Search engine optimization (SEO) has come a long way since the days of keyword stuffing and clickbait copy.
To rank high in Google and other search engine results, your website’s content must match the intent of your potential visitors. To optimize your site for SEO, it’s important to understand how search engines work and how people use them.
Here you will learn about the different types of SEO marketing and how to improve organic search results for your online store or website.
What is SEO marketing?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a marketing strategy aimed at improving a website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). Techniques include keyword optimization, quality content creation, link building, improving site speed, mobile friendliness, and more.
Why is SEO marketing important?
Search engines are the primary way users discover websites. Therefore, whether you create informational content or commercial products, being visible in user searches is a big part of running a successful website.
In commerce, 59% of shoppers use Google to consider in-store or online purchases, and nearly half of consumers use Google to discover new products.
With that in mind, ecommerce SEO is an important part of ensuring your site appears early and often in search engine results for terms related to your services. No matter how good your girlfriend’s website is, the simple fact is that if your search rankings are low, visitors are unlikely to find your girlfriend’s website.
Types of SEO marketing
SEO activities fall into three general categories. Let’s take a look at them:
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
- Technical SEO
1. On-page SEO
The biggest element of SEO marketing efforts, on-page SEO involves optimizing your website’s content (text, images, videos, etc.) to help visitors and search engines understand and navigate the information you publish. This includes:
Search engines look for elements on a page that help determine the quality of the content, which in turn determines where to rank your site within the results page. Examples of on-page SEO elements include topic relevance, metadata, and slugs in the page URL.
Topic relevance
Web pages that rank highly on search engines contain content that closely matches the user’s search intent. This means you need to think about what searchers are looking for when they type their queries, and provide them with the information or services they’re looking for.
Best practices for writing SEO content include providing original information, updating the facts regularly, and sticking to topics within your website’s area of expertise.
metadata
Metadata is not displayed on the web page, so it is not visible to regular website visitors. Instead, meta information is contained within the HTML code of the page, tagging and labeling the content in a way that is easy to understand for the search engine bots that crawl the site.
Keeping your meta information comprehensive and up-to-date increases your content’s chances of ranking. Metadata includes details such as:
- Title tag to name your web page
-
Meta description. Summarize the content of a web page.
- Heading and subheading tags to structure content and indicate topic depth
- robot tag. It tells search engines whether to index your page and follow your link.
URL slug
A web page’s slug identifies it in the website’s directory. The slug appears after the backslash (‘/’) in your website’s URL. For example, the slug for this page is “seo-marketing.”
Search engines and visitors read slugs when trying to understand the content contained on a page. Therefore, choose a slug that closely matches the content and keywords associated with your web page.
2. Off-page SEO
SEO marketing is not just about your website. Other websites can also take steps to improve their search engine rankings.
Off-page SEO is primarily about building backlinks that increase the authority of your domain. That is, links on other websites that point to your site.
backlink
Examining links between websites is part of Google’s algorithm known as PageRank. This ranking system was one of the original ways Google determined search engine results and is still an important part of SEO marketing strategies.
Obtaining links from reputable websites increases your topic authority and ranking ability. Basically, the more quality backlinks you have, the more trustworthy your site will be interpreted by search engines.
This assumes that quality website content is naturally linked and shared.
domain authority
Creating content, building links, and increasing traffic will increase your website’s domain authority.
Domain authority is a measure of a site’s trustworthiness in the eyes of search engines. Older websites with high domain authority are more likely to rank on search engine results pages for keywords related to your field of expertise.
3. Technical SEO
Technical SEO involves making changes inside a website to improve search performance. Technical SEO makes your site faster, optimized for search engine crawlers, and suitable for mobile devices.
Follow these four SEO marketing strategies.
Whether you’re planning SEO for your Shopify store or another website, here are some key SEO marketing strategies that will help you rank higher in search results.
- keyword research
- Competitive analysis
- active link building
- Image optimization
1. Keyword research
Every page on your website that appears in search engine rankings is associated with one or more keywords (also known as search queries). The first step in any SEO project is to find out what keywords visitors are using to find your site.
If you’re a seller, your product may be innovative, but if you’re not targeting the right search terms, your customers may never see it online.
To conduct keyword research, use SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and Moz. These tools reveal the keywords that generate traffic for your site. Use this data to determine which existing keywords are most important to your website and which new keywords you should pursue.
Ideally, your keywords should be popular enough to generate a lot of traffic, but not so popular that you’re competing with websites or companies with marketing budgets beyond your reach. not.
Use the tools above to narrow down the list of obtainable and relevant keywords that are specific to your site.
💡 Read more: E-commerce Keyword Research: A Beginner’s Guide
2. Competitive analysis
Once you know which keywords to target, the next step is to check out your competitors who are already ranking highly on search engines for those terms.
By knowing your competitors’ SEO strategies, you can develop strategies to increase your search rankings and outpace them. With high-quality, relevant, and comprehensive content, even small businesses can leverage SEO to outperform larger competitors and reach customers first.
A good starting point for competitive analysis is to find your competitors’ top-performing pages and understand where their organic traffic is coming from. For example, if your competitors are driving a lot of traffic through informative blog posts, use those posts as inspiration when developing your own content. You can use many of the same keyword research tools mentioned above to perform this type of analysis.
💡 Read more: What is competitive analysis? Definition + Template
3. Active link building
Although it may be time-consuming, link building is a well-known way to improve search engine rankings. Attracting links to your website from more authoritative sites sends a signal to search engines that your content is worth the visitor’s time.
To start implementing your linking strategy, make sure you have established a presence on social media platforms and local business directories. The foundational links you generate from these influential sites will improve your search engine results.
Next, market your business or product to relevant websites and news outlets that your audience uses. If you have subject matter expertise, consider writing a blog post introducing your website. If all else fails, you can also start a PR campaign and pay to play.
💡 Read more: How to get backlinks: 15 proven strategies
4. Image optimization
Google and other search engines primarily target written content on websites, but they also crawl images and media. By optimizing images on your website, you can enhance your on-page SEO while giving accessibility benefits to your web page visitors.
First, incorporate descriptive keywords into your image filenames and write useful alt text for all images on your site. This gives search engines another tool to determine if your content is relevant and valuable.
Next, make sure the image size and file format are optimal. Images that are too large will increase load time and affect the experience for your site visitors. Large images can lower your search rankings with Google and other search engines.
💡 Read more: 10 Tips for Image Optimization for Ecommerce Websites
Ready to learn more about SEO marketing for your e-commerce business? Check out our Shopify guide: How to rank your online store on page 1 (with checklist)
Illustration: Rose Wong
Frequently asked questions about SEO marketing
What does SEO stand for in marketing?
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. This is a measurable and repeatable process used to send a signal to search engines that your page is worthy of ranking in Google’s search results.
What is SEM?
Search engine marketing (also known as SEM) is the creation of relevant content on your website to attract your ideal customers through organic search results and compelling paid search engine advertising to drive traffic. is to create. You can increase your traffic by creating new web pages or optimizing your existing ones.
What is SEO in digital marketing?
SEO in digital marketing is the process of improving your web site by adjusting your pages to improve search engine rankings, creating new content for targeted keywords, and improving your site to be better understood by search engine crawlers. It is a practice that increases organic traffic to your site.
How do I get started with SEO?
- Look for keywords with high search volume.
- Understand the search intent of your keywords.
- Create pages using keyword research data.
- Optimize your page’s meta title and description.
- Publish the page.
- Build a link to your page or website.
What is the difference between SEO and SEM?
The difference between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is that SEO focuses on increasing organic traffic, whereas SEM involves increasing organic traffic and using paid advertising to increase traffic. This includes both publications.
