Top 12 E-commerce SEO Strategies to Grow Your Business

The E-commerce industry has significantly grown in the last one decade. In fact, both small and medium-sized businesses are looking for E-commerce SEO strategies that help them boost the brand and improve the bottom line.

According to Statista, e-commerce sales were estimated at USD 1.92 trillion in 2016 and are expected to reach a USD 2.35 trillion by the end of 2018.

But just having an E-commerce business and believing in these stats is not going to give you success. What else do you need? Read on to get insights into 12 E-commerce SEO strategies that you need to follow if you want guaranteed growth through E-commerce:

1. Simple Categories

A lot of E-commerce portals forget to label and categorize their products carefully. This confuses the consumer as he/she is not able to find the product they need. Remember to keep categories that are easy-to-understand with logical labels, and filters. Your conversion rates will automatically be promoted.

2. Unique Product Description

This is one of the SEO tricks that will help to break through the competition. It will improve your SEO rankings and drive more traffic to your website. Product descriptions must be unique, not more than 250 words with relevant keywords in the product title and synonyms in the description. Identify high-search traffic keywords in your category before you give your product a title.

3. Attractive Images

Since E-commerce stores take away the touch-and-feel aspect, images play a major role in influencing purchase decisions. You may have a high-quality product but if your image is blurred, consumers will not be attracted to it. Product photos can communicate what copy cannot. Good photos can improve SEO, market your brand and establish an image and also be shared on Social Media for increased sales.

4. Clear URLs

Website addresses should not be complicated. For instance, a www.mystore.com/girls-dresses is more convenient to navigate than www.mystore.com/shop/cat-1245. Have relevant keywords in the URL with every category separated by hyphens.

5. Social Media & Blogging

Sharing quality content on your social media platforms helps to keep the target audience engaged. Inform them about your activities – sales, offers, new product launches, season collections and other details via social media. Maintain two-way communication with your customers, even if it is in the form of a negative feedback.

6. Offer Incentives

This is one of the most important E-commerce SEO strategies. Your customers must feel incentivized from time to time. Such an approach not only increases conversions but also generates loyalty customers. Bonus items, discount codes, and free delivery options over a particular price increases order size.

7. Reminder Cart Emails

A lot of customers search for products, add them to the cart and then abandon the purchase. Sending reminder emails to inform them of their incomplete order is extremely helpful in getting the customer back on your website. Adding a creative copy or discount update in such emails comes in handy too.

8. Focused Re-marketing

This has emerged as one of the most popular strategies to give the customer a hammer effect. Remarketing through Facebook, or Google Search advertising helps to engage all those consumers who abandoned their shopping carts without completing the checkout process. However, do remember that time here is of immense importance. Customers have several E-commerce players to choose from and if you don’t act fast, they would make the purchase elsewhere.

9. Customer Reviews

A lot of customers like a product but are iffy to buy it. Majority of such users scroll down to find the reviews given by previous customers and you must by all means flash all the positive reviews that you have received. Positive customer reviews boost confidence and make a significant impact on your conversion rate. Moreover, reviews help to improve SEO rankings with your product title and some original content posted by other users.

10. Direct Call-to-Action

Calls-to-action actually drive the sales. This must be clear with a single message that does not confuse the consumer. A button that says a little more than ‘buy now’ adds a little bit of urgency to the product greatly convincing the customer to make the purchase.

11. Instant Checkout Process

Most customers hate signing up and leaving in their details leading to cart abandonment. Keep your checkout process optimized with simple instructions to ensure sales success. However, this does not mean that you sacrifice on the security. Assure your customers that their confidential information is safe and secure.

12. Suggested and Recommended Products

It is an art to increase the order size with relevant suggestions at the checkout page. Make sure what you offer as a recommendation is actually suitable and attractive, and does serve the purpose of upgrades.

That’s it! Practice these interesting E-commerce SEO strategies and watch how effectively and efficiently your sales will grow. See how more and more customers start to engage with your brand.

How Blogging Helps Ecommerce Businesses in the Long Run

Is blogging helpful for an ecommerce website? The answer is a resounding ‘Yes’.

Take the case of Marcus Sheridan owner of River Pools and Spas. His blog post on fiberglass pool costing led to sales worth more than $1.7 million for his swimming pool company.

While it is rare for a single blog post to lead to such huge amount in sales, there are numerous small businesses that have seen substantial increase in their conversion over the long term. According to a study by Hubspot, businesses that blog get 55% more visitors and 97% more inbound links.

Here is how blogging can help your ecommerce site in the long run:

  • Blogging improves SEO

Blogging regularly leads to better ranking on search engines such as  Google and Bing. More blog posts mean more indexed pages for Google to crawl. An average company that blogs has 434% more indexed pages compared to one that does not blog. This translates to better ranking on Google.

Search engines also prefer sites that are updated regularly with fresh content. This is why adding new blog posts regularly will boost your rankings.

Blogging will also give you an opportunity to rank for keywords that do not fit into your product pages. For example an ecommerce website selling bicycles cannot target popular keyword ‘best bicycles for mountain trails’ unless they write a blog about it. Blogging will also increase keyword density of important keywords in your site and drive up your rankings.

Lastly blogging allows other bloggers or businesses to link to your informative post and earn you precious back links. Blogs are also sharable and this helps to optimize your site for search engines.

  • Helps in Branding

All successful businesses are great storytellers. Nobody wants to visit a site with just a list of products. Blogging is an effective way to tell your brand story.

Blog lends a personality and voice to your website. Visitors can know more about your business and product philosophy through blogs. Blogs can be used to connect with your visitors and build a relation with them.

An informative blog that addresses reader’s pain points will keep them coming back for more. Educating your readers with what they are passionate about will build a certain brand authority in their mind. They will turn to you for any query in your industry. This helps to establish a loyal online community that values your brand.

  • Increases Conversions

Yes, blogging has a direct impact on your sales conversions too. In fact, businesses that prioritize blogging experience 13 times increase in ROI according to Hubspot. This is because of the continuous stream of traffic that blogs drive to your website. The marketing ‘rule of 7’ says that most of your prospects won’t buy from you unless they have seen your brand at least seven times.

A quality blog will keep your audience coming back and make sure that you are on top of their mind when they think of purchase in your industry.

  • Supports Content Marketing and Inbound Sales

Blogging provides a continuous stream of content to drive your content marketing. Sharing others content can build audience, but how do you make sure your following becomes your traffic to ecommerce site?

Blogs are an integral part of inbound methodology to convert visitors into leads. This can be done by inserting a call to action in your blog itself. This could be a discount coupon, free guidebooks or free shipping in lieu of their email id.

Sharing your own quality content will build your brand authority, drive traffic and also convert it to customers in your ecommerce business.

  • Customer Touch point

Blogs are also a great way to be in touch with your prospects and customers. Encourage your readers to comment on your post to have a dialogue with them. This drives up user engagement and gives your readers a sense on involvement in the business. Blog comments can also be used to choose the next topic for your blog. Many of the successful blogs just answer the most pressing questions that customers in their industry have. Encouraging a two way communication on your blogs will drive user engagement, conversion and feedback.

The importance of a blog for an ecommerce site must be clear after reading this. So have you started on your blogging journey yet?

Digital Commerce Market in India to Exceed Rs 1 Lakh Crore This Year: Study

New Delhi: Digital commerce market in India is expected to cross Rs 1 lakh crore this year.  Growing preference towards online shopping helps digital commerce market to a great extent. According to a recent report, in the year 2014 digital commerce market in India had grown 53 per cent to Rs 81,525 crore.

A joint report by IAMAI and IMRB International added that by the end of 2015, this is expected to raise further by 33 percent and cross Rs one lakh crore.

Digital commerce market saw a steady growth from 2010 to 2013. Rs 26,263 crore in 2010 raised to Rs 47,349 crore in 2012 and to Rs 53,301 crore in 2013. Over 61 per cent that is Rs 50,050 crore of the total market was accounted to online travel. E-tailing segment saw growth by 29.4 per cent.

"Significantly, e-tailing has grown by around 1.4 times over 2013 and constitute nearly 29 per cent of the overall share," the report said.

In the year 2014, E-tailing segment was dominated by mobiles and mobile phone accessories (41 per cent or Rs 9,936 crore) in sales. It is followed by apparels, footwear and personal items (20 per cent or Rs 4,699 crore) in 2014. The report confirmed that consumer durables and kitchen appliances added another 14 per cent or Rs 3,404 crore.

Digital consumer devices like laptops and tablets contributed Rs 2,780 crore. Home furnishing and books contributed Rs 1,059 crore and Rs 648 crore. The report confirmed that 45 percent customers, who shopped online preferred cash on delivery as the mode of payment. 21 per cent said that they preferred debit card payment, 16 percent credit card, 10 per cent Internet Banking and 8 percent through other modes like prepaid cash cards and mobile wallets.

The report said that in 2014, segments like financial services, matrimony and classifieds grew at 5.5 per cent and one per cent.

"The financial services market has grown at a CAGR of 20 per cent since 2010. This market was valued at Rs 4,508 crore. On the other hand, the classifieds market has seen significant growth and is valued at Rs 896 crore by December 2014," the report said.

Since 2010 with a CAGR of 73 per cent other market services had grown and by 2014 it was valued at Rs 2,025 crore. Service categories like online entertainment ticketing, online commuting, online food and grocery deliver belongs to this segment.

Last year, maximum growth in emerging service marketing was witnessed by online food delivery market (40 per cent). By the end of 2014 online food delivery market will be valued Rs 350 crore.

Role of Digital Marketing in e-commerce

Driving or walking all the way to the shop, spending hours to purchase a thing or two and then waiting in the long queue to pay for it..

This was what shopping meant to everyone until e-commerce happened and then, the shopping routine changed to –

Going through different websites, purchasing products with a click and then paying online and waiting for the product to be delivered..

E-commerce makes it convenient for customers to shop at home and hence, it is trending. Due to its popularity, almost all businesses have gone online. But to list the businesses that made it big in the field of e-commerce, there may be very few of them; the reason? Most of them forgot a major element to their success- DIGITAL MARKETING!

Are you wondering what difference digital marketing can make to your e-commerce site? Let’s check out these aspects of digital marketing for e-commerce:

It takes months to find a customer and only seconds to lose one”

You create an e-commerce website and then you wait for customers to flock in and shop things from your site just like a physical shop! This dream of yours could have come true only if your website is the only E-commerce website existing online. But, unfortunately, it is not.

Marketing through online ads and various other methods may attract some web traffic. But, even that very small number of users may not stay in your website for long if they don’t find it easy to use. Greater the user experience, more will be the number of visitors to your website and for that, you need to have enough functionalities. Confused, are you? Well, don’t be. Improving the functionalities of your website is also definitely a part of digital marketing.

If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy in the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends”

That is the power of social media. Social media platforms are where you can find your customers belonging to the younger generation. Through proper marketing techniques, you can easily spread the word about your e-commerce venture in social media and win customers, causing your business to flourish. Therefore, social media marketing is always a great choice for brand building and word of mouth publicity.

Building a website without SEO is like building a road without direction”

Yes, it is true because you are not famous! Not everybody online knows you or your business. For people, to reach a website, it all starts from the search engine and it is common for them to click only those websites in the first page of the search results and just because you own a website doesn’t mean that you are there in the first page. That’s where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and PPC (pay per click) come to our aid.

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out”-R Collier

Success can’t come to you in a day and being a newcomer in the e-commerce field, you may be very well aware of it. It is not at all a loss if you really spend a very small amount of your money in the process. Yes! We are talking about affiliate marketing here, where an affiliate places your ad on their website and when a customer clicks the ad and converts the sale, it is tracked. The affiliate then gets a commission while you get a sale!

A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all”-Michael LeBouef

When it comes to business online or offline, customer is the king. If you happen to satisfy your customer’s need, you win. Digital marketing gives you the opportunity to connect directly to your potential customers. This in turn helps you in knowing what the customers think about your business and what they expect from you. Thus you can improve your online business and reach greater heights.

Creating an online presence for your e-commerce business isn’t that easy as you think, especially when you don’t know the ABCs of digital marketing. You can’t act “I-know-it-all” when it comes to business and you will have to depend on a team of experienced people well versed with digital marketing such as JointViews.

We keep track of the latest trends in digital marketing and hence our approach is always result oriented to make your presence felt online. Our team of content writers, SEOs, animators, graphic designers and word press developers make it possible through our efforts. If you are still doubtful of what we are capable of or if you think you need our service, feel free to Contact Us.