Business

Obvious (and Not So Obvious) Benefits of eCommerce SEO

Digital marketers don’t always agree, but there is one thing that’s been a pretty common constant among them.

Search engine optimization, or SEO marketing strategies, are a must for online stores of all sizes, in all industries, for driving traffic and conversion rates.

On that note, here are some of the most obvious (and perhaps least obvious) benefits of eCommerce SEO.

The Obvious

●    SEO offers an impressive (potential) ROI

SEO offers some of the best ROI of all marketing channels. In fact, the average close rate for organic leads (that only existed because of SEO!) is about 15%. Compare that to just about 2% for eCommerce PPC.

●    Builds authority

Publishing high-quality blog posts and other content, building backlinks, and removing technical errors from your website will help it rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs), which users inherently trust more – building authority.

●    Increases brand awareness and visibility in organic search results

This hardly needs any explanation: as your website ranks higher in the search engine results pages, more people will see it – end of story.

●    Can get your website ranking highly on search engines for competitive keywords

Some keywords are simply too competitive, and your site won’t rank for them unless you make a conscious, concerted effort to go after them and related keywords.

And, once your domain authority increases, unseating your website in the rankings only gets more difficult for competitors to pull off.

●    Can boost organic conversions and sales

When you target the right (relevant) keywords, more of your organic traffic is likely to convert.

●    It can improve targeting

Specifically targeting keywords that have transactional and commercial search intent will bring in traffic with a high willingness to buy. You can also use GSC as a keyword research tool to see what other search terms your website shows up for, and apply them to your campaign.

●    It’s highly scalable, efforts compound on themselves over the long term

Search engine optimization really is a lot of work (there are over 200 ranking factors) but the longer you work at it, the more pronounced the organic increases will become.

The Not So Obvious

●    Traffic doesn’t “drop when you stop,” in fact, the opposite happens

If you run a paid PPC or social media marketing campaign, the minute the campaign ends, traffic drops off. SEO is not like that; in fact, what you work on today will pay off in two or three years or even longer (the average page one spot one position is more than two years old).

●    It offsets the cost of eCommerce PPC

Paid search marketing campaigns are prohibitively expensive. SEO is expensive up front but gains a lot of ground down the line, plus, once you “earn” top spots, you don’t actively have to pay for them anymore.

●    SEO lets you skirt PPC restrictions

This doesn’t apply to all eCommerce merchants, but for those in PPC-restricted industries, SEO is a lifeline.

●    It supports your other marketing channels

Better organic rankings improve your overall brand visibility and support content marketing, and social media marketing, specifically.

●    Ultimately results in a better UI and UX

To optimize your website fully for SEO, you need to improve site speed scores, remove broken links, boost security, and improve site navigation. All of those things impact UI and UX, which in turn, impact conversions.

●    SEO is basically “free” PR

Everything you do in SEO is basically intended to boost your organic visibility, which, if you think about it, is basically free PR that advertises your digital presence.

Want to Learn More About the Benefits of eCommerce SEO?

These tips and bits of wisdom and insight came straight from the SEO experts at GeniuseCommerce.com. If you want to see more like these, visit the previous link.