You have heard it before and I am here to remind you again. Content is the KEY to get your online store Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Most of us when setting up our first online store we will rely on the description provided by the manufacturer. Let’s say you are selling Entertainment Centers. You have the stock image provided from the manufacturer, the dimensions, specs and a brief description of the Entertainment Center.
Just as if you where to open a retail location; you will need to research your demographics but most importantly you will need to know your competitors. You might find them on every corner or even next door. You may be in a shopping mall with a large retailer as an anchor store. This might bring you some foot traffic but you want to convert that into a sale.
How do you distinguish yourself from your competitors to get the traffic
Well, just as you would in a retail store, you will want to have eye catching displays, display what the customers are looking for and provide them with that extra service and support not found elsewhere.
With your online store it is your content that will stand out for you. Content is what will get you to stand out from the competition, followed by Customer service, price, feedback etc…
What has worked for me is Content. Especially now, I do not want to spend money with Adwords. This can be extremely costly.
Keep in mind that most manufacturers will have the description crated by someone overseas that may not be familiar with our market trends.
This is where you personal knowledge of the item gives you the advantage. Keep in mind the description provided usually will have name of the collection, color of finish and the obvious the item. Most of the lines of products I offer, I have at some point had on the floor on display or even in my own home. If you do not have a retail or showroom, visit the manufacturer’s showroom. Contact your sales rep, take you Camera and take notes.
Now, with so many online stores in a hurry to set up, they will just add it to the inventory as is. The Search engines will pick it up but it will be looked as Duplicate Content.
Duplicate Content is when other sites have the same description. How will Search Engines will look at it? Well, it will come down to Who Had it First, What is the Relevancy, When was it Posted and How many keywords.
To end up on Google’s first page of searches you want to offer Unique Content:
- Incorporate your own personal knowledge of the item with the manufacturers description.
- Provide additional images
- Label your images accordingly
- Tags
- Provide customers review
- BLOG create articles and updates
- Have your keywords throughout the page – not saturated
Your goal is to catch the search engines attention and the way to do that is with unique content. If done correctly, you will attract the attention of the search engines rather quickly. This can take time and work. So do be patient. You can also submit your product information directly to Froogle for free. Most shopping carts offer this service.
Think about how you would search for the Keyword “Entertainment Center”
Possibilities could be:
- Entertainment Cabinet
- Wall Entertainment Unit
- Entertainment Wall Center
- Complete Wall Entertainment
Or perhaps the user may even type the Name of the Manufacture and Name of Collection. Think about possible mis-spellings.
Always keep your customer’s needs in mind. If you are selling children’s items, you definitely want to offer parents the reassurance that your products meet all safety standards. Providing articles, updates on membership sites and offering links to reputable Consumer agencies. The customer is a lot more likely to buy from the store offering the most information vs. the best price. The search engines will pick up your Unique Content and rank you higher, thereby sending your more leads for free. With the proper tools you will convert those leads into sales.
A few Tips:
- Review previous email sent to you
- Check your competitions feedbacks
- Read the Consumer Reports
- Talk to your Sales Representative
- Use Google Keyword Tool
The Google Keyword tools is an amazing tool that offers you in a glimpse the popularity of the keyword. You may also use long tail keywords.
Quick reference- check out this video on how to use the Google Keyword Tool
What tools do you use to help you rank higher on the search engines? Do you find yourself creating your own description of the item or do you use the manufacturers description? Do you use Froogle or any other Shopping site to bring you traffic? I hope some of this information is helpful. You will be surprised how effective creating Unique Content will benefit your ranking and ultimately your sales.
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It’s too funny how a little thing like “Key Words” make all the difference huh? lol!
Great tips, you really have to sit and think about how others would search for the product. That would make a big difference. Great video.
Thanks SO much for posting this. I’ve been googling EVERYWHERE trying to find this out and now you’ve basically given me everything I needed here. The interweb is great! Rick
@Betty – That’s right. Understanding SEO is what gets traffic to your blog and website. You seem to be doing well on that subject
Very good post Laura… the importance of keyword research can’t be stressed enough if you want good rankings in the search engines.. especially Google!
Good content. Just wanted to add some points here that may be helpful for those looking out for professional SEO services. There are tons of SEO companies offering different SEO packages and solutions at highly competitive rates. However, when looking our for these services, its important to not only look at the affordability factor but also what is unique about their SEO service and what differentiates them from other companies.
While choosing an SEO company its equally important to analyze the SEO company’s website in terms of their Rankings, Yahoo links, Google index, Alexa ranking and similar such factors which indicates the company’s expertise in the field of SEO. So make sure you are doing enough research and smart work before investing your advertising spend.
@Betty – The right Key Words can rank you number One. The traffic that would generate
@Jake- Google is the Sugga Daddy of SEO….. lol
I did it, I set up my first music monday thanks
@Betty – That’ great! I have been out ill and busy with new accounts that I missed it.
so glad that you joined
This is really great, and to think I stumbled accross this site in a random search for something completely different. If you want I will give you the keywords I was searching it might help.
Thanks for the great tips, I should of thought about this before.. I always submit to ezine\’s but when I submit to other directories I always use the same resource box.. I do notice my articles on ezine are not that great maybe ill try some of these techniques
Took me long to all the remarks, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be very usable to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It�s always good when you can not only be educated, but also involved! I�m sure you had fun saving this article.
Hello,
How do I show google Search Box as a permanent tool bar item in Internet Explorer under Vista?
Really great post, enjoyed reading it. Thanks,
Laura
Nice tips. I’d like to add though that content isn’t only factor these days which helps in ranking. Factors like age and page load time are also among few others which are deciding factors to build search traffic. There are some nice tools available in market which helps to analyze competition too. Market samurai for example is good one.
Great article, it is good that there are so many articles in internet about SEO, and that’s great that everyone knows what the word abreviation SEO(Search Engine Optimisation) means. It is an efficient way of marketing of nowadays, and it’s not that difficult if you understand the main purpose of that.
Thanks for your great post. Congratulations.
Google as we all know loves content, if it loves you it will carry and distribute you to where you are needed lol. great post.
best search engine marketing
While content is key, so is link building and participating in the larger community. you have to have the authority linked with your keywords.
The google keyword tool is not that accurate in showing the search frequency of a given keyword.
But I often use AdWords to run a short campaign – this gives you some real time data and indicates whether you should optimize for a certain keyword – or go for another!
Great tips, thanks for sharing. I hope the legacy will live.
I think I’ll have to continue reading your articles and
pray that some day I can write on a subject with as much knowledge as you have! Bravo!!
Cool work..!
I agree that uniq content is very important in order to get noticed by Google and to attract trafic.
Getting backlinks from sites that are viewed as high authority is important…social media such as blogs is a great place to start.
Getting backlinks from sites that are viewed as high authority is important…social media such as blogs is a great place to start
I do have my own values to defend and I am sure it is the God’s will to each of our live condition, so we should never taking over what is HIS part in our live and this is something we can improved.
I think we need to bring more ideas for this purpose. Involvement of young people can be handy in this regard. I am happy to find a good post here. Thank you