking to buy your products on Google. The strategy to focus on less users looking to buy as against more users who may or may not be looking to buy is the fundamental difference between regular SEO and Ecommerce SEO.
What is Ecommerce SEO ?
Ecommerce Search Engine Optimization or popularly known as Ecommerce SEO is quite different from a regular SEO strategy in more than one way, as explained below :
Traffic Source
In regular SEO, you normally optimize the website to increase the website rank in Google organic search only. The focus is around organic search results only and you create meta tags keeping only this source in mind.
In Ecommerce SEO, we surely focus on improving website rank in Google organic search, but that is not the only source of traffic we focus on. We also look at potential users who could come to your site from Google Shopping as a channel. Thus, our approach of using meta tags on website changes strategically keeping these two traffic sources in mind.
SEO Keyword Selection
In regular SEO, you normally select keywords basis the search volumes, i.e., keywords which are searched maximum number of times in Google search. But in Ecommerce SEO we select the keywords where users have a higher purchase intent, even if their monthly search volumes are relatively low on Google.
For example, if you are selling Designer Shirts online, then you should optimize your website for long tail keywords like “Buy designer shirts online” where the intent of the user is to make an online purchase, as against a keyword like “Designer shirts”.
Even though the monthly search volume for the primary keyword “Designer shirts” may be much higher, but the users using this keyword in search may not be looking to buy designer shirts online immediately or in near future. The intent of this keyword is not clear and thus, the probability of converting such users into paying customers is low.
On the other hand, even though there may be limited number of searches for a long tail keyword like “Buy designer shirts online” but the intent of users using this key phrase is clear and the probability of this user coming on to your website and making a purchase is much higher.
Another advantage of selecting these long tail keywords is that the competition on these keywords is relatively low as compared to primary keywords. Thus, these keywords can come up in SERPs much faster than primary keywords.
We strongly recommend you to select the keywords which are high on purchase intent as against primary high traffic keywords for your Ecommerce business. Of course, once you have curated a list of all purchase intend keywords, you can then prioritize the top keywords from within this list basis the monthly search volumes.
SEO Content Strategy
In regular SEO, your usual content strategy is to create long form story format content where every article contains more than 1,000 words. You then stuff the relevant keywords within this long article.
However, in Ecommerce SEO the content is written with an intent to sell the product/service and thus the entire content revolves around explaining the quality and benefits of the product/service being offered. The article need not necessarily be a long form content. It can be short and to the point with the relevant keywords used and should educate and influence the user to buy the product/service from your website.
SEO Measurement Metric
In regular SEO, you normally monitor the monthly website position in SERPs against every keyword and take this rank as your primary metric to measure the success for your SEO. This is a good KPI for non-Ecommerce website.
Read our SEO case study : How we achieved rank 1 in Google for our Client with our Search Engine Optimization Strategy
However, since the objective of Ecommerce business is to drive sales, in Ecommerce SEO we measure the increase in organic revenue as the primary measurement metric instead of keyword ranking. Thus, we decide to modify the keywords mix basis the organic revenue instead of just the website rank.
Considering the above differences between regular SEO and Ecommerce SEO, the latter is surely much more suitable and beneficial for an Ecommerce business and becomes a building block for any Ecommerce website today.
What is the Importance of Ecommerce SEO ?
Ecommerce SEO is not an option but a must for every Ecommerce business today, primarily because of the following reasons :
- It drives relevant users to your website from search engines, who have an intent to buy immediately or in the short run.
- It directly impacts your sales and revenue without any advertising spends.
- It helps improve your conversion rates. Since the users land on your website after searching for specific keywords, thus the probability of these users buying are much higher as compared to users coming from any other marketing channel.
Thus, if you have been doing regular SEO for your Ecommerce business, it is time to re-think your SEO strategy.