Finally, you have found the Holy Grail and managed to take your ecommerce website on the top of the Google.
Congratulations!
Worked hard on your content and other SEO techniques to be where you are today. Didn’t you? We know, it really takes some smart work to be where you are.
Enjoying a steady flow of traffic thanks to your smart moves which have created visibility for your brand. Relaxed and happy and planning aren’t you? But do you know that clinching the top spot on Google for some of your keywords is just the beginning of a long battle.
Related Read: 8 tips to boost sales of your online store
Keeping your e-commerce business stable at rank #1 on Google is the real CHALLENGE!
According to research, the #1 Google search result has a likelihood of getting almost 37% clicks. So if you have reached the top your prospect of getting better traffic and conversions also goes up. But, there are a lot many other websites that are vying for the spot and trying to topple you. You might have reached there and remained there for quite some time but remaining there forever isn’t easy.
Optimization is a continuously evolving technique and you need to be updated on SEO trends and techniques to maintain your search engine ranking. Let us look at some simple but effective ways that help you stay at the top:
Table of Contents
Content Rules
Content is the King- we all know this.
But, do you know that just writing any content is more like creating noise rather than adding any real value to your site’s performance. Google is smarter than ever before and pays dividends for content that is rich in quality, is informative and entertaining.
Also, Google loves fresh content and keeps looking for pages that are updated regularly. If you fail to update your content regularly you are creating a kind of silent spaces and Google does not like silence. If you are not frequent in updating your blogs and other existing content on your e-commerce website, you will be considered outdated. So, to be at the top keep your content relevant and fresh.
Related Read: 5 tips that bring better traffic and sales from FaceBook to your webstore
Optimize your site speed
We all know that the attention span of online users is as good as the memory of a goldfish. Google gives preference to sites that load faster and offer seamless experience for the customers on mobile devices as well. If your site is slower even by 100 milliseconds you might be losing about 1% of your sales.
Related Read: 7 Trends that would reshape Mobile Commerce in 2016
Optimizing and speeding up your site is of utmost importance as not only Google penalises slower sites by pushing them down on SERP but the customers also tend to abandon slower sites for faster ones. Try these to improve the speed and engagement value of your site:
- Switch to technologically advanced e-commerce platform or faster hosting services.
- Optimize your images and use smaller image files.
- Use crisp and high quality images to keep your customers engaged
- Use content with images that initiate “call to action”
- Offer omni channel shopping to your customers
Link it Up with Quality Backlinks
Historically lots of SEO efforts was spent on creating as many backlinks for your website as possible. However, this resulted in crappy backlinks that were of no importance. As Google refined its algorithm it also ensured that only quality backlinks are given importance while determining the credibility of your website.
Backlinks are the links from other sites that link to your website. In layman terms, assume that there are others who are talking about what they found interesting or of value on your website. This builds a trust and brings organic traffic to your website from other sources.
Google appreciates if other high ranking websites are talking about your business and linking to you. To keep your e-commerce business on top of Google you need to create quality backlinks that enhance the reputation of your site and bring traffic as well.
Related Read: Backlinks- a key component of online health
Links , Links and more Links
Google simple loves links and a creating a network of links on your website is the easiest way to do it. To maintain the ranking of your important keywords you need to create not only backlinks but also work to create as many inbound links as you can.
By building a network of your site pages and connect your site internally you are basically taking the visitors on a guided tour of your e-commerce website and allowing them to explore new things.
Along with inbound links outbound links are also very important in maintaining your ranking. If you have outbound links to some quality websites it adds to your credibility and helps your keywords rank better. By outbound link you are basically giving credits to others for what contribution they have made to your specific industry or business or how they are alike or different from you.For eg, if you are using a data or image from some government agency or other reputed authority, always mention the source and give the link from where you have taken the data.
Search engine ranking is positively impacted by such outbound links as Google values honesty and giving others credit when it's due. However, do remember that you should not overdo outbound linking. Use it only for really credible and authoritative sites. It’s like associating with third party sites that have a reputation and Google pays importance when you are linking to such sites.
Related Read: How and what to do to overcome the challenges of new age digital marketing?
Structure Social Media
We all know the importance of social media and how it has brought about changes and revolution across the world in recent times. Similarly, when structured and used in the right way social media can bring about great recognition for your brand and help you stay on the top.
Related Read: Social Media: making mobile phones indispensable
Your social media presence and your Google ranking has somewhat indirect relationship. The more buzz you create about your brand the more likelihood of Google picking it up and ranking your keywords higher on SERP.
Structure your social media policy and keep posting regular updates. The easiest way to keep your social channels abuzz is to keep posting about the new events, launches, sale, freebies or any similar activity related to your e-commerce business.
Conclusion
SEO ranking is the key to success of any online business and needs constant investigation and experimentation to keep pace with the changing algorithms of Google. You need to invest time and keep researching to find the crack for not just reaching rank #1 on Google but to also stay there.
If you have any SEO tips and tricks to rank up your sleeves to improve search engine ranking, feel free to share them in comments below.
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