Ask any web developer today and they will probably tell you that design and development are just half the battle of creating a successful e commerce website. With the recent advent of Google Panda and Penguin patches, along with the more overarching rise of search engines in the online retail and sales sector in the last 10 to 20 years, it’s difficult to imagine an effective online store front that hasn’t made at least some effort to optimise their pages for the end user.
Invariably this means both on-page and off-page optimisation of all website sections, from individual product pages to general non-specific sections such as the ubiquitous ‘About Us’ and ‘Contact’ tabs. It’s a process known generally as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and is today one of the most crucial factors in creating an effective and profitable e commerce website.
The initial steps in any optimisation project for online retail systems will always focus on competitor analysis and basic keyword research. Not only does this mean identifying specific search terms that you want to rank for highly on Google or Bing r esults pages for example, but also getting a feel for what your biggest competitors are doing in terms of SEO (are they focussing on specific industry sectors or ranking well for really niche products?).
For this step, consider enlisting the help of some third-party software or perhaps even an SEO professional, as these will help you find viable terms and often will provide up-to-date metrics on both competition and numbers. For competitor analysis there are also a number of online tools that can help you gain insight into your market, while many people simply scour Google results to see if they can spot who’s ranking well and why.
It’s worth remembering that the top result on most search engines receives upwards of 90% of the traffic from customers typing in that query, meaning that’s the ideal spot to be in. Generally speaking the more websites vying for the top spot the harder it will be to get there; a fact that’s lead most SEO professionals to focus primarily on what are known as ‘long-tail’ keywords, which have much less competition and much fewer monthly searches, but are consequently much easier to rank for.
In many ways these are the most important steps of SEO as a whole, because it will not only determine what queries your ‘click-through’ customers will arrive at your website after searching for(a direct influence on conversion!) but also the numbers and strength of your online competition. If you’re serious about ranking highly in your specific product niche then it’s these two considerations that will form the backbone of any SEO business plan going forward.
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