Sink or Swim: SEO Challenges for Retailers
via Website Magazine's Mastering Search channel
There are three types of people in this world —
those who dive in head first, those who test the
waters and those who sit on the steps too scared
to jump in.
Many retailers fall into one of those categories
when it comes to how they approach their company’s
search engine optimization.
Increasingly, however, many Internet retailers
are dry as a bone — sitting on the steps
— deciding to ramp up their digital advertising
spend because they think their sites will never
rank organically. Sure, there are constantly shifting
technologies, interplay between different
channels and consumers’ changing behavior to
muddy the waters, but all retailers really need is
a little push.
Uncle Dave & Keyword Not Provided
Some people have — or have least heard of — an uncle who taught his niece or nephew how to swim by simply pushing him or her in the pool. The idea is that the kid will sink or swim. If Uncle Dave, we’ll call him, wasn’t positive that the child would pop up to the surface, then he never would have pushed him or her in. Like Uncle Dave, Google pushed retailers into the pool, even if they weren’t ready.
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In 2013, Google shifted to encrypted search, which strips away 100 percent of the keyword insights that search marketers had become so reliant on (like swim floaties). This is because Google was confident “good” retailers would pop up and learn to swim. The folks at BrightEdge see this transition as a positive one. Keyword not provided allows brands to remove their dependencies on keyword level data and improve their SEO initiatives by focusing on page quality and conversion-based data. This doesn’t mean, however, that the process is easy. BrightEdge CEO and Founder Jim Yu advises that keyword not provided requires marketers to press the reset button on their search strategies and focus on content-centric approaches.
What does a “content-centric approach” really
mean? For starters, it means more companies are
forced to become information publishers as content
plays an increasingly central role in marketing
strategy. Now, chances are, most retailers have
been engaging in content marketing in some fashion
for years — by publishing content like gift giving
guides, blogs, catalogs, etc.
Today’s Internet retailers looking to top the
search engines, however, must move beyond creating
content on a whim to actually understanding
what customers want to consume. Merchants
should analyze any available website data to understand
what customers are querying based on metrics
like page popularity, bounce rates and other
indicators that show users are or are not finding
what they are looking for. Retailers should create
content around those successes and failures.
“To understand and measure the performance
of your content, it’s important to analyze search
engine rank, social interactions, site traffic and
conversions,” Yu said. “Google analytics is a great
way to gain a light understanding of your content’s
performance, but more advanced analytics
platforms are necessary to truly see content’s impact and optimize accordingly.”
Community Pool
For merchants jumping into the SEO pool, it can
feel like they’re competing at an Olympic level.
According to Yu, generic keywords are highly competitive
and expensive, which means smaller merchants
must take a different approach to win the
gold. Customers’ reliance on mobile devices presents
the perfect opportunity for local merchants.
Bing and Google are increasingly looking to deliver
locally relevant results to users. Fortunately,
searches made via mobile devices often have local
intent. Merchants should focus on touchpoints
where their brands may be interacted with, according
to Rio SEO VP of Local Search Solutions
Bill Connard. This can include optimization for
local landing pages, iOS applications, local directories
and in-car navigation devices.
When discussing directories, in particular, it’s
extremely important for retailers to manage their
information to include correct operating hours,
physical addresses, phone numbers, etc. Ultimately,
however, brands should be more concerned
with their own branded local search terms,
according to Connard, so they can acquire the
traffic that may be directed to those other directories.
In other words, rank higher than Yelp for key
phrases such as a “business name + location.”
“Managing review sites and directories are
important but not as important as having local
branded search in place because you are losing
traffic to directory sites,” said Connard.
This brings us to Google Carousel, which has
changed the search game for marketers in a big
way, according to BrightEdge’s Yu. Rio SEO’s Connard
also agrees that retailers will see that Google
Carousel is triggering local branded searches that
were not triggered in the past. Essentially, Google
Carousel eliminates the local listings “pack” and
replaces it with a horizontal bar of image-based
local results at the very top of the search results.
For example, if a searcher queries, “pizza places in
San Diego,” the top results likely belong to Yelp, but a “carousel” of pizza places near San Diego,
CA appears above the organic results. Once a
searcher clicks on one of those results (like this
editor’s all-time favorite Bronx
Pizza), a search engine results
page (SERP) will appear
around that business and only
that business as pictured here.
The question becomes, how
do retailers ensure they are
not losing traffic to the likes
of Yelp or Foursquare? These
are Yu’s recommendations to
leverage Carousel to improve
site traffic:
1. Don’t leave it to Google to
determine information about your business; set up
a Google Place for Business and a Google+ page to
provide the best information about your business.
2. Ensure images are high resolution, unique and
ordered in terms of your preference.
3. Encourage customers to review your business
on Google+, because research
shows that reviews play
a crucial role in Carousel placement.
(Note: Don’t end up in
Google’s bad graces, check out
10 terrific — and totally white
hat — ways to generate user reviews
at wsm.co/10getreviews.)
Paid Lessons
Internet retailers are ramping up their digital advertising spend because many think it’s increasingly difficult to rank their sites in the search results. And despite the fact that constantly shifting technologies, interplay between different channels and consumers’ changing behavior can seem like a challenge, retailers can dive right in, with better SEO results to show for their nerve.


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