7 Proven Techniques to Boost Online Visibility of Your E-commerce Store

There is no denying that the internet has changed the way people purchase products and hire services. In fact, a statistic from Nasdaq revealed that 95% of all purchases will be through e-commerce by 2040.

So, if you would like to have your share of that market pie, there is no better time to have an online presence than now. More so, if you are selling products on your online store.

If you want to run a successful e-commerce business, here are seven techniques that can boost its online visibility:

1. Optimize Your E-commerce Site

There is no sense in having an online store if no one can find it. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in handy.

SEO is basically upping your rankings on search engines like Google and Bing for a relevant keyword.

For example, you sell beard oil online. In order for your e-commerce site to appear when someone searches for “beard oil” on Google, you need to make sure that your online store is well-optimized.

Here’s a quick overview of how you can do that:

1. Determine your target keywords
2. Use them appropriately in your product titles and descriptions
3. Use them in your image ALT tags
4. Use them in your search-friendly URLs

These are just the basics, and there are still a couple of technical things that you need to implement on your e-commerce website in order for it to be visible online.

To learn more about it, Pauline Cabrera has a succinct post about SEO for e-commerce.

2. Produce Valuable Content

By “valuable content,” we mean content that resonates well with your potential customers. And we are not just talking about blog posts here.

In the case of e-commerce, valuable content can be as simple as writing a compelling product description. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Write your own copy. As much as possible, avoid copying what manufacturers have to say about your product. And do not forget to write as if you are talking to a friend.
2. Make it easy to read. Break down your paragraphs to a couple of sentences, use headers and sub-headers, and write down your product’s features in bullet form.
3. Talk about the benefits. More often than not, people who visit an online store already know what product they need to buy. However, your product description can help them decide whether to buy from you or from another online seller.

3. Engage Through Social Media

Although social media was designed to help connect friends and family, e-commerce businesses can leverage social media marketing in various ways.

First, you can use it to promote and sell your products. Second, you can use it as a form of customer service support. Lastly, you can also use social media to engage with your customers.

But in order to do that, you need to keep the words of Search Engine Journal’s Brent Csutoras in mind:

“In 2019, businesses need to really take the time to understand their customers and how they interact with the brand on each social media site, and then engage with them in the right tone, with the right medium, and in their communities.”

4. Connect via Email

You may have heard that email marketing is dead. However, having an email marketing strategy allows you to build relationships with and retain your customers.

In fact, email marketing can help you recover up to 63% of lost sales due to cart abandonment.

But aside from reminding your potential buyers of their abandoned cart, here are more ways you can leverage email marketing for your e-commerce business:

1. Offer exclusive discounts to loyal customers
2. Send promotional email (e.g. Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale)
3. Ask for customer reviews
4. Send “Back in Stock” notifications

Regardless of the purpose of the email, remember to personalize it. That way, you are positively reinforcing that you treat your customers as important people.

5. Run Online Ads

Here’s what you need to know about online marketing in general: Sometimes, it takes a while to see your online visibility grow through organic or unpaid means (i.e. SEO).

So, while you are waiting for that to happen, you can take advantage of online advertising. It is also ideal to run a pay-per-click or PPC campaign for your e-commerce business if you have the budget. Here’s why:

1. You can potentially top the search engine results, so long as you bid for the relevant keywords and write relevant and compelling ad copy.
2. You get to build an online presence while waiting for your SEO efforts to take effect.
3. You can drive qualified traffic (website visitors who are likely to buy from you) to your online store.
4. You can boost your e-commerce sales through your ad copy and appropriate calls-to-action.

6. Be Mobile-Friendly

Back in 2018, CIODive revealed that up to 70% of web traffic is from a mobile device. This could mean that your target market is accessing your e-commerce site on mobile most of the time.

That said, it is important for your online store to be mobile-friendly. If you are on WordPress, you can easily opt to use a mobile-friendly theme. Otherwise, you can install and activate a plugin that can serve your website in a mobile-optimized layout.

If you have the budget, you can hire a web developer and designer to give your website a mobile-friendly overhaul.

However, being mobile-friendly does not only mean being able to resize your website depending on a site visitors’ screen size. It also means that your online store should load fast even on mobile data.

Also, your website should be able to provide a seamless and unified online shopping experience.

7. Back it with Data

The beauty of online marketing is that it can help you figure out who your buyers are, and measure which of the strategies you are using is bringing in revenue. However, you cannot do it without the help of analytics.

According to Neil Patel, there are three reasons you should dive into e-commerce web analytics:

1. Know which marketing activities are working: Your business resources are finite and analytics prevents you from wasting time and money.
2. Helps you make an informed decision: When you have an idea which activities are working and which are not, it helps you figure out what strategies to use to maximize profit with minimal effort.
3. Maximize conversions: Again, analytics allows you to find ways on how you can maximize profit with minimal effort.

It’s Time to Build a Cohesive Online Marketing Plan

Your e-commerce business will need a steady stream of quality traffic in order to survive. Thus, you need to keep on running and testing which marketing strategies can help boost your store’s online visibility.

Which of the aforementioned strategies would you want to give a try? Let us know in the comments!