If you use ecommerce to sell your products or services, you won’t be surprised that “in 2021, over 2.14 billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods and services online, up from 1.66 billion global digital buyers in 2016”, according to Statista. And,
“In 2016, 209.6 million U.S. people were online shoppers and had browsed products, compared prices or bought merchandise online at least once. These figures are projected to reach 230.5 million in 2021, positioning the United States as one of the leading ecommerce markets based on online shopper penetration,” (Statista, 2021).
2021 has been a massive year for ecommerce, and will continue to be in the 4th quarter. But, how can you find affordable SEO for small businesses to compete for your share of this lucrative revenue stream?
Table of Contents
- Ecommerce Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses
- Create Landing Pages for Holiday Deals
- Add Structured Data to Product Pages
- Use Google Merchant Center to Rank on Google
- Affordable SEO for Small Businesses
Ecommerce Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses
You don’t have to be a giant company like Amazon or Apple to compete successfully in the ecommerce market. The key is establishing your brand online and making it easy for customers to find you. While you likely already have a SEO campaign strategy to drive search engine traffic to your website and ecommerce store, there is more you can do during the holiday shopping season to make it easier for shoppers to find you.
Create Landing Pages for Holiday Deals
Landing pages are laser focused on specific keywords, and will draw customers searching with long-tail keywords like “XX shop Black Friday Deals XX product” or “XX % off on XX service on Black Friday only.” With so many shoppers buying gifts online, many will look for special deals on what you are selling. Landing pages are likely to rank higher for relevant keywords, at least for the holiday shopping season.
There’s really no limit to how many landing pages you can add during the holiday season other than your budget and your time.
Each landing page can target a specific long-tail keyword to drive qualified search traffic for that keyword alone. Landing pages will separate people who are ready to buy now from people just interested in browsing. Working with a small business SEO company, you can come up with a long list of keywords that will send holiday shoppers directly to a landing page ready to buy. Then, starting with the most popular keywords, make a landing page to convert visitors to customers immediately. For 2021, creating searchable landing pages for products you have in stock should be a priority since vendor supply chains are unpredictable right now.
Add Structured Data to Product Pages
If you haven’t already added structured data to product pages, there is no time to waste. Structured data includes price, ratings, reviews, in-stock availability, and other specifics that people want to know when searching. The more relevant information you can give shoppers, the easier it will be for them to find exactly what they need on their laundry list of gifts to buy. And no matter how big your competitors are, if your company is the one who has the product in stock, they will buy it from you.
Adding structured data to your product pages (and landing pages) has two benefits. One, structured data works like keywords for searches on Google. Two, sometimes Google lists your structured data right on the search engine for a richer SERP experience.
Using Structured Data Like Keywords
Shoppers often add keywords matching structured data you have on your product or service pages. Shoppers who add structured data are usually further along the sales funnel than the average searcher, often ready to buy. They add details like pricing to find products on sale for their price to buy right now. This works well with landing pages featuring bargains, for instance, on Black Friday.
Google Lists Structured Data on SERPs
Google sometimes adds your structured data to their search engine results pages (SERPs). They can be added to your page’s listing as a detail, or to Google’s featured snippets. Featured snippets are the widgets you can see at the top of some SERPs, or listed in the results themselves, further down the page. You have no way to know what Google will use for a featured snippet, but if you include details like structured data, the search engine will notice.
Adding structured data to your site is something that a small business SEO company can advise you on and help fit into your marketing budget.
Use Google Merchant Center to Rank on Google
Ranking organically on Google is the goal for any SEO campaign. One of the ways you can improve your chances is by using Google Merchant Center. Google Merchant Center offers retailers the chance to display products right on the search engine at the top of the page just under the row of Paid Ads.
You don’t have to use Google Shopping or Paid Ads to take advantage of new Free Ads (in the U.S. only right now). You do have to meet Google’s data and eligibility requirements.
To become eligible, you must follow the required policies to show products in free listings, and provide product offers using at least one of the following methods:
- If you submit a feed through Google Merchant Center, you can show your products in free listings by opting in to this feature when you set up your Merchant Center account.
- If you have structured data markup on your website, your products will automatically show in free listings (with the exception of the Shopping tab) without directly participating in the feature.
If using Google Merchant Center sounds a little outside your current technical know-how, don’t feel overwhelmed. Your small business SEO company can help you better understand and implement this strategy. Having customers see your product listed right at the top of the SERP page is a great way to add credibility. It’s also a quick way to engage determined shoppers.
Affordable SEO for Small Business
Are you ready to tackle the challenge of this year’s shopping season? Implementing landing pages, adding structured data, and using Google Merchant Center will give you a distinct advantage in driving sales this year. For more information, contact L7 Advertising to connect with our SEO experts who can connect you with your target audience during this competitive holiday season.