Web traffic is the key to eCommerce stores’ success, irrespective of business size. Ecommerce growth relies on loyal and repeated customers with a significant rise in new customers. SEO (search engine optimization) is tried and tested strategy to bring high-quality traffic compared to other marketing tactics.

SEO is an important pillar for eCommerce businesses, but how does it play a crucial role in smaller eCommerce businesses? This blog will discuss the importance of SEO for small eCommerce businesses.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

Before heading to the actual topic, it’s better to discuss the basic concept of SEO for eCommerce.

SEO – Search engine optimization is a marketing tactic to boost the quantity and quality of traffic for a website. Implementing the SEO tactics on an eCommerce store refers to the eCommerce SEO strategies.

Ecommerce SEO focus on quality lead generation rather than uplifting the web traffic volume. Whether an eCommerce store has a significant traffic volume or struggling to get featured on top SERPs, SEO can play a vital role in adding quality to its traffic. Quality traffic ultimately converts into sales for eCommerce stores.

The sole purpose of eCommerce SEO is to improve web structure and content to align with search engines’ specific optimizing metrics. Perfectly implemented eCommerce SEO sends strong optimization signals to search engines. These optimizing signals eventually improve the eCommerce store position on SERPs.

A few essential eCommerce SEO signals are enlisted below to help you implement eCommerce SEO perfectly on your e-store.

• Content quality and relevance
• Content structure
• Internal linking
• Web page loading speed
• Device-friendly UI and UX design
• Domain name relevancy to the business niche
• Domain authority
• Website structure smoothness
• Quantity and quality of backlinks
• Users’ responses to the website like bounce rate and time spent on the website

All the top-notch search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Baidu use nearly similar SEO metrics to pick the websites for the top spot on SERPs. But it would be best if you kept an eye on Google SEO metrics as Google is the leading search engine globally in terms of search volume. A jaw-dropping 91.43% of global search engine traffic comes from Google. It indicates the unparalleled significance of Google SEO metrics in designing a successful eCommerce business model.

Why is SEO important for eCommerce?

Now, we know the basic concept of eCommerce SEO. It’s time to discuss the significance of eCommerce SEO.

Let’s look at the enlisted facts to comprehend the importance of SEO for eCommerce,

• According to the BrightEdge 2019 research,
• • 53% of the trackable global web traffic comes through organic research.
  • 68% of the global online browsing experiences start from search queries.

• An eCommerce study reveals that 81% of the consumers search on Google or other search engines to compare prices or collect information before making a purchase.
• The first result on the Google SERP has 28.5% CTR (click-through rate) compared to 15% and 11% CTR, respectively, for the 2nd and 3rd position results on Google SERP. And most surprisingly, CTR for the 10th position result falls to 2.5%. (source) The dramatic change in the CTR for Google’s first SERP hints at the undeniable significance of SEO.

You might be thinking of enjoying all these perks through paid search engine ads, as these ads can put your website in the top position of SERP. But, facts do not support this idea; your eCommerce site can’t enjoy the similar benefits as it can via SEO. Let’s look at the enlisted SEO favouring facts regarding paid traffic,

• Only 15% of the global web traffic comes through paid ads compared to a jaw-dropping 53% organic traffic. (source)
• Consumer behaviour matters while designing an ideal marketing strategy. People hate ads, and nearly 70 to 80% of the people tap on organic search results by avoiding top-listed paid results. (source)

Why is SEO important for small eCommerce businesses?

SEO plays a crucial role in getting visibility, quality leads, sales, and consistent growth for eCommerce, as hinted in the facts mentioned earlier. But, how is SEO a way more vital for small eCommerce businesses?

You can’t ignore SEO as a smaller eCommerce business because of the enlisted reasons,

• Branding – Smaller eCommerce businesses generally do not have an established identity; people don’t search their products by brand name as they do for well-known eCommerce brands. It makes SEO vital for smaller eCommerce businesses to get visibility, quality leads, and identity.
• Return on investment – SEO has an incredibly highest ROI than any other digital marketing tactic, making it the best choice for smaller eCommerce businesses. Technical SEO has an exceptional ROI of 117%, with content-based SEO ROI of 748%. (source) These unparalleled ROI stats make SEO the first choice for smaller businesses to market their brand and products with the lowest marketing budgets.
• Marketing Budgets – Small eCommerce businesses generally have smaller marketing budgets than established eCommerce brands’ marketing budgets. They can’t afford valuable keywords because of higher CPC (cost per click). In contrast, SEO lets them win a top position on SERP for the long run and at a pretty affordable cost. SEO requires technical skills rather than money to boost an eCommerce store’s visibility; it will take time to rank a site but eventually win a top position on SERP for a long time.
• Local Search – As a small eCommerce business, you can target the local searches to enjoy unparalleled benefits as mentioned below,
• • 46% of Google searches globally somehow have local intent. (source)
  • Search engines have witnessed a 500% rise in ‘near me’ queries in the last few years. (source) Small eCommerce businesses can target this huge audience group by implementing local eCommerce SEO.
  • 78% of the location-based searches eventually convert into sales (source); small eCommerce businesses can enjoy these perks via local eCommerce SEO.

Final Words | Why is SEO important for small eCommerce businesses?

SEO refers to the website structure and content quality optimization activities to align with search engine optimization metrics. The sole purpose of eCommerce SEO is to ensure a positive user experience and attain a higher position on SERPs.

SEO is vital for the eCommerce industry to earn visibility, quality leads, sales, and growth. But SEO is way more crucial for small eCommerce businesses because of its long-term benefits at minimal cost, as discussed in this blog.