SEO for eCommerce: Exactly how to double your traffic in days

SEO has quickly become the most important marketing strategy by far across all industries, as access to smart devices and the internet continues to become increasingly common and 90% of people report that they start a buying process with a Google search.

With such a large platform at hand, many people are choosing to go through an ecommerce store to start up their online platform, hoping to gain a juicy slice of the action.

From there the opportunities really are endless.

Many people dream of their own company taking off, being their own boss and becoming a successful entrepreneur in one fell swoop.

Well it’s true, that could be you.

But the reality of the matter is there is a lot more hard work, skill, business expertise and patience involved before the party really even gets started.

We’re gathering that you’re on this guide because you may have already realised that just having a website is not the be all and end all of your success.

In fact, it is barely even the beginning.

However good your products and services are, and however suave your website looks from the outside, if you’re straggling behind all your competitors on page 43 of a Google search, failing even to rank for your business name, the likelihood is that you won’t be obtaining much traffic from your biggest asset: your website.

In fact, research suggests that even if you’re on page 2 of a Google search you still won’t be gaining much from your website in the way of traffic, as a whopping 90% of Google users look only on the first page of results when conducting a search, with 60-80% of those clicking on the first 3 results.

So, it seems that the most important factor is gaining good rankings in Google. That’s no easy task, but as demonstrated, the results can be very lucrative, and they can be obtained with SEO for ecommerce sites.

Whether you run an ecommerce store or if you have an online store which is run via an ecommerce store, this guide is for you.

After all, SEO for ecommerce is currently one of the main factors indicating your rates of success.

Everyone needs to start somewhere and this is the place for it.

Whether you are launching your website, or if you are running a website via an ecommerce store, you will need to know the basics of SEO for ecommerce, and you can find the information right here.

What is SEO for ecommerce?

SEO is one of the most popular innovative marketing techniques currently.

The phrase is commonly used, but not many people really know what SEO actually is, and if they do they only know the basics of the phenomenon.

SEO stands for search engine optimisation, and means making a website technically and visually good, meaning that their business site will appear higher in search results when people search for relevant terms on Google.

SEO for ecommerce simply means optimising a website for good rankings on Google.

From there the business will get more traffic coming towards the site, generally meaning more conversions and the eventual expansion of the business.

It all sounds very easy, right?

In principal, a great SEO campaign is a very easy task; at dapa Marketing we don’t pretend it is any kind of magic or highly calculated formula.

However, it does require plenty of hard work, motivation, determination, and a certain amount of knowledge and expertise in the area, as well as constantly keeping up to date with developments in SEO for ecommerce.

SEO is a great way of developing a business far and wide, and as ecommerce sites grow in popularity, many companies are fighting for the top spots, and SEO for ecommerce is a growing sector in the market for companies who want to stay ahead of the game.

The entire process of SEO will involve making your website look visually more appealing, be more usable for your visitors, and it will also be far more visible for all your potential customers.

At dapa Marketing, we have witnessed many businesses grow from one man bands to national successes, so whatever the size of your business, SEO is the place to start, and in terms of SEO for ecommerce, we’ve got it covered.

Now is the time to start using the massive platform of Google to your own advantage; the thousands of people who are currently searching for terms relating to your business could be your very own clients.

How does SEO for ecommerce work?

Google use robots to crawl websites, analysing them in term of relevance, information, content, site usability, popularity, trustworthiness, link architecture, quality, and many more factors.

Following this analysis, websites are then ranked in order of overall authority for the search terms which Google has deemed to be relevant to them.

If your website is ranked highly, more people will see it and it will gain more traffic, growing in popularity and obtaining more conversions, thus growing your business overall.

A website’s SEO will be aimed towards particular keywords which their potential clients are likely to search for when finding services.

SEO for ecommerce is generally targeted towards particular keywords which are relevant to your industry.

For example, if you are running an ecommerce store selling paint, examples of some target keywords could be ‘buy paint online’, ‘blue paint online’, ‘where to buy blue paint’ and ‘best blue paint shop’.

On the other hand, if you are running a company via an ecommerce site, you should target words which relate to whatever industry you are in, for example if you are selling hand cream via an ecommerce site, examples of your target keywords could be ‘anti-aging hand cream’, ‘moisturising hand cream’, ‘Q10 moisturiser’, and ‘hand cream’.

Whatever your industry, targeting keywords which are relevant to your products and services will ensure that your website appears when people search for terms which mean they are looking for your services, and this is true when increasing SEO for ecommerce sites.

This means that your SEO marketing efforts are always focused towards your target audience and the money and efforts you make towards your campaign will be more lucrative.

This is one of the reasons why SEO for ecommerce is considered to be one of the most innovative and efficient marketing strategies.

As you can imagine, some keywords are more competitive than others.

The less competitive keywords are generally longer tailed, more specific, and can be localised.

On the other hand, more competitive keywords are shorter, perhaps just one or two words long, for a very popular industry, aimed nationally or to a business saturated area such as London.

When increasing SEO for ecommerce sites, it is generally advisable to start with targeting longer tailed, less competitive keywords and then they expand into aiming towards more competitive terms.

Where do I start?

So, at this stage you’re probably thinking that your SEO could do with a boost, and you now know what it is, but how you actually go about starting on it?

When considering the initial stages of your SEO campaign, the first step is to ask yourself what exactly it is that you are trying to achieve with your campaign.

You may want to gain more exposure for your company, branch out to a different audience, have more presence in different locations, or expand in your location.

Whatever your aims, identify them as your first step in increasing your SEO for ecommerce.

In terms of SEO for ecommerce, your target audience is one of the main considerations to prioritise at every stage of the campaign.

So, once you have thought about the aims of your campaign, the next step is to consider who your target audience is.

When you are running an ecommerce website, you will be targeting people who are looking to start up an online business.

Some of these people will already have a business and will be looking for an online platform, whilst some will be looking to start up a completely new business online from scratch.

The experience people have in business is likely to vary highly, but the focus will be on business people, prospective business people and entrepreneurs.

Their ages and gender is likely to be varying, but it is likely that they will be looking for a hosting site which is up to date, impressive looking, visually appealing, and with all information easy to take in and understand.

If you are running your business via an ecommerce store, you probably already have a sector in mind and may have already set up, and the likelihood is that it will not be targeting such a wide range of people.

Think about your site from your perspective audience’s point of view.

What type of person would want to invest in your products or services?

Are your products priced competitively or are they for people looking for quality?

What age range would be interested in your products?

Are they for men, or women or children?

Remember, SEO for ecommerce is based generally around pleasing Google for good rankings, but in order to do that you need to please visitors to your site first.

Once you have considered your target audience, think about how this would be incorporated into your campaign; this includes the design of your website, the keywords you are looking to target, the content on your website, and a multitude of other ways in which the target audience will affect your company.

Picking your keywords

Your keywords are one of the most important parts of your campaign, and they are also one aspect of any SEO campaign, including SEO for ecommerce which will need to be decided on from the outset.

Your keywords or key terms are words or short phrases which your potential clients are expected to type into Google when they are looking for your services.

You may well be able to think of several keywords immediately, but whether or not they are suitable for your SEO campaign depends highly on several factors.

The process of increasing SEO for ecommerce businesses relies heavily on the thought processes and buying processes of your target audience.

You need to think of your keywords from the point of view of your potential clients, meaning that you should keep the industry related jargon to a minimum.

For example, instead of using words such as ‘wholesale milk’, you could instead use an alternative phrase such as ‘buy milk in bulk’.

If you are not sure about whether a potential client would understand a word or phrase, ask others outside of the industry.

As well as considering the keywords and phrases from the point of view of a client, also make sure that you consider whether or not the keywords will be searched by people who are genuinely interested in your services or products, who are likely to convert.

For example, a person searching for ‘cheap ecommerce hosting UK’ is more likely to convert than a person searching for ‘what is ecommerce?’.

SEO for ecommerce is one of the most competitive industries and it is ever growing in popularity.

It is important to consider the competitiveness of the keywords you pick.

If the keywords you are targeting are too competitive, the task of ranking will be very difficult, whereas if you are targeting less competitive keywords you will rank more easily.

Most people start with an SEO campaign targeting less competitive keywords and then move onto more competitive keywords once their company is established with a n online presence.

Most less competitive keywords are longer tailed, contain a few words, and are sometime specific to a location, for example ‘ecommerce website builder Nottingham;’, or for a business which is setting up via an ecommerce store ‘halter neck bikinis Nottingham’.

Whilst it is sometimes a good idea to target more specific, less competitive keywords firstly, it is also important to makes sure that people are searching for the terms.

You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to decipher whether your search terms are popular enough to be lucrative as a target.

More competitive keywords are generally shorter, only a couple of words long and are targeted either nationally or in a large, competitive area such as London or Manchester.

Examples of more competitive keywords for an ecommerce site are ‘ecommerce website’, and ‘ecommerce hosting’.

If you are running an online shop via an ecommerce website, examples of keywords could be ‘sportwear UK’.

At dapa Marketing, we know that SEO for ecommerce is one of the most complex industries, and depending on your sector the strategies we use will differ.

We work with you from the initial discussion to decipher your target audience, and we conduct all the necessary research to investigate which keywords would be the most lucrative for your campaign.

Our initial discussion we also evaluate the authority of your website as it is, look into the design and SEO of your website, and come up with an individual strategy plan, along with targets and time scales.

We have a wealth of experience in SEO for ecommerce, having seen a multitude of happy clients growing from nothing to international success.

We have done it many time before, and we are confident that we can achieve the same success with your ecommerce company.

Top developments in SEO for ecommerce

When optimising a website for SEO, most agencies and in house SEO specialists start with as small impact on their rankings, but quickly loose track of Google’s constantly changing algorithms and developments.

SEO for ecommerce is a lucrative business, as many people realise the importance of high rankings, and Google make money from businesses paying for the Ads which appear at the top of search results.

So, when companies appear at the top of search results naturally, they are losing money from those clients who may otherwise resort to paying Google.

For this reason, Google change their requirements very regularly to ensure that it does not become too easy to get your website in the top organic results.

Businesses are constantly competing for the top positions, but it is increasingly difficult to keep up to date with the changes Google enforce in SEO or ecommerce, and other industries.

At dapa Marketing, we are dedicated to keeping up to date with the advances in Google and SEO, and we make sure to incorporate all these changes into our work with you.

The following are just a few of the most recent changes and developments in terms of SEO strategies which are being used currently:

Google’s mobile updates

SEO for ecommerce relies heavily on mobile searches, as mobile shopping becomes more normal and highly utilised for online shoppers.

It is more important than ever to makes sure that your website is usable for people who are searching on mobiles.

This means optimising your website for a good mobile experience.

Not only do clients love the ability to shop online from anywhere they happen to be, but Google also prefer sites which are mobile optimised, and you SEO for ecommerce will fly to the top.

When people search for keywords on their mobile, the order of search results are often different to when searched on a desktop device, and your ranking on mobiles will be highly dependent on whether or not your website is optimised for mobiles.

Mobile conversion rates are also higher than desktop conversion rates, and that trend is unlikely to go away any time soon, so it’s onwards and upwards for mobile optimised sites.

Conversational search terms

More and more people are using devices with voice search options available, such as Siri, Google now and Samsung S Voice.

With this in mind, and also considering the phenomenon that people are searching for very specific answers, search terms have become more conversational.

Rather than searching for terms such as ‘all day breakfast Cambridge’, people are searching for terms such as ‘where sells the best big breakfast in Cambridge?’, and what’s more, they are met with real answers and relevant results from websites which are well optimised.

SEO for ecommerce and content writing have been moving towards a more casual, conversational approach for years; it helps people to identify with your company and people are likely to read the content on your site with more interest and understanding, also allowing them to skim read pages for information.

With this new trend in mind, make sure to answer relevant questions on your site and make your site easy to navigate around for users.

Advances in linking social media and SEO for ecommerce

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have been supporting paid advertisements online for years, but have recently come to the realisation that the results of the advertisements must show in terms of direct conversions and return on investment for them to be continue being used by businesses.

For this reason, advertisements have introduced ‘buy now’ buttons which has changed the way in which ecommerce sites are reporting sales and engagement with their site. As SEO for ecommerce continues to expand, we can expect more integration between ecommerce and social media.

Expanse of shopping results

Google shopping results have been around for years, but have recently been developing in the pipeline, and are more appealing and popular to users than ever.

Google have introduced new requirement to rank well on shopping results, affecting requirements for good SEO for ecommerce sites.

They have streamlined and updated their necessary fields, and now require GTIN/UPC information for certain brands.

Google are now also hot on product errors to ensure the best customer experience is provided by the sites they are ranking.

If you are running an online shop or service via an ecommerce website, it is now more important than ever to optimise your product pages, product images and descriptions via SEO for ecommerce.

Important pages

Google prefers websites which include certain pages which are useful for clients and could rank highly for services and products.

As well as doing a favour for your SEO, you will also be helping your clients out by providing them with all the information they need, so it is well worth including certain pages on your website.

The following pages are worth including on your website and optimising them for SEO purposes.

Home page

SEO for ecommerce starts with optimising the home page, as this is the basis of the entire site.

It is important to make sure that the structure, style and layout of your website is transferable to your other pages so that the entire website looks professional and in sync with the home page.

The home page is also the place where most of your clients will land when searching for relevant terms, so it important that it makes a good impression on first sight.

To create a good impression on your prospective clients, your home page needs to be modern, simple, with relevant pictures, and include some great content which really reflects your ecommerce business.

If your home page does not impress in the first instance, you are likely to be dealing with a very high bounce rate, which is likely to negatively affect your SEO, and directly affect your client conversion rate.

The main aim of your home page is to get the attention of you target audience, and direct clients onto pages where they could convert.

To make sure that the home page is optimised in terms of rankings and client conversions, use your home page to direct your visitors onto product pages via links, and consider using a home page form.

This means encouraging clients to enter a few details about themselves on the home page of the site.

This way, clients will feel committed to your site, and you could obtain their email address for future use.

If you are using a home page form, however, make sure that you only include a maximum of three easy boxes to fill out, otherwise you could risk your visitors getting bored and moving on to a competitor site.

SEO for ecommerce is all about optimising user experience, and even though a bounce rate might go down, if customer satisfaction also takes a drop, you could be dealing with bad rankings

To make you clients’ lives easier, create short conversion journeys, with all the important links available on the home page, and all conversion pages only 2 clicks away.

It is also highly advisable to makes sure that you include all the important information at the top of the page, so that your clients don’t miss the important links and info which will get you interest and sales.

Make sure that your contact details are highly visible on the home page, so that your potential clients can simply search for your company name and get in contact.

SEO for ecommerce should increase your client conversion rate, and by plastering your contact details on all your pages, you are making it all the more easy for your clients to get in touch.

About Us

In terms of good SEO for ecommerce sites, the About Us page of a website is one of the most important pages of a website.

Google favours websites which have an About Us page, and it is also important for clients to understand what you’re all about, and what they can gain from your services and products.

An About Us page is also a great marketing opportunity to show off your business achievements.

To get your page started, naming your page as ‘About Us’, as opposed to any other more cryptic title, such as ‘Our Journey’, ‘Who We Are’, or ‘The Company’ will be more beneficial for you in terms of your SEO, as Google robots will recognise the term ‘About Us’ more readily than an alternative title, and clients are also more likely to understand the title ‘About Us more easily and are therefore more likely to click on it.

As well as being a contributing factor in achieving good SEO for an ecommerce site, the aim of the About Us page is to let clients know what your company is all about, what you do, and a bit about the company itself, to instil trust in your business for the clients.

Make sure that the first few sentences of your About Us page is based around your clients, what they are on your website for, and the services or products you can help them with.

Then go into a bit about the company itself, focusing on relevant facts and figures about your achievements, however niche or small they are.

Were you the winner of any business awards?

Are you the only local company providing the best services for your industry?

Have you expanded rapidly in a short space of time?

Are you a family business which has been around for many years?

One of the main factors in terms of good SEO for ecommerce sites is popularity of a website, and these facts and figures are perfect examples of a popular business.

Any of these factors are worth mentioning and can boost your readers’ opinions on your company from the outset.

Whilst it is important to state any impressive facts in your About Us section, it is worth noting that you should avoid too much bragging.

When you are looking for a new hairdresser, you generally rely on the reviews of people who have used their services, rather than the opinion of the company themselves.

For this reason, when writing your About Us page, try to keep the gleaming self-reviews to a minimum, and instead include some genuine testimonials of your clients.

If you don’t have any reviews already, ask some of your happy clients to provide you with one which they would be happy for you to include on the site.

Testimonials will make your site appear more trustworthy, both to Google and to your clients, and from this you are more likely to get more conversions.

Good SEO for ecommerce sites relies on Google analysing your website to be trustworthy, and good reviews and gleaming testimonials are perfect examples of a dependable, credible website.

A good idea to entice customers with your About Us page is to use multimedia options.

Videos about your company are a great way to make an impact and appeal to people who have a short attention span.

You can use images, perhaps of your services, products or premises, and infographics to give your potential clients a good idea of your business and impress them with what you have to offer them.

Try to make your About Us content conversational in style so that your clients relate to you as a business, and engage with your clients, however it is also important to make sure that your tone is appropriate for your company.

For example, if you are running an upmarket wedding planning service, a casual conversational tone might not be appropriate for your clients.

Think about what your clients want to see, and think about your business because it all has to match to create one final result.

FAQ page

Frequently Asked Questions pages are becoming increasingly important for good SEO for ecommerce sites, due to the more conversation style of questions and keywords which are now being entered into search engines and via voice searches.

However, before creating an FAQ page, make sure it is appropriate for your business.

An FAQ page is relevant if you are running an industry which gets a few consistent questions aimed towards you, and if the questions can be answered in a clear, concise way.

If you are running an ecommerce hosting site, some frequently asked questions could include the following:

• Which countries and currencies can be purchased on my ecommerce store?
• What do I do when I get an order?
• Can I use my own domain name with your ecommerce site?
• What is a merchant account?
• How do I pay for my account?

To create a positive impact on your SEO for an ecommerce site, it is important to consider the questions which are likely to be asked, and potentially searched by clients looking for your services.

If you are running a store via an ecommerce site, your questions will be specific to the industry you are dealing with.

If you have been running your company for a while, you could check through your email inbox to see what questions have been fired your way in the past.

If you are just starting, out, think of what questions your friends and family had regarding your products and services when you introduced your ideas to them, or alternatively, go through the buying process yourself, thinking from the point of view of a potential client and see what questions could be raised.

SEO for ecommerce is all about being highly relevant to many search terms related to your industry, so your FAQ’s need to be appropriate to the industry you are dealing in, for example, if you are in the fashion industry, some appropriate questions may include questions to do with size guides and fabric quality.

However, there are some frequently asked questions which may be relevant to many different industries, for example the following:

• Delivery options
• Manufacturing details
• Time scales for orders
• Refund policies

Your FAQ page should differ from your home page as well as your About Use page, because it will be more of a question and answer arrangement instead of a general overview of the company.

Both are highly important for SEO for ecommerce sites when used correctly.

When you are writing the questions for your ecommerce FAQ page, write them from the perspective of your clients, for example “What payment methods can I include on my site?”.

When composing the answers, make sure that they are easy to understand, concise and written in a tone which even a person with no knowledge in your industry will be able to understand.

Make sure to answer the FAQs with information which places your company in a good light, but do not embellish the truth at all.

If a question puts your company in a negative light, either put a positive spin on it if possible, or do not include it in your FAQ section.

SEO for ecommerce is important, but the image your company presents itself in should not be compromised.

Product Pages

Whether you own an ecommerce business, or if you are starting up a business via an online shop via an ecommerce website, your product pages are highly likely to be one of the most impotent parts of your website and your SEO.

Not only are they the place where potential clients can research information about your products and services, but product pages are also the place your customers choose to convert, so they need to be optimised in terms of SEO for ecommerce.

Whatever industry you are in, it is highly important to create product pages which are appealing to clients, make your products and services easy to understand, are optimised for SEO purposes, and include the relevant information people need to convert.

The first step to create a great product page is to write quality product descriptions.

The best product descriptions not only describe the product, evoke emotion, instil your visitors’ confidence in your products, and provide all the relevant information you cannot see just in the picture, but also gain traffic coming towards your website.

Many ecommerce stores copy and paste product descriptions from the manufacturers or providers, however at dapa Marketing, we avoid this at all costs.

If you copy content from your suppliers, it is highly likely that other competitor companies will have done the same and this will make it hard, if not impossible for your site to stand out with good rankings.

Your product pages could even be filtered out of search results, so you will not gain any rankings from them with copied content.

To add to this problem, many manufacturers use fact based descriptions, which are useful in part, however most customers want to be convinced emotionally to buy a product too.

People want to hear good reasons for needing the products you are offering, and after all SEO for ecommerce is all about getting your site out there, and then encouraging people to convert.

The reasons could be anything which has benefit to the clients, so whether the product will make them look good, save them time, or solve a problem, make sure to sell this advantage to your clients by putting it in the descriptions.

Try to understand what your customers want from your products and services, and help them to envisage how their life would be much better with the products when writing your product descriptions.

Whilst the information provided needs to be unique, it should also be presented in a way which is understandable whilst interesting for the potential customers.

Again, think about your target audience.

Will they appreciate humour?

Will they know industry related jargon?

Will they be looking for a more professional tone?

You never want to give your clients a reason to leave your site, so make sure that your descriptions are appropriate and include all the information necessary for them to make a decision to purchase.

Once your product descriptions are on top form, the next step is to optimise your images for SEO purposes.

SEO for an ecommerce store, and for a store with many products being advertised, your images will be one of the most important factors for ranking.

When uploading your images, many businesses make the mistake of keeping the names of their images as what their camera has automatically saved them as, leading to images on websites being named as the likes of ‘DSC105670002.jpg’.

In terms of your SEO, Google prefer images which have been named accordingly.

An example of this would be to name an image according to what is depicted.

This could be a small description of the image, for example ‘green_and_red_motorbike.jpg’.

As well as changing the file names of your images, it is also important to edit the alt tag of each image. Alt tags are descriptions of the image which are used for the visually impaired, or alternatively simply when the image cannot be accessed for another reason.

Google prefers for alt tags to be available for every image, as they allow for inclusivity of everyone, and by writing them you will be rewarded with good rankings.

Within your alt tags, make sure that you are descriptive, include product names and serial numbers, and be careful of stuffing your alt tags with keywords, for which Google can penalize you for.

In order to increase your SEO for ecommerce and rank highly, as well as create a great user experience, the loading time of your website needs to be optimised as well.

Images often account for a large proportion of the loading time, so it is important to make sure that you optimise your images for SEO purposes.

The first step in optimising your images is to resize them to make them smaller.

You can crop your photos to make them smaller, taking out any unnecessary backgrounds, or you can resize them.

You can also compress your images to make the file smaller without affecting the quality of the image, and obtaining the exact look of the image.

There are image compression tools available for free and for just a few seconds of effort you could increase website usability and your SEO.

At dapa Marketing, our in house web developer works with our content team to create fully optimised product pages which will get you ranking in no time.

Our highly experienced team are experts in the field of SEO for ecommerce, and are able to get your product pages ranking in no time.

Blogging for ecommerce sites

Blogging has become a major factor in achieving good SEO for ecommerce sites, and reaching heights with your rankings.

If you have an ecommerce site, or if you are running your company via an ecommerce site such as Shopify, a blog will create more interest for potential clients, will be appreciated by Google, and also creates a new entry point for searchers who are interested in keywords relevant to your industry.

To create a good blog, you will need to make sure that you have relevant, interesting content with great eye catching titles which people will want to read.

The first few blogs that you write are likely to be easy to think of.

Most people go with titles which are based around why they have started the blog, what inspires them, and what the blogs will cover, as well as when the blogs will be published.

Most business people start on a blog, make a small impression, and then quickly give up on the blog.

However, it is highly important to make sure that once your blog is up and running, you continue to write blogs on a regular basis, about topics which are all relevant and just as interesting as the first few.

Make sure to make the blogs conversational, and slightly personal.

Blogging is not only a great way to increase SEO for ecommerce sites, it is also a chance to show your potential clients what your business is all about, adding a personal touch to your site and creating some interaction with your potential clients.

If you are the owner of an ecommerce hosting site, a blog can help you to show your expertise in various areas of ecommerce, providing tips and small pieces of advice in every blog.

If you are running your business via an ecommerce site, your blogs should be specific to your business.

If you work in a sector such as fashion, clothing, and diet, your blog gives you a chance to show your flare, and what you can offer your clients.

A good way of creating client interaction is to provide a comments section at the bottom of each blog so that your readers have a chance for interaction.

Blog about topics which you have an opinion on and your clients are likely to have an opinion on as well.

Whilst the blog needs to have a personal touch, it is also important to make sure that you don’t discuss very controversial or personal matters which could put some potential clients off or sound desperate for attention.

Once you have started your blog, it is then important to make sure that you keep blogging regularly.

This way, your clients will be able to keep track of when your next blog will be published online, and you may start to gain a following.

It is best to upload blogs on a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly basis so that your clients can easily know when the next one will be available to read.

At dapa Marketing, we offer a blog writing service for our clients, so if you are not keen on the idea of writing your own blog, we can write them on your behalf.

We know how to create the perfect blog for all our clients in a range of industries, and we have specialist knowledge on SEO for ecommerce and the blogs which can be included in ecommerce sites.

You can choose to either provide us with titles for your blogs on a regular basis, or alternatively we can pick our own titles, all of which are guaranteed to be highly current and relevant to your readers, and we can send them over for your approval before putting them live on the website.

SEO for eCommerce: Blogger outreach

To dominate SEO for ecommerce, as well as having a great blog, you also need to know how to outreach to other blogs for the best returns on your efforts.

This involves making contact with other relevant bloggers who may be able to feature articles, link to your website, offer reviews on your products or services and help you to increase your audience.

The first step in your blog outreach is to research other companies similar to yours who also write blogs. You can start by searching for reviews and blogs which are relevant to your business.

When looking at other companies’ blogs, make sure that you look for blogs which are successful in your industry.

These blogs are likely to appear at the top of relevant search results, and you can also assess them yourself in terms of website design, blog content, and visitor interaction.

When you find a blogger who appears to be doing well on face value, you will then need to analyse their blog in more detail.

You don’t want to reach out to just anyone, because not all bloggers will make a worthwhile difference to your SEO; you need to make sure that the blogger you reach out to has high authority and will therefore be able to offer some good towards your website.

Check for basic good SEO on their site, for example including links to their social media pages, seeing if the blog is posted regularly, and checking the blog’s existing link profile.

When you have decided on one or more blogger to contact, you can make an offer.

Often this involves making a deal with them, for example sending them a sample product in return for them writing a review.

Alternatively, you could offer them an article to publish on their blog, as a guest post.

Not only will this provide you with a link to your website, but it is also a great way to publicise your products and services on a popular platform which is related to your industry.

At dapa Marketing, we are pros when it comes SEO for ecommerce, and gaining guest posts and other valuable links which will up your ante on the search results with high impact.

We have the skills and expertise to research an onsite platform, pick high authority sites and ensuring that we build up an architecture of links towards your website.

SEO for eCommerce Content

Content has become one of the most important ranking factors for Google over the last few months, and websites with quality, relevant and interesting content have higher SEO for ecommerce than ever before.

Whether you are running an ecommerce hosting site, or if you are running a website via an ecommerce site, it is important to make sure that your content is relevant to your industry, up to date, and is all entirely original.

That doesn’t mean to say that you need to conduct all your own research and offer entirely new information with every sentence, but instead you should try to offer your own unique writing style, your own perspective and perhaps some original information for your clients.

Whether you are writing content for your own website pages, your links, or if you are writing product descriptions, you need to makes sure that it is all of a high standard, and is your own work.

Google hates copied content, because if it is copied, it will be elsewhere on the internet and both will not be allowed to rank highly.

As well as this, make sure that your content is written in an interesting manner, with good spelling and grammar, and in a conversational style where appropriate.

This will ensure that your website is ranking not only for key search terms, but also for queries which searchers now tend to type directly into search engines, or speak into their voice search device.

SEO for ecommerce is all about making your website as accessible as possible for any potential clients.

For this reason, it is important to make sure that your content can be skim read by potential clients, particularly if it is very lengthy.

This will ensure that clients can gather the information they need quickly and will not get bored.

It is also important to make sure not to include too much of industry related jargon they do not understand, as this will lead them to type further queries into search engines, potentially leading them off your course and onto another site.

When you are writing content for your website, include keywords you would like to target where appropriate. It is important to make sure that they appear to be naturally included, and avoid overstuffing keywords into your content.

Whilst you need to rank for these potential keywords and terms, if your campaign looks unnatural or forced with too many keyowrds, Google may enforce penalties on your site, meaning that your rankings could go down, or in the worst cases you could be refused a ranking position at all due to penalties.

When thinking of titles for articles and blogs, try to make them about something which people will genuinely want to read and learn about, with titles which are appealing, current and imply that they can be skim read.

A current trend is articles which are divided into numbers, and entitled accordingly, for example ‘7 ecommerce blogs you should follow in 2017’.

If you are running an ecommerce hosting website, your articles need to be relevant to your industry, and will presumably be mostly about ecommerce, business, and success in self-employment.

If you are running your company via an ecommerce store, your content, article and blogs will need to be related directly to your industry, so it is important to make sure you are up to date on all the current trends and interests within your sector.

Link Building

You may already be aware that link building is one of the most important factors when it comes to increasing your SEO for ecommerce sites.

Google ranks websites in terms of authority, popularity and trustworthiness.

A naturally highly ranking website will have a lot of people referencing it, and therefore many links will be created going towards that site.

An example of a website which is ranking highly due to a good link background is TripAdvisor.

TripAdvisor is one of the most popular websites for reviews on hotels, eating places and other services.

When people have had a positive or negative experience with a service, some choose to share their experiences with others by writing reviews.

TripAdvisor provide a place to do this, and in return many hotels link back to their TripAdvisor reviews so that potential clients can see real reviews for themselves.

TripAdvisor is a Google giant, ranking highly for thousands of search terms, and whilst a multitude of factors have resulted in this success, backlinks have been a main contributor to their success too.

SEO for ecommerce works in the same way.

If you have many links towards your website, you can expect that the authority of your website will grow, and in turn your rankings will increase too.

However, it is important to note that you cannot simply go about making any links and expect to create substantial a positive impact.

When done badly, a link building campaign can make your site look untrustworthy, unnatural and poor quality, resulting in bad rankings.

When starting on your link building campaign, it is highly important to consider the quality of the links which you are creating.

Different types of links have varying levels of authority, meaning that some links will have more of an impact than others.

Low authority links include comments on articles and blogs, whereas higher authority links include guest posts and mini sites.

To dominate SEO for ecommerce, it is highly important to create links of varying levels of authority, as this will make your campaign look more natural, however whatever type of link you are creating, make sure that the content you write is up to your usual standard.

It is particularly important to make sure that the higher authority links include great information and are the type of article which will be popular and interesting for people to read.

When you first start out with your link building process, on researching the topic, you may well be overwhelmed by offers from websites who claim to have the ability to up your ante in no time, with hundreds of links all created towards your website in a short space of time.

This may sound appealing on first glance, but it is important to note that these companies are highly likely to result in bad rankings and penalties from Google, due to an unnatural campaign, and links which are likely to include copied content and spam.

dapa Marketing have years of experience in creating backlinks to ecommerce websites which will gain them page authority and heighten their rankings, helping many companies to dominate SEO for ecommerce.

Our specialist content writers work alongside link builders to create good quality links which bare guaranteed to make your campaign soar.

As a Google accredited company, we understand the best methods and techniques which will gain the best results for you.

Dos and don’ts in SEO for ecommerce

So you might be feeling overwhelmed with what to do and what not to do, as well as where to look for trustworthy information regarding SEO for ecommerce sites, so we have complied a list of basic Dos and Don’ts for some of your main SEO platforms:

Link building

• DO create quality backlinks

Link building is one of the main strategies to create great SEO for ecommerce, but they need to be of good quality.

Links from high authority sites with quality, original content which is relevant to your industry and business is one of the main aspects of a good SEO campaign, and this strategy is likely to increase your rankings.

• DON’T buy links or create bad links

Do not be tempted by companies claiming that you can ‘buy’ links from them, and try not to create masses of spam-like links yourself either.

It might be quick and easy, but it will not do any good for your campaign.

• DO link to relevant articles

When creating links, even of the lowest authority, make sure they are relevant to your business and industry, even if the relevance is remote.

If you run an ecommerce hosting website, you could link to articles about business.

If you are running a business via an ecommerce site, your links will need to be specific to the business you are running, for example if you are selling homeware, you could link to articles about house prices and interior design.

• DON’T link to other websites from your own

Whilst you can link back to your website from other links and create inbound links to other pages of your websites, it is bets to stay clear of including links to other sites from your website.

This is because they can lead your potential clients astray and may mean a lost sale.

Social media

• DO use social media to your advantage

Your social media pages are a great way to increase SEO for ecommerce, gain interest from potential clients, and link back to relevant pages of your website. You can also gain reviews from people on your Facebook page, as well as interaction with your followers.

• DON’T ignore your social media platforms

Many business people set up social media pages on all platforms and then simply ignore them from thereon after.

In order to gain anything from your pages, you need to make sure to give them regular attention and update them accordingly.

You can post about relevant topics, events, new stock, and anything to get people interested in what you have to offer.

Ignoring people on social media is a great way to make people look elsewhere.

• DO use links on your social media pages

Social media pages are not only good for boosting the SEO for ecommerce sites, they are also a great way to direct any interest on to your website, where your clients can convert.

When posting on your social media accounts, make sure to link back to the relevant landing pages, and also link your website to them via symbols of the pages in the footers, as this will allow people to ‘like’ and share your pages, adding interest and authority to them.

• DON’T use the same content on all your social media platforms

Using the same content on all your social media platforms will make your campaign look boring and people will notice.

If you are promoting a big event, offer or sale, you can use the same links but try to use different wording so that your posts aren’t too samey.

Much like the other content included in your campaign, copied content on social media sites is not good for SEO for ecommerce sites.

Web development

• DO get a professional to optimise your website

Onsite materials and technical aspects of your campaign are just as important as link building in terms of SEO for ecommerce sites. Investing in a professional web developer will be worth every penny of the money you spend, as your onsite materials will be up to scratch for top rankings.

• DON’T use the same meta tags for each page

Make sure that your meta tags are all unique to each page, instead of copying meta tags for each spate page. Your landing pages will then start to rank and there will be more opportunities for clients to enter your website via different pages.

• DO optimise your images

Ecommerce sites often contain many images of products, and they are one of the main ways in which you can optimise your SEO for your ecommerce sites.

• DON’T rush your website

It is always tempting to get your website designed cheaply and up and running as soon as possible when starting a new ecommerce business. However, it is worth making your website good quality and SEO optimised for the sake of your rankings.

Content is King

• DO create quality content

Whether you are writing for your website or for your links, it is important to make sure that your content is top quality, relevant and interesting, including the occasional keyword.

• DON’T overstuff keywords

In terms of SEO for ecommerce, keywords are important to get your pages ranking, but if every other word is a keyword, your content will be a negative reading experience for your visitors. Limit the amount you are using keywords if they are taking over your content.

• DO update your website content

Achieving good SEO for ecommerce is all about being relevant and up to date with what people want. Once you have some great content on your website, it is important to keep it relevant and up to date, so that your clients can see that your business is still active and developing.

• DON’T waffle

Although your word count is important, the top priority is always the quality, not quantity of your content when optimising your SEO for ecommerce. Try not to include reams of unnecessary rambling content on your website or links, because you will bore your clients and it will not be appreciated by Google.

Blogging

• DO blog regularly on current topics

Make sure that your blog is a regular occurrence and include relevant, current topics which people are likely to be interested in, have an opinion on and will encourage them to engage with you. This will build up a following and Google will appreciate your efforts too, increasing your rankings.

• DON’T ignore your audience response

One of the biggest aspects of creating a blog is to gain a following. This might take a long time, but once you gain interest, you may start to get some audience interaction, for example comments and requests. Ignoring this response is the worst move you can make, so respond to comments and requests by adhering and providing information.

• DO add a personal touch to your blog

As well as doing wonders for SEO for ecommerce sites, one of the main benefits of blogging is that it will add some personality to your business, allowing clients to relate to you and see what you’re all about. You may even inspire them with your love of the industry, and gain regular clients. Whilst it is important to make the blog personal, it is also wise to makes sure the topics are not too controversial.

• DON’T give up on your blog

Many people start on a great blog, write a couple, and then run out of ideas rapidly and give up on it. The key to success for a great blog is to keep it regular, and always be looking for inspiration in current topics and trends for your next blog.

What is the difference between a PPC and an SEO and campaign?

A PPC (pay per click) campaign, also referred to as a Google Ads campaign, is a type of search engine marketing opportunity which gets your page to the top of the search engine results, where the website is shown next to an Ads symbol.

You may be thinking that this is the perfect opportunity for your site.

Why bother spending all that time and effort on SEO for ecommerce when you can pay to instantly get your results displayed first and foremost?

Well, unfortunately, although the principal of a Google Ads campaign works very well, in actual, in most cases fact SEO is a much better investment in terms of returns.

Many pieces of research have shown that people are much more likely to click on organic results rather than results which are advertised via a PPC campaign.

In fact, PPC results tend only to get on average a measly 15% of the traffic which is search, whereas the top 3 results of the organic traffic gain on average between 60 and 80% of the overall traffic.

This is partially because searchers are more likely to trust organic results which are there due to genuine authority, popularity and relevance, rather than a paid campaign.

Although it is sometimes not necessary for results for search engine results to be localised, Google Ads campaigns are generally not localised, so many people get used to the concept that these results will not be local to them and will therefore not be useful.

This then means that this behaviour is not carried over to all types of searches, whether or not they have any benefit of being localised.

Another reason to go with an SEO campaign rather than a PPC campaign is that organic traffic has a particularly high conversion rate when compared to all other types of traffic which will be coming towards your website, including social traffic, direct traffic, referral, and PPC.

This means that when people access your website after performing a Google search, they are more likely to convert than when they click on your website as a PPC campaign.

A PPC campaign means that the business running the advertisement will be charged each time a person clicks on the website via the advert.

The charge can be anywhere between 50p and hundreds of pounds, depending on the competitiveness of the industry you are targeting, and many other more minor factors such as the times you are running the campaign.

Whilst SEO is generally seen as a much more lucrative investment, there is no doubt that having some presence in the Google Ads section of the search results can have a positive impact on the traffic coming towards your website, otherwise you may be missing out on some 15% of the market who are willing to click on these results.

There are also some other benefits of a PPC campaign; the results are instantaneous, you can control your budget and the times of day you are targeting potential clients.

A Google ads campaign can sometimes be beneficial for a quick fix, or if you are running a particular deal or offer, however, in order to get worthwhile results from a PPC campaign, you need to makes sure that it is well organised and optimised.

At dapa Marketing, we offer services to manage a Google Ads campaign alongside an SEO for ecommerce campaign.

We know how to create Google Ads campaigns which will be lucrative for your business, and we constantly ensure that the campaign is making the most for your money, including research into the most lucrative times around our clients and reporting on the efficiency of your ads campaign.

Do I need an SEO agency?

In terms of Google rankings every industry is extremely competitive, with many businesses battling it out for the top places to gain the most amount of traffic possible; and ecommerce is no exception to this rule.

Whether you are running an ecommerce site, or if your site is hosted via an ecommerce site, you are likely to be competing with some real big fish to get to the top.

On top of that, as more and more companies realise their business potential in obtaining great rankings, investing time and effort into the SEO of your site is becoming more common, and it is important to get ahead of the game as soon as possible to ensure that you stand any chance of competing in the massive market.

Your website is one of your biggest marketing assets, allowing all your potential clients to see what you have to offer in one online showcase.

This very moment, many potential clients are searching for keywords which are relevant to your company, but are they likely to find you?

If you are not on the first page of search results, the answer is no; if this is the case, you are not utilising your most important marketing asset to its potential.

SEO provides endless opportunities for growth and expansion, but it does not come without hard work, expertise and knowledge.

SEO is an ever-changing, tough game and SEO for ecommerce is no different.

Many companies attempt in house SEO, but quickly realise the magnitude of the work to be done, and easily fall behind on what will make a serious impact for them.

It is also possible to actually do more bad than good for the rankings of your website when going about SEO in the wrong way.

To add to this, some campaigns require different strategies to others, so it is important to be up to date and specialist in the methods which can be used.

In order to ensure a quality job where you obtain the best results for your efforts, employing an SEO agency can be the best way forward.

At dapa Marketing, we don’t pretend that SEO is any kind of magic, however we are honest about what it takes to get to the top places.

We have the expertise, knowledge and experience to get you the results you want from your website.

Having seen many clients climb from being a one man band to an international success, we are certain that we have the expertise necessary to help you to climb up to where you want to be, and we are committed to getting the best results for our clients.

Contact us today on 0800 634 3007 to discuss your campaign and see what we can offer you to expand and grow your business via SEO for ecommerce, combining the two most innovative current marketing trends.