What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective ways to improve your site’s visibility in search engines, which in turn will drive more targeted traffic to your site.

 

Search Engine Optimization Defined

Seo, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing your website and its content to achieve higher rankings in search engines like Google and Bing. The higher you rank in search results, the more traffic you will receive from web searchers. This has several benefits to both you and your potential customers, as it increases your visibility while directly connecting you with people who are looking for what you have to offer. This can include improving your site’s content, HTML structure, and link popularity.

Often confused with pay-per-click marketing (PPC), search engine optimization actually works behind-the-scenes to increase visibility—and more importantly, conversion rates—by optimizing what a search engine crawls. As consumers become savvier shoppers (often turning first to Google and Bing) ecommerce sites must work harder than ever to stay relevant; as such, they need optimized search engine results pages (SERPs) as much as every other business on earth. 

Most savvy digital marketers know how important seo is. In fact, two out of three small businesses reported their main source of new customers came from search engines like Google and Yahoo! Over 80% of all internet traffic flows through search engines, while 93% are using online searches for local services within 10 miles around their homes (compared to 84% who call locally). So if you run an ecommerce site—online or otherwise—search engine optimization has never been more critical for boosting your bottom line.

 

Keyword Research

To optimize your site, you need to identify what keyword or search phrases people are searching for in relation to your product or service. You can do so by first mapping out buyer personas—who your ideal customer is and what they’re likely to search for.

Keywords are used by web browsers and search engines alike to determine a web page’s relevance. Keywords are important for search engine optimization because if you don’t use keywords in your titles, headings, and other page elements, your page won’t rank well in search results. There are three main factors that make up a keyword: phrase match, proximity to relevant words or phrases, and word frequency.

The longer your keyword, such as nfl jerseys cheap china instead of nfl jerseys cheap, has all of these aspects intact, the more likely it will be included in searches related to whatever topic you are trying to optimize. A good way to find keywords is by using free tools such as Google AdWords, Google Trends, and Wordtracker. These websites allow you to see how many people have searched for any given term; how often they have searched; and what sort of terminology they prefer when searching. You can also look at top searches on Google trends, and then click on web & news to only get popular news articles about those topics.