Developing an SEO strategy for eCommerce is an activity that must be carefully planned and must necessarily include medium and long-term steps.
Those who deluded themselves to obtain the desired results in the face of a single one-time investment ended up irremediably to be disappointed, spending time and resources for a short-term result that had no other effect than a meteor effect: a moment of light and then oblivion.
SEO activities need time to be effective, gradually gain thickness and are constantly monitored and re-calibrated. For this reason, a good strategy must provide that every single aspect is durable and, of course, sustainable.
Who proposes hit and run SEO activities promising exceptional results quickly and easily to the customer, is doing it in bad faith, relying only on mechanisms that seem to work immediately leading to a rapid increase in traffic to the site, but that are not able to guarantee a good performance in the medium and long term (and often not even in the short term).
What distinguishes the winning eCommerce sites from their competitors lies in the fact that the former have chosen a quality SEO consultant and have allocated a budget to ensure adequate follow-up even after the initial work has been completed.
SEO strategy for eCommerce: Old habits die hard
If a client does not have the financial resources for a long-term consultancy contract, or a support strategy to continue to follow the work once the initial project has been completed, it will be back to the starting point in no time. Plus the lightened bank account.
It is fundamental not to underestimate the importance of the continuity of an SEO activity, rather it is one of the five principles on which an effective SEO strategy for eCommerce is based.
- Use research data and analysis tools to target the strategy;
- Make sure your site is structured with the customer in mind and has the right architecture in terms of navigation and information;
- Create content based on search data and intent behind searches;
- Solve critical problems at the root;
- Continue to adopt the best SEO practices.
This last point must be understood as “continue always”. It is a constant process and in constant evolution: to interrupt it is practically to cancel it.
How does your data-driven eCommerce strategy evolve?
We assume that you have applied all the above principles in your SEO strategy for eCommerce, and that you are therefore seeing an increase in your site’s traffic. Interrupting the SEO activity would disregard new growth opportunities and you would lose the chance to correct the shot.
Continuing to monitor your analysis and research data and using them to re-calibrate your SEO strategy, you would instead get several advantages, such as …
- Quickly discover which of the keywords you’ve used seem to attract more of your target to your online store;
- Identify new search terms that can attract new customers and retain existing ones, to optimize your site and further improve your business.
- Understanding how and how much the contents of your site respond to the needs, research and problems of your customers;
- You can determine if the content and architecture of your site are able to lead users to finalize purchases;
- You can isolate critical issues in good time and correct them promptly before they can damage your business or brand.
By analyzing KPIs you can find out how to further improve your SEO strategy, increasing placements, traffic and sales.
Monitoring helps improve your SEO strategy for eCommerce
If your strategy works, you will have new users who visit your site coming from the organic results of search engines, and then you will have the opportunity to study their behavior and learn more about your target.
If, for example, you realize that many people are looking for a “top-loading washing machine”, it means that they have space problems. So, you will need to make sure that the site’s contents and product sheets are able to clearly communicate that top-loading washers allow you to save space without compromising washing efficiency. In this way, by analyzing their search terms, you have already answered any questions that customers may ask based on their primary need, namely the management of restricted spaces.
A person can think of a lot of things before deciding to make a purchase. If you can identify and isolate the sources of these doubts, study the behavior of users and analyze the individual problems that arise, you will have more chances to finalize a sale.
The SEO helps to integrate the work of different people
If you are the owner of an eCommerce and your business also includes physical points of sale, you will have to deal with different aspects managed both internally and externally by people who perform different tasks related to different disciplines. To achieve the best results, all these activities must be integrated with each other.
This means a great deal of interaction and comparison between people and company departments, which in many situations does not happen. This is one of the main reasons why it is so difficult to keep the first results obtained. Having an SEO consultant to manage follow-up activities will help you keep people and teams working in a coordinated way.
Rome was not built in a day. The same applies to an effective SEO strategy. The best results are achieved when your SEO tactics are well structured, strategic and always with an eye to the long term. So, if you are willing to invest in SEO, prepare to allocate an adequate budget for a continuous contract (stipulate annual consultations is the norm in this area). It will allow you to safeguard your initial investment, making it profitable over time.