SEO is a very important acquisition lever for e-commerce sites that are very dependent on their online visibility. Working on SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation) has become almost mandatory to develop the sales of your e-commerce site and your referencing on search engines will allow you to attract more customers.
What are the main marketing levers for e-commerce? What are the benefits of SEO for e-commerce and how to implement a good SEO strategy? In this article, we take a look at the key elements to take into account to boost your e-commerce site and sell more!
E-commerce marketing consists of using different levers and strategies to :
There are different type of content marketing and methods to increase the performance of an e-commerce site:
Now that you know the different marketing levers for e-commerce, the hardest part remains. Indeed, the levers presented will only be useful if a strategy with precise objectives has been put in place. Remember that the number one objective is to obtain quality traffic. Indeed, if your visitors arrive on your site and leave it 5 seconds later, it is useless (bounce rate).
In the following, we will use the example of SEO to list the advantages of this strategy and how to implement it to get the maximum benefit.
A well-referenced e-commerce site is like a shop on the Champs Elysées. There will be a lot of traffic in front of the shop and it will therefore have a better chance of attracting customers. On the other hand, a poorly referenced e-commerce site is more like a shop hidden at the end of a street with little traffic.
The first page of Google has a click rate of +90%. This means that if you are on the 2nd or 3rd page of a search engine, you have very little chance of being seen. Internet users trust Google for their search results and as they are increasingly looking for quick information, they will consider the first results as the most relevant.
With a relevant SEO strategy on your e-commerce site, you will be able to
SEO is also the most profitable acquisition lever. Indeed, it has the advantage of bringing you customers for free. It is true that to improve your natural referencing, you will have to use a lot of resources in time and money but once you are well positioned on different keywords, the traffic you will get will simply be free!
Here are some of the benefits of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO):
In order to implement an effective SEO strategy that will allow you to appear in the first results of search engines, it is important to follow the following steps:
This step is essential to ensure that you rank high in search results. Choose keywords that are relevant to your business and long-tail keywords can also help you rank quickly in certain niches where your competitors are not yet present. Think in terms of user requests and you can also use tools like answerthepublic.com which will allow you to know what is or is not searched for in your sector of activity.
💡 Bigblue Tip
Semrush offers the "Keyword Gap" tool that allows you to find the keywords used by your competitors that you will need to rank for in Google searches!
To rank your pages, Google crawls them with the help of robots that will go to your site. Linking your pages together will facilitate the exploration of your e-commerce site. This is called internal linking. Try as much as possible to position links between pages that may be complementary.
When a customer wants to buy on your website, it is important to understand that they cannot see the item in real life, nor can they touch it. The aim here is to answer any questions they may have. First of all, write attractive product descriptions. They should be very detailed and mention all the features of the product you are selling. You can also add presentation videos, assembly or user guides to your customers to advise and help them.
💡 Bigblue Tip
As they can change regularly (especially in the clothing sector), do not waste too much time putting many keywords on your product pages. We recommend you instead to optimising your category pages!
The aim of the blog is to help users choose their product. It will also have a role to play in your search engine positioning. Update it regularly, offering visitors to your site content related to your sector of activity. Above all, do not use duplicate content. Google doesn't like it and you risk losing a lot of visibility on your website.
It is important to design your e-commerce site well so that navigation on it is as smooth as possible. Think UX and UI design so that your visitors stay on your site as long as possible and get to the end of the purchase process. A slow loading page, a misunderstanding in the sales path can frustrate the consumer and make him leave your online shop.
💡 Bigblue Tip
By June 2022, the share of mobile traffic reached 65.5%. Moreover, about 30% of e-commerce visitors don't make it to the bottom of a page. If your customer have to scroll, you're likely losing an equivalent potential revenue with each visit! If you are looking for inspiration, we recommend you to have a look on websites like 900.Care one's.
The implementation of SEO marketing operations must be measurable to know if you are going in the right direction. Google Analytics will allow you to analyse your traffic and see where it is coming from. This way you can see if the increase in traffic has led to an increase in turnover and you can then monitor your strategy with the help of statistics.
If you are looking at an SEO strategy for the first time, the first thing to remember is that it is a medium to long term acquisition strategy. The ROI (or Return of Investment) of SEO will not be immediate and is part of a process of continuous improvement of your web presence. Move forward regularly and be patient!
Forget the quantitative and focus mainly on the qualitative aspect to attract an audience that is most likely to become your customers. Capturing an unqualified audience can be detrimental to your website's SEO.
Finally, think mobile. Adapting your website to mobile phones has become essential as more and more people buy from their phones. Your website must therefore be responsive design and offer a smooth shopping experience on smartphones.