SEO Tips for eCommerce Sites

The goal of your eCommerce website is to sell, right? One way to increase sales is by driving organic traffic to your site. This is why search engine optimization (SEO) is an important consideration. Here are 3 eCommerce website SEO tips that can help grow your business.

Keep it Simple

Make sure your site structure is clear, mobile-optimized and fairly easy to use. Customers should be able to easily search for and locate the products they want. Make sure the shopping cart and check out process is as simple as possible.

If visitors are liking and using your site, search engines will respond with positive rankings.

Pay Attention to Keywords

Relevant keywords are essential for your site. Make sure you know the words and phrases people use when looking for a site like yours. Don’t rely on how you would search or how you think people will search. Take time to research using Google Keyword Planner or another tool. What people actually search is what matters most.

Use these keywords in website content and product descriptions. Help people and search engines find you by using the right words!

Optimize Product Images

Images frequently appear in Google search results, presenting you with a great opportunity to get your products noticed. Use high-quality JPEG images that are optimized for website access. When possible give the images a name that is relevant to what they depict. Include an alt tag for every image. Use those keywords!

Dynamic Duo of Email and Social Media

Combining your email marketing and social media campaign efforts strategically can help you get the most impact from both.

Email is still the powerhouse of digital marketing. Social media tends to have the latest tools and tricks. Combine them to get the most impact for your brand.

Email by the Numbers

  • 82% of businesses use email for marketing
  • 92% of online adults in the US use email
  • On average, 53% of emails are opened
  • Email has an average ROI of 3800%!
  • 81% of people who get an email related to a purchase say they are likely to make another purchase

Data also shows that while social media gets most of the buzz, email converts. A message is five times more likely to be seen in email than on Facebook.

Use Social to Boost Email Results

To make email and social work together, start with a common editorial calendar. Be sure that the content posted on social and the emails you send are in sync. This amplifies your message.

Here are 3 more ways to use your social channels to increase your impact with email:

  • Post a link to your email newsletter on your social channels
  • Encourage email readers to share your content on social media
  • Add a mailing list sign up to your Facebook company page

 

The importance of ‘taking a break’ between jobs

I remember the first time I experienced unemployment. I was in my early 30s and had been slowly, but surely, moving up the ladder of a company I had joined right out of college. Then, a recession came along and my company had to cut 40% of its workforce. Despite my stellar performance reviews and the various successful projects I had worked on (and in some cases, led), I was suddenly out of a job. That was in 1988.

The next time I found myself unemployed was after a company merger. I was in my late 40s and had spent an incredibly stressful 18 months leading a merger and integration team to form the new company. But six months after the merger, I found that I absolutely hated my new company, and my new role. I elected to take a voluntary separation package and leave the company on my own terms. That was in 2006.

The difference between the two unemployment experiences was how I reacted to them. The first time, I was angry and embarrassed, and a bit resentful of the others who had managed to retain their jobs. I didn’t want to tell family and friends what had happened. And I was desperate to find a new job as soon as possible.

Lucky for me, an opportunity arose, and I jumped at it. Luckier still, it was in a completely different field and set me on the path for what has become a very successful three decades in corporate communications.

But the second time was even more important, because it helped me understand the importance of taking time to breathe, to detox, to rebalance myself before trying to find my next opportunity. So I took six months off (I called it “The Summer of Susan”) and traveled, took classes, started gardening, etc. By January, I was ready to hit the pavement again and start the next phase of my career.

There are millions of people who have found themselves out of work since March – not because they were not performing their jobs or because of a merger, but because of the pandemic and the resulting economic slowdown.

Whether it’s senior leaders from Edelman whose jobs were eliminated due to companywide cutbacks, or seasoned PR consultants like me, unemployment is a reality for a significant number of people in our profession. For many of my peers in their 50s and 60s, this is the first time they have not worked since leaving college and may find themselves at loose ends.

The good news is, in this time in history, there is no stigma attached to being unemployed. The bad news is that it will take time for the economy to recover.

That’s why it is so important to take this time to relax and breathe. Take up a new hobby, schedule Zoom check-ins with friends and family members, do a two-day fast/cleanse, read those books you’ve been putting off for months – even years. Chances are, you have been operating at 200% capacity for the past several years and the human body can only take so much for so long.

Then, start to think about what comes next for you. Are you interested in continuing with your career? Do you want to change careers entirely? Is this perhaps the time to start thinking about scaling back in preparation for retirement?

Look at this time as a series of opportunities and take full advantage of them. You may not realize it, but you have been given a gift, the gift of time. Don’t squander it.

About the Author

Susan C. Rink is president and owner of Rink Strategic Communications, LLC, which helps clients talk to and listen to employees during times of change. Her clients range from global technology, retail, manufacturing, and hospitality companies to professional associations and “think tanks.” She is also a founding partner of Triple Play Consulting, which works with growing companies interested in building and sustaining a positive workplace culture.

Prior to forming Rink Strategic Communications in 2007, Susan spent more than two decades in employee communication leadership positions with Nextel Communications and Marriott International. A long-time resident of the Washington, DC, area, and former chair of PRSA-NCC’s Independent PR Alliance, Susan recently relocated to South Carolina where she is learning to drive faster, speak slower and cook really good grits.