Electronic Commerce con's and the importance of SEO
Published
20 May, 2022
7 min read
Electronic Commerce, also known as e-commerce, is the online form of commerce and it is taking place on different platforms and sites. You can trade, buy and sell products over the internet on every device and they substitute or complete the physical stores. So, of course, to be able to own a successful online business you have to know everything about business marketing strategy. In this article, we will present to you what you need to keep an eye out for and ways of improving your website while giving you some tips here and there.
First thing first, we will start by dividing your priorities into two different categories. Priority number one? Research! Why you should/, shouldn't start an online business? If you know the risks and the benefits of the market, you're very close to knowing how to deal with it. In this article, we will concentrate on the cons as we know very well that the pros can be found everywhere and are quite obvious.
The second priority, if you decide to go for it after researching the pros and cons, is how well you do the eCommerce marketing strategy? Learning about search engine optimization (SEO) and how to efficiently do it and use it to your advantage. Why is SEO important, see how to apply it to your website?
Both of them are a very important part of your journey in your online business and we are here to tell you that you need to set your priorities right before anything else. The why's and how's are the first steps and the foundation of your business.
While we all know the pros, that electronic commerce is more convenient both for the customer and for the seller, the variety may differ from a physical store and prices are more accessible to compare or just, in general, are lower, etc. we are here to talk more in-depth about the cons.
Even if you design your website in the best way possible, the customer might still feel the need to touch/see/try on your product. Which is impossible to do while buying from an online store. They might feel like the shopping experience is not the same, and they need the product-customer interaction to actually want to purchase it. So, even if it is more convenient for both of you, this fact might stop the customer from buying from your store and choosing a traditional store instead.
Of course, as part of your eCommerce marketing strategy, you will have customer service but the time clients invest in returning or asking questions will forever be slower than an interaction face to face. So, if you don't have a very good team in customer service you will lose even more in that department.
Also, as a heads-up to the previous point in combination with this one, a client might avoid buying online something that must be tested to not get caught in a situation where they need to return it. It is a downside of online shopping to not be able to test the product, and if your customer service is not very good then there is a chance you will lose more than win.
We live in a society where instant gratification is everything. Our attention span is short, and we need more instant reactions than the previous generation. So, one of the problems with online stores is the fact that the customer does not get that. Not only they don't get to know what the products really look like or how they feel by using the usual senses, but they also have to wait for them. The shipping, most of the time, is from one to seven business days. And that is the best-case scenario if there is no problem or the customer is not on the other side of the planet, in which case the days multiply.
With online shopping and selling, you always have to keep in mind that credit card and security fraud are a thing. They are a huge risk for every customer every time they enter their details to buy from a site. If your website is not designed well enough to build trust in your customer's eyes that might be a big problem. While starting your business marketing strategy you have to make sure that your check-out process is secure and it looks secure.
Also, as part of the same strategy, you have to be prepared for cyberattacks. If the business strategy helps you build trust with the customers, the eCommerce strategy must prepare you for educating yourself and your employers about the dangers of the internet! Research the best ways of protecting yourself and find ways to avoid getting hacked. This point specifically is a downside for both you and the customer, so be very careful with this one!
We approach the SEO priority, so we will combine the cons of eCommerce and the next step. As we know, the results that display when you make an internet search are mostly determined by keyword optimization, which is a component of search engine optimization (SEO). And even though most search engines have best practices in place to prevent fraud, shady websites can still get to the top of the results page, making it almost impossible to determine whether a site is trustworthy, secure, or verified. Buying a product or service from an untrustworthy website puts the customer's privacy and financial information at risk. There is no verification for safety or quality in transactions performed through online classified advertisements, which can pose a significant risk to buyers.
The importance comes from the fact that the visibility of your website depends mostly on Search Engine Optimization. It's a crucial technique for proving your site's relevance to users and their search queries to Google and other search engines. In matters of eCommerce marketing strategy SEO is your best choice and should be the first if you want your online business to be known and frequently visited.
Organic SEO should not just concern SEO specialists, but e-commerce proprietors too. For the setup and ensure the way potential customers find their web pages by implementing vital SEO practices.
There are a lot of free or paid tools that will help you grow your organic traffic and rank for certain keywords which usually can be beneficial for any type of company - from eCommerce to famous restaurants in town. Monitoring key metrics enables you to review the success of campaigns and report on the problems.
There are many metrics that you can use to measure what's going on with regard to your search optimization efforts but pay attention to how changes in these metrics affect your website's search engine rankings or revenue, this will help you determine which metrics most need improvement. This includes tools for keyword research and tracking, social media monitoring and competitor analysis.
Here are some of the most widely used SEO tools in 2022:
It is a very popular SEO tool that will help you analyze your competition and see where they rank. It will also show you the top keywords and provide you with other information you can use to improve your ranking. The SEMrush API gives you the ability to import all of your data from SEMrush into a spreadsheet for further analysis.
Google Search Master is a powerful tool for webmasters to diagnose any issues with their site. It will also provide you with tools to help you understand the performance of your site and make changes to improve your rankings.
Google Analytics is a standard web analytics software that offers detailed information on website traffic and usage. Google Analytics lets you see what people are doing on your site, when they are doing it, where they come from , which pages they visit, how long they stay on sites, and what links they click. Google Analytics shows you a lot of information about your site visitors through their website activity. and by the way they interact with your content.
Google Keyword Planner is an option that helps you find what keywords your potential customers are using when they search for things. This tool can help you figure out which words and phrases people might use to find information on your website or product.
This is an option that helps you find Google searches in your niche over a specific period of time. The tool can show you how people search for a keyword and long-term search trends.
You should never underestimate the significance of SEO. To direct web traffic to one site or another, search engines use certain algorithms and KPIs, so you can imagine the power it has over your website. Also, with the help of SEO, you can help yourself and build an organic audience for your website and products.
And that is not all, there are other benefits of SEO: it's low cost, provides you with relevant data about your business and customers, makes your website credible, and helps with the marketing strategy, of course on the same note it attracts relevant users and it helps boost your website on the searching engines.
