Just as the whole world is tired of the pandemic and quarantines it’s time for the most exciting time of the year! It’s almost time for Christmas, Hanukkah, followed by New Year and this is the time when all the multi-vendor marketplace platforms will come up with creative ideas to capture the attention of the customers and increase their revenue.
A study graph by Deloitte comparing traffic driven to websites during holiday seasons of 2018 and 2019 is as below. And it has been predicted to further increase in the year 2020 as an outcome of the COVID pandemic.
For any website to be a major success it should have proportional traffic directed towards its web platform. Building your website is a huge task in itself that needs a lot of various carefully planned informed decisions. But post that the real challenge waits- Marketing your Online Platform. Web traffic is the key to measure revenue. Hence this becomes the most primary and prioritized aspect of the business owner.
There are multiple kinds of traffic through which you can channelize traffic to your website. And one among them is the most cost effective Organic Traffic. Organic Traffic is what comes through different search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo etc. Google alone has received about 2.3 trillion searches in 2019. So you can imagine the revenue surge you might accomplish by incorporating the right ways to optimize your organic traffic.
Determining relevant results isn’t done by a team of humans; instead, algorithms are used to understand the user’s intent and find relevant results. Post this it ranks the results obtained based on different factors. And there are over 200 factors that help in this determination. As we all know Google is the most widely used search engine; it alone handles about 3.5 billion searches per day. When the search button is clicked the browser bugs around 2 Billion websites and returns the relevant result within almost 0.5 seconds. This seems like a lot of behind-the-scenes work isn’t it?
For this a search engine needs to execute all the below three processes:
- Create an index or an organized list of pages on the web
- Access this list instantly
- Decide which pages are relevant to the search
In the SEO world, these processes are described as crawling and indexing.
Just like how we have a checklist for our preparations which will ultimately help us have a great and a memorable holiday; here is a similar one that will help you achieve greater revenues through your eCommerce platform.
A) SEO Keywords:
The words that the Search Engines use in order to understand, search and finally provide the expected result are the Keywords. This plays the most pivotal role in directing traffic to the website. In order to make optimum usage of the SEO Keywords you need to understand which type of keyword to use, and how to use them to gain more traffic during the holiday season. Here are the three types of keywords that, if used properly, will become your golden ratio.
- Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords: Words and phrases that are viewed by the search engine as related to the topic in discussion are called a LSI keyword.
- Short tail Keywords: They are basically search phrases with just a word. Hence this feature makes it very specific and conditional.
- Long tail Keywords: Search phrase consisting of three to five keywords in them. They are generally used to search something extremely specific.
An effective way of combining all the three types of keywords and enclosing them into the site’s structure and content will help the site’s ranking in SERPs (Search Engine Result Page). You could also add the festival’s names in the titles as LSI keywords in order to grab customer’s attention. Here are some of the best places to insert your eCommerce SEO keywords to optimize your website traffic,
- In URLs
- In the Title, Heading Tags and Meta Descriptions
- In Alt Text and Image Names
- In Content Snippets
Example: Given it is the festive season, you could set a theme and then accordingly use the highest rated SEO keywords and this will definitely help gain customer traffic.
B) Types of SEO Techniques:
In order to understand and take the relevant steps to make your SEO more effective in driving in more traffic, we need to understand the ways in which this can be achieved and for this knowing the types of SEO techniques that impacts your eCommerce websites is very crucial.
Strategies based on these needs to be the leading pointers on your check-list as well.
- Technical SEO: This has nothing to do with content creation, or content promotion, but as the name suggests it concentrates on how your website is built and what it is made of, i.e. its architecture and infrastructure. However informative or useful your content might be but with an unsteady website it does as good as not exist. Hence, websites need to be constructed in a way that lets crawlers access and “understand” the content of your website.
Hence, points to be noted to improve Technical SEO are-
- Optimize your page speed to load within 3 seconds
- Use HTTP tags
- Ensure your pages are indexed
- Monitor your Metadata
Monitor your backlinks and create new ones
2. On page (Onsite) SEO: This is like the face of your content page. Optimizing everything on your site is what on page SEO is all about. None of those depend on any external factors and hence you are in total control of all the content of your website.
However, points to be noted to improve On page SEO are-
- Optimize your Meta Tags
- Use attractive Page titles and Meta descriptions
- Optimized ALT text content for your images
- Provide effective outward and internal linking
As it is said, people tend to judge a book by its cover and hence your front
Page should speak about all that your site offers. Hence making it as catchy
and exciting; just as the festive mood is crucial in order to attract more customers.
3. Offsite SEO: This is one type of SEO technique that is not completely under your control. Because this is improved only through external factors; i.e. content outside your website. And what better way than to celebrate it all together with the festival right round the corner. The only and prominent factors contributing to this are the external links and the reputation of your web platform. There are certain ways in which you can have a positive impact on your website through offsite SEO.
Options are as below,
- Influencer marketing
- Social Media marketing
- Guest Blogging
C) Monitor and Resolve 404 Errors and Warnings:
First impression is the best impression. This is aptly applicable in this situation. Getting a 404 Page-Not-Found Error while trying to launch your website leads to a very and especially with Christmas and New Year just a few days away negative customer experience and hence on your website traffic. And especially with Christmas and New Year just a few days away these negative feedback can be heavy on your pockets. Hence always be on a lookout for such errors and rectify them. To resolve a 404 error, you can use a 301 redirection command. If a user types in your old website’s URL, the 301 redirect will automatically redirect the user to your website’s new URL and hence your website will get displayed without any hassle.
D) Do not stuff SEO Keywords:
There is a misconception that the more the usage of keywords the more is the traffic to the website. However, they are just myths and it will only lead you to the spam box of search engines. The website truly needs only 1 to 3% population of keywords in one article. They should be placed very discreetly so that it can easily blend into your content and thereafter get back-links and help with increasing revenues.
Though you might want to show the excitement of the festive sales and other offers and discounts you might be offering on your site are careful not to go overboard and make the page crowded and overbearing.
Hope that now you are aware of what and how to use SEO techniques to improve your eCommerce website. Since the holidays are right round the corner, you need to act fast and earn big! Do drop in a message if you need any help with your holiday SEO Checklist. We will be glad to help you out.
Happy Holidays!