The importance of strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for the performance of ecommerce companies is now well established. It's the most cost-effective way to drive new traffic to ecommerce websites and increase your brand's visibility. Many marketers are increasing their focus and spending more on growing an organic online presence through reliable and proven SEO practices. Factors such as keyword research, on-page optimization, and content creation are undoubtedly essential to improving your SEO strategy, but one resource that many companies still overlook is customer data. This data helps companies better understand their customers, and many of those insights can improve SEO efforts when used properly.
WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF A STRONG SEO STRATEGY FOR YOUR ECOMMERCE BRAND?
Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing a website and its content to rank higher on result pages of search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo! In recent years; search engines are the main source of traffic for ecommerce stores, generating ten times more traffic than social media sources. Google is the foremost of the search engines, with 93.7% of all searches worldwide conducted through their platforms. Therefore, it has become a focus for marketers to get their websites as close to the top of Google's SERP as possible.
According to 99firms, companies in the US will spend more than $80 billion on SEO services by 2023. Here are some reasons why US marketers are investing so heavily in SEO services and why it's important for your company to solidify its SEO strategy today:
MORE ORGANIC TRAFFIC
Organic search is the main driver of traffic to websites, including ecommerce stores. This is backed up by a report from BrightEdge showing that organic search accounts for 51% of all website traffic. A good SEO strategy helps websites rank high on SERPs, often leading to more organic traffic. Most online shopping experiences begin with online searches, and the first five results on Google's SERP receive nearly 70% of clicks. Therefore, enforcing best SEO practices within your organization will ultimately help your business attract massive traffic at a low cost.
HIGHER CONVERSION AND SALES
With an increase in organic traffic and brand visibility, a business with an efficient SEO strategy will experience higher conversion rates and more sales. According to Search Engine Journal, organic search has a conversion rate of 14.6%. In contrast, paid search has an average conversion rate of 3,75%. This is probably because organic traffic usually consists of highly motivated users to take concrete action or make purchases. In fact, 76% of people who search for local brands online visit the business within 24 hours. Therefore, a high ranking on SERPs is likely to translate into a boost in conversion and sales for your ecommerce brand.
COST-EFFECTIVE MARKETING
After the initial investment of time and resources to optimize the ecommerce website, SEO is a low-cost strategy with a high return on investment. In fact, a study from Moz suggests that SEO has a 20 times higher ROI than paid search advertising. Users are more likely to trust sources that rank high organically on SERPs. They associate a high organic ranking with credibility and relevance and will therefore click on the links. On the other hand, paid advertising requires ongoing investment to maintain visibility on SERPs, but does not match the results of a good SEO strategy. For context, the average click-through rate of the first result in Google is 28.5%, while that of paid search is only 2%. Therefore, it is more beneficial to invest in SEO.
HOW DOES CUSTOMER DATA CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR SEO STRATEGY?
Customer data refers to the demographic data, preferences, purchase history, browsing behavior and other relevant information about customers collected by the company and stored in software such as a CDP. Marketers can use customer data in a variety of creative ways to boost their SEO strategy. Here are four such ways to try today:
CREATION OF PERSONALIZED CONTENT
Personalized content is important for SEO because it improves the customer experience, which in turn increases customer engagement. When visitors visit a website more often, KPIs such as bounce rate and average session duration improve favorably, and that alone serves to improve search engines' rankings on that page. Thus, by analyzing customer data and using the insights to create content relevant to customer queries, ecommerce businesses can rank higher on Google and other SERPs.
Customer data is undoubtedly the key to creating personalized content. For example, demographic analysis may reveal that a significant percentage of your customers are adults interested in fitness and wellness. Your company can use this as a guideline to create workout regimens and healthy recipes. Similarly, browsing behavior analysis can reveal which web pages are getting the most traffic and drive your business to create similar content to capture the attention of the customers. Businesses can also tap into purchase history and address pain points using customer data, making their content more relevant and driving organic traffic to the website.
IMPROVED KEYWORD RESEARCH
Keywords are terms that users enter into search engines to find information or products. By analyzing customer data, companies can understand keywords and search terms that their customers and target audience use to find products and services similar to the ones they offer. Then your company can design an effective SEO strategy that takes advantage of identifying these keywords to create content that will help their pages rank at the top of the SERPs.
For example, suppose that search query analysis, site search data, and customer feedback show that many customers use the keyword "breathable sportswear." Your marketers can use this knowledge to optimize the website for better SEO performance. This includes creating product pages and blog posts using this keyword. By doing this, your business can increase its visibility on SERPs and attract more prospects who closely match its target audience.
TARGETED LINK BUILDING
Backlinks from authoritative websites help your business build credibility and authority, and these factors favor higher SEO rankings. Customer data is a valuable resource for identifying link building opportunities and building targeted outreach campaigns to acquire high quality backlinks. One way to do this is by analyzing customer feedback, social media mentions or online reviews to identify when customers have positively mentioned your brand and its products. Your marketing team can then contact these customers and request backlinks to your website.
In addition, because customer data provides insight into your customers' preferences, it can also help you identify the influencers, bloggers, and websites that could be suitable for backlinking to your website. If your customer data shows that your customers are interested in wedding dresses, for example, your marketing staff can identify influencers, bloggers and websites that are important in this product and request backlinks. By using customer data in this way to create targeted outreach campaigns, you can build profitable relationships and improve your website's authority, strengthening your SEO strategy.
RICHER USER EXPERIENCE
The quality of the user experience is a key factor in the ranking algorithm used by search engines, especially Google. Search engines strive to provide the best possible results for their users, so they take into account important user experience metrics such as user experience with forms, how users navigate the website, and time spent on the page. Therefore, improving your SEO strategy for better ranking is important to improve the user experience of your website. Customer data provides actionable insights for richer experiences.
By analyzing relevant data, your business can gain a deep understanding of how users interact with your site, their preferences, and their pain points. For example, analysis of customer feedback can reveal recurring complaints about slow website loading times. This should prompt your team to find ways to improve load times, such as compressing images, enabling browser caching to store frequently used website data on the user's device, and opting for a new hosting solution. Addressing pain points and personalizing experiences will improve user engagement and other KPIs, helping search engines rank your site better.
In conclusion, the level of competition between ecommerce brands for slots means up SERPIt's crucial for you to focus on building an effective SEO strategy. Customer data offers plenty of opportunities to improve your SEO rankings and stay ahead of the competition. Make sure to leverage customer data using the tips above to increase online visibility and drive more organic traffic to your ecommerce store.
