When it comes to Small Businesses and their Online presence, setting up an e-Commerce site can only do so much. Interesting articles and eye-catching images will be good for nothing if your target audience do not even know you exist. This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in.
But what in the world is SEO? you’ve probably got an army of people bombarding your inbox to tell you that SEO is the best thing since sliced bread. Let’s talk about why they might not be as crazy as you think.
The Basics of SEO
SEO is basically the process of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic to your website through organic Search Engine Results. It’s one way to boost your Online visibility. When you have a strong visibility Online, you’re more likely to draw visitors and transform them into customers.
Now what about quality and quantity of traffic? Quality traffic means you are attracting the right visitors who hold genuine interest in buying your products or paying for your services. Imagine someone is looking Online for ornamental fish for ponds or aquariums and they end up visiting your Site that sells frozen and smoked fish. Your chances of making a sale are pretty minimal. Getting a good quantity of traffic means getting a good weight of visitors to the Site in a given period. Now that you know the basics, why is SEO getting more important for ecommerce?
Using SEO to Acquire and Keep Customers
SEO has become increasingly important in eCommerce for these two reasons: it helps you find customers and reach new markets; and second, it helps you improve conversion and turn your current customers into loyal ones. Eventually, their glowing reviews of you and your Business might see them become a part of your sales force.
You need SEO to maximise your E-commerce Website’s revenue and profitability. This is doubly true for startups and Small Businesses. Technology is now a vital chunk of every consumer’s life, and you need to make sure you’re promoting yourself where your potential Customers search. If people can’t find you Online, then you’re probably losing buyers to your competitors. No SEO means no visibility. No visibility means no growth Online.
Even if you’re happy with where your Business is right now, if you’re not doing the basics (and SEO is one of the absolute basics when it comes to Online) then you’re not giving yourself the opportunity to grow. SEO gives you the opportunity to both stabilize and grow… make sure you use it!
Building Your Business Online
The best way to make progress Online is to use an SEO professional to devise you a Strategy. Although you will need to pay them a (hopefully small) fee, using an expert almost always works out cheaper over time as you won’t need to incur all the expenses of learning on the job. Additionally, if cost is an issue, proper SEO can be one of the most economical forms of Marketing Online.
This is exactly what companies who are successful Online do. They incorporate SEO with their other Online and offline strategies to create multiple sources of lead generation. Moreover, SEO can give you results for a prolonged period of time, and should be seen as a long-term strategy which really reinforces the stability of your Business (when done right, of course).
Lastly, SEO can also help you to improve your conversion rate through improved customer targeting, elimination of navigation issues, and a user-friendly journey.
You Won’t Succeed Without SEO
At the end of the day, it’s simple. If you want to succeed Online, there are certain things you need to be doing, and SEO is definitely one of them. You wouldn’t expect your Business to succeed in the non-Digital world if nobody knew you existed. It’s time to take that mindset into Digital.
If you’re at all unsure give us a call or fill out a contact form and we'd be more than happy to talk you through anything and everything.