Success in eCommerce isn't just about having the best products, great UX and UI, or a fast delivery experience. Ensuring your audience can find you is also crucial. This is where the power of SEO comes into play. By optimising your search engine presence, you can boost visibility, attract high-quality traffic, and ultimately drive revenue. Let’s explore why SEO is an essential part of the marketing mix for your eCommerce business.
What is ‘Organic Search’?
Think back to your last major purchase. Where did your research journey begin? Did you have a favourite brand in mind, or did you turn to Google for guidance? Chances are, you navigated through a mix of sources, with organic search results (not to be confused with paid search ads) playing a pivotal role in your decision-making process.
With over 3.5 billion searches happening on search engines worldwide each day, it's undeniable that search has become a cornerstone of modern consumer behaviour.
Picture this: Most consumers dive into platforms like Google daily, conducting anywhere from 1 to 5 searches (and often more) driven by their unique habits, needs, and curiosities. The omnipresence search engines have in our daily lives highlights just how integral it has become to how we discover, evaluate, and ultimately choose our ideal products and services.
SEO in eCommerce
So what is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and how does it impact revenue growth for eCommerce businesses?
Would you believe there are over 200 decisions in Google’s algorithm when assessing where to rank your page in the search engine or shopping results feed? Some of these decisions are around your domain health, links coming back into your website, technical structure, and content relevance.
Search engine optimisation involves enhancing both "on-page" elements like content quality and user experience, as well as "off-page" factors such as backlinks from reputable sites.
How is SEO Measured?
First, it’s important to distinguish between a branded term and non-branded terms. Clearly your eCommerce business is going to bring in organic traffic for searches which include your brand name. If not, you might have some serious technical SEO issues or a competitor play to look at!
Non-branded terms are search terms that are based around the product or service you provide which don’t include your brand name. This is the market you want to tap into as it’s competitive, high volume, and relevant.
Ultimately, for eCommerce businesses we want to see these SEO metrics improve:
- Volume of keywords ranking
- Number of pages ranking
- Organic traffic to your website
- Organic traffic from non-branded search terms
- Revenue from organic traffic
- Revenue from non-branded organic traffic
- Domain authority score increase
Using analysis tools, such as Google Search Console and SEMrush, you can monitor organic traffic, keyword performance, referral traffic, competitors' strategies, and the sources of engagement and leads. With this insight, eCommerce businesses can optimise their websites over time to ensure they’re outranking competitors and showing up for high volume and relevant search terms.
It's important to remember that SEO is a long-term strategy; gaining noticeable traction can take several months, and achieving a solid competitive foothold that secures your rankings and traffic often requires years of dedicated effort.
How Content Supports SEO
An SEO-driven content strategy involving content pillars and topics based on keyword research and competitor analysis will drive relevant Top Of Funnel (TOF) traffic and build brand awareness.
Going a bit deeper into your brand’s specific product or service offering requires careful optimisation of service pages using commercial terms. These will drive high-intent Bottom Of Funnel (BOF) traffic that’s more likely to convert. Both contribute to revenue and are an important part of your overall marketing mix.
4 Content Strategies to Drive eCommerce Revenue
- Development of interest generating content pillars that reflect what your target market is searching for, and align with your brand’s offering.
- Regular contribution to content topics across the pillars focusing on content quality, keeping it readable, and natural use of relevant keywords.
- Optimisation of collection and product pages including descriptions, titles, high-quality images and Alt text.
- Feed integrity to ensure your products flow through to the Google Shopping feed.
How to Measure SEO Impact On eCommerce Revenue
To make the most of your organic search opportunity it’s advised that you have a strong reporting framework in place to measure these metrics:
- Conversion rate from organic channels
- Average order value (AOV) from organic channels
- New customers and customer lifetime value (CLV)
- Competitor pricing
The amount of revenue an eCommerce business can gain through Google’s organic search and shopping results depends on many factors that are sometimes beyond just SEO. These factors can include product market fit, the competitiveness of the market, website user experience, pricing strategy, and checkout conversion rate.
How to Approach an eCommerce SEO Strategy
Creating and maintaining an effective SEO strategy for eCommerce requires a mix of technical know-how, content creation, and continuous analysis. Start with a thorough SEO audit of your current SEO status to identify key areas of improvement, and develop an SEO roadmap for ongoing optimisation.
Ready to give your eCommerce business the SEO boost it needs? Get in touch with BlueRock’s SEO consultants. Our tailored strategies will help you climb the ranks of search engine results, increase your organic traffic, and drive sustained revenue growth. Book an SEO consultation today by submitting the form below.
