Does SEO increase sales? Because organic search is responsible for 51% of all search traffic, it’s not hard to see the link between a well-optimized eCommerce store and improved sales performance.
You may either have an online store already up and running, or you may be in the planning stages. But do you know how to increase your online sales revenue? After all, higher search rankings translates directly into more traffic, which you absolutely need for your eCommerce property.
But SEO is much more important to your online business in other ways. It ensures you’re delivering rich and informative content, which will act as the sales tool for your products or services. Best SEO practices also serve to improve user experience while tailoring your content to match up exactly with what buyer-focused searchers are looking for.
Here are five ways SEO can help you boost your online sales performance.
Wondering how to increase online sales? 5 ways SEO can help boost your e-commerce revenue
1. SEO improves your visibility
There’s no question that high search engine rankings are critical to your success. Since 81% of people search online for products or searches, the ability to attract a percentage of those potential buyers can make or break your eCommerce business.
More importantly, 75% of all searchers never scroll past the first page of search results. So making sure you’re at the top of the SERPs makes all the difference.
That’s why using tested SEO techniques to boost your search engine visibility is the key to gaining customers. Interested buyers may be searching for your product or service, but if they can’t find your online store, then you won’t be making those sales. While it may sound obvious, far too many online retailers either don’t understand the impact SEO has, aren’t willing to invest the time, or they choose to ignore it and hope for the best.
There is a wide array of basic SEO factors that act as powerful signals Google uses to decide which website will appear at the top of the SERPs. These include but aren’t limited to:
Link building
Does your eCommerce site have a robust linking structure? Pages should contain inbound, outbound, and internal links anchored by appropriate keyword anchor text. Inbound links to your site are viewed by Google as “votes of confidence”, while outbound links help signal a heightened user experience. Finally, links between site pages (interlinking) helps to make your site more user friendly.
Site security
Today, there’s no excuse not to have an SSL-secured website. This is doubly critical for eCommerce business owners, as that extra layer of encryption is essential to prevent sensitive payment and customer information.
Beyond that, however, is the basic fact that a lack of SSL will force Google to severely penalize your site. And if that’s not enough, browsers like Chrome will warn visitors that your site is potentially unsafe — which can be fatal to your business.
Page speed
As part of a desire to reward web searchers with the best possible user experience, Google weighs page speed metrics heavily. Since nobody wants to deal with a slowly-loading page, your site will be penalized if it isn’t optimized for speed.
There are several factors that affect site speed, ranging from your CMS plugins to content optimization, database, and server issues. If your online store is slow, consider consulting with an SEO eCommerce expert for advice.
Mobile friendliness
More people use smartphones and mobile devices today than desktops to access the internet. To that end, Google and the other search engines consider mobile friendliness to be a critical deciding ranking factor.
An SEO audit of your site’s mobile friendliness will ensure that your site is ready and able to handle mobile visitors while delivering an optimum user experience.
Technical SEO optimization
Technical SEO is the umbrella term for a host of miscellaneous factors that, taken together, represent a major signal to Google that your site is properly optimized for search engine visibility. Since they’re also among the least-understood among non-SEO experts, they are frequently overlooked, especially by eCommerce business owners. Yet it’s critical that you don’t overlook them.
Technical SEO factors include but aren’t limited to:
- Keyword placement in titles, headings, and meta descriptions
- Proper heading hierarchy (h1, h2, h3, etc)
- Meta description optimization
- Image description optimization
- Schema markups
- XML sitemaps
Fortunately, popular plugins like Yoast SEO can handle many of these automatically. But bottom line: if you’re wondering how to increase your online sales, it’s imperative you start with proper SEO practices.
2. SEO targets the right buyer traffic
Keyword research is another aspect of SEO that will have a major impact on your online store’s success. While there are a variety of free and paid keyword research tools out there, it’s incredibly important to understand how to do it the right way.
What do we mean by finding the “right” keywords? It’s not just a question of harvesting a set of keywords related to your product or service. You have to distill the buyer keywords out from the non-buyer keywords. This comes from experience, and many online entrepreneurs make the mistake of casting too wide a net. Essentially, it means the difference between finding those search terms used by those with intent to buy, rather than similar ones used by people either just searching for information or “kicking the tires”.
So if you do nothing else, doing thorough, buyer-focused SEO keyword research and analysis before creating a word of content will have a dramatic effect on your online sales revenues.
3. SEO converts buyers with informative content
Once you’ve done your SEO keyword research and you’ve identified the right keywords, it’s time to put them to use with informative content that will attract readers and convert them into buyers.
The importance of having well-written content can’t be overstated, for two main reasons.
First, Google uses those keywords to match the search user’s intent with the pages it delivers. This is where relevance comes in, and it’s a major factor. Since the algorithm tries to determine which results would best serve the user’s interest, it’s imperative that you ensure your site is optimized for those who are interested in your product or service.
If not, then while they may click onto your page, they’ll quickly realize it isn’t what they’re looking for and then click away. Not only will you fail to attract customers, but Google’s RankBrain AI will use this to penalize your overall rankings.
This is the reason why Google measures content quality and uses it as a major ranking factor. Ten years ago, website owners could easily get to the top of the SERPs by stuffing keywords into shoddy content. That won’t fly today, so offering only tightly-written and highly-informative content tailored to your target audience will definitely give you a competitive edge.
Second, writing SEO-focused content is necessary to capture the interest of your audience. Using relevant keywords and search terms, organized in a logical and easy-to-ready way, can help to guide the reader further along your sales funnel (if you have one) and into your shopping cart.
4. SEO builds trust and authority
Did you know that 136% of buyers prefer to search for products in Google as opposed to individual retail websites? Where they land, and which eCommerce store they’ll ultimately buy from depends on a number of factors — with trust being a major decider. In fact, 31% of consumers say it’s the most important factor of all.
Visibility and authority are two sides of the same coin. Increasing your online presence with strong content sends trust signals to both Google and your potential customers. But it’s only part of the equation since you can be highly visible yet perceived as untrustworthy. Visibility gives you the platform, but it’s up to you to deliver content and interact with your online traffic in a way that builds up authority.
Boosting your visibility, delivering relevant and buyer-focused content, and offering an exceptional user experience all contribute to the overall perceived authority and trustworthiness of your brand. All of these depend on using effective SEO strategies.
5. Local SEO boosts organic traffic
Finally, don’t overlook the importance of local SEO. “Near me” or “close by” searches grew by more than 900% in the past few years, and even if your store doesn’t have a bricks and mortar counterpart, you’ll want to tap into that organic traffic. People love to support retailers in their geographic area, and tools like Google My Business can help ensure your eCommerce store is optimized for local traffic.
Improve your online sales with strong SEO
Having a strong and effective SEO strategy will have a major impact on your online store’s success. Your site will be more visible and relevant to your target audience, and you’ll be able to deliver the content that will attract and convert those visitors into buyers.
With over 12 years experience delivering eCommerce SEO results to entrepreneurs around the world, Miromind’s team of experts can help you turbocharge your sales and maximize your profits. Contact us to learn how our eCommerce SEO services can grow your business.