Should E-Commerce Websites Invest in SEO?

should-e-commerce-websites-invest-in-seo

Competent Montreal SEO Services are always after the best interests of their clients, whether these interests lie in marketing and promotions, content creation and distribution, online reputation management, and of course, E-commerce.

Sometimes, though, the answer to whether E-commerce websites need to invest in SEO may not be apparent.

Some E-commerce website owners and managers may think that since their products are already up for display, complete with catalogues, categories, pricing, and shipping information, it doesn’t make sense to invest in optimizing.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

There Have Been Great Changes in the SEO Landscape

Part of the reason E-commerce website owners and managers may be hesitant to go for SEO is attributable to the bad reputation that Search Engine Optimization had acquired for itself, mainly through negative practices of the past, such as KW stuffing and link schemes.

Apprehensions about using SEO only to have it backfire may still be in the mind of many who recall what happened to J.C. Penney in 2011. This was when their online reputation suffered a big hit because of a dodgy link-building scheme done for black hat SEO purposes. The negative online effects even echoed out to the real world shops of the department store chain.

But that was years ago. Today, it’s no longer easy to game the search engines using shady SEO practices.

That’s because the focus now of the search engines is in determining how much your site resonates with its users in terms of relevance and usability.

In other words, SEO today is more user-centric.

Before, SEO simply used to be a race among who can stuff the most keywords and get the most links from whatever source, to make it to the top of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Now, SEO is primarily about how much satisfaction your site can give its user. Effective SEO sees to it that your site fulfills whatever need it is a user calls up when it types a keyword or keyphrase into the search bar.

Why E-Commerce Sites Need SEO?

There are various reasons why users rely on search engines to give them what they need. From an E-commerce perspective, some of the more important reasons include:

  1. A need to get information (examples: definitions, product specs and pricing)
  2. A need to contrast and compare information (examples: reviews, catalogues)
  3. A need to discover or verify shipping information
  4. A need to validate availability of products or services
  5. A need to check on the authenticity and credibility of online vendors

There are other reasons why users check for information online, relative to E-commerce sites, of course, but the 5 reasons stated above are among the most common.

Using SEO to Convert Leads into Sales

Without proper optimization of an E-commerce site, it becomes difficult for any random user to turn into a possible lead.

Faced with a glut of information, or lost and confused because of a lack of relevant information, the user could just give up altogether.

However, when a site is properly optimized and becomes highly visible in the SERPs as a result, user trust in the trust is cultivated. Traffic builds-up, turns into leads, and converts into sales – which is the goal of any respectable E-commerce site.

So if you need Montreal SEO services, make sure to invest in those who know the ins and outs of optimization, because they’re the ones whpo have your E-commerce interests at heart and can give you exceptional outcomes.

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