The Challenges of E-Commerce SEO

28 April 2021

SEO is an essential part of running any business with an online presence (which, in this day and age, all businesses should have). Think of SEO like a bright sign with flashing lights, telling people passing by that your business is here and draws them inside to check it out.

However, some businesses will find implementing SEO to boost their site’s rankings easier than others will.

Especially when it comes to businesses in the e-commerce sector, SEO can be quite a challenge. Even if you’ve been researching how to improve SEO for your company, you may not be able to find resources that apply to e-commerce companies.

Contents

1 Playing By Google’s Rules
2 Managing A High Volume of Content
3 Bouncebacks Based On Loading Time
4 User Reviews
5 Knowing Where to Start
6 Staying Up to Date

Playing By Google’s Rules

The goal of any business with an online presence is to rank high enough on Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) to be seen by customers. Although this is a challenge for any business, E-commerce businesses will find it especially difficult.

This is because Google prefers websites that rank high on their E-A-T scale, which measures sites based on Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. In other words, Google prefers informational websites over commercial ones and rewards those that highlight genuine knowledge and don’t appear to be trying to make quick money. This criterion is part of Google’s method of quality control.

As an e-commerce business, your website lies in the YMYL (Your Money Your Life) category. This category encompasses websites whose content can affect the reader’s financial, physical, and medical wellbeing. Because the stakes are higher, the scrutiny is higher as well.

YMYL websites with misleading or inaccurate information can trick users into making an uninformed decision, causing them harm. Your e-commerce business fits into this category by allowing customers to make purchasing decisions that can cause them financial harm.

Managing A High Volume of Content

Most e-commerce sites offer listings of hundreds if not thousands of physical and digital products. Product listings are not necessarily written with the utmost care, but Google still parses them like it does any other text on your site, and therefore measures them with its E-A-T criteria.

This can be an issue because, due to the sheer number of product descriptions required, many e-commerce sites rely on automation to update these listings. While automated services can be helpful in some regards, they can also lead to typos, grammatical errors, dead links, inaccurate information, and other mistakes. All of these issues can be detected by Google, lowering your website’s E-A-T score.

Although time-consuming, your best option would be to hire someone whose job is going through every listing individually to update and correct any errors, making sure it meets Google’s standards.

Bouncebacks Based On Loading Time

Your website’s bounce rate is the percentage of users who visit briefly and then leave using the back button or by clicking on an external link without browsing other pages on the same site. While one reason for high bounce rates can be a dull or outdated website, this issue can also be caused by poor hosting.

E-commerce sites often have lots of buttons, listings, and pop-ups. Pages aren’t simple and include many elements. Having so many processes that must run simply to present a page can result in extended load times for users. Unfortunately, most people online are impatient. If your site doesn’t load as quickly as visitors think it should, they’re likely to leave without browsing, let alone making a purchase.

The Google algorithm sees the high bounce rate as a sign that people find no value in your website, so it lowers your ranking and sends fewer people your way, resulting in fewer purchases and reduced revenue. Fortunately, fixing this issue can be fairly straightforward. Either make your website’s landing page (the first page that loads for visitors) simpler to avoid long wait times, or contact your website hosting service and look into upgrading to more powerful servers.

User Reviews

User reviews are a great and almost guaranteed resource for building your E-A-T levels. Google prefers sites that let users review products, as this creates a sense of social credibility and allows people to share feedback, building trust. The more positive reviews your products have, the more Google will boost your website up the SERP.

However, too many negative reviews have the exact opposite effect, hurting your website’s ranking. You can avoid negative reviews using a review posting tool that allows you to read submitted reviews before they are posted.

Knowing Where to Start

When faced with the challenge of implementing SEO as an e-commerce business, deciding where to start can be overwhelming. Google doesn’t give you a gold star for trying, and starting multiple SEO strategies only to quit them midway can even flag your site as suspicious in Google’s eyes.

One way you can get started properly is by using Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to identify SEO opportunities. You can use this particular tool to analyze what competitors are doing in terms of SEO and piggyback off it, or implement a skyscraper method where you do what they’re doing but better. Or you can use it to analyze your own site to find new competitors or broken backlinks. Site Explorer also provides keyword research, backlink profiles, PPC campaigns, and more.

Still, a great tool is only useful in the hands of someone who knows how to operate it. Having dedicated SEO experts focused on boosting your site can have better results in the long run. SEO strategies are multi-faceted, and high-quality approaches are time-consuming.

Staying Up to Date

Google’s algorithms are constantly changing, meaning your SEO strategy needs to change with them. As the owner of an e-commerce company, you’ll need to be particularly flexible and adaptable. Just like posting only a few times on your site and still expecting increasing returns is a flawed strategy, undertaking a half-baked SEO strategy will hurt you more in the long run. Having experts on your marketing team allows you to smoothly ride all SEO waves and grow your website.

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Ariana Smith

I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.

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5 Ways Marketing Strategies Will Change Post COVID-19

To think life will go back to normal post-Pandemic is a pipe dream. The world underwent a paradigm shift to the new normal, and there is no returning now. The COVID-19 Pandemic has brought many changes we couldn’t have ever predicted. The unheralded health crises impacted nearly everything, from personal affairs to governmental decisions and even corporate matters. Business operations, in particular, faced quite a few alterations. Digital mediums took over the world by storm, and e-commerce businesses experienced a significant rise in demand. These reshaped business activities welcomed a considerable restructuring of marketing strategies. Marketers primarily shifted their focus to online tools, giving digital marketing an unanticipated hype. Given the technological innovations rate, marketers expect to see many more advancements in the marketing department post-COVID-19. Read below to find out how marketing strategies will change after the Pandemic. 1. The Importance of Online Presence: If businesses have to choose one takeaway from the crisis, it would be essential to have an online presence. With strict lockdowns and restrictions on going out, the entire world switched to conducting and participating in businesses online. Many also realized the convenience such platforms bring. Hence, owning a website has now become an essential business marketing strategy. Almost 56% of businesses with a website perform better as compared to the ones without a website. Besides, a website is one of the most powerful digital marketing tools. It marks your presence on the internet and helps you get more reach. A website also lets you upload a customizable flip book or eBook where you can share all necessary details about your products and services. It is an exceptional technique to spread awareness about your brand, attract traffic, and eventually boost sales. A website gives your customers ease of access and costs much less than traditional marketing, and dramatically impacts investment return. It is a proven worthwhile investment. An authentic-looking website enhances your business’s professionalism and adds value to it. Hence, having a website is vital for a business’s success. So, it is safe to say that website marketing will be a critical element post-COVID-19. 2. The Emergence of Social Media: Social media is undisputedly the king of marketing. The world is quickly becoming digitally advanced, with social media users increasing rapidly. Nearly 83.3% of people use social media worldwide, and the figure is likely to grow by 10% each year. Not only that, 71% of businesses have a social media account, out of which 90% experience improvements in sales and growth. 90% of users connect with brands through social media, and 54% of consumers make purchases from brands after scrolling through the brand’s social media account. The statistics above prove the criticality of a social media presence for businesses. The future is uncalled for, but one thing is for sure; social media’s regime will only grow. Social media helps connect brands with potential customers and allows marketers to make informed decisions based on the target audience. It also gives businesses an incredible opportunity to grow. The paid advertising options on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are the easiest, quickest, and most affordable promotion plans for your business. So, you can popularize, promote, and increase your brand’s overall ROI without breaking the bank. Social media is here to stay and quite possibly grow into a platform unimaginable. Hence, social media was, is, and will remain, marketers, fundamental focus. 3. Video Marketing: Video marketing was every marketer’s favorite even before COVID-19 and is still growing phenomenally. Studies confirm that videos interest more users than any other graphics form and carry great potential for attracting customers. YouTube and other video streaming sites are experiencing an incredible increase in usage. These sites allow businesses to market their products and services or raise brand awareness in the form of high-quality videos. Video content also plays an essential role in emails. It exceptionally increases your email’s click-through rates and decreases the unsubscribe rates. Additionally, it boosts your SEO by attracting traffic and increasing your site’s searchability and visibility on different search engines. After seeing how effective video marketing leaves on the brand and consumers, it is likely to grow and remain a powerful marketing strategy in the future. 4. Customer Retention and Loyalty: One major disadvantage many businesses had to face due to the Pandemic was to cut down costs in essential areas like marketing. As a result, markets had to shift their focus to different, long-run marketing tactics like building customer loyalty. Customer loyalty helps you stay one step ahead of your competitors. Loyal customers give you valuable feedback, increasing your business’s rating and eventually attracting new customers. Building customer loyalty considerably reduces your marketing spending, but retaining a customer also leads to a more profitable outcome. Remember, customer retention is what powers customer acquisition. The free word-of-mouth promotion your business gets from loyal customers is one of the most significant benefits of building customer loyalty. Loyal customers are also likely to make purchases repeatedly and trust your business enough to pay premium prices. 5. Less Is More: The Pandemic has stipulated marketers think about innovative marketing strategies without having to go all out. They have to find ways to develop creative marketing campaigns, which are both practical and inexpensive. Moreover, with a limited budget, marketers have restricted resources which they have to ensure to save for more than one campaign. In short, the coronavirus has compelled marketers to do more with less. Marketers need to make efficient use of technology to find solutions and make decisions quicker. The “less is more” trend will continue long after the Pandemic is over as marketers turn their attention to enhancing innovation and improving skills. Conclusion: Businesses will undoubtedly have to deal with the pandemic effects for a long time to come. However, organizations have to push ahead. The Pandemic led to several changes in consumer buying patterns which marketers cannot ignore at any cost. The changes in consumption techniques encouraged marketers to think ahead and think creatively. Even though companies cut down the cost of marketing immensely due to COVID-19, the role of marketing has thoroughly increased during the Pandemic. However, there is still quite a lot of room for growth and innovation. These alterations in marketing strategies are likely to continue and grow post-COVID. Read Also: Key Components for Your Marketing Stack How To Foolproof Your Digital Marketing Strategy? Why Email Marketing is the BEST Digital Marketing Outreach in Singapore

Influencer Marketing Tool to Move from Local to Global Market

Influencer marketing is having a high card nowadays as people are indulging more into the Virtual World. As per a survey, there are more than 2.3 Billion active users online and on average active internet users have at least 5 Social Media accounts. So just imagine how much time people actually spend Online. And if the statistics are to be believed an average US citizen spends 1 hour and 18 minutes watching a video online on the Social Media Daily! And other statistics are like this, the Snapchat users watch over 6 Billion videos in a day and the figure on Facebook is around 8 Billion. It is enough stats for any marketer to understand that no matter what niche their Product falls in, their potential buyers are waiting for them online. So the question that remains is How and When to make the approach for the purchase? The best answer for a local brand who wishes to expand their business globally is Influencer Marketing. It is the fastest and most effective way to promote business amongst the Brand’s Global leads. But there are certain things and options that are to be kept in mind for a successful promotion of a brand via Influencer Marketing. Influencer marketing is an important activity of Digital marketing, and here are some statistics of who the most famous Influencers of Social Media were and how much they earned. Selena Gomez ($550,000 per post) Kendall Jenner ($300,000 per post) Kylie Jenner Rihanna Beyoncé Knowles Taylor Swift Selena Gomez tops the chart where each social media post can be worth around $5,50,000. Isn’t that huge? But think of the business people who are paying her would be making from the marketing she does. That’s out of my mind at least. These were enough proof for how effective influencer marketing is, let’s see how a local brand can expand their business via Influencer marketing: There are three options for Influencer Marketing Approach a local brand can make to take the leap from Local to Global: 1. Work as per the Target area and make a progressive approach: This option is for those who don’t want to take a big risk and are a little less willing to spend much in Digital Marketing in the Initial level and then increase once they start getting returns on their investment. It is completely normal for any brand to think like that and for them, the approach towards Influencer can be like this, first make a target area where you want to expand your business. After that find a local Influencer of that area and approach with a mutual win-win situation for both. You make a proposal that they will develop a special scheme and Discounts only for their followers and in return, they do the marketing with a fair compensation paid of course. Once that is done and a brand starts getting a response, move out to other areas with the same strategy and spread the market. This is a long term approach but it has minimal risk and you ought to spend less. The best benefit is the brand won’t be dependent only on one Influencer and if they think the influencer of one specific region is not worth the investment, they can stop doing marketing for that area. So the only loss of business you suffer is from one area and others are still productive. 2. Difficult and Creative Approach to hit a nation or globe: This approach is unique and is totally based on how well you execute the strategy of marketing the approach. The thing is all a brand needs to do is come up with a cause that is sweeping the nation or the globe and start to think creatively in that area. Develop a challenge and form a campaign for the same, now hire a single influencer and ask them to pitch the challenge to other influencers and all you got to do is somehow link your brand with the challenge. This way the influencer will promote your challenge and then all you got to do is sit and enjoy the word spreading across the nation or across the world. The cherry on the cake could be if you are able to profit from the campaign. That can be done by making an announcement that if people who support the cause buy their product, the company will donate some part of the profit to the Government for the eradication or betterment of the cause. The best example is the Ice Bucket challenge, think of one viral challenge and you are done. 3. Third is traditional approach: This is the option where a brand does the traditional approach and contacts an influencer to do the marketing, but there are certain things that need to be taken care of in the campaign. Make sure the campaign is backed with a unique and relative hashtag and the influencer specifically pitches the brand, not just a few tags and messages. Nowadays in platforms, like Instagram people are not concerned about who the Influencer tags but, the effect will be prominent if the Influencer is seen with the product or the person associated with the brand and pitches the brand for sales purpose. Another thing that needs to be kept in mind is the approach to an Influencer is much different than that of a normal sales and promotion approach. Many influencers don't care about the money much but about fame and image more. Make sure to present with something that is beneficial for both the parties. And it is not the sole responsibility of the Influencer to do the marketing of the product. Brand marketers also must put in some efforts and share information on their own social media accounts both personal and professional. Make sure Influencer knows these efforts as it will give a positive boost to the campaign and Influencer’s moral. Read also: 9 Ways To Use Pinterest To Promote Your E-Commerce Store Thus, above were some statistics and options that are available for a brand to take a leap from Local to Global market with the help of Influencer Marketing. Read More: Improve Your Local SEO Via Content Marketing The New Wave: Conquer Gen Z With Effective Marketing 5 Marketing Tips To Help Grow Your Business On Instagram

How To Execute An Effective Video Marketing Campaign

Video marketing is the in thing when it comes to new age advertising strategies. Video marketing is proving to be effective in its marketing duties courtesy of the interactive clips that possess the ‘it’ factor needed to grab the viewer’s attention. This strategy allows you to use short video clips either on their own or amid other videos in video sharing sites such as YouTube. With 70% of marketing firms using videos in marketing, the concept is one to watch out for. Just like any other advertising mode, there are some aspects in video marketing that you can tweak so as to get the best results. How you can effectively execute a video marketing campaign: 1. Focus On The Content: For an effective video marketing campaign, the content is the major driving force. When focusing on the content, ensure it meets the wants of the target audience for it to become more relevant. If you get right on the content, the story behind the video campaign gets a steady foundation and is able to steer itself perfectly. Also, make sure you do not overdo the content to avoid making it appear stuffy or boring. Boring content leads to the viewers losing interest easily which can be a major blow to your marketing. Stuffy content, on the other hand, dilutes the main message which you want to communicate to your audience. 3. Know Where To Fish For Your Audience: Your marketing video’s audience is another key factor that you cannot overlook. Without an audience, your video marketing campaign is simply useless with almost nil traffic conversion rates. As such, you need to know where your target audience lurks and how to effectively get to them. One hub where you can get a decent viewership number is on the various social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram among others. On the platforms, you can post your videos and take note of the number of views and take advantage of the one that has a high number of viewers. However, do not ignore the other platforms even if they register low viewership as it can do some justice to your overall traffic. Knowing where to get your audience also provides a shadow of their wants and needs, factors which you can integrate into your videos for a hiked viewership. 3. Get A Good Script To Go With Video: A good script is a channel through which your video's content gets perceived easily by your intended viewers. This means that you need to get a good script as a guide for your content. For the script, make it simple and easy to comprehend more so if it is an educative piece. When crafting the video's script, ensure that the first few seconds are really captivating so as to hook the viewer till the end. A boring start will definitely result in a skip hence your message fails to get to your audience. Add some humor to it if possible to make the video less boring. 4. Keep The Videos Short: Another trick for an effective video marketing campaign is to create shorter videos. Apart from being relatively affordable and easy to create, they also grab the viewer's attention to the end. Many viewers seem to get discouraged when they see a video is too long and they may certainly avoid it. A short video has them in the notion that it won't take much of their time hence they go with it till its completion. Always keep in mind that the purpose of the video is to get the attention of the viewer. 5. Get Creative With Your Video: When talking of creativity, the focal point is the use of the available freedom to put in various features to make the video unique. Uniqueness sells and in this situation you cannot get disappointed. You can use animation style videos which are gaining much mainstream acceptance and also they do have a larger audience reach. Animated videos also give you a chance to mash up colors and have a blend of voice-over acts to make the video distinct. For instance, you can use a text to speech software to convert your written text into human sounding voices in different languages across the world. With the help of this tool, you can connect with a wider audience globally. Also to give your videos some character and identity, a watermark or logo might do some justice for you. 6. Get To Know Your Competitors: For any marketing strategy to have the distinction of being successful, it needs to either be on the same level or better than the competitors. This requires you to know what strategies your competition is using to stay on top of the game and come up with a nice plan. Make sure that the strategy you plan to use is not like your competitors for the uniqueness of your brand and to also avoid lawsuits which may arise contesting the similarity. 7. Constantly Update Your Feed: To keep your audience hooked and benefit from a loyal following, you need to constantly update your video feed. At reasonable intervals, upload your photos to satisfy your viewer’s needs for more content. Ensure each content is more interesting for them to keep close in case you drop another gem. Consistency is one area where many content creators hit a miss and you do not want to fall in that hole as it spells doom for your brand. If you cannot manage to be consistent, you can partner up with a consistent brand which provides your brand with some airtime which may come at a fee. Bottom-Line: When executing an effective video marketing campaign, your audience matters the most. Every process from getting the content to getting the right script to accompany the video needs to be viewer-oriented. This helps maintain a large following as well as attract another decent number of viewers who relate to your content. Additionally, when making the video get your creativity game on point to come out with unique content that stands out from the pack. Uniqueness is a point of attraction hence you are sure to get your numbers off the roof if you know your way through. Also, ensure that the video is short and straight to the pint to grab the attention of your audience. A nice video editing tool may help you a ton in making your videos distinct. Video marketing campaigns need consistency to be effective hence keep on bringing more video content to uplift your brand. Read Also: Essentials For Digital Marketing Dos And Don’ts Of Marketing For Technology Companies Importance Of Storytelling In Social Media Marketing