The Short SEO Guide For eCommerce Startups

Many online merchants falsely believe that all they have to do to acquire search engine traffic is to simply list hundreds or thousands of products on their websites.

However, in all actuality, the process of optimized an eCommerce website for search engine optimization purposes to secure high rankings, is relatively harder than it is for a traditional blog or a squeeze page.

This is due to the fact that eCommerce sites have an abundance of product pages that are continuously shifting on and off their site as a result of product availability, such as taking down a page for a product that the merchant no longer sells for example. Therefore, you need to be more creative when it comes to formulating an eCommerce SEO strategy.

Implement A Product Reviews Section

Did you know that statistics demonstrate that 70% of online buyers search for reviews before they elect to utilize a product or service? What this entails as far as eCommerce SEO purposes go, is that if you fail to implement a product review system on your site, you are essentially missing out on the opportunity to acquire traffic from those specific search terms. Additionally, a reviews section can lead to user-generated content which keeps your product pages fresh and crawlable, which Google values for SEO.

For example, if your eCommerce store sells custom made iPhone cases, one keyword you could easily focus on by utilizing a product review system is "iPhone custom made cases reviews."

Focus On Long Tail Keywords (And Write A Detailed Product Description)

If you run a eCommerce store that sells handmade clothing, your targeted keywords for your eCommerce SEO strategy should not be short-tail phrases such as "handmade clothing." The reason being is that short tail keywords are significantly harder to rank than it is to rank for a long tail keyword such as "horror themed handmade shirts for sale" or "buy black and white handmade shirt online."

The point being is that you should focus on long tail keywords as opposed to short key phrases because you will be able to rank a page for the specific term significantly easier than the latter. This is where the implementation of a product description section comes in handy. Utilize it as a canvas to include some long tail keywords as well as to provide your visitors with some enticing information.

Don't Neglect Local Traffic

Did you know that big retail chains do local SEO as well? The concept of avoiding the possibility of adopting local SEO as a part of your entire eCommerce SEO strategy is a big mistake. In fact, people enjoy the concept of supporting locally owned businesses. Additionally, people are well aware of the fact that they will be able to receive a product that they purchased online from a locally based business, much faster than that of a mega corporation.

Create A Sitemap

A sitemap is essentially a list of all your web pages. Search engines utilize what's referred to as spiders, robots or crawlers to locate new pages on a website to index. They usually find these pages through links from other pages. If a sitemap is not identified during an initial audit of your eCommerce site, than you need to create on.

However, main pages that are only accessible by forms, connected to videos or flash content, are not seen by the programs that the search engine uses to index new pages. This is where a sitemap comes in. While they don't necessarily improve your rankings on its own, it provides a road map that robots can use to know what to rank in the first place.

Establish A Powerful Social Presence

One of the things you can do to increase the amount of traffic that your website gains is to leverage social media by establishing a strong social presence via the utilization of content marketing. Some of the benefits your store stands to gain by doing this, includes:

• Customer research - You will be able to see what your target demographic cares about the most, their interests, as well as the conversations they have about the things that they like.
• Customer Service - By establishing a social media presence, you will be able to quickly respond to your customer's inquiries.
• Customer Acquisition - Your social media profile will essentially operate as a storefront that you can use to acquire more customers.

For more information on how to build the eCommerce SEO program for your startup, visit Click Centric SEO Company for a wealth of resources and services all focal to eCommerce SEO.

Why Smart Businesses Build Web Presence Management Strategies

Unlike specific strategies that center on social media, search marketing, and content strategy, web presence management applies a comprehensive and more strategic approach to Internet marketing and online brand building.

When infused with the incredible growth of social media, the power of SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click) advertising, and content marketing, web presence management strategies can change the perspective of Internet marketers and help them truly grow powerful businesses.

This, in its own essence, is a strategy culmination of nearly all online touch points or web marketing channels, as well as how they come together to influence engagement, visibility, and brand awareness. A strong web presence requires a combination of creative planning, diligent research, and a thorough execution. Below are some of the primary cornerstones to cultivating web presence management in your company and its culture.

SEO/Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

The whole idea behind SEM is rather simple; when visitors search the internet via either a text box or a directory hierarchy click-through, they are ideally hunting – for information, products and services, or both. The visitor may be at the onset, middle, or final stage of the purchasing cycle.

Searching online enables a buyer to have more information about a product before he or she makes the final buy decision. This could mean that they are comparing what you have to offer with what they can get elsewhere. Sometimes they are looking for options and so they click through a number of links before they are redirected to your site to complete the buy process.

Therefore, it is important to have your site on the first page of “organic” or unpaid search engine results; otherwise you will be losing business to your competition. This is the foundation of SEO and improving your company's web presence in search engines like Google and Bing. Integrate SEO/SEM in your web presence management strategy as a long-term focus and perhaps get a SEO site audit done to ensure your strategy is headed in the right direction.

Social Media

With the advent of social networking, businesses are now exposed to a wider audience globally through their network of friends and loyal followers. When used properly, social media marketing can grow your business tremendously. Social media widgets enable you to create content that your followers can share with their friends and “spread the word” about your business.

However, this is not easy; it requires that you listen to your audience, share the right message, and enable others to do the same. You can reach a larger audience through your social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, and more. This should be a priority for your web presence management strategy, as it will help building your brand while also helping to support your SEO objectives.

Content Marketing

There can never be effective social media marketing without relevant, quality content. A powerful content marketing strategy is what builds a solid social media strategy. Great content will get people sharing, which will in turn widen your audience to a larger world of potential fans, followers, friends, and customers. Realize how content marketing works closely with social media marketing to expand your business growth potential.

Additionally, content marketing can also help fuel progress with SEO. By tailoring content that's related the focus of your SEO efforts (i.e. specific keyword targets), and when that content gets social favor, Google and other search engines will attribute greater credibility and value in your website. Good example of this is the Web Presence Optimization Strategy Guide offered by the Web Presence Group. This guide offers a lot of value to businesses, and is also relevant on keywords related to web presence optimization.

Reputation Management

Reputation management is another important aspect of web presence management. Online marketing professionals spent much time offering advice on the importance of managing online reviews and ratings for local businesses.

However, reputation is much broader than just reviews on Yelp. While issues often arise between a company and its customers, you can try and resolve the matter before customers are pushed to the point where they believe that they can only get satisfaction through one of the public forums where they can warn other people about your products, services, and business. With the Internet, word-of-mouth can travel almost at the speed of light! For this reason, it's vital to develop a reputation management strategy.

The goal of web presence management is to build a sustainable, credible, and trustworthy web presence that is not only visible in search engines and social media, but will also protect your image or brand and last long enough to keep you in business.

Web Presence Management: A New Approach to Online Brand Building

There is search engine optimization (SEO) and social media but what is "web presence management?"

Web presence management is a more strategic and holistic approach to internet marketing and online brand building. How so?

Consumers interact with businesses online via different methods. Consumers are searching, socializing and generally browsing about the web through many different portals. These activities are being done on thousands of sites, social media and search engines. Web presence management helps to ensure that potential customers are exposed to a given brand through various means during their online exploration.

The Evolution of Web Presence Management

The practice of web management has evolved significantly over the years due to the power of search engines and web optimization. This practice culminates all digital marketing channels and online touch points and how they merge to influence visibility and brand awareness.

A strong perception of diligent research, market empathy, thorough execution and creative planning are the fundamental characteristics that result to a powerful web presence. Currently, there are thousands of internet marketing services soliciting small enterprises each trying to sell a piece of the digital landscape and claiming their method is the superior one. These methods go by various names but they have a factor in common, they are paid placement on a site, search engine or directory.

Elements of Web Presence Management

Some of elements that can an online brand can take advantage of when pursuing web presence management include the follow.

Paid Search Advertising (PPC)
Paid search advertising is also referred as pay per click or PPC advertising. This is an internet advertising platform used to drive traffic to sites where advertisers pay the owner of the site (publisher) or a search engine when the ad is clicked.

In other terms, it is the amount spent to get an ad clicked. Advertisers bid on keywords (with search engines) relevant to their target niche while content sites charge a fixed price instead of bidding on keyword phrases. The advantage of PPC is that it clearly shows how effective advertising is, clicks measure interest and attention of people.

Social Media Marketing
At least two billion people are on social media with the leading sites being Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Flickr and so forth. According to statics, social media has penetrated to an estimate of 71% in all regions, 1 out of every 4 people log onto their social accounts at least once daily, according to Worldwide Social Network 2014 report by eMarketer.

Looking at these figures, the amount of visibility a business can get using these kind of media is immense. A key factor to note is that brands that regularly use social media and respond to customers queries get a higher consumer confidence thus converting traffic to sales.

Content Marketing & Blogging
Content marketing is one of the ways to achieve web presence management hence the phrase, Content is king. A business should create a blog and generate content relevant to the business’s objective. This method won’t work unless the content is genuine and grabs the reader’s attention thus bloggers should take time to sit and write quality articles that users would find useful.

In conclusion, the objective of web presence management services is to build and sustain a trustworthy, credible and nicely-promoted online presence visible in both search and social media. The success of a business’s web presence will depend on how dedicated they are in utilizing the above named aspects to realize their full potential.