In 2020, online retail sales in the United States hit an all-time high of 14.4% of the total retail by hitting $794.50 billion. This spike was due to coronavirus restrictions that forced a change in shopping trends and consumer habits.
More people are now shopping online and having goods delivered to their doorsteps. Therefore, any forward-thinking business is polishing its digital marketing strategies to convert more leads and increase profits.
One of the best ways to increase organic traffic to your website is through search engine optimization (SEO).
What Is SEO and Why Is It Important for Retailers?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization” and helps your site get more organic visibility on the web. More people will visit your site when it's ranked among the top search engine results for relevant searches. In fact, 70% of consumers click on a link that is on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs). You definitely have a competitive advantage if your business is ranked higher than your competitors.
Unfortunately, many business owners and marketers are convinced that SEO is hard to learn. Granted, the SEO language may sound technical and scare away a beginner, but you can easily master its general concepts with some guidance.
So if you're just getting started with SEO, this post is for you. Our 3PL order fulfillment experts share five practical SEO tips you can use to increase organic traffic to your eCommerce website.
SEO Tips for Online Retailers
1. Create Concise Headers and Product Descriptions
This is SEO 101 and the oldest trick in the book. Clear and concise headers and product descriptions optimized to provide useful information are the number one tricks to being seen online. Use the right SEO product keywords in your headers to help search engine web crawlers understand what you’re offering and rank you at the top.
Your page title and description appear in search results and should give the user a good idea of what the website is about without clicking. A wordy and ambiguous title or description could deter visitors from reading about your offer or clicking on your website ever again. Also, search engines, such as Google, won’t have a clear idea of what your business does or sells.
Avoid keyword stuffing or excessive keyword use, which is a common pitfall for many marketers who don’t understand SEO. Your content should be informative and help your audience make a purchase decision. Potential customers should find short, concise headers with accurate product descriptions.
If your product descriptions align with this goal, search engines will rank you well.
2. Optimize Product Images
People respond to images, so look for some stunning product photos to place on your website. It is recommended to place compelling and attractive pictures throughout the website, and you can use this as an opportunity to boost your sites' SEO.
Include relevant keywords in the file name and alt tags of both your product photos and non-product images on your website. This gives search engines important contextual information to rank your page.
For example, instead of having an image of a man in a barbershop tagged as "babershop124.jpg", rename it with a clear, more descriptive title such as "man-having-a-haircut-in-a-barbershop.jpg." This gives it more SEO power.
3. Improve Site Navigation and Search
A customer should find it easy to search for topics and products they need on your website. It is frustrating for visitors to comb through a site without finding what they want. You can improve site navigation by maintaining a uniform design, ensuring the layout is appealing and organized on each page.
Ensure the labels are clear so that visitors can find what they are looking for without confusion. A search bar on your website is very important as it helps people who visit your website who have a certain item in mind.
Search engines are concerned with usability, and a well-arranged website will be ranked higher.
4. Improve Your Website's Loading Time
Page speed is an important SEO ranking factor and should never be overlooked. Faster websites are ranked higher, hence more visibility. Similarly, if your website loads fast, your visitors are more likely to visit more than one page before they leave.
If optimizing your website's loading speed is too technical for you, you can hire a developer or SEO expert to do it for you. However, you can still improve your site performance by:
- Removing large images
- Moving to a faster hosting provider
- Removing unnecessary JavaScript files
For more tips and tools, use these resources from Google.
5. Ensure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly
Mobile searches are taking the lion's share in online searches today. Therefore, if your website is not mobile-friendly, your visitors will leave your website and, in most cases, never come back again.
In addition, Google has introduced a mobile-first index when adding websites to their database. If your website is not optimized for mobile viewing, that will ultimately cost you a lot of traffic.
SEO and eCommerce Business Growth
After applying these SEO tactics to your eCommerce website, you may experience an increase in demand. Great! But do you have the resources to fulfill these orders and meet your customers’ expectations? At Rakuten Super Logistics, we have a team of experts to help increase efficiency and cost savings for your eCommerce business through accurate and dependable product fulfillment services, including warehousing, shipping, and return management.
Let your eCommerce business reach its full potential! Contact our team to learn more about our 3PL services and how we can help you grow and scale your online store.
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In 2020, online retail sales in the United States hit an all-time high of 14.4% of the total retail by hitting $794.50 billion. This spike was due to coronavirus restrictions that forced a change in shopping trends and consumer habits.
More people are now shopping online and having goods delivered to their doorsteps. Therefore, any forward-thinking business is polishing its digital marketing strategies to convert more leads and increase profits.
One of the best ways to increase organic traffic to your website is through search engine optimization (SEO).
What Is SEO and Why Is It Important for Retailers?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization” and helps your site get more organic visibility on the web. More people will visit your site when it's ranked among the top search engine results for relevant searches. In fact, 70% of consumers click on a link that is on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs). You definitely have a competitive advantage if your business is ranked higher than your competitors.
Unfortunately, many business owners and marketers are convinced that SEO is hard to learn. Granted, the SEO language may sound technical and scare away a beginner, but you can easily master its general concepts with some guidance.
So if you're just getting started with SEO, this post is for you. Our 3PL order fulfillment experts share five practical SEO tips you can use to increase organic traffic to your eCommerce website.
SEO Tips for Online Retailers
1. Create Concise Headers and Product Descriptions
This is SEO 101 and the oldest trick in the book. Clear and concise headers and product descriptions optimized to provide useful information are the number one tricks to being seen online. Use the right SEO product keywords in your headers to help search engine web crawlers understand what you’re offering and rank you at the top.
Your page title and description appear in search results and should give the user a good idea of what the website is about without clicking. A wordy and ambiguous title or description could deter visitors from reading about your offer or clicking on your website ever again. Also, search engines, such as Google, won’t have a clear idea of what your business does or sells.
Avoid keyword stuffing or excessive keyword use, which is a common pitfall for many marketers who don’t understand SEO. Your content should be informative and help your audience make a purchase decision. Potential customers should find short, concise headers with accurate product descriptions.
If your product descriptions align with this goal, search engines will rank you well.
2. Optimize Product Images
People respond to images, so look for some stunning product photos to place on your website. It is recommended to place compelling and attractive pictures throughout the website, and you can use this as an opportunity to boost your sites' SEO.
Include relevant keywords in the file name and alt tags of both your product photos and non-product images on your website. This gives search engines important contextual information to rank your page.
For example, instead of having an image of a man in a barbershop tagged as "babershop124.jpg", rename it with a clear, more descriptive title such as "man-having-a-haircut-in-a-barbershop.jpg." This gives it more SEO power.
3. Improve Site Navigation and Search
A customer should find it easy to search for topics and products they need on your website. It is frustrating for visitors to comb through a site without finding what they want. You can improve site navigation by maintaining a uniform design, ensuring the layout is appealing and organized on each page.
Ensure the labels are clear so that visitors can find what they are looking for without confusion. A search bar on your website is very important as it helps people who visit your website who have a certain item in mind.
Search engines are concerned with usability, and a well-arranged website will be ranked higher.
4. Improve Your Website's Loading Time
Page speed is an important SEO ranking factor and should never be overlooked. Faster websites are ranked higher, hence more visibility. Similarly, if your website loads fast, your visitors are more likely to visit more than one page before they leave.
If optimizing your website's loading speed is too technical for you, you can hire a developer or SEO expert to do it for you. However, you can still improve your site performance by:
- Removing large images
- Moving to a faster hosting provider
- Removing unnecessary JavaScript files
For more tips and tools, use these resources from Google.
5. Ensure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly
Mobile searches are taking the lion's share in online searches today. Therefore, if your website is not mobile-friendly, your visitors will leave your website and, in most cases, never come back again.
In addition, Google has introduced a mobile-first index when adding websites to their database. If your website is not optimized for mobile viewing, that will ultimately cost you a lot of traffic.
SEO and eCommerce Business Growth
After applying these SEO tactics to your eCommerce website, you may experience an increase in demand. Great! But do you have the resources to fulfill these orders and meet your customers’ expectations? At Rakuten Super Logistics, we have a team of experts to help increase efficiency and cost savings for your eCommerce business through accurate and dependable product fulfillment services, including warehousing, shipping, and return management.
Let your eCommerce business reach its full potential! Contact our team to learn more about our 3PL services and how we can help you grow and scale your online store.