Direct-to-consumer businesses, also known as D2C or DTC businesses, have a unique niche online to fit into. These markets can be very competitive, making search engine optimization a key component of marketing strategies for D2C e-commerce businesses. So, how do you create a D2C e-commerce strategy with SEO?
In this article, we will go over why D2C brands need SEO and how SEO can best be implemented for both growth in search engine results rankings and sales conversions.
Why Do You Need SEO for D2C Brands?
Running a D2C e-commerce business involves a whole lot of marketing, so how does SEO play into this picture? We get it, you are likely spending quite a bit on product photos and on-page marketing costs. However, SEO is just as important as these image-based marketing costs.
That is because search engine optimization is the mechanism in which new customers arrive at your page. While the product photos and landing page design are crucial to keeping prospective customers on your page, you first need to get that person there.
SEO is especially important for e-commerce stores because there are so many of them. Unlike a local business store where there are a finite amount of them in a local area, you can shop online from a seemingly endless list of candle stores, bicycle stores, and clothing brands.
In this way, SEO paired with your branding will help you to stand out as a brand and a business in this competitive online space.
How To Build a D2C E-Commerce Strategy with SEO
Now that we’ve discussed why SEO is so important to D2C e-commerce stores, let’s go over how you can develop a strategy to improve your SEO and your sales conversions with a few pointed actions.
E-Commerce Market Research
Doing market research for your brand can help you to find out a lot about your brand and improve conversion rates while also being a stepping stone for your SEO actions.
Think about who you are selling to and what they might be searching for. Consider these W’s:
Who are your customers? (age, demographic)
Where do they live? (location)
What do they like to do? (personality, interests)
Why would they buy your products?
These questions can help you to orient yourself and your brand to who might be searching for your products online.
You can also use existing web traffic data from your website to access some of this information. For example, there are tools online where you can see the geographic location that your website visitors are from. Does this data line up with your expectations?
E-Commerce Keyword Research
Next, keyword research is on your to-do list. You might not be using keywords that are necessarily competitive, or perhaps you are using ones that have too much competition. This predicament is best solved with either the work of an SEO Strategist or a keyword research tool.
You can also start brainstorming on your own. Think about why people would be searching for your products and in what context. Remember that people do not often search for things through Google in a typical fully written out question. Instead, someone searching for a new pair of shoes might look up:
- Best shoe brands
- Most popular sneakers 2022
- Where to buy shoes
- New shoes
These terms aren’t necessarily something that you would consider using in your content online, so it is important to know the data behind these keywords before you add them to your web pages. Semrush is one of the leading keyword research tools on the market.
You may also be able to use Google Trends as a tool for finding out which of your keywords are popular if you have the time but are short on funds for a Semrush subscription.
Analyze Your E-Commerce Website
Using a tool to analyze the health of your website can be a great way to pick up on hidden errors that might be negatively affecting your SEO. Some tools available online for this include the Site Audit tool by Semrush.
This easy-to-use tool can help show you mistakes in your website as well as statistics on your web traffic that can be extremely insightful.
You can use this information to learn which of your pages might need facelifts or are the least interesting to your prospective buyers. Improving these pages is in your best interest and that is why updating your product pages is the next tip on this list.
Tweak Your Product Pages for SEO
Now that you are equipped with your market research, keyword research, and shiny new data on your website it is time to make some changes. Hopefully you have identified some areas with room for improvement. Places where this might be can include:
- Product pages
- About Us pages
- Landing pages
Spend some time optimizing these crucial pages for SEO and make them more appealing. Think about the last time these pages were updated, does their branding match the rest of the website? Are your product pages too “salesman-y”? Do your web pages convey your brand message?
Avoid keyword stuffing but do ensure that primary keywords are where they are supposed to be (Titles, H2, meta description). Also, update your URLs to include keywords!
These are basic tenets of SEO that should be throughout your website. If you haven’t been doing this, you might need to take a wider scope look at your website and make these changes to all pages.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are many ways to try to improve your visibility online and generate more organic traffic. SEO optimization is built to increase your web traffic and the strategy in which you implement it will help to increase your sales along with it. Many D2C e-commerce business owners overlook these twofold benefits of SEO, so stand ahead of the competition by implementing these essential marketing tips.
We hope that you learned about e-commerce SEO from this article and how to properly implement it on your website to improve rankings and sales. Let us know if you have any questions about e-commerce SEO in the comments!
