5 Easy Wins from Growing Visibility and Traffic as an eCommerce Store

Just two decades ago, the thought of logging onto your computer and clicking onto a website to buy something you need, submitting your card details and then waiting patiently for your parcel to arrive sounded mental.
Oh, how times have changed.

Across the world, online shopping orders have increased by a staggering 49%, according to Rakuten. There has never been a more prosperous time for online retailers.

But with this growth comes increased competition. You could even argue that eCommerce SEO has become the most important factor in the success of any online business. After all, everyone’s shopping online – and are likely to be doing so for a long time to come.

Below are 5 easy wins from growing visibility and traffic as an eCommerce store. Put all these into practice and you’ll likely see your sales skyrocket even in today’s hyper-competitive eCommerce world.

Create a Blog to Spread the Word

When done right, blogging (and content marketing in general) can bring a tonne of benefits that you wouldn’t otherwise get from different types of online marketing.

Remember consumers are looking for answers – and a blog is a great way to address what your customers are thinking, providing them with helpful answers to questions – even those that are not related to what customers are buying. This will build trust, an invalable asset for any business, eCommerce or not.

To be frank, blogging creates more traffic. According to Hubspot, it gets you 55% more visitors! Better still, websites with a blog have a 434% greater chance of having their pages indexed by Google. More indexed pages mean more searches and more website traffic.

Have a Killer Social Media Strategy

There’s a HUGE difference between using social media and using social media well. So, to increase your eCommerce store’s visibility, turn occasional shoppers into brand advocates, and attract new customers, you need to have a killer social media strategy.

Live video marketing is one thing that savvy social media marketers promote. It doesn’t cost you a thing to get started and going live on social media platforms allows you to engage with your customers in real-time.

Don’t believe us? A survey by Vimeo found that 82% of customers prefer watching a live video to reading social posts. If your competitors aren’t leveraging live video, perhaps it’s time to use Facebook or YouTube live and get interacting with those people who make your business possible – customers!

However, if the thought of unscripted videos, where anything can go wrong, isn’t all that attractive, why not upload videos on YouTube as part of your eCommerce SEO strategy? Product demonstrations are always a big hit, as are testimonials. Huge brands like GoPro and Dollar Shave Club are getting creative on YouTube and reaping the rewards!

Get Instagram Influencers to Promote Your Products

People buy into people they like. It’s that simple. Getting influencers to promote your products is a great way to opening your business up to a whole new customer base. Who wouldn’t want to get their products in front of Kylie Jenner’s 200 million Instagram followers?

The key is to find influencers who are popular in your niche. If you’ve developed a new line of organic, vegan skincare products, getting someone who is renowned for their beauty, and better still, known to have a strong interest in sustainability, to promote your range will send a powerful message. Consumers think, ‘if such and such is prepared to put his or her name to the product, it must be good.’

Don’t worry about reaching out to the influencer with the most followers on Instagram. The odds are that they receive hundreds or even thousands of product placement requests and, more importantly, they’ll be concerned with their own image and are unlikely to promote anything. An influencer with a couple of thousand followers is all you need – and, more importantly, they’ll command a fee that’s much, much cheaper than the $1.2 million you’ll be charged by Kylie Jenner for a single Instagram post!

Remember than your visibility on social media platforms will directly drive visitors to your website. A good eCommerce SEO strategy leverages social media. All you need to do is just add a link to the bottom of the post and keep an eye on your website’s analytics. You could experience an influx of visitors and dramatically increase your revenue. Best of all? Social media, specifically Instagram is a great platform for eCommerce businesses to showcase their products!

Prioritize Your Emails

As any eCommerce store owner knows, email leads convert well. However, if you want to increase your store’s visibility through emailing, sending an occasional sale announcement like ‘20% off all in-store products, today only!’ isn’t enough. You need to continually remind existing and potential customers that they can find what they’re looking for at your store.

Why? Well, they might not need to buy that new wetsuit, mountain bike or chest of drawers right now, but they could soon… and that’s when they’ll think of you!

Now, here’s the problem: Sending an email takes time and effort. Time which many eCommerce stores don’t have. However, by automating your emails, you can reach a broad range of customers. Fast. And when combined with comprehensive eCommerce SEO, businesses can communicate and make it as easy as pie to connect with existing and new customers.

Send a welcome email (or a series of emails) when someone subscribes to your list or makes their first purchase, and you’ll build brand recognition and make new customers feel valued. Send customers emails to notify them that they’ve left an item in their cart. Why? This great way of reminding them that they haven’t purchased what they were looking to buy.
But wait, there’s more. You could cross-sell related products based on a customer’s past purchases or even invite loyal customers to be part of an exclusive loyalty and VIP program and get discounts on any future purchases.

Automation does all the work. You can pick what to email, who to email and when to email to maximize revenue potential. Not only that, you’ll keep your brand in your customer’s memories so that when they really want or need one of your products, they’ll know to choose your eCommerce store.

Up Your Google Game

For any eCommerce business to be successful it needs to be visible on Google. Whereas it’s essential to have a well-optimised website, influencers advocating your products, and connecting with customers over email, there are other things that you can do to boost your search engine ranking.

First, there’s Google My Business. This makes it easier than ever for customers to find your business when they search online. With GMB you’ll be able to promote events, respond to reviews, and gain in-depth insight into who your customers are, where they are and how they’re searching for you.

There’s just one catch: you must have a physical location. However, with businesses across Australia migrating their products from physical stores to a virtual eCommerce one right now, GMB is a great eCommerce SEO practice that should be leveraged.

Then there’s Google Shopping. By listing your products on Google Shopping, people can click directly through to your eCommerce site and buy them. This improves your website’s visibility no end and increases revenue.
However, a word to the wise, signing up for Google Shopping doesn’t automatically mean that your products will show up in the search results. You’ll need to optimize your Google Shopping ad campaigns to engage with customers and convert enquiries into sales.

Easy Wins Can Equal Great Success!

There’s a tonne of competition in the eCommerce sector right now. Every day more and more businesses are migrating from physical stores to virtual ones. You may have a revolutionary product, but it could be lost in the vast swath of online retailers.

If you want to increase visibility, you need to stand out from the pack. These five easy wins can help you to do just that.

Author Bio : 

Samuel Shepherd is a writer, editor, marketer, SEO specialist, musician, producer, reviewer, and all of the other things that you can be from the comfort of a computer screen. Currently based in Australia, Sam is always ready and excited to talk about the strange quirks and oddities of an ever-present online world.