Ecommerce is expected to reach almost 35% of sales among big-box retailers worldwide by 2023, rising from 23% in 2019, according to Edge Retail Insight.
This growth is expected to continue, with ecommerce taking a nearly 40% share of sales by 2025.
This comes amid strong online growth and stable or declining physical store sales worldwide.
However, store-based retail nevertheless continues to account for the majority of sales. Additional research shows consumers prefer a mix of online and offline shopping.
Regardless of how the transaction is carried out, the majority of shoppers use search engines for discovery and comparison shopping.
That means that whether customers are shopping in your store, on your website, or via a social commerce platform, SEO is an area of opportunity retailers cannot afford to miss.
Here are 10 top priorities for your retail SEO strategy.
1. Keyword Research
Keyword research is extremely important for retail brands. Knowing what keywords consumers are searching for and how they are searching is vital to building out your informational architecture and content strategy.
It should cover keywords at all stages of the fragmented user journey:
- informational,
- navigational,
- transactional,
- and intent-based.
There are a plethora of keyword research tools, but always make sure to review your competitors’ keyword research strategy, too.
That includes Amazon because of the high purchase intent there. Use Amazon’s keyword tool, as well as tools like Ahrefs.
Once the site is up and running, review paid search data and find keywords that are converting and driving traffic and sales.
Make sure the site is ranking on the first page wherever possible of all the major search engines for those keywords through ongoing optimization.
This will help you augment organic performance initially but then reallocate your paid budget over time as SEO proves its value.
2. Local Search
Getting found online is key to driving traffic and sales.
It’s a simple truth that the more you show up for your customers, the more your business thrives and can provide services.
But when it comes to local search, accuracy matters.
So get on a good local search platform and then claim and optimize your listings.
Optimized listings help your retail brand show up at the top of local searches and provide a consistent customer experience to drive acquisition and retention.
Make sure you are taking advantage of Google Business Profiles, a tool that helps businesses manage their presence across Google properties, to share updates with your customers.
Add photos to your GBP listings to improve the customer experience, add attributes so customers know what to expect, display your products and inventory, submit relevant categories, respond to Q&A, and also monitor and respond to reviews.
I can’t tell you how many retail brands still don’t respond to reviews, both good and bad.
To learn more about how to optimize for local search, read the Definitive Guide to Improve Your Local Search Rankings.
3. Structured Data
Structured data can help
