Functional SEO Tips for Ecommerce Business
An e-commerce website is like an online virtual store and just like its brick and mortar counterpart, it needs to attract customers in order to be successful. While brick and mortar stores have a con that they are rigid and cannot be moved once placed. An e-commerce store has the power to shift placement whenever it’s required. The whole game boils down to reaching out to the right set of audience and attracting organic traffic to the website. This is where SEO plays a key role. If implemented strategically, over a period of time, SEO will not only help you to reach to prospective customers who are looking for your products and services, it will also create a brand presence by helping you reach top ranks in the SERPs. If your website/e-commerce store is visible, more and more quality traffic will start pouring in and the chances of conversions will rise.
Below I will provide a few tips which can help you optimize your ecommerce website and boost your chances for more conversions.
- Keyword Niche
Finding the right set of keywords for your niche will determine the result of your SEO efforts. An extensive keyword research should be conducted and choose a set of keywords that match your business. The main focus should be to keep in mind the nature of user queries and frequently used search terms. Keep some Long-Tail keywords in your bucket and these will help you rank for specific niches faster. Determining the specific search queries of your end customers and evaluating the users’ search intent will help you to finalize your set of targeted keywords.
- Say No to Duplicate Content
Ecommerce websites face a lot of issues because of duplicate product descriptions. Since many ecommerce websites list products from several vendors they put up descriptions which are generally provided by the vendor themselves. The problem is these sellers provide the same description to every ecommerce portal they sell their products through. This creates a huge issue and affects the ranks of the ecommerce websites substantially. Try to use unique descriptions for your products and you will be good to go.
- Image Optimization
The importance of ALT Tags cannot be stressed enough when it comes to e-commerce websites. Generally, there is a huge inventory of images on e-commerce websites. Apart from them being attractive and unique so that your viewers are compelled to buy your products they can play another important role in driving traffic to your website. Important Keywords can be added to the ALT tags of the images on your website. This will result in them popping up in Google’s Image Search Results and will in turn help you to attract organic traffic to your website.
- URL Optimisation
URL mapping and optimization is very crucial for SEO. It helps search engine bots to properly crawl and index your website’s pages for the right keywords. URL optimization and proper structure plays a vital role in indexation of your website. Also having a neat and efficient URL structure improves the overall user experience of your viewers thus decreasing the bounce rate of your website and increasing the chances of conversions.
- Broken Links
This is a major headache and the worst nightmare of any ecommerce store owner. Having a broken link means disrupting the flow and overall experience of your viewers. Imagine clicking on a product to view its description and landing on an “Error 404: Page Not Found” is something which you would not want to happen. Right? Having broken links or ignoring them specifically when you are selling from your website is something that you would want to steer clear of. There are a host of online websites which can help you detect such broken links. So remember to run regular checks on your website and do get any broken links fixed if any crops up.
These SEO tips will help you get started for sure. There are a lot of factors which you also need to consider while running an eCommerce website. Do feel free to reach out to us if you are facing any issues and we will be happy to assist you.
Do check out our last week’s post on Digital Marketing Tips for Ecommerce business in case you have missed it. Also do follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn to get such tips and updates.
Digital Marketing Tips for Ecommerce Business
Attracting the right set of customers is the key to success in any business. The same theory applies to e-commerce as well. The percentage increase in revenue from sales in e-commerce has been rising at an exponential rate. This not only means that the pie is getting bigger but it also suggests that it will become that much harder to get hold of the crumbs. With cutthroat competition, every business will feel the heat. Attracting the right set of customers will be much tougher and albeit expensive too.
With the shopping spree of the much-awaited holiday season coming up, soon sales volume will increase. It’s high time that e-commerce businesses start plugging all the gaps and implements a full proof digital marketing strategy to take advantage of the season. Funnel specific marketing is very important. You should have clear marketing tactics to target your customers at each stage of the sales funnel. I will be sharing a few tips to boost e-commerce sales figures.
- Google Shopping Ads – Organic visibility at its best
This is a really obvious one. Google Shopping Ads is an e-commerce marketer’s best friend. With millions of search queries on Google each day it is really stupid to ignore this space. Just imagine how easy it will be to have your products displayed directly to your end customers without even attracting them to your website. With the right set of keyword targeting, shopping campaigns are the best bet that any e-commerce business can take. Customers will be able to see your products at the top of the Google search results page when they are looking for the same kind of products that you are selling. Not only that but customers can also see product photos, price details, ratings, and reviews by other customers, any special offers, and other important information that helps them in making a decision.
All you need to do is create a Google Merchant Center account and link it to your Google Ads Account. Upload your product inventory via a spreadsheet to Google Merchant Center. Now you can easily run Ads and Google will automatically show your products whenever a relevant search query is placed. A Google Shopping Campaign can help you drive quality traffic to your website in no time.
- Instagram – The Ecom Paradise
Shopping on Instagram has made life much easier for e-commerce businesses. Marketers don’t have to worry about driving traffic to their webpages from social media anymore. The audience and followers of a page can complete the whole shopping experience directly from Instagram itself. Instagram is a social media platform where photos and videos are shared. The visual appeal is the strongest here. Consumers go through a varied range of micro-moments while scrolling through Instagram. To come across a visually attractive post of a product and the urge to buy that product is a common occurrence on this platform. Marketers tap into the impulsive buying behavior of the consumers. How the product is showcased plays an important role in this process.
All one needs to do is set up a business profile on Instagram and upload their product catalog to Facebook. After this, the option to tag products in the organic feed and Stories will appear. Now the audience who used to consume organic content can directly purchase products without even visiting the website.
- Remarketing – Reeling in the lost ones
Remarketing works like a magnet in e-commerce which reels in customers who had visited your website before but didn’t purchase anything. It increases the conversion rates of an e-commerce business by a considerable percentage. Say you had checked all the boxes and spent a lot of ad revenue to attract a considerable amount of visitors to your website. Now you cannot simply expect that once those viewers land on your website they will become a paying customer, right? Some will purchase and some simply won’t. Now you just can’t let go of those who didn’t right? If you do you are simply wasting all the efforts up to this point. This is where remarketing plays its part. A cookie is placed on the system of those who have visited your site and exits without making a purchase. Now if this visitor enters another site that hosts retargeting ads then he/she will get to see ads of your products. It’s that extra layer of marketing to convince a set of consumers who are already interested in your offerings. They only need an extra nudge or two.
- Pop-ups to drive extra revenue
This is the least favorite one (especially for your viewers) because it has a bad reputation of being overtly pervasive in nature. The fun part is that it’s not only pervasive but persuasive as well and that’s the only part a marketer needs to bother about. Pop-ups are Ad windows which temporarily comes over a viewer’s display screen and showcases them additional offers or discounts. Pop-ups can be used to convince your viewers into buying something purely out of impulse. If used strategically, pop-ups can drive a huge amount of extra revenue to your business by convincing your viewers to add that one last product to their shopping cart. You can either tickle their FOMO by putting up a limited-time discount or BOGO offer or you can showcase products which the viewer is most likely to purchase.
- Power of Referral Marketing
The process of incentivizing your existing base of customers to be your brand ambassador in their individual networks just to promote your brand and spread the word is otherwise known as referral marketing. This is a really effective method if used wisely. It is a fact that the rate of success that your loyal customers will have in converting their friends and family members is much more than you will have by showing them your advertisements. It is somewhat similar to customer reviews but better, where the customer himself is convincing others. Referral Discounts, Bonus Cashbacks, and first purchase offers are some examples of methods used in referral marketing.
Well, those are some key pointers that I had to share for e-commerce businesses. Do feel free to reach out to us if you need any help with your business. Keep an eye on our Facebook and LinkedIn pages for more such updates in the future.
Check out out our last post on Points to Consider Before Starting Your Own eCommerce Business to gain valuable insights before starting your business.
Charges for Google Shopping Ads Will be Removed
Earlier this year due to the pandemic, Google rolled out free shopping ads in the US. Since April, Google shopping listings have been free in America. Google has plans to extend this benefit to more countries over the world. Soon retailers across Europe, Asia, and Latin America will be able to run free Google Shopping listings.
The change will most likely start taking effect from mid-October. The financial and situational crisis, that hit many businesses, was the main reason behind this change. Many businesses have since moved online and more and more consumers have also started showing a rise in online shopping activity. This change will not only benefit retailers but also consumers who will now have the benefit of choice irrespective of the scale of business they are transacting with.
This change will provide an opportunity for many struggling businesses to resume operations and reconnect with their consumer base. Many businesses have a robust stock of items that people are searching for online but there is a huge gap because they do not have any online presence whatsoever.
Google saw a significant rise in the percentage of engagement between consumers and merchants after they rolled out free shopping listings in the US. Google wishes to expand this benefit beyond borders now so that retailers all over the world can take a sigh of relief.
Retailers who can afford to pay though can still do so. Google has left that option open. It is quite obvious to state that paid listings will benefit more than the free ones and will appear in ad slots above the free ones in the Shopping Tab. So it is still advantageous to pay for shopping listings on Google.
So, how will you run your free Google Shopping Ads?
- Create a Google Merchant Center Account or sign in if you already have one
- Click on Growth in the left navigation menu
- Go to Manage Programs
- Select Surface across Google
- Use Product Feed to add your products
- Follow through with the website verification process
- Confirm that the website belongs to you
- Click on Activate and you are all set
Stay tuned on our Facebook and LinkedIn pages as we will share the news when this goes live in India.
Points to Consider Before Starting Your Own eCommerce Business
The eCommerce industry saw a sudden spike because of the pandemic that disrupted our whole system of transactional activities. It is rather safe to state that eCommerce will be the way to conduct business, it is the ‘new normal’ now. Though we have seen traditional brick and mortar shops resume operations with adherence to safety guidelines, ‘cautious consumers’ are still steering clear of any gatherings and are trying their best to keep human contact at a bare minimum. It is imperative to state that now is really a good time to start that little pet project or side hustle of yours if you were contemplating about it during the recent past.
Many people and ‘entrepreneurs’ (as they like to call themselves) have started to jump aboard this rocket to the stars called eCommerce. I would just like to give a few pointers as to how you can actually setup an eCommerce business which will provide you with what we like to call a ‘competitive edge’.
- The Niche
This is a very important aspect that I have seen many people ignore while planning their new venture. I have seen many eCommerce sites that have product categories which have no similarities and logic whatsoever. The Target Group is so widespread that God knows how many shopping campaigns they have to setup to get success.
The key here is to identify a niche that is not overly competitive thus giving you some shot at the market share and also doesn’t lack competition, which actually means that there is no (read as enough) demand in that niche.
- The Model
There are many models that may or may not apply to your business. Base your eCommerce business on the most suitable model and work your way up accordingly. Try to research and find out what other successful brands are doing in the same model. The models are bifurcated in the following manner:
Traditional Method:
- B2C – Business to Consumer
- B2B – Business to Business
- C2B – Consumer to Business
- C2C – Consumer to Consumer
Value Delivery Methods
- D2C – Direct to Consumer
- White Label and Private Label
- Dropshipping
- Wholesaling
- Subscription Based
Platform Based Methods:
- Mobile Commerce
- Facebook Commerce
- The Platform
Many people are still confused about how to setup their online business and which platform they should use. Refer to your budget and the kind of brand outlook you want to portray before cashing in on any platform. Following is a list of platforms, with names of brands currently using them, that you can consider for your ecommerce business (the order of the list do not signify anything and it is a random depiction of the platforms available):
- BigCommerce – SkullCandy, Bliss World and John Paul Mitchell Systems
- Shopify – Hasbro, Heinz and Penguin Books
- Wix – NetMD, Victoria’s Secret and SAG-AFTRA
- 3dcart – Daktronics Inc, Dotmailer and Webimax
- WooCommerce – Analytic Focus LLC, Fresh Realm LLC and Air Lift Company
- Squarespace – Tony Hawk, Airwalk and Lyft Blog
- Magento – Hermes, Christian Louboutin and Oliver Sweeney
- Weebly – Dwarmis, The Readydesk and Wall’ in
- Volusion – polartcenter, Nitecorestore and ansgear.com
- Prestashop – salling, pop-line and Harryfay
- The Registration
I will be focusing on how to register your business with respect to India only. If you belong to any other nationality please conduct thorough research before setting up your business.
- Submit the DIN 3 form on the official website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Just attach and upload the necessary documentation and you will get your Director’s Identification Number.
- You need to have a PAN (Permanent Account Number) and Digital Signature Certificate.
- After getting your DIN you can check for the availability of the name you have chosen for your company on the official website of the Registrar of Companies (ROC) and even on the website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
- Once you get approval for the name you can incorporate your company within six months.
- You also need to apply for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) certification (Shops and Establishment License) which is required for Payment Gateway Integration and Professional Tax.
- The Marketing
The most important piece of the puzzle, the one that will ensure that quality traffic pours in your website and conversions keep raining heavier than peak monsoon. The aspects that you need to focus on to get your marketing straight and make your dreams a reality are:
- Search Engine Optimization also known as SEO – Well this is smart marketing and this rules over anything and everything. There is nothing like getting free, organic traffic to your website by just popping up on the results page with respect to your consumers’ search queries. I may have made it quite a lot simple there but the main point that I wanted to drive through is the fact that there is no harm in investing in SEO. The earlier you start the more advantage you will have over your competitors. You need the help of experts to guide you for this. SEO if executed properly will continue to provide you with returns over a long period of time. The right mix of low competition and high search volume keywords which pertain to your audience will bring the results that you wish for.
- Social Promotion and Advertisements – You can use all the tools at your disposal and invest in social media platforms to drive sales and increase your brand’s awareness. Again your niche and Target Audience will play a vital role in providing you the right results. If you run Ads blindly then you are most likely to miss and burn a hole in your pocket without any returns. Use Facebook and Instagram’s Shopping Campaigns to increase the number of conversions and boost sales for your brand. The manner in which you showcase your product/service will determine the conversion percentage. Try to put yourself in the shoes of your consumers and ask yourself if you would click on your Ad and buy your product/service or not. This will help you to fine-tune your Ads.
- Retargeting – This is a process where a cookie (not the one in your jar) is placed on the system of those who have visited your site and exits without making a purchase. Now if this visitor enters another site which hosts retargeting ads then he/she will get to see ads of your products. Though this is an expensive route to use the rate of positive results is much higher if you use this method.
Those were some vital points which I believe many people do not take into consideration while planning about their eCommerce venture. Wish you all the best and do not hesitate to reach out to us if you are stuck somewhere while planning your next eCommerce business.