The Ecommerce marketplace is growing with every passing day. As per estimates, there are likely to be a whopping 1.92 billion digital buyers by the end of 2019! 13.9 percent of retail sales will be generated through Ecommerce. One thing is for sure- 2019 is going to be a good year for Ecommerce stores.

The more profitable a given industry is, the more competition you are likely to face in it. Gone are the days when Ecommerce was a blue ocean where different businesses could exist without eating the share of one another. Now, in this highly competitive landscape, you need to ensure that your Ecommerce store gets more recognition than other competing brands. Here, eCommerce SEO can come in handy.

Even in 2019, you need eCommerce SEO to make it big in the online world. Here is why.

Most online experiences begin on search engines

There is a plethora of other online stores that might offer the same product as you. Unless your site visitors remember and search for your website specifically, there is no guarantee that they will only access your store. It doesn’t matter how effectively you brand your store by including a professional logo and a consistent theme; the fact remains that most online experiences begin on search engines.

Over 93 percent of online activities begin with a search. Let’s say you own a clothing brand. Your target audience, when in need of clothes, won’t search your website unless they have had a positive experience with it and can recall its URL or name. Instead, they will search simply for online clothing stores. If your store doesn’t pop up in the search results, you will lose business.

This is where eCommerce SEO comes in. eCommerce SEO helps optimize your website for all the relevant searches. This way, when your target audience uses the search engine to search up relevant keywords, your site pops up in a respectable rank. The higher your rank, the more visitors you will get.

It’s still more cost-effective than paid media

SEO allows you to reach the relevant visitors organically while paid media like display and banner ads, etc., only works as long as you are pumping money into the campaign. Even in 2019, most Ecommerce stores are likely to face budget constraints. After all, there is only so much you can invest in marketing campaigns. Compared to the cost of paid media, SEO continues to be a more cost-effective solution.

Through eCommerce SEO, you can alter your sales and marketing strategy according to the analysis provided by your SEO company. A quality SEO company like SETalks offers a comprehensive review of your business as well as your competition. You can use such reports to understand your strength, weaknesses, goals and plan your strategy accordingly. Compared to mass campaigns, such thought out efforts is likely to be more cost-effective.

Moreover, unlike paid ads, the traffic you get from organic search is free. You don’t have to pay any cost per click, conversion or impression. The periodic investment in SEO gives you free traffic, which keeps coming even if you stop investing in it as heavily as before. This is because SEO helps improve the organic ranking of your store. Unless your competitors further optimize their content, you can maintain your rank without investing much.

You still need site traffic in 2019

A lot might have changed in 2019, but one thing is still the same- you need the right kind of traffic to your online store to ensure its profitability! For instance, let’s say you have an online leather jacket store. You invest in its branding and marketing. But, only a few people can recall your communications. This will hamper the number of visitors you get on your website.

Even if you have a robust and loyal base of customers, the fact remains that getting the extra (but, relevant) audience to your site doesn’t hurt. And this is something that eCommerce SEO helps you with. Remember, not everyone who visits your website will end up making a sale. But, the more people that do the higher the probability of conversion.

Increased traffic leads to a boost in conversion rates, which will increase your sales. And that is the goal of any store, whether online or offline.

Ecommerce SEO builds brand equity

It doesn’t matter what year we are living in; long-term benefits should be preferred over short-term advantages. Strategies like pay per click ads are short-term solutions. Yes, they boost your site traffic. But, only as long as you are funding the campaign. Once you stop funding it, people will stop visiting your website.

On the other hand, SEO helps build brand equity. This is because eCommerce SEO is about improving the customer experience. SEO doesn’t just involve including the right keywords in your content. It is much more complicated than this. It includes boosting your site speed, improving the layout of your store and optimizing the code and structure of your website. Each of these elements enhances the customer experience with your store. The better the experience you offer, the higher is the chance of you retaining customers. At the end of the day, to run a successful store, you need to repeat buyers. And by building brand equity and resonance, Ecommerce SEO helps you achieve such loyalty among customers.

It is the industry standard

Even if you don’t think that Ecommerce SEO is necessary for 2019, most of your competitors do. Most online platforms optimize their website to get a high search engine ranking. You need eCommerce SEO in 2019 because, without it, you won’t be able to compete with stores that have invested in it.

Unoptimized online stores can never get the top spots on search engines. And your target audience infers a lot about the quality of your brand based on the rank you have on search engines. It is viewed as a measure of credibility and quality. And if your business doesn’t appear on the first page of the search engine, you can bid site traffic goodbye. Why? Well, a significant proportion of users don’t even bother looking past the first page results. Seventy-five percent of users to be exact!

While previously, SEO might have been an additional investment. Now, it is the industry standard. It is something that you are expected to invest in SEO to get a high SERP. Without it, you won’t get a top rank. Without a top rank, you won’t get the visibility to ensure high traffic, and thereby impressive sales. It’s all downhill once you decide not to invest in SEO at all.

Ecommerce SEO helps you much more than getting a high SERP

A myopic view of Ecommerce SEO benefits is that it gets you a high rank. While this is undoubtedly a benefit, it is not the only reason you need Ecommerce SEO in 2019. Ecommerce SEO helps you in improving your online store and hence your brand image.

For instance, a part of Ecommerce SEO is making your website more mobile-friendly. Apart from boosting your ranking, this increases the number of visits you get from mobile users. A significant chunk of site visitors accesses websites through mobile phones. By making your website mobile friendly, you are successfully tapping into this segment.

Similarly, websites that take more than five seconds to load are abandoned by the audience. To combat this, Ecommerce SEO works to reduce the load time of each of your web pages. This improves the site experience for customers. Smooth experience translates to increased conversion rates. This is because site visitors become less frustrated with the site’s interface and more focused on the products you offer.

Ecommerce SEO trends for 2019

Now that you know that you need Ecommerce SEO in 2019, you must also be aware of the recent trends of Ecommerce SEO. With every passing year and refinements being made to search engine algorithms, SEO trends are also changing. Here is a rundown of the four major Ecommerce SEO trends.

1. Voice search optimization

Now people use voice search devices like Alexa to search for relevant eCommerce products. You must optimize your website and content for such searches. Include long-tail keywords, questions and informal words on your website.

2. Brand your Ecommerce store

Effective branding, in the form of consistent brand image, a professional logo and tagline can evoke brand familiarity. This can increase the number of people searching for your store, thereby boosting its rank.

3. Focus on user experience

In 2019 as well, user experience matters. Focus on your site design, speed, and visual appeal to attract and retain an audience.

4.    Monitor analytics and key metrics

Keep track of the success of your SEO campaign by monitoring relevant parameters. This allows you to know when it is time to bring alterations to the campaign.

Conclusion

In 2019, you can’t survive without Ecommerce SEO. The competition is getting fiercer day by day, SEO helps you in retaining and improving your position in search engines organically. You need it for the success of your business. If you haven’t invested in it already, you might want to consider doing so.

Author Bio:

About Ashley Rosa: Ashley Rosa is a freelance writer and blogger. As writing is her passion that why she loves to write articles related to the latest trends in technology and sometimes on health-tech as well.  She is crazy about chocolates. You can find her at twitter: @ashrosa2.