An ever-changing business environment requires that more companies operate with an agile approach to evolve as the market evolves. For the retail and CPG sector, the growing shift in consumer buying behavior from traditional to digital is glaringly evident.

The pandemic accelerated this trend. Retail, like many other industries, continues to grapple with how to better connect with buyers through a multitude of digital touchpoints. Search engine optimization (SEO) done well is one of the ways to keep pace.

A high impact SEO content strategy enables ecommerce-focused marketers, like you, to serve up relevant and timely information at each point of the buyer’s journey. A good SEO strategy will help to attract new website visitors and ultimately deliver brand loyalists.

The Power of Search Engine Optimization for Ecommerce

In discussion with Laurence O’Toole, CEO of Authoritas, we drilled into ecommerce conversion optimization, and the connection between SEO and sales of products. He pointed out how a robust SEO strategy for ecommerce can be a game-changer, and he shared, “SEO contributed more than 42 percent of website visits to ecommerce stores and 37 percent of revenue.”

According to a recent study by Inriver, “Consumers who are searching for a specific brand product are five times more likely to search somewhere other than the brand's own website.” To counter this dilemma and drive brand loyalty, companies need to position themselves as holistic experts of their own brands and products. In other words, if you want to drive brand loyalty, be loyal to the needs of those seeking the information they need.

A modern SEO strategy that delivers proprietary and relevant content along with unmatched product expertise will help deflect affiliates, earned media websites, and blogs from encroaching upon your brand’s sales territory.

Don’t Underestimate These Three Ecommerce SEO Best Practices

Laurence outlined three critical elements that are necessary to drive consumers to your company’s website.

Here are the ideal ecommerce SEO best practices:

1. Have solid foundations

Figuring out how to entice customers to purchase your products is a demanding task. Between technology upgrades and adapting to buyers’ whims, investing in the right resources, tools, and SEO approach will eventually pay off in higher conversion rates and revenue growth.

2. Produce quality content

Leverage your ecommerce website with content that showcases your company’s brand authority. As an example, compelling SEO-rich articles, user-friendly product pages, dynamic infographics, and informative FAQs are some of the ways to provide potential buyers with an incomparable and contextual shopping journey. The goal is to direct consumers to select your brand as the best choice for their product wants and needs.

3. Understand the SERP

The buying journey begins with a search for goods and/or services. This simple action requires you to ensure that your website and landing pages are accurately ranked. Analyzing your search engine results pages (SERP) will help you to refine your SEO strategy and determine how to better engage potential buyers. Laurence noted, “Between local universal search results, paid and shopping, research guides and videos, and news, there's so many different opportunities for your company to reach consumers and give them the right advice at the right stage of the buyer journey. And that's what good brands need to do.”

Be there at each point of the buyer’s journey. To learn more, watch the complete webinar session OnDemand .