With the growing use of the Internet, busier schedules and more work hours, more and more retail outlets are opening up ecommerce stores to cater to the large chunk of Internet users who want to order from the comfort of their homes. “Business owners need an e-commerce solution so people can quickly act on the deal. 44% of US tablet owners and 24% of smartphone owners use their devices to shop while watching TV. Also, 14% of US tablet owners and 7% of smartphone owners have used their devices to buy an advertised product while watching TV. - Forrester Research  

Ecommerce has become an indispensable part of our economy. It is unrealistic for retailers to ignore this option and continue with the age old brick and mortar model. It is time for businesses to make ecommerce part of their business strategy, otherwise the competition will bring their sales down. Even as a beginner in ecommerce, the tools and resources are all laid out for you. All you need is a strong work ethic and a desire to succeed.

SEO is not dead, as opposed to common myth. If you have doubts about boosting your site’s SEO, give the following reasons a thorough read to sustain and grow your business in the tech world.

SEO builds credibility

Everyone is Googling things these days. Search is the name of the game and being on top of the rankings boosts your credibility. Well-recognized online brands are the ones which are always popping up on our feeds or our search results. So, when people search for a relevant keyword or phrase online, they should be able to find your store in the search results. Consumer psychology does the rest by motivating people that this store is the best to buy from.

The meta tags and title descriptions on your site can act as a powerful means of strengthening your brand in the eye of the searcher, convincing them to become a customer. It can spread a powerful marketing message in line with your business goals. The customers will believe that you’re the best, that’s why your site is the first result when they search. This can prove beneficial for your sales and promotion and for getting the word across that your brand is worth it.

SEO is a long-term strategy

Despite popular belief, SEO can deliver quick results. For stores that want customers and sales, it can be a good way to pitch the fork. That’s the primary appeal of SEO to ecommerce store owners. However, the real effects of SEO show up in the long run. Pay Per Click and other ads are effective in gaining visitors fast, but these customers can also bounce off or abandon shopping carts midway. Plus, these services cost money. Store owners prefer a strategy that keeps offering results in the long run.

With proper analysis and optimization, your business can stay on the front page for years, which is equal to having a shop at Fifth Avenue in New York. Even if you stop somewhere down the road, your brand continues to shine on, another reason why you should consider using SEO strategies on your ecommerce store.

Attract relevant traffic for high conversions

The Internet is a vast market, with all sorts of people, so you obviously want your ideal customers to find your business. Keyword analysis in SEO can give you an idea of the audience. How many people search for this keyword, how much competition is there, and you can even find out the intent behind those searches. By correctly tapping on to user intent, demographics and buyer personas, you can address your audience’s concerns and build lasting relationships.

Trip Advisor is a good example. People are bound to type in queries like ‘stay in dubai’ or any other city, when they have to travel. Trip Advisor is dutifully present when they have a travel query in mind. People trust this service because it gets them the best hotels, the best restaurants and the best discounts. With SEO, your store can also enjoy a high rate of visitor-to-sales conversion.

SEO is cost-effective

Not many marketing strategies will pay you off as well as an SEO strategy. When choosing an SEO agency, you might want to choose the cheapest one available, but it is actually advisable to choose the one which makes most sense. Why? Because of the simple fact that SEO is not a cost but an investment. So if a high-priced agency is charging you a lot, as store owner you should delve in the depths to inquire why they are doing so. Why is this agency so confident about their work that they are pitching something so expensive to you?

Also, if this agency helps you in achieving your milestones in half the time, was the service costly? If you are getting visitors who want to buy your stuff and bounce rates are decreasing as a result of this SEO strategy, then why not go for it? Your SEO investment will always have a high return. This is why digital marketing gurus like to compare SEO to real estate. They claim that if you do everything right – depending on your own objectives – SEO can get you a massive ROI because your store will rank on the first page and receive hundreds of visitors every hour of the day.

SEO contributes highly to your store’s marketing

SEO can help in marketing any business on the web. It can help pull in prospects and then convert them into paying customers. However, SEO is not the only trick in town that can promote your business if you aspire for growth. Your highest marketing potential will be hit if you gather social media marketing, inbound marketing, branding and other marketing tactics to complement your SEO strategy. This combination will become the strength of your marketing and will have the ability to boost your store’s exposure.

If you are the manager or owner of an ecommerce business, your ultimate marketing task is to infuse these tactics one by one in your marketing mix and then wait for them to bear fruit. This is about the combined effects of the mix, so that your products are shown on social media, known as a brand and also rank high on search engines.

SEO and blogging can get you more sales

Google loves content and the sites which post unique content regularly are ranked higher by Google. If you are an ecommerce store but you also wish to be a known name in business, then blogging can help your website achieve this cause. The reason behind keeping a blog is simple: it explains things better than a product page or a product description. While your pages are properly optimized to welcome customers and display products, your blog contributes to retain part of this circle. Blogs are also a way of promoting your business. Blogging can bring a dramatic boost in sales because certain keywords, when used over and over again on your blog, can lead readers to your store via search results. Here is how you can involve blogging in your core SEO strategy:

Publish comprehensive content: In ecommerce, you are sometimes competing with giants who have a lot of budget to spend on their SEO strategy and can rank better. Blogging can be your saving grace here. Google loves content and this content can push your site on top of the search results.

Use your blog for internal link building: Every site needs a lot of links to rank higher on search engines. By using your blog effectively, you can boost your domain authority and search traffic to your original posts. These particular posts can then divert traffic to your popular product pages. By writing high quality content on your blog, you can grab the attention of users and then do effective outreach so people can link to this content. This content will improve SEO, link back to your product pages and funnel some link juice. Websites also use the Skyscraper technique to boost traffic via blog, but ecommerce pages can’t rely on this one completely.

Answer user queries with the help of blogposts: We type questions like ‘what is the best place to get frozen yogurt in Boston?’ on Google. When user queries push them to venture out on the Internet for solutions, you should work on presenting the solutions on your blog. Helping a person in their time of need will emblazon your brand in their mind.

Show the everyday usage of your products via blogging: You can make how-to videos, infographics, posts or photos to show people the daily usage of your products. It brings the relevance to your business and people like to buy stuff they can relate to.

SEO helps sustain your business

You definitely plan to be more successful than the 90% businesses which fail after two months. To achieve an equilibrium in business, you should adopt SEO strategies so that even if all goes wrong, visitors are still flocking in your trusted store and buying your products.

Starting an ecommerce business can be fast, relatively easy, and not very expensive. But with something like an 80-percent failure rate, creating a successful online business is more challenging than some entrepreneurs imagine.- Practical Ecommerce

Every business is unique, but in the failure of ecommerce stores, there are certain things that contribute the most:

Too much competition: It is likely that you have a lot of competition when you enter the market. The important question is: what are you doing about it?

If a retailer has opened an ecommerce store and is selling Xbox, there are already hundreds of well-established retailers who sell Xbox online. You should find either a niche or a good marketing strategy to stay afloat. Good SEO can help in standing out of the crowd.

A bad website: A bad business website or a site with no search engine or mobile optimization is a big failure for ecommerce. A modern ecommerce site should be highly functional, have a powerful search and load within three seconds. You can also choose pre-existing software like Shopify to start a store. These platforms are great for beginners. SEO will work only if you have a user friendly, functional website that makes people stay.

Poorly optimized product pages: Online shoppers can’t physically scrutinize the product, and you are the one who will explain to them why your product is the best. Poor picture quality or photos copied from the manufacturer look dubious to Google and can result in lower search ranking or worse, a ban on your site for duplication. Non-existent product photos or descriptions are equally destructive because your site is missing out on ranking opportunities in description and unique content. This is where you can really sell your products so make every word and every picture count.

No website traffic: No SEO means no website traffic, resulting in no sales. You don’t want your stock to suffer, so invest in SEO and get a flow of visitors who buy your products. A dearth of online shoppers will kill your dream retail store faster than anything else, so make sure you have an SEO plan which keeps you in the spotlight. An all-round inbound marketing strategy also helps by contributing to all aspects of a marketing funnel.

Conclusion:

The global attitude toward e-commerce has grown more accepting of the mobile devices and mobile websites that people use for mobile e-commerce. Nielsen released a study which found that 54 percent of global consumers have no reservations about using credit or debit cards to shop online on mobile devices as long as their personal information is protected.-Source

In the light of above mentioned facts and reasons, you should feel motivated to optimize your store for higher conversions and branding. It is going to be a gradual ascent to growth, but will definitely help your sales along the way.