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In this episode of the Unbottleneck Podcast, Steve Wiideman is reunited with colleague and fellow digital marketing expert, Al Sefati, for a discussion about Ecommerce SEO and pay-per-click advertising! 

About Our Guest: Al Sefati

Sefati is the president of Clarity Digital, a boutique hybrid digital marketing agency in Irvine, CA that helps start-ups and established brands. With over a decade of experience, Sefati is eager to share some of his best practices for ecommerce businesses! 

Sponsored by Ryte

Clarity Digital Website
Sefati & Co on Twitter
Al Sefati on Linkedin

Featured in this episode:

  • A different approach for eCommerce SEO
  • Best Practices for eCommerce SEO
  • Understanding Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising  
  • Reinvesting in PPC

ECommerce SEO 

The approach to search engine optimization is slightly different in the realm of ecommerce. If you wish to increase your online sales, SEO must be your priority. During this pandemic people are shopping online more than ever before, therefore, you will want to focus on increasing the visibility of your online store and/or products with SEO. While Amazon may be the biggest online competitor, they are not the only option. The great thing about ecommerce is that you can optimize your website for all searches including local features such as offering curbside pickup. 

When it comes to ecommerce SEO, you don’t want to just focus on optimizing for your website’s homepage. You will produce the best results by taking the time to optimize for your product categories and pages. 

Best Practices to Win at Ecommerce SEO 

DO: 

  • Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and responsive
  • Ensure your website loads fast 
  • Use title tags, meta descriptions, keywords in your H1 and H2 
  • Display photos and/or videos of your products from different angles
  • Optimize your product photos by naming your images (ex. “red-rain-boots.jpg”)
  • Take the time to write unique content for each product that is transactional and informational

DON’T: 

  • Use use stock photos 
  • Copy and paste any product descriptions from your whole seller’s website 

Pro-Tip: If you get stuck on creating original content for your product pages, Amazon Mechanical Turk is a great source to gain expert opinion on your website.

Understanding Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a digital advertising initiative that is used to drive traffic to your website. Advertisers, typically businesses, run ads and pay every time a user clicks on that ad. PPC options are offered by giant search engines such as Google and Bing, and even social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin. 

Implementing PPC into your ecommerce marketing efforts can get you more traffic and results if done right. The best way to get the most out of PPC advertising is to identify your products and services with the largest return on investment (ROI) and create ads around them. 

Reinvesting with PPC 

The idea of PPC may sound intimidating to smaller businesses who may not have the same advertising budget as a large corporation. The good news is that PPC is available to any and all businesses no matter what your budget is. 

If you’re a small business, you will get the most out of PPC advertising if you understand your key performance indicators (KPIs) – i.e profit margin, average order size conversion rate, and customer acquisition cost – you will know how much to reinvest in PPC.

Keep up with the best PPC, ecommerce SEO and digital marketing strategies. Follow Steve on LinkedIn!