The dream of every online store owner is to attract prospects and convert them into buying clients consistently. That’s why most entrepreneurs focus their efforts on eCommerce SEO. But the question is, how does one stand out amidst the unrelenting competition?

Search is the leading source of external traffic for content websites, outshining social media by over 300%. This is according to an Outbrain Q1 2011 report dubbed, Content Discovery and Engagement. When analyzing traffic from 100 million sessions in the first quarter of 2011, the company established that search drove 41% of external traffic, followed by content sites, portals, and social media at 31%, 17%, and 11% respectively. Another Groupon research revealed that 60% of direct traffic comes from organic search.

Going by the numbers, these seem pretty exciting. Doesn’t it?

But what happens if you are a start-up or a small business that doesn’t feature anywhere in the first pages of search engines? After all, statistics show that the average clickthrough rates are 36.4% for natural search result #1, and another 40+% is then divided over the other nine results on the first page. 

The reality is, eCommerce platforms are among the most difficult websites to optimize with regards to SEO. But the good news is that there are simple, yet effective strategies to implement to give your platform the best opportunity to appear on search engine pages. In this guide, we will highlight some of the best eCommerce SEO tips to help increase your organic traffic and boost sales.

Perform a competitor analysis

The purpose of a competitor analysis is to establish the strength and weaknesses of your competitors within your market. It also allows you to come up with strategies that will give you an upper hand; determine the barriers that can be created to prevent competition from coming into your market; and any weakness that can be exploited within the product development cycle. Remember, the success of your store relates to how you stack up against your peers. So, you want to create a list of your peers and run their category pages through tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to uncover the keywords that bring in more traffic to their site. Then use that information to your advantage.

Create a competitive landscape

Perform a Google search on your target keyword and analyze the available content. Find out what you can do better than what your peers are doing. The best place to start is by ensuring your content is 25% longer than what’s already available – then add more value than what your competitors are offering.

Leverage SEO

SEO is what makes a site rank on top of the others for the relevant keyword. If you are going to integrate content creation as part of your digital marketing strategy, then you need to understand the value of SEO in driving traffic. Although there’s a lot to take in when it comes to SEO, focusing on the basics can set things in motion. To SEO your eCommerce platform, you will need to:

• Integrate keywords related to your store in your blog content
• Add external links in your articles leading to relevant industry experts.
• Develop a network of internal links to help Google index your entire website.
• Come up with a sitemap and submit it to search engines.
• Create detailed Meta descriptions.
• Add keyword description on every product image.
• Improve your site speed.
• Make your site responsive.
• Create links point to your content from authority sites.

If done right, these SEO tricks can help your content rank on top spots of search results and drive organic traffic to your site.

Social media and video content

Video consumption is rising by the day, and social media sites know this too well. It is a no wonder Facebook is lifting the pre-roll ads ban on video content published to Facebook feeds. If you didn’t know, statistics reveal that online video ads are projected to account for more than 80% of all online traffic by 2020 and that 67+% of US marketers are running Facebook video ads. The research further indicated that four times, many consumers say they prefer watching a video about a product than reading about it.

Begin a referral program

Incentivize your existing clients and followers to share their favorite products with people within their circles through social media and email and offer something in return. It is a great way to drive organic traffic to your site while keeping your current clients happy.

Work with an expert

Driving organic traffic to your eCommerce platform is a full-time job. It can be difficult juggling between running your business and trying to bring in prospects. If anything, one area is bound to suffer. Working with a digital agency that specializes in online marketing is a great way to remove the stress from the process and get to enjoy more organic traffic. What’s more, it allows you to focus on what you do best – running your eCommerce store.