Digital Marketing Agency in New York- What To Expect?

Digital Marketing Agency in New York- What To Expect?

by Digital Marketing

Elevating your brand recognition and market reach does not require a massive enterprise-level advertising agency. You can get far more ROI with specialized agencies that understand the power of targeted marketing.

This is especially true for businesses working in and around the greater NYC area. You want to work with a digital marketing agency in New York that understands how to build websites, leverage ad campaigns, and utilize local SEO in New York to bring in more direct leads in your geographic area.

For businesses outside of the NYC area, using a digital marketing agency with direct experience in surviving the highly competitive New York environment means you have an expert company. If they can make it in New York, they can make it anywhere!

Benefits of a Digital Marketing Agency

The goal when searching for a digital marketing agency in New York is to improve your online visibility. This means a firm that knows how to increase traffic to your website through hyper-targeted advertisements on Google and other social media platforms.

You want to increase brand awareness while building trust with your target audience so they will organically share your content. This way, one advertisement could create a ripple effect that goes well beyond the original intentions of your initial digital ad.

An experienced team, like those at Griffon Webstudios, will then use those increased visitation numbers to leverage them into higher conversions for your sales and site traffic. This transforms the people checking out your online brand or ecommerce store into actionable sales and brand interactions.

What to Bring to Your First Digital Marketing Agency Meeting

Bring a list of questions about the agency, their work, and what you need from them. For example, if you are looking for content marketing help and know that your business needs a lot of blog posts each month, ask the agency what volume they can handle. If you’ve heard great things about video marketing but are not sure where to start with it, ask the agency how they would incorporate video into your marketing strategy.

Bring some examples of creative content work you like (and don’t like). This will give the agency a sense of what style and tone fit your brand and how you want consumers to perceive it. It also provides an idea of whether or not an agency can deliver what you’re looking for.

Have a clear picture in mind of your budget and timelines before going into this meeting. These numbers will directly affect what type of strategy the agency designs for your business, so they must be considered early on in this process.

Most importantly, keep an open mind. A digital marketing agency in New York will have plenty of experience and make suggestions that may seem new to you. Let yourself be convinced of the latest techniques and strategies that are proving beneficial to the agency.

Getting Started with Griffon Webstudios

If you’re looking for an exceptional digital marketing agency, it’s vital that you do your due diligence to find the one that will best suit your needs. At Griffon Webstudios, we are a digital marketing agency in New York with a proven track record of success from satisfied clients. We have plenty of testimonials and case studies that celebrate how we bring value to your brand, including local SEO in New York.

Reach out to our excellent design, marketing, and development team today, and let’s schedule a consultation. We are eager to learn more about your upcoming project or ad campaign. We love creating custom solutions for clients in New York or anywhere else around the globe. One quick email or phone call could mean all the difference in accelerating your online growth.

How to Make Search Engines Fall in Love with Your Website

How To Make Search Engines Fall In Love With Your Website

by Digital Marketing

One of the most reliable ways to increase your site’s ranking with popular search engines is to correctly set up the layout and website architecture. The goal is to make the website so easy to navigate that visitors experience little resistance to exploring deeper and finding relevant content related to their search.

If your website is just a collection of random ideas and not easily laid out, it makes it a lot harder to understand, leading to higher bounce rates and lower page ranking.

Here are some tips to help boost your website architecture and improve search ranking with platforms like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Improve Your Navigation

Make your navigation the simplest thing in the world. Do you have a menu that clearly lays out where to find information on the website? Remember that today’s fast-paced visitor doesn’t want to overthink anything. They want to get directly to the information they need with as few barriers as possible.

This includes making your URL as simple as you can. This makes it easier to remember and more logical. If you sell black puppy shoes, maybe go with something like: www.mystore.com/petshoes/blackpuppyshoes.

The 3-Click Rule

This is the practice where critical information is no more than three clicks away whenever someone lands on your website. That forces you to consider how to get to the information as quickly as possible with as few steps in between. Implementing this rule naturally creates a more organized structure that search engines prefer, leading to improved search ranking.

Topics and Categories

Whenever possible, group things together into easily digestible topics and categories. Human beings naturally want to organize the things they see in the world, and when you make your website architecture reflect that desire, it becomes more engaging to view. This doesn’t have to be complicated. Think of an online shop that sells basketball accessories. You could have categories by the different sports teams in the United States or the function of similar items (shoes, balls, apparel, etc.). It is just a natural way to group things together that makes it easier to understand.

Sitemaps and Internal Linking

Search engines love sitemaps and internal linking. Most WordPress-based websites create a sitemap naturally. This is some form of website architecture that is easily crawlable and usually in HTML or XML format. It shows the pages on your website, how they are organized by topic, and the overall site structure as if it was a map of a large building.

When you combine a quality site map with internal linking, you boost the overall accessibility of your content. It gives everything context, which is why you see search engine results from a single domain with multiple subpages listed underneath them. Google wants to show users exactly what they want to search for, and they will provide more information about your site and boost ranking if you give them the context they need to make the experience better for visitors.

Need Some Help?

If all this information feels a little overwhelming, it’s okay. There are plenty of experts available to specialize in on-page SEO and finding ways to improve search ranking organically. We didn’t even talk about canonical tags using breadcrumbs or putting an internal search option on your website.

This is why we at Griffon Webstudios always suggest you seek outside help. Our expert team spent years crafting and formulating websites so they are easily credible by search engines and organically reach the top echelons of search results. Why not schedule a consultation with our team today and learn how we can boost your website architecture so when someone searches for anything related to your store, it pops up near the top. Reach out today, and let’s help your site get noticed.

Creative Promotion Strategies for Your E-Commerce Business

Creative Promotion Strategies for Your E-Commerce Business

by Digital Marketing

There are an estimated 12-24 million e-commerce sites across the entire globe. Practically every single minute, another e-commerce site is launched, creating one more competitor in your niche or target market. Rising above all of us competition is a real challenge for anyone running an online business.

The best way to overcome these challenges is to integrate promotional strategies and engage with e-commerce website experts who are willing to offer you tips and tricks to elevate your brand above the noise. You never know when a quick slight adjustment to a marketing campaign can suddenly make the difference between exponential success and business failure. Here are some of our creative promotional strategies that you might wanna check out for your e-commerce business.

 

1. Make it Personal

Consumers want a reason to stick with one brand over another. Just seeing the quality of your product is no longer enough to separate you from the other brands that are out there on the market. However, giving yourself a story and putting a face to that story increases the emotional response consumers will get whenever they see your products. Finding a way to attach a spokesperson for your e-commerce business is a great way to make your products more relatable to your target market. It shows that you care about the experience your consumers are having.

 

2. Build Customer Relationships

The modern consumer wants a rewarding relationship with the brands they use the most. That means creating content and experiences that are highly relevant to the type of people shopping on your e-commerce store. Practically any e-commerce website expert will tell you that if you want to attract more visitors improve the relationship you have with your current customers. Make it the easiest thing in the world to shop with you and treat them the way you would want to be treated by your favorite brands.

 

3. Wishlists and Gift Guides

Creative promotional ideas like allowing your guests to create wish lists or publishing gift guides for different special occasions enhance the user experience. The goal is to find ways for your customers to think about your products in ways other than just using them. Maybe they want a giant list of things to purchase for your work-at-home tech store that they are working towards for the next year. You are giving them a reason to come back to your site and visit your products more often.

 

4. Quizzes and Guest Posts

Think about content that would attract you. For example, having fun quizzes or posts from guests within your industry enhance the engagement of visitor has with your brand. The more rewarding you can make the overall experience, the more likely visitors are to return and probably make a purchase. It also creates a certain stickiness to your brand identity. This helps your products become front-of-mind purchases for your visitors because they had such a good experience in the past.

If you would like to learn more about the different creative promotions you can include in your e-commerce store, like offering free shipping or working with micro social media influencers, contact our e-commerce website experts at Griffon Webstudios. We are located in the heart of New York City, where the latest trends in marketing campaigns of international agencies get tested and launched daily.

Let our professional team help elevate your brand with creative promotional campaigns that resonate with your target market.

Best E-Commerce Platforms to Consider for Your Online Store

Best E-Commerce Platforms to Consider for Your Online Store

by Digital Marketing

If there is anything we have learned during the recent global pandemic is that people can make money online. The sheer number of inquiries we at Griffon Webstudios have received for building new e-commerce stores is astounding. Everyone wants to enjoy the luxury of making money from a custom website while they rest comfortably at home.

The good news is that there are plenty of excellent content management systems to get your latest shoe design or custom mobile app onto the best e-commerce platforms. Our e-commerce website experts have put together a quick list of our favorites.

Shopify

Shopify is our leading best e-commerce platform only because it is easy to use for beginners. This platform has all the bells and whistles you would want and requires so little self-education that you can quickly launch your new line of products without having to spend days trying to learn code.

We have completed many projects by setting up a Shopify site and then happily passing it off to a client after a short introduction and tutorial. This is also one of the most cost-effective solutions for small businesses just getting started and works with all the major payment processing companies.

WooCommerce

This is our number two pick because it is the favorite of WordPress-based websites. When you are a team of e-commerce website experts like us, you need to understand how to use the tools for WordPress sites. They are the most frequently used platform for bloggers and individuals to set up a business for the first time.

WooCommerce is open-sourced, which means it is free to use. You only spend money when an actual transaction occurs or if you want some of the extra features that individual developers create for add-ons.

Squarespace

Coming in third place, we have Squarespace. This is an excellent all-in-one solution for artists, authors, and people who want a more “drag and drop” situation for their online store. The reason this is in third for us is that you do not get quite the design variety of options in WordPress or the incredible SEO features of Shopify, but you do get a clean, easy-to-use system for your e-commerce venture.

BigCommerce

If you would like a more technical option, we suggest BigCommerce from our list of the best e-commerce platforms. This is a more customized version of Shopify with the capabilities of WordPress design, but it comes at a premium price, and it does require a little more technical know-how to really leverage.

Let Us Help You

Whatever platform looks right for you, let our e-commerce website experts be the ones to make it a reality. Our team at Griffon Webstudios has successfully launched e-commerce solutions for a variety of industries across a wide range of technological platforms. We can show you the best methods to ensure your audience gets the most out of each product listing and how to customize the experience for SEO purposes.

To get started with our team, visit our website. There you can find information on the different services we provide and some of the previous work Griffon Webstudios has completed in the past. So when you want an e-commerce site that will wow your customers, give us a try!

5 Ways How Multi Location Businesses Can Improve Their Profits Online

5 Ways How Multi Location Businesses Can Improve Their Profits Online

by Digital Marketing

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to linger, online/hybrid commerce has arrived much more quickly than many businesses had originally anticipated. In fact, many online selling platforms have more than doubled their number of users in less than two years. Whether or not your business was ready for this online migration, it has become the new normal for a business in 2022. If your multi-location business is still struggling to navigate these waters, the following breakdown looks at 5 ways you can improve your online profits in the current business climate.

 

1. Add a “Where to Find” Page to Your Website

Despite the continued shift to online commerce, there is still a large demographic that enjoys making purchases in person. Some people simply feel more comfortable when they have the chance to hold a product in their hands, compare options, and chat face-to-face with a real-life member of your team.

However, even those people who like to make their purchases the old-fashioned way will more than likely be starting their research process online, comparing options through a basic internet search. In order to capture as many of these leads as possible, it is paramount that your business has the best store locator software added to your company website.

 

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

 

Having a “where to buy” page serves a number of important purposes for the business:

    • Segmentation and conversion – automatically route leads to your nearest dealers and vendors so that these professionals can follow up and get clients in stores.
    • Client engagement – allows your business to use branded local pages to feature showrooms, reviews, and product photos so that customers can quickly see what types of products and services are in their local market.
    • Analytics – gives actionable statistics on how clients are arriving at your stores, which online campaigns are working for your business, and how effectively your dealers are following up with leads and closing sales.

 

2. Use a Central Location to Consolidate Resources

With the cost of commercial rent soaring across the country, businesses are looking for as many ways as possible to downsize. While shifting completely online is the logical choice for some companies, this is simply not an option for service-based businesses that will always require some sort of physical presence.

However, what you can do is pare down each one of your physical branches. Keep only what you need for doing business at each location. Have a central hub to store all products and supplies for servicing each of your branches.

This will greatly reduce the amount of space needed for storage at your physical locations and limit the number of worker hours needed to keep your separate branches running. In fact, if you are able to perform this process effectively, you may be able to rent a small section of a larger building to perform your service, splitting the rent with another tenant.

 

3. Have Elite Customer Service

In the age of hybrid commerce, customers have greater choice in where to buy than ever before. If they are not happy with one business, all they have to do is search for a similar offering and place an order from a competitor. Customer defection can transpire in a matter of seconds.

One of the surest ways to annoy customers is through poor customer service. While chatbots and redirects to tutorial videos and FAQ pages are a great place to start and will suffice for some customers, others will quickly become frustrated when automation does not have the answer to their specific question or concern.

Therefore, it is incumbent on your business to go above and beyond to guarantee customer satisfaction. If possible, try to quickly connect customers to a live service agent. If this is not feasible for your business, make sure you provide them an opportunity for voicing their concern and try to get back to them in no more than 24 hours. The last thing your business needs is for a frustrated customer to defect to a competitor and leave a scathing online review as they go.

 

4. Build Ongoing Relationships

Statistics reveal that a mere 5% increase in customer retention can lead to up to a 95% increase in profit. As such, it is critical that you place special attention on locking in your current client base and not give them the chance to go elsewhere. Some ways you can do this include:

    • Keep up-to-date contact information so that you can provide them with the nearest option to access one of your stores whenever they move.
    • Featuring their stories and feedback on your company website or social media pages. Customers love feeling like they are part of your team.
    • Sending unique coupons, offers, and incentives to returning clients. Have a robust referral program so that your loyal customers get rewarded for marketing for you.
Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash

5. Set Up an Infrastructure for Convenient Online Payment

Finally, customers want as much convenience as possible during the online checkout process. Setting up ponderous accounts or not being able to use their preferred payment option is one of the leading causes of abandoned carts. Some ways to add convenience to the checkout process include:

    • Applying any saved information from previous purchases to current purchases.
    • Accepting as diverse a selection of payments as possible. Younger customers particularly like Venmo and Cash App.
    • Make guest checkout an option for new customers. If they are happy with your business, they will eventually create an account.

 

Improve Profits for Multi-Location Businesses

Hybrid commerce has become a way of life for businesses in 2022. To help your multi-location business be as profitable as possible in these uncharted waters, add a WordPress store locator to your company website, consolidate resources to a central location as much as possible, have elite customer service, build ongoing relationships, and set up a robust infrastructure for processing online payments. It is very important to consider working closely with the marketing experts who can help you strategize and improve your ROI.

Ecommerce Marketing Ideas to Make a Difference in the Coming Year

E-Commerce Marketing Ideas to Make a Difference in the Coming Year

by Digital Marketing

The New Year is nearly upon us, and everywhere you look retailers and e-commerce marketing campaigns are being turned into high gear to capture as many sales as possible before the big Christmas holiday. While that is a great strategy in the short term, it doesn’t prepare small businesses and online sellers for the upcoming year.

 

That is why we’ve gone through a few of the expected web design trends and e-commerce marketing tips that you should take advantage of to keep your business afloat and doing well in the future.

 

1- Step up Your Visual Game

 The vast majority, nearly 83%, of consumers consider sharing video content with their friends when it relates to their interests, needs, or desires. That means if you want to have content that engages your target market, you need to make it tailored to their needs and in a video format. User-generated content is one of the most valuable ways to go viral online and through social media. Having videos of unboxings, tours of your facilities or funny 20-second clips will go a long way to improving your e-commerce marketing in 2022.

 

2- Don’t Shy from SEO and Link Building

There is a good reason why so many web design trends involve SEO practices. You could have all the fantastic and engaging content you want, but if Google and other major search engines don’t understand how to categorize your website, you won’t get the traction you need. This is even truer for local SEO. You don’t want to appear like a shoe company based in LA if you are selling homemade candles in Alaska.

 

3- Personalize As Much As Possible

Today’s consumer not only wants a more personalized experience with their favorite brands, they expect it and will judge other brands when it isn’t offered. Using customized advertisements that change what is viewable on your website based on the user’s demographics visiting your landing page improves your click rates. Instead of casting a wide net that gets lost in the marketing mix, you are directly targeting high-value consumers’ needs and wants. 

 

4- Integrate Social Proof

The advantage of shopping online is that you get to read other users’ reviews who have tried a product or service. Having a space in your e-commerce marketing for user-generated social proof like reviews increases your trust factor with those on the fence about making a purchase. This web design trend to post recent Amazon or Shopify reviews directly on your landing page is an excellent way to bring more attention to what you have to offer.

 

 

Where to Get Started

When you consider what changes you need to make to your marketing and website platforms for the next year, try reaching out to the experts at Griffon Webstudios. We have years of experience streamlining e-commerce marketing campaigns and improving your website user journey that can directly target those consumers most aligned with your products and services.

 

Visit Griffon Webstudios and schedule a consultation with our expert staff today!

Proven Local SEO Tips to Dominate Google Search

Proven Local SEO Tips to Dominate Google Search

by Digital Marketing

How often have you done your keyword research only to find those challenging to leverage phrases that always end with “near me” or “in my area” in your results? That is because almost half of all Google searches involve looking for local information. Consumers use their mobile devices to hunt down stores, restaurants, entertainment, and services near their specific location.

Google noticed this a long time ago. They began shifting their search engine algorithm to elevate businesses higher in organic results with location data as part of their SEO strategy. Maybe your site gets buried when people in two states over searching for “local sushi restaurant,” but you are number one in the results when it is someone within 20 miles of your excellent spicy tuna roll.

Would you like to rank higher in Google for local SEO? Here are a few of our digital marketing tips that are proven to give you a boost.

1- Leverage Google My Business

Google My Business is a profile of your company that often comes up beside search results on Google’s website. It is a quick overview of your business that makes it incredibly easy for consumers to locate your products and services. On mobile devices, you will appear above the fold, often before any other search results after filling out the proper information for Google.

2- Utilize Other Business Listings

It might seem simple, but updating your listing on Yelp, Angie’s List, HotFrog, or any other popular business listing website should be at the top of your local SEO checklist. This sends a clear signal to Google that you are who you say you are, and any searches in your area should filter back to your business.

3- Consistent Information

Business information will change periodically. Maybe your company will move to a new building, or use multiple phone numbers for different departments. In either case, you need to ensure all your NAP (name and place) data is the same across all your platforms. Google wants to verify you because it improves their service. Having your name, address, phone number, and other contact data the same on Google, Yelp, and even social media is incredibly important to your local SEO results.

4- Create and Optimize Local Content

This may seem obvious, but many businesses overlook simply adding highly relevant local keywords to their content. For example, if you are a Seattle-based dog groomer but do not list words like Seattle, Washington, and Northwest on your website, you are not telling Google exactly where you operate. You’re missing out on potential customers because your digital marketing isn’t directed to consumer location-based searches.

5 – Be Mobile Responsive

If you haven’t already, update your website so it is mobile responsive. This is a good idea for your local SEO checklist because nearly 30% of all mobile searches are locally based. If your website does not display well on a mobile device, you will not appear well on Google’s search engine results.

Local SEO to the Rescue

Leveraging local SEO in your digital marketing strategy is an easy way to increase your brand visibility, website traffic, and overall success. This is a straightforward solution to growing your business within your local area that does not take a lot of work or research to complete. The more you can take advantage of improving your local digital footprint, the more likely you will rank higher in Google, leading to better customer engagement.

Foolproof Marketing Plan & Strategy for Your Business

Foolproof Marketing Strategy for Your Business

by Digital Marketing

If you want to grow your business in the modern online marketplace, you need to develop robust marketing strategies that go beyond SEO. There are some essential elements your website and online presence must have to compete with the hundreds and possibly thousands of businesses in your particular niche. It all begins with setting up a strong marketing strategy that explains the ins and outs of your target goal and the steps you will take to achieve success.

The Base Model

1- Summarize and Identify

Start by outlining your business model with the details you already know but may not be clearly conveyed to your customers. For example, what is your name, location info, contact points, mission statement, philosophy, and values? Do you present this information to your customers in a transparent and conducive way so they can quickly understand how and what you are?

2- What are Your Goals?

You cannot work towards a goal if you haven’t defined it yet. What is the marketing initiative you hope to achieve in the short and long term? What key performance indicators will let you know you’ve reached specific benchmarks like sales revenue, website traffic, and conversion rates?

3- Who is Your Target Market?

Time to get out the data-driven insights and define your target market, high-value customers, competition, and overall niche analysis. You need to know the demographics of everyone involved in your customer journey.

4- Time to Strategize

Now it is time for the meat of the project. How are you going to reach those target customers with the least and most engagement potential? What channels will be leveraged the most to entice them to interact with your brand?

5- Budget Everything

It is way too easy to go over budget when working on a new marketing strategy because you can see the potential value you are going to bring into the business. Take your time and follow a strict budget, so your overall operating costs do not end up fluctuating beyond your control.

Would You Like a Checklist?

You’ve developed a strong plan, but what suggestions for different marketing strategies? Here are a few of the ideas and tips that have worked well for businesses in the past:

  1. Leverage market trends
  2. Identify customer value points
  3. Improve your distribution channels
  4. Create buyer personas
  5. Profile your competitors
  6. Categorize market segments
  7. Prioritize which customers to target first
  8. Include comprehensive customer touchpoints (social media, website, email, etc.)
  9. Adjust your pricing
  10. Set precise sales forecasts that are communicated to everyone on your team
  11. Increase your SEO, SEM, and PPC plans
  12. Have a modern mobile responsive website
  13. User generated content and personalization

There are many, many more ideas, but that is an excellent place to get started. Of course, the best way to implement a new marketing strategy is to hire the SEO experts at Griffon Webstudios.

We have years of experience developing high-performing marketing strategies for businesses across all industries. Working with our marketing and design team is an excellent place to establish a solid marketing campaign for your business’s future growth. Give us a call today and schedule a consultation. You will see how quickly your team shifts into high gear to improve your business potential.

Ultimate Holiday Marketing Campaigns for Your E-Commerce Business

Ultimate Holiday Marketing Campaigns for Your E-Commerce Business

by Digital Marketing

The leaves are changing their colors into a vibrant natural kaleidoscope that conjures images of cozy evenings wrapped in a blanket in front of the fireplace while sipping on a fresh pumpkin spice latte. The holiday season is finally upon us and soon, we will be reliving glory days around the Thanksgiving table with family as we start shopping for Christmas presents using our phones.

Is your business ready for all that activity? Do you have a marketing campaign already in place for Black Friday and the busy holiday season leading up to the New Year? If not, it may be time to hire an e-commerce marketing agency.

Rise Above the Competition

The recent pandemic has forced marketing campaigns to be incredibly competitive. More and more people are entering the world of online business development because they need other income streams compared to traditional jobs of the past. With so much competition, you need a way to improve your e-commerce conversions and get more sales, especially during a season when most of the world is shopping online.

A professional e-commerce marketing agency can streamline all your holiday campaigns into easy-to-understand processes. Everything from social media implementations to stunning email promotions can be simplified so you don’t miss out on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or any important dates during the holiday shopping season.

why-consumers-shop-online

Unify Your Messaging

Your holiday promotions need to be universal across all your online platforms. If you send a thank you email to a customer who just placed an order, there should be a note about your Cyber Monday deal. Likewise, your social media should all be pointing to any shipping discounts you’re offering for last-minute Christmas shoppers.

Most importantly, you need to start leveraging data analytics to see how your holiday marketing campaigns perform. You want to quickly respond to market shifts or customer needs that may require a tweak to your campaign here and there.

Personalize Everything

Holiday campaigns require new graphics and copy that should align with your brand identity but are personalized for your target market. You need to deliver highly relevant content with eye-catching visuals on all your landing pages designed in holiday themes.

While you are developing new pages and content for this holiday season, make sure you optimize all your pages to maintain a high site speed that is mobile responsive. You want everything to be easily digested by the majority of shoppers. They are going to use their smartphones and tablets to look for products for their friends and family.

For the first time in history, smartphone purchases accounted for more than $50 billion in seasonal sales!

Where to Begin

Maybe you’re working with local businesses and influencers to promote your holiday deals or have new upselling packages to encourage more site traffic during this busy season. Whatever the reason, hiring an e-commerce marketing agency to deliver your marketing campaign is an excellent place to start.

Griffon Webstudios offers an experienced team of marketing specialists and web design experts ready to transform your online presence for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the New Year, and so much more. We have all the industry knowledge and technical skills to help you significantly impact your revenue streams this season. Give us a call today to set up a consultation and learn how this holiday season can be one of the best your business has ever seen.

6 Reasons why SEO is important for Shopify stores

6 Reasons Why SEO Is Important for Shopify Stores

by Digital Marketing

Did you know that almost 80 percent of people ignore search engine ads while browsing Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines? That’s why getting organic SEO traffic is so important. However, it is not the only reason why you need to prioritize SEO. 

Today, I will review six reasons why SEO is essential for Shopify stores. If you are not yet prioritizing SEO as part of your e-commerce strategy, you need to start sooner rather than later. After reading this article, you should have a pretty good idea of why SEO is essential, even if you are already paying money for paid advertising. 

Let us get into it. 

1. Effective SEO Is Essentially Free Advertising

Even if you are earning an excellent ROI on your paid marketing efforts, it still pays to invest in SEO. If your SEO strategy is effective, it is essentially free advertising. Once you get good rankings in the Google search results, you can get free traffic every day, for years, without paying anything extra. 

On the other hand, you have to constantly keep paying for traffic you get via PPC or social media ads. Even if you end up with a profit when all is said and done, you still have to keep spending money to maintain your traffic volume. Whereas with SEO, it is not necessary. You can maintain your existing Google rankings with minimal effort, and you can still keep getting new website visitors even if you take a break from working on SEO. 

SEO is essentially free advertising, allowing you to improve your bottom line and increase your profits by a lot. Since you don’t have to pay much for SEO, most of the revenue you make as a result of an effective SEO strategy will be pure profit. If you are not satisfied with your current ROI, focusing more on SEO might help. 

In 2021, global ecommerce is forecast to hit $4.89 trillion – almost a 400 percent increase in seven years.

2. Organic SEO Can Bring In Targeted Leads

One of the beauties of organic search results is that they can bring in targeted leads for free. You can target keywords that show buyer intent, for example, to attract targeted leads who are likely to make a purchase. It’s all about the keywords you target and rank for. A generic keyword like “baseball bats” might not be very specific because you don’t know what the intention of that particular search is. Do they want to buy a baseball bat? Or do they want to know what a baseball bat is? 

On the other hand, a keyword like “the best baseball bat for kids” or “where to buy a baseball bat” shows buyer intent. That searcher is looking to buy a baseball bat, and if you can rank for that keyword, you can attract people looking to buy the product. The same goes for any kind of conversion you are trying to achieve, whether that is trying to get people to buy your product or sign up for your email list. 

3. SEO Makes Your Store Easier to Find Online

Sometimes, one of the most challenging things about running a successful Shopify store isn’t getting people to buy from your store, but get them to find your store online. If someone is interested in purchasing a specific product because it fulfills a need, convincing them to make the purchase doesn’t take that much work. However, if they never find your store in the first place, you are not going to succeed, even if your store is highly optimized for conversions. 

The problem with e-commerce stores is that they don’t have a lot of valuable content. Sure, you have product pages, but they don’t have a lot of informational content on them, for the most part. They can still rank, but that depends on the site. If the site is enormous, has a lot of links, has a lot of authority, and has been around for a long time, product pages will have an easier time ranking. Otherwise, it can be hard to rank, especially if you’re up against sites like Amazon, Walmart, and Target. 

SEO for eCommerce stores usually involves some degree of blogging. Adding a blog to your store allows you to add informational content and get your website to rank. It also allows you to get backlinks to your site organically, and you can slowly build up your site’s reputation and authority. 

4. SEO Optimized Sites Can Have Higher Conversions

Shopify stores that are optimized for SEO can have higher conversion rates for a few reasons. First of all, you can get a lot more visitors, which naturally translates to higher conversions. The more visitors you have, the more buyers you will have, even if your conversion rate stays the same. 

However, there’s more to it than that. As I already mentioned, the vast majority of searchers ignore paid ads that pop up in the search results. Even if they do click on it, they tend to mistrust ads. That’s why people use ad blockers – they don’t like advertisers, who obviously have an ulterior motive. People tend to trust natural, organic search results because it provides provide helpful, informational content. 

So, even if they do click on a paid ad, they might not trust what they see enough to make a purchase. They’re coming from a place of suspicion. On the other hand, when they see a helpful blog post, they’re often coming from a place of trust, as you are helping them out. Even if they land on a product page that shows up in the Google search results, they will likely trust it a lot more than a paid ad. 

The more they trust you, the more likely they are to make a purchase. They’ll trust that the product you are providing is of good quality and that you will give a good customer experience. So, not only will you get more visitors, but your conversion rate (the percentage of visitors making a purchase) might go up as well. 

 

Mobile e-commerce has seen particularly rapid growth worldwide, with Insider Intelligence forecasting that m-ecommerce will grow at a 25.5 percent compound annual rate until 2024.

5. High SEO Rankings Can Improve Your Brand’s Credibility and Engagement

A site without an SEO strategy and good rankings looks kind of suspicious. If you only rely on paid advertising and don’t have a blog that is getting high rankings, people won’t trust you as much. You won’t be able to position yourself as an authority in your niche, and you won’t be able to establish more credibility. You’re just another e-commerce site that nobody visits, resorting to ads to try to get sales. 

However, if your site consistently ranks on the first page of Google for various search results, you are more likely to be respected. Your credibility will go up, and your brand will be looked at as an authority. People will trust you and the quality of your products more – that’s just how it works. People tend to trust the first few results on Google more because Google itself deemed them trustworthy enough to give them those rankings. 

With more credibility, your engagement rates can go up. People might buy from you more, follow you more on social media, and leave comments on your posts. They may even share your content with friends and family who were looking for a product, service, or solution you were offering. 

6. High SEO Rankings Can Position You As an Industry Leader

High SEO rankings do affect the way people look at your website and business overall. When people search for e-commerce products online, they expect to see industry leaders dominating the first page. For example, they might expect to see Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Target, and other famous e-commerce sites popping up on the first page, as those are leaders in the e-commerce industry. 

In more specific industries, they might be expecting industry-specific sites. For example, if they are searching for baseball paraphernalia, they might expect to see the MLB Store pop up. If they are searching for hosting services, they might expect sites like GoDaddy to pop up. If your store pops up for whatever they are searching for, they will expect your site to be an industry leader and regard it as such, simply due to the fact that it appeared in the search results. 

When people see your site on the first page of Google, they will be more likely to click on it, more likely to trust you, more likely to regard you as an authority, more likely to trust your recommendations, and more likely to make purchases on your site. 

Shopify customers include major brands like Nestle, Pepsi, Unilever, and Budweiser, as well as innovative brands like Gymshark, Hawkers, and Leesa and celebrities like Kanye West (Sources: Shopify).

Hopefully, you now understand the importance of SEO for Shopify store owners. There are many plugins that can help you optimize your Shopify store for SEO. Increase your site’s authority by starting a blog, and improve the rankings of your product pages by optimizing the descriptions for keywords, getting backlinks, and including high-quality images. SEO is a process, and you won’t get results overnight, but the results you get are easy to maintain and can significantly increase your profits.