The internet abounds with questions regarding marketing strategies and SEO, how it works and what it entails. All you need to do is search “What is SEO?” or “How does SEO help an eCommerce website,” to get 4 or 5 pages full of fairly useful blogs.
So we took a shortcut and went straight to the eCommerce SEO experts themselves – the specialists at Genius eCommerce. Here are some of our questions and what they had to offer in return.
1. Is there a “best” eCommerce platform for SEO?
Not really – each platform has its own advantages and disadvantages. For instance, WordPress is compatible with plugins like Yoast that help with optimization. SaaS platforms like BigCommerce and Shopify have high uptime and are very secure, whereas BC specifically enables easy site structure and page-level changes for on-page optimization.
But there is no “best” eCommerce platform for SEO. You still need to perform the optimizations yourself, anyway.
2. Why is link building so difficult?
Backlink building is difficult because on your own you have three choices: let them develop organically, trade or negotiate for them, or buy them.
The first two options are resource-intensive and time-consuming and buying links can earn you a penalty. It’s best to do it the old-school way or hire an eCommerce SEO company with a wide net of third-party connections to build them for you.
3. Can you ever be “done” with SEO?
No, you can never be “done” with SEO. that’s a common myth. Keyword volumes and trends are constantly changing, as are user behavior and SEO best practices. Saying you can ever be done with SEO is like saying you can be “done” with branding or sales. It’s a process, not a single target.
4. How does content get my website to rank?
It’s like this. You write some page copy or a blog about a topic that has legitimately useful information. If that information satisfies a user query, then Google will serve it to searches in the organic search results pages. If you boil down content strategy, it’s all really that simple.
Of course, a lot else goes into it, but that’s basically what it is, and without a content strategy, any SEO package will be sorely lacking.
5. What does search intent mean?
Search intent has to do what the reason that searchers are looking for a keyword or search term. For instance, “how to bake a cookie,” has a pretty clear search intent, but “cookie,” does not. Is the search intent behind “cookie” informational, or commercial? You won’t know until you perform keyword research.
6. How do you choose target keywords?
Basically, you take a look at how the client website is already performing and what search terms for which the eCommerce site currently has standings. Start there, look for variations with low competition, or for related keywords that have higher volume for lower competition. Of course, that’s a 50,000-foot snapshot, but that’s how you start.
7. What are the most important KPIs for eCommerce SEO?
That’s not easy to answer because there are many metrics my eCommerce SEO agency tracks – but if I had to settle on three we’d call them organic keyword rankings, impressions, and traffic. Those are the best indicators of a successful eCommerce SEO campaign for an online store. The next most important would be organic conversion rates, but that’s harder to attribute.
8. Is it better to hire eCommerce SEO experts or do all the work in-house?
It’s better to hire an agency for eCommerce SEO services simply because it’s more scalable and they have more access to resources than most eCommerce businesses do.
To be fair, it’s not even that we know more than well-educated entrepreneurs. It’s just that this is what we do – we specialize in eCommerce SEO. Anyone can optimize a website, but it takes a lot of time and effort, and I mean a lot. That’s why hiring a good agency partner is really a wise investment. It’s not that you can’t do it – it’s that they can do it more efficiently.
Questions? Ask the eCommerce SEO Experts Yourself!
Do you have other questions about how SEO works or if it’s right for your organization? Get in touch with the eCommerce SEO experts at Genius eCommerce (GeniusEcommerce.com) for yourself and ask away. They were more than happy to communicate with us – they’ll be happy to help you.
