SERVICES
Greater Boston E-Commerce Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services
Search Engine Optimization for Boston Businesses
Conquer the digital visibility problem with expert ecommerce SEO from a leading Boston SEO company.
E-commerce is here to stay – 2021 proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt. More people than ever before are choosing to buy what they need online. The challenge? Ensuring that your customers can find you and your products rather than landing on a competitor’s website. Ecommerce SEO delivers the visibility necessary to stand out to search engines and consumers.
Ready to accelerate your growth and success in the e-commerce industry? Get in touch today to schedule your free consultation.
The Rise of Ecommerce: SEO Plays a Central Role
According to Shopify, the global e-commerce market was expected to hit $5.55 trillion in 2022 and that figure is only likely to grow in the coming years. It’s expected to exceed $7 trillion by 2025. By 2023, e-commerce websites are expected to account for almost 23% of all retail sales. With that phenomenal growth has come an explosion of e-commerce websites, with up to 24 million unique websites worldwide.
In all of that, digital marketing plays a central role, particularly SEO. Without an accurate, evolving SEO strategy, e-commerce businesses cannot reach their target audience, appear in organic search results, or boost organic traffic to their websites.
How does a Boston SEO agency help accelerate e-commerce growth? It all comes down to online marketing strategies and techniques tailored to the unique needs of online retail businesses.
Keywords Are Essential
Like other online marketing campaigns, e-commerce SEO campaigns need a stable foundation for success. Keyword research is that foundation. With the right keywords and keyword phrases, it becomes possible to boost organic traffic and drive qualified leads to the website.
What Are Keywords?
Keywords are nothing more than the words and phrases that your customers use to find products like those you sell. For instance, if you’re in the athletic footwear industry, “women’s cross-trainers” could be a relevant keyword. Boston-area businesses selling infant clothing might benefit from using keywords like “newborn onesie” or “size 0 infant shoes” in their content marketing, product descriptions, and other content on their website.
However, too many companies target only basic, obvious keywords. There are several problems with this approach, including:
- Chances are good that your customers are using more than one or two words in their searches, so you need to tailor your marketing strategy accordingly.
- Your competitors are definitely targeting basic keywords, which makes it harder to rank for them in the Google search results.
- More complex keywords and keyword phrases help you rank higher in Google search results and drive qualified traffic where you want it.
Conducting Keyword Research
For companies in Boston hoping to rank highly in the SERPs and boost organic traffic, accurate, ongoing keyword research is vital. Working with a trusted SEO agency can ensure that you’re always able to target the right keywords, keyword phrases, and long-tail keywords while avoiding the problem of oversaturation or using basic keywords.
In-depth keyword research is critical for any business, but particularly for e-commerce businesses. That’s because keywords must form the backbone of your website content, and e-commerce firms have much more content than many others.Where Are Keywords Used in E-Commerce SEO?
To maximize visibility, you need to work keywords into the content of your website. For the average organization, this will include the home and about us pages, as well as any service pages and the contact page. E-commerce firms have much more content, though, because you must optimize every product description on your website.
The Question of Optimizing Product Descriptions
Unless you manufacture your own products, chances are good that you receive stock product descriptions from the manufacturer. Never, under any circumstances, should you use these descriptions. Why not?
- They’re not optimized for SEO and visibility.
- They’re probably poorly written.
- They’re not informative enough for today’s consumers.
- Many other e-commerce stores will be using the same description, creating duplicate content and reducing your visibility.
On-page optimization is a critical part of e-commerce SEO, and that includes creating evocative, keyword-optimized product descriptions that appeal to your audience and help you rank on Google.
The Role of a Digital Marketing Agency in Keyword Research
Boston SEO services should offer access to expert keyword research. What’s more, your SEO agency should go beyond the basics and deliver keywords, keyword phrases, and long-tail keywords that are used by potential leads but offer lower rates of competition to help you rank more easily and increase online visibility.
Of course, a full-service digital marketing partner can do much more than deliver a list of high-quality, accurate keywords. At Peter Rota SEO, I offer expert keyword research, as well as e-commerce SEO strategy development. Get in touch to schedule a no-cost consultation and learn more about how I can help improve your online success.
Additional Considerations for On-Page SEO
To increase sales, it’s important that you optimize your e-commerce site and engage in digital marketing, but that you do so with an expert understanding of your audience. E-commerce SEO is all about building visibility through search results and driving organic traffic to your website and product pages. So, what does your audience want? How do they typically use a Google search?
- They want to locate local Boston stores where they can shop, either physically or online (yes, many customers will buy online even if they live within driving distance).
- They want to compare prices, colors, and other options to make an informed decision.
- They want to search for advice or guidance on choosing the right product for their needs.
Now, you can take each of those uses and correlate it with specific ecommerce SEO efforts. How? With an expert Boston SEO agency, digital marketing becomes much simpler. Some of the areas where you can add information that supports your potential customers include the following:
Page Titles
A page title should tell a potential customer exactly what the page is about. The title should be optimized with your keywords, too. Note that page titles and meta titles are not the same things. Both are important for technical SEO, and both are separate considerations.
Page Elements
A correctly optimized page will include specific structural elements that guide the reader (and work with screen readers to ensure accessibility). These elements include headings and subheadings, body/paragraph copy, image names, alt image text, and more. A marketing agency worth your time and consideration should be able to ensure all of your pages are structured properly for technical SEO, as well as for compliance with accessibility best practices. Note that the same accessibility considerations apply to your website as to your brick-and-mortar store, so accommodations must be made for blind and low-vision website visitors who use screen readers.
URL
The page URL shouldn’t be left to chance. Optimize it with keywords and make sure your website creates logical, readable URLs. Not only does that help ensure that your pages rank well, but it also helps with visibility and memory retention for your customers and would-be customers. After all, they’re the ones who buy your products, not the search engines. Everything a Boston SEO company does should ultimately be for their benefit.
Meta Title and Description
Each page on your site should have a custom-written, keyword-optimized meta title and description to further explain to searchers what the content is about. This content shows up in Google search results, so make sure that it’s accurate and written to the correct length. Too short, and you don’t provide any information to your searchers. Too long, and Google truncates the description and you still fail to deliver the information your searchers need. Keep your meta descriptions to around 160 characters (just a couple of short sentences).
Category Descriptions
Think that your product descriptions are the extent of your SEO content creation? Think again. If you explore the top-performing online stores, you’ll notice a few things. One of the most important for eCommerce SEO is the use of optimized, professionally crafted category descriptions. Where your website acts as the hub for all of your online marketing efforts, your category descriptions work as hubs for each product type within that category and present additional opportunities to show up in the Google search results and drive more qualified traffic to increase sales.
Geo-Tagging
While ecommerce SEO will allow you to compete in your industry globally, that’s casting too wide a net. Instead, you want to focus on local customers, which means harnessing the power of geo-tagging. Boston SEO experts understand the importance of including relevant, location-based keywords throughout your website copy. For instance, you’ll need to include the word “Boston” in your copy to rank in Google search results for local queries. These are customers in your immediate area who want to purchase goods similar to those you offer, and they may want to come into your physical store or purchase online. Geo-tagging is an SEO technique that dramatically improves your visibility in local search queries.
Website Considerations
A great deal of SEO comes down to keyword optimization, as well as knowing your audience and their preferences or needs. However, your website itself plays a significant role, as well. On-page SEO factors directly related to your website could make or break your success, optimizing for Google and attracting your target audience. Which elements of website architecture are most important?
- How long does it take your consumers to find the products that they want? It’s important for visibility in Google, as well as for your visitor experience, to keep that to a minimum. Ideally, it should take no more than three clicks to get from your homepage to the product page.
- What search queries do your potential customers use to find products like those you offer? Those same terms will still apply for on-site search, so make sure to structure your website to reflect that for improved ecommerce SEO, but also to deliver an experience that your customers will appreciate.
- What pages on your site receive the most traffic? Do these visitors land there directly from their search or do they navigate to the page via your website’s menu? How could you make the process simpler and more direct?
- What are the most common pages for a website visitor to leave your site from (exit pages)? Are there commonalities between user experiences that lead to them bouncing on those pages?
- Do you want to use a dropdown menu system, a side-bar nav system, or a combination of different structures? Understand that dropdown systems aren’t written in HTML, which means that Google can’t see your navigation.
- How many links do you have per page? If it’s over 100, it’s time to rethink your structure. Not only will your customers thank you, but you’ll find that your visibility on Google also rises.
- Are you using breadcrumbs in your navigation? If not, why not? They offer enhanced visibility for Google but they’re also important tools for human searchers/visitors who might need to find their way back to previous pages they’ve already visited.
These are just some of the important considerations when it comes to on-page SEO for your website. Working with an expert Boston SEO company can help ensure that your website is properly designed, that you’re targeting the right keywords, and that you’re targeting the right audience, all while you’re free to focus on what your business does best.
Get in touch today to learn more about how I can help refine your SEO strategy, target the right keywords and keyword variants, and assist with website design and layout.
Other Considerations for E-Commerce Search Engine Optimization
Conquering Google is important, but it requires a multi-step strategy that takes time and expertise to build. A Boston SEO company can help ensure that you’re able to create an effective, customized SEO strategy that incorporates the right keywords but also builds success through other components, such as content marketing.
Content Marketing
When it comes to building visibility for your business, visibility in Google is essential. However, your website and product pages are just two of the locations where you need to be using your keywords. You also need to focus on implementing them within your content marketing efforts. Not sure what those include?
Blogging
The most basic example of content creation for your SEO campaign is blogging. Blogging has been around for many years at this point but it remains one of the primary means of ranking for your targeted keywords in Google searches, while also providing your audience with valuable information. Your business’s blog represents a chance to really build your brand, communicate with others, and position your business as a leader in the industry, while still promoting your products.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging remains a viable option and should be part of your SEO campaign. It allows you to create informative, keyword-optimized content and then post it through other sites, thereby taking advantage of their readership, as well as improving your visibility through Google. It’s also an important part of your link-building strategy, which has significant implications for ecommerce SEO.
Organic Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is a must for any SEO campaign. However, you need to think beyond Facebook ads. Organic social media marketing consists of posting regularly on the platforms that make the most sense for your brand (Facebook and Instagram, usually, although others may also be useful depending on the products you sell and where your audience spends their time online). While social media posts don’t generally show up in Google search results, they do provide you with a way to drive targeted traffic where you want it, and keywords can be searched through most social media sites.
Email Marketing
While ecommerce SEO is primarily focused on visibility through Google searches, don’t neglect the power of marketing directly to your customers through their email inbox. Email marketing allows you to bypass other search results and deliver targeted content based on each recipient’s interests or where they left off in the shopping process.
Loss Leaders/Free Guides
To get customers and potential customers to share their email addresses with you, you’ll need to offer them something of value in exchange. This should be part of your content marketing/SEO campaign strategy and can take many different forms, including:
- Buying guides
- Newsletters
- Discounts/coupons
- Product comparisons
Work with the Leading Agency in Boston
Ready to accelerate your SEO results? Want to boost organic traffic to your ecommerce site? Contact me today to learn more about how I can help you attract more customers through expert ecommerce SEO strategies and tactics. I’ve helped clients in Boston, throughout Massachusetts, across the US, and around the world grow their businesses and achieve meaningful success.
