Quick wins really are possible with SEO.
Of all the digital marketing channels that ecommerce teams have in their weaponry, organic search is often the one that gets left to rust while email, paid search, social media and affiliates are sent to fight on the front line day-in, day-out.
Yes, it’s a slow-moving beast that doesn’t have the immediate and satisfying uptick in sales when you invest more time and effort into it. And yes, it’s difficult to attribute a change in performance to a specific action when there are so many factors that influence ranking and visibility. Therefore it makes sense that a great deal of faith is required from stakeholders at all levels to allocate resource to SEO in a meaningful and consistent way.
It’s widely seen as a ‘slow-burning’ channel, and as such requires a steady and strategic approach. A forward thinking d2c brand will be thinking about SEO from the very beginning – when the shop is being built – both from a technical (site structure, site speed, device responsiveness, international, etc) and on-page content (authoritative and trustworthy, keyword strategy, metadata, visual assets, etc) perspective. Then once live, the marketing team can build authority with backlinks from credible third-party publications.
What if SEO is an afterthought?
However, not all start-ups have the know-how or foresight to plan so far in advance, and so the benefits of SEO become an afterthought long after trading has commenced. That’s not to say that a brand which launches without forward SEO planning can’t have success with organic search. If your range of products resonate with your audience, and your site is populated with meaningful and valuable content, you’ll find pockets of visibility on Google and other search engines.
Clever product names will also help to put your brand and products in front of the right people who are actively looking to buy something with exactly your product attributes.
Paula’s Choice BHA Liquid Exfoliant takes pole position on Google for the search term ‘bha exfoliant’. A well-structured website, value-driven content and clever product names will support higher ranking.
In many cases, and depending on the target keyword, you’ll be battling against large, established d2c online retailers for that top spot on page 1 of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). However, the first three listings, or even just a listing on page 1, will bring new brand awareness and - if your metadata is enticing enough - visitors to your website.
How to identify and exploit your quick win opportunities.
For websites that have been active long enough for Google to know about it and understand its purpose, there will usually be some low-hanging SEO fruit that’s ripe for picking. Pages on your site that are already ranking for relevant search terms, but only on the second or third search results page, are your ‘striking distance’ keyword opportunities. Put another way, with some love and attention (i.e. content optimisation) these pages of your site could leapfrog the stagnant competition sitting above you, and capture some of the valuable search demand that your products cater to.
Try using a tool like SEM Rush to run a keyword gap analysis to see how well you and your competitors rank for a broad range of keywords.
Once you’ve optimized your on-page content for your target keyword and to best-practice standards, try gifting your product out to appropriate content bloggers and influencers to encourage a glowing review and, even better, a backlink to your site.
Nature Spell rank on page 3 for the search term ‘bha exfoliant’. With some content optimisation and amplification, the page has a good chance of reaching page 1 in the SERPs.
As a bonus recommendation, when you’re optimizing the content of these pages, make sure you link the page to and from other relevant and evergreen – and ideally highly ranking – pages on your site, including blog articles, landing pages, product and category pages.
With a well-researched and thought-out strategy, it’s possible to make SEO work for your business. Both in the long and short term!
If you’re looking to evaluate your SEO or digital marketing strategy and need support to understand the best approach, please feel free to get in touch for a free and informal chat.