Do you want to learn how to boost ecommerce sales? Take a look at Bonobos, a men's apparel retailer. When the brand first debuted in 2007, it just had one item in its inventory: pants. Walmart bought the company for $310 million ten years later, in 2017.
The brand's early success was due to a positive online customer experience that left potential customers wanting more. The brand's SEO results increased as a result of this focus on user experience, which helped increase e-commerce sales. For their target audience, Bonobos established a relevant, useful, and content-rich online store. That's an excellent example of how to increase website traffic.
Bonobos then beefed up their SEO strategy, which helped them increase online sales. That's when they got Walmart's attention (as well as Walmart's cash).
The sky's the limit once an internet business implements a well-defined SEO plan. The enhancements increase the brand's traffic and sales to unprecedented heights. So, if SEO isn't a big element of your inbound marketing strategy in 2020, you're wasting money.
Key Points
- Organic traffic-derived e-commerce income is increasing by double digits.
- Increase your ecommerce sales by targeting the full funnel with branded and long-tail keywords.
- Profit from what's hot and meet your customers where they are online.
- Use UGC, influencers, and behavioural analysis to your advantage.
How can ecommerce sales be increased in 2022?
Ecommerce sales in the United States increased by 14.9 percent in 2019. Global internet consumers are predicted to reach 2.05 billion by 2020, accounting for more than 25% of the world's population.
When 75% of the world has yet to shop online, there is still plenty of space for further, rapid expansion. Global ecommerce sales are expected to reach $4.9 trillion in 2021, up from $4.1 trillion estimated in 2020. That's roughly double the number of online sales from the previous year.
Despite the fact that e-commerce has been around for a long time (Amazon was started in 1994, nearly two decades ago! ), it remains a huge organic growth opportunity.
Sales Trends in Ecommerce
Ecommerce sales in the United States are increasing year over year.
It isn't only that online revenue is increasing. Ecommerce sales are increasingly accounting for a higher percentage of total retail sales, according to the trend.
However, it's critical to examine trends for both B2B and B2C sales in order to maximize income through an effective e-commerce marketing plan.
Sales of B2C ecommerce
China will be the largest B2C e-commerce market in 2020, accounting for almost half of the worldwide market. Retailers in the United States, on the other hand, have plenty of room to reclaim market share and grab significant search traffic.
Sales of B2B ecommerce
While B2C marketplaces receive a lot of attention, B2B eCommerce dwarfs B2C in terms of size. B2B e-commerce revenue reached $10.6 trillion in 2019, compared to $2.8 trillion for B2C ecommerce. B2B enterprises face a problem in casting a larger net and expanding their audience through content marketing.
This brings us to the concept of search engine optimization (SEO).
Organic traffic-derived e-commerce income is increasing by double digits. Because it just refers to last-click conversions, that fast-increasing number is only the beginning of the story. There is limited data on the total number of people who found their favorite brands through organic search and later converted.
However, we do know that Google is the starting point for 46% of product searches.
Because organic traffic and income are so closely linked, an increase in SEO equals an increase in revenue. To learn how to enhance your ecommerce sales with SEO, read the guidelines below.
How to use SEO to boost sales
1. Use non-branded keywords to increase brand recognition.
Because those clients are explicitly looking for your organization, branded keywords convert better. However, if that's your SEO strategy's primary goal, you'll never grow your consumer base.
The beauty of SEO is that it can present your business to new clients who are looking for solutions that you provide. As a result, your market share will grow, and new clients will start using branded inquiries. Existing consumers who rediscover your content through organic search will remember you if you choose non-branded terms.
2. Use SEO to target the full conversion funnel
The majority of digital marketing platforms are designed to target one or two funnel stages: awareness, deliberation, and decision. Audiences in the awareness phase, for example, respond well to social media. However, it may have difficulty with people who are in the decision-making process. Paid search is the polar opposite of organic search. It performs well during the purchase and deliberation phases, but not so well at the top of the conversion funnel when it comes to attracting new clients.
One of the most effective ways to boost ecommerce sales? Because SEO is effective in all three phases, it should be used. Use this to your advantage and divide your keyword research into three phases. What kinds of searches do clients conduct at each stage? This will form the foundation of a full-funnel optimization strategy (Tofu, Mofu, Bofu).
3. Long-tail keywords should not be overlooked.
Long-tail keywords account for more than half of all search inquiries. As a result, long-tail keywords should be a part of your marketing strategy if you want to broaden your search audience and take advantage of low-hanging fruit. These very specialised inquiries have a lot less competition and a very clear goal. Incorporate them into your content plan to broaden your audience with each new piece of content you create. You'll be on page one for thousands of different searches before you know it.
4. Use Google Trends to capitalise on what's trending.
Even the most advanced keyword research tools have trouble contextualising the information they provide. It's possible that a keyword with a high monthly search traffic has already reached its pinnacle in popularity. Alternatively, a low-volume one could be on the rise. It's possible that the keyword will have a seasonal uptick, which will affect how you prioritise it in your approach. Google Trends can help you augment your keyword research by revealing hidden phrases that SEO tools miss.
The tool also serves as a view into what's trending. To find searches that are comparable to your products and services, use the "Related Queries" option. Take advantage of a trend once you've noticed it. Create content that is optimised for the trend and that your audience will find useful. This puts your material ahead of many competitors and allows you to capitalise on lucrative keyword opportunities before they become overcrowded.
5. Meet your customers where they are.
When your audience looks for a solution, one of the hallmarks of SEO is that you provide the solution right when they need it. You can't interrupt their social media stream or display them an advertisement when they're doing something else. There's no point in expecting they'll remember you later. That is enormous.
It's not only about showing up in the top Google results to meet buyers where they are. It means being present on YouTube, industry websites, podcasts, review sites, and so on - everywhere your customers are, you should be as well.
6. Use paid ads to retarget organic traffic.
Meeting your consumers where they are, though, means you'll meet a lot of them before they're ready to convert. Retargeting advertising help you stay in front of your intended demographic. By keeping your visitors in the funnel, remarketing is a simple and effective approach to capitalise on all of your organic traffic.
Remarketing strategies should be tailored to each level of the funnel. Launch advertising that urge customers to take the next logical step after they conduct a search and land on one of your pages.
7. Mobile-friendly design
Google will not prioritise your website in mobile search results if it is not mobile-friendly. We've known for five years that responsive website design is the way to go, and most major brands and business ecommerce stores have already made the switch.
The issue is that responsive and mobile-optimized are not synonymous. Even if a website has a stunning responsive design, it may still have a number of features that aren't mobile-friendly, such as custom code, photos, and CTAs. When Google approves your website for mobile SERPs, it doesn't necessarily mean it will catch every in-page element.
Reassess your website from a user perspective once you've confirmed that your website is usually in the clear using a service like Google's mobile-friendly test.
- Is your home page visually appealing and simple to navigate?
- How are your blog postings coming along? Do you use graphics to break up long blocks of text?
- Do you know how to prioritise the right data?
- Do you have a mobile website that loads quickly?
- Along with your other schema markup, do you incorporate rich cards and AMP pages?
- Is it simple for the user to fill out forms? To put things off till later? Is there a way for you to reconnect with them?
- Take a look at your Google Analytics account. Are your conversion rates on mobile and desktop comparable?
Mobile commerce accounted for 72.9 percent of total ecommerce in 2021. So don't waste any time and convert your organic mobile traffic into mobile sales.
8.Add a copy to the ecommerce category pages.
Product pages primarily catch long-tail traffic, which has a high level of detail and intent but can be modest in volume. Your home page attracts
a bigger amount of shoppers with lesser purchase intent overall, capturing traffic for the broadest searches.
Goldilocks pages are your ecommerce category pages. They're specific enough to be intent-driven, yet broad enough to bring in a big number of new customers via non-branded terms. If you optimize each page completely, the keywords that match the relevancy of category pages can be the most powerful keywords in your arsenal. To increase their chances of ranking for these high-priority keywords, provide engaging, useful, keyword-rich material to each category page.
9. Make your product pages pop with colour.
Invest in e-commerce conversion rate optimization since some of your lowest-funnel organic traffic will go straight to your product pages. Show each product from a variety of perspectives. Provide demonstration footage of the product in action. Beautiful images should be used to set the scene: who utilizes your product? What is their way of life like? What values do they exemplify?
Don't only provide prospective customers your sales pitch when choosing how to enhance your ecommerce sales through product descriptions. Provide them with all of the information they require to make an informed decision. Anticipate and respond to any objections consumers may have to purchase the goods. This information not only aids in purchasing decisions, but it can also help e-commerce product pages rank higher for related search terms.
The end result could have a lot more information than the two paragraphs of dazzling prose you desire on the product landing page. That's not an issue; just leave your featured copy alone and experiment with other settings for your secondary copy. Add it underneath the product or make an editorial-style layout that allows the consumer to scroll through additional information.
10. Correctly implement faceted navigation
Faceted navigation is a sorting and filtering function that allows buyers to narrow down a product category based on hyper-specific criteria. It's fantastic for users. It's also no secret that if performed incorrectly, faceted search may turn into an SEO nightmare. Because each combination of facets generates a unique URL, websites can end up with an almost unlimited quantity of duplicate material, which diverts crawlers away from priority pages and causes search engines to become confused.
Canonicalization, removing particular URL parameters in robots.txt, and creating JavaScript that does not rewrite the URL are all possible solutions to the problem. Each option has advantages and disadvantages; the key is to prioritise a solution in the first place. Otherwise, you'll be sacrificing SEO for the sake of usability
11: Make smart use of internal linking
Internal links are quite beneficial to your website. They create site architecture, distribute link equity, and direct people to other high-value pages on your site.
Create an internal linking structure that highlights pillar pages and assists crawlers (and people) in finding contextually related products or content.
Create best practices that make internal linking second nature: for example, if someone publishes a blog post, have them a link to similar content throughout the piece.
12: Incorporate structured data
More than half of all searches will be zero-click by 2020, meaning people will not have to leave the SERPs to find the information they need. As a result, today's SEO approach focuses on website optimization as well as SERP optimization.
To stand out in the SERPs and showcase the content on your site that will entice users to click, employ structured data markup. Structured data improves visibility and helps visitors discover early that your site contains the products and solutions they desire, even if it isn't yet a ranking indication.
Product and review markup are major priorities for online organizations. Add location markup if you're conducting SEO for local businesses. Look through Google's search gallery to see what other forms of structured data are available for your sector. While you're doing so, keep an eye on how your competitors are using structured data and make sure yours is keeping up. You can get this information from competing websites using tools like DeepCrawl and Screaming Frog, or you can look at the SERPs for certain keywords.
13.Improve the client experience
The relationship between SEO and customer experience is cyclical. Improving the user experience can help with SEO. As a result, connect people to the material that is relevant and purposeful to their search intent. Google is primarily concerned with presenting the most beneficial pages for each given query.
The more engaged your audience is throughout the digital client journey, the better. Make your website simple to use. Go above and beyond to ensure that people get all of the information they require. Include engaging, high-quality content that answers their questions. Remove any broken links or errors from your website. Make it simple for users to contact a top-notch support crew. Google, as well as your clients, will appreciate it. Furthermore, they will return for more, so boosting your customer lifetime value (CLV)!
14. Improve the speed with which a page loads
The slower your site is, the more money you're squandering. More than half of your consumers will depart if a page takes longer than three seconds to load. Google employs page speed as a ranking indication for both desktop and mobile rankings since the link between page speed and user behavior is so well-established.
Test your site's speed with a tool like Pingdom and make any recommended improvements. A slow site and a fast site have a significant financial and organic difference.
If your site is having trouble loading, take a look at our guide on how to increase page load time.
15. Make the checkout procedure go faster
Shopping cart abandonment is also influenced by page speed and difficult checkout processes.
How much of an influence do abandoned carts have on eCommerce sales? Every year, try trillions of dollars. Furthermore, 63 percent of that can be recovered.
Avoid becoming a statistic when considering how to improve e-commerce sales by making your checkout page as quick and simple as feasible. Don't ask individuals for information until it's absolutely required, and give them the option to save it for later. The speedy, conversion-friendly experience will help your earnings and SEO.
16. Incentivize positive internet reviews.
For branded search results, online reviews are quite essential. Non-branded terms convert at a substantially lower rate than branded terms. This is due to the fact that clients are specifically looking for your business. Unfavorable reviews in your search results, on the other hand, may drive away conversion-ready customers. As a result, it's critical to collect genuine, positive feedback and market it via online reputation management.
Unfortunately, without a call to action, pleased customers will not always be compelled to post a review. Offering incentives for product reviews is one technique to persuade them. To avoid bribery, provide the same discount to all customers for any unbiased evaluation, positive or negative. If the majority of your customers are happy, your reviews will reflect that.
17. Make user-generated content a priority.
UGC aids in the ranking of your ecommerce site for new content and long-tail keywords. It also builds social proof by demonstrating how loyal customers use and appreciate your products.
If your finest user-generated content is on social media, link it to your eCommerce site in a unique way so that your SEO benefits. For example, write keyword-rich blog posts highlighting the top customer images of the week. You can also create community forums and stimulate conversation on your own website. Alternatively, construct a content hub for industry-related news and activities.
18.Collaborate with influencer
Links from other websites and blogs, as well as (to a lesser extent) social media mentions, all contribute to the trust signals needed for SEO success. Scalable eCommerce SEO, on the other hand, isn't something that can be done manually and on the fly – because of the sheer volume required to move the needle, organizations can't invest link by link and fan by fan.
Micro influencer marketing is a top-down, scalable strategy. Working with influencers has a cascading effect that begins with the influencer and spreads to other blogs and their enthusiastic audiences, so increasing your reach, content, and backlinks.
19. Behavioral analysis and A/B testing
There has been some uncertainty about A/B testing and its influence on SEO because it entails testing near-duplicates of a page. A/B testing is encouraged by Google, so don't worry. Some of the top enterprise-level A/B testing solutions are Omniconvert, Optimizely, AB Tasty, VWO, and Adobe Target.
Through iterative testing, behavior-monitoring tools such as A/B testing and behavioral analysis enable you to provide a progressively better experience to your clients. You'll experience a rise in sales as well as SEO benefits as a result of the results.
20. Use your imagination when it comes to ecommerce content marketing.
Great content and a positive customer experience are inextricably linked to SEO. You have complete control over how you answer the following questions, other from your basic technological optimizations:
- What types of information would our clients find interesting, useful, and educational?
- How can we please our customers by going above and beyond?
- How can we get our name in the press and generate interest?
Creative and engaging ecommerce content marketing is the finest! When considering how to boost ecommerce sales, experiment with different content forms and have fun with the content you create. Dedicate 80% of your SEO and content resources to proven strategies that work, and utilise the other 20% to experiment: test a theory, attempt a new content style, sell to a new consumer persona.
You'll learn more about what your audience like as you broaden your creative approach. And understanding this is the key to achieving SEO success and increasing online sales.