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Why content is king in ecommerce
- Fred Cohen
If you have an ecommerce business or you are someone who looks after digital marketing for ecommerce sites, you may be focusing your efforts on grabbing backlinks and getting social media shares, forgetting the importance of SEO basics – content.
Content tells search engines what your website is all about when they crawl it, and content builds relationships between you and your customers. It is the single most crucial link between the store, the customer and the search engines.
Google favours quality content
You’re much more likely to rank higher on Google search results if your website is filled with quality, valuable content. It’s not content alone that affects how highly you rank in SERPs, there are other factors to be considered:
- Is it a secure website?
- How is their page speed?
- Is the site optimised for mobile devices?
- Technical SEO
- The ratio of internal to external links
- Actual quality content
- Keyword relevance
If you take a look at the list above (which is only some of the factors to consider), you’ll notice that much of it can be covered within your content.
Trying to cram everything into a piece of content can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re a small business looking after most aspects of your website without a deal of experience. Once you get into the habit of creating quality content, you’ll never look back.
While you may well roll your eyes at this cliched phrase, content really is king when it comes to ecommerce success. Let’s look at why.
SEO benefits of quality content
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the method of growing the quality and quantity of your website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or a specific page when potential customers search the internet.
If you don’t know already, here’s how SEO works:
- John types into his Google search bar “best running trainers”
- Google gets to work to find the web page (or piece of content) it thinks will provide the best answer
- John clicks one of the top results and makes a purchase
As you can imagine, there are 1000s of websites selling running trainers, so without content, they have no chance of being discovered by their target audience. You see, content really is king when it comes to SEO.
Content boosts user engagement on social media
When it comes to social media, you guessed it, content is king. And good content is that which is easy to engage with. Users and potential customers can engage by reacting, e.g. liking your content, commenting, sharing and following your profile (subscribing to continue to see your content)
If you want users to engage, you need to make sure your content offers value, is interesting and resonates with your audience. Why should you bother?
With good quality, relevant content and, therefore, a boost in user engagement, you might see:
- An increase in pageviews
- An increase in new and returning visitors
- A decrease in your bounce rate
- An increase in time on site
- An increase in the number of conversions
Why content is important for AdWords
If you run paid ads, it’s likely that each ad leads to a particular landing page. These are judged and scored on a number of factors, and that, of course, includes content. If you’re paying per click, it’s vital that you have a high score.
To achieve a high score, you need to make sure your ads and the content they lead to are relevant. Irrelevant ads, apart from giving you a much lower score, lead to potential customers bouncing away with making a purchase and ultimately costing you money for a click that leads nowhere.
Make your ads work for you by ensuring you have quality content that is relevant and engaging.
Generate new leads and sales with content
Having high-quality content on your ecommerce site will help you generate leads and increase sales. It’s important to remember that your content needs to solve a problem the reader may have. It needs to clearly state what the reader needs to do next e.g. make a purchase or subscribe or contact you.
Consumers are savvy now and research before making purchases, especially for high-ticket items. Many will land on blog pages when performing a search and the content within that article could be the difference between a sale and not.
By utilising quality SEO content, you stand a much better chance of being discovered in search results by potential customers looking to make a purchase. Content greets customers on your website in the same way you would greet a customer if they walked into a brick-and-mortar store.
Content adds value
Your content shouldn’t be sales pitch after sales pitch. You should curate your content to add value to your reader. Generally, it should be a good mix of interesting articles, all relevant to your product or service. You could include posts such as:
- How to blogs
- Buyers guides
- Tutorials
- News stories about your brand and the people behind it
All of these can and should be optimised for SEO, but most importantly, they should offer value to your customers. If customers feel as though they understand your brand and products or services, they build trust in you and are more likely to part with their cash.
The language you use in your content is also important. You need to always use the same tone of voice and type of language and that needs to resonate with readers. Don’t be afraid to be a little jovial here and there, and absolutely allow your personality to shine through. If readers feel like they’re forming a relationship with a brand, they’re more likely to retain brand loyalty.
Quality content isn’t a sales pitch. It isn’t cramming as many keywords and search phrases into a paragraph as possible. It is relevant, engaging content that resonates with your readers and encourages them to become customers via brand trust and feeling like their problem can be solved.
This content increases leads, sales and ultimately revenue for your ecommerce business.
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Need an answer to a problem? Take a look at our insights section to find advice, guidance and recommendations across a range of e-commerce topics – from conversion to retention and loyalty, from systems integration to remarketing.
