May 24, 2022

Google Analytics in Ecommerce SEO

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Michael Jenkins
Michael Jenkins

CEO - Shout Agency
[email protected]

Overview

Setting up an ecommerce website is by no means an easy feat. After spending hours perfecting every detail of your online store, you might expect a flood of customers as soon as you are live. However, this is usually far from reality.

Besides their website, businesses need to invest in marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO) to gain visibility and attract customers to their products or services.

There are numerous ways to implement SEO for your business, but what if you could go a step further?

Google Analytics gives you the tools and facilities to study customer behaviour and trends in your own business. With the research at your doorstep, you can take concrete measures to optimise your website and make it more accessible to potential customers.

What Does Google Want From SEO Content?

Google is the largest search engine globally, with a dominant market share of 85.55%. It shoulders the responsibility of providing accurate and helpful information to its users. Google does this by ranking search results to provide the ones that are most likely to interest the user.

Google’s algorithm looks for specific quality indicators on every web page it indexes to judge whether it should be included in a search result. This undisclosed algorithm is also responsible for ranking results based on priority. While there could be hundreds of parameters, here are the ones that have been observed to be impactful in gauging the quality of SEO content.

Relevance

The most apparent factor is relevance. The results displayed must be pertinent to the query searched. For instance, if you look for movie theatres near you, Google will never rank nearby hospitals.

Besides, relevance considers all your backlinks along with your page content. Backlinks are inbound links from third-party websites. Google takes them to be endorsements of sorts.

Therefore, the sites of origin for the backlinks must be credible resources related to your products or services.

Expertise

Expertise is about demonstrable knowledge and skill in a subject area. However, in the context of SEO, sheerly possessing knowledge will not automatically create web page traffic. Instead, you have to communicate your knowledge and skill in an engaging way that attracts curious human beings to your offerings. It is vital to know who your audience is, what they are searching for, their search intent, and the most effective way to reach out to them.

While creating content for your ecommerce business, complex jargon must be avoided in the language. It should be easily understandable by a novice in your field. It is all about striking the right balance between details and simplicity.

Also, remember to break down longer content into more digestible pieces. You can then provide internal and external links for people who want to delve deeper into the topic.

Authority

Authority is when you and your brand become virtually synonymous with a subject. It is the next step after expertise. Once you are an authority, leaders, influencers, industry experts, and publications refer to you and your pages as information sources.

Google estimates your web page’s authority using several techniques. As mentioned previously, having backlinks from credible and reputed sources can boost your authoritativeness.

Furthermore, mentions of your business name in the press, journals, and other prominent online or offline publications also help with the algorithm.

Moreover, having a Wikipedia page about your business is a significant indicator of notability. Lastly, your business credibility is assessed by the number of queries explicitly referring to you or your business’s name.

Trustworthiness

While expertise and authority will make your website’s rank soar, a dip in trustworthiness can make your listing fall dramatically.

Customers seek to trust a brand through its reviews and other user-generated content. So, you must address any negative reviews around your content, product, or business quickly.

Make your brand a pleasant experience for your consumers. Acknowledge and address their issues promptly, and engage with them to receive constructive feedback. When it comes to ecommerce, communication is vital.

Freshness

Human beings are constantly evolving in the digital world. There is always new knowledge to be discovered and shared with innovations and advancements in all areas.

Therefore, Google considers the freshness of your web page a factor in determining the quality of your content. The information on your website must be correct and up-to-date.

You have to periodically edit, revise, and introduce newer content to your web pages to prevent the algorithm from deeming you old and misleading. Keeping your content fresh and evergreen is fundamental to ranking high in search results.

Shareability

Users know good content when they see it. So, Google believes that a good indicator of the quality of your content is its shareability. If your consumer is excited and confident about sharing it in their social circle, it provides your brand with an added layer of credibility.

As social beings, sharing content or information about a product is as good as endorsing it. No one wants to put their name on the line for something inaccurate, outdated, incoherent and poorly researched.

Be it in social clubs or social events; content sharing is the perfect way to receive credible reviews on a particular product by a brand.

So, if your web pages are shared consistently on social media or any social events, it is a positive sign to search engine algorithms that your pages deserve to rank higher on search results.

Three Ways to Improve SEO in Ecommerce

Content marketing and SEO go hand in hand for any ecommerce business. An increase in search traffic makes way for even more traffic from the content. Meanwhile, the content itself sustains users’ trust in authority-building blogs.

Take a look at three tangible steps that you can implement to retain users for longer on your website and ultimately rank better on Google.

1. Do Your Keyword Research

Keywords are the medium through which users find and connect with your ecommerce site. They are an indispensable part of SEO and can add a lot of accessibility to your business.

While there are many ways to evaluate your keywords, the two most efficient and popular options are SEMrush and Google Search Console.

Semrush is an online software service that shows you the best organic and paid results. You can then utilise these keywords in your next marketing content piece. It also allows you to compare other domains in your industry to see what your competitors rank high for on Google.

Another advantage of SEMrush is that it helps you understand the difficulty level for each keyword. It will be harder to rank your website for the same keyword that a site like Wikipedia ranks for compared to an average website.

On the other hand, Google Search Console helps you evaluate what keywords work best currently on your website. Once you figure out what works for your site, it will become easier to replicate the success in the future.

Keep in mind to consider the following items when looking for high ranking keywords.

  • Possible search terms
  • Target audience
  • Competitors’ keywords and placement

2. Find Your Audience

Targeting the right customers is essential to fine-tune your marketing. If it is marketed to the wrong demographics, all your efforts will amount to nothing no matter what you create.

Furthermore, your audience will determine intangibles like how long visitors stay on your website and how many pages they explore after arriving.

You need to identify keywords and directed content for people in different buying cycle stages.

For example, an article or video might suffice for someone doing their initial research. However, customers who are ready to decide might need more detailed case studies and resources backing up your product or service.

Keeping these things in mind, optimise your content to convert as many visitors as possible. Try including different types of media to check what works. The more information you have, the greater engagement you can create.

3. Include Citations and Inbound Links

Citations are when a third party website or blog references your information with a link to your website in their posts.

The better your content, the more inbound links you will get. You can also do some outreach to create backlinks to your website.

For example, you can create content in your field for another website. By creating multiple, high-quality guest posts with information relating to your website, you encourage the flow of traffic to your website.

This is how content and SEO complement each other in generating greater traffic to rank higher in the algorithm.

What is Google Analytics?

Appearing among the top search results on any search engine takes considerable time and consistent SEO efforts. However, observing shopping trends on your website can fast-track website optimisation and streamline the marketing process.

Google Analytics is a web analytics service that gives you valuable customer insights from your ecommerce web pages and helps you improve marketing ROI. It allows you to keep tabs on valuable data like conversion rate, bounce rate, traffic sources, etc.

Using these analytics tools, you can identify purchase barriers and take practical steps to combat the problems. You can even analyse customer behaviour and identify which stage of the buying cycle they are at to target their specific needs.

  • Awareness: This is the stage when the consumer first identifies that there is a problem that can potentially be solved by buying a product or hiring a service.
  • Consideration: There is a landmine of products available to solve any problem. So, the second stage is to research the available option and narrow down on the best one.
  • Decision: This is when the consumer is actively purchasing the product. Usually, a consumer will find themselves on your ecommerce website in this stage.

Moreover, Google Analytics is a freemium service. This means that small businesses that do not want to pour a lot of money into the tool can use all essential services for free. If you want more new and advanced features, you can avail them by paying a monthly or annual subscription fee.

Ways to Use Google Analytics for Your Ecommerce Business

Irrespective of your field of business, Google Analytics has become a requisite for any online store. It plays a central role in your marketing strategy and can help you reach your goals faster and with concentrated effort.

The first step, of course, is to create a Google Analytics account. It is swift and easy to sign up. Just fill in all the details regarding your website and set your goals for your site. Once you have your account, you can set up analysis features like site search and social media tracking.

However, with this service’s diversity of data and insights, it can get confusing to identify the metrics that will help your business. So, to aid you in your journey, here are five sure-shot ways that Google Analytics can help optimise your online marketing.

1. Boosting SEO and Keyword Research

As emphasised above, keywords form the core of content marketing and SEO for ecommerce. With Google Analytics, you get an in-depth view of what keywords on your page work and what do not.

Using the “Site Search” report provides information on the keywords, terms, and pages that customers are searching for and engaging with the most. With site search, you can rank higher for topics, products, services, and features that people are currently looking for.

Moreover, you can connect your Google Search Console to Google Analytics. This will yield deeper information like where your consumers are from and what devices they use to access your website. You also get more data like clickthrough rate, impressions, the impact of landing pages and much more.

2. Track Your Marketing Campaigns

Whether paid ads, social media, or email marketing, Google Analytics can help you keep an eye on every aspect of your online campaign. With the ROI from traffic projections before you, it becomes infinitely easier to cut out what is not working and make more room for what is for your campaigning system.

You can check which sources of campaign or landing pages become the point of sale for most customers. This enables you to do A/B testing because you have active feedback on what benefits the store and what does not. It also helps you plan retargeting campaigns to bring back lost customers.

Marketing campaigns are extremely capital, effort, and time-intensive for marketers. You cannot always afford to try different techniques that may or may not be fruitful. Google Analytics enables you to make intelligent, data-driven choices for your campaigns.

3. Keep Account of Business Sales and Revenue

Sales and revenue information is usually the first thing you care about as an ecommerce business owner. It is essential to keep updated and measure if you are growing according to your projections and in time to meet your financial goals.

Google Analytics allows you to set goals and streamline the reports you want to look at actively. A helpful way to find your goals is to ask yourself the following questions.

  • Which landing pages of your business create the most conversions?
  • How do your customers reach these pages?
  • Your consumers highly value which products on your site?

The next step is to set up your Google Analytics E-commerce tracking. It keeps tabs on your sales, and the goals, sales performance, and transaction reports are always readily available under the ‘Conversion’ tab.

4. Track Website Traffic

You can employ Google Analytics to get detailed information about how many people visited your online store, their demographic details, what pages they visited and the sources that led them to your page.

With Google Analytics, you can get detailed reports on all the following types of traffic.

  • Organic traffic
  • Referral traffic
  • Email traffic
  • Direct traffic
  • Social traffic

This is a great tool to measure the impact of your campaign, as you can see which source is leading the traffic to your page. Moreover, differentiating between organic and non-organic traffic can give you insights into areas of improvement and better ways to create more organic customers.

5. Attention to Customers

There are two segments to understanding your consumers. The first part involves identifying the right customers, while the second is studying their shopping behaviour.

Identify Target Demographic

Once you know who you are marketing to, it becomes easier to find the voice for your content and create a bond with your customers. The following information is readily available when a consumer hops onto your site.

  • Gender: This allows you to tailor your content and focus on converting more visitors.
  • Age range: Impacts the tonality and relatability of your content.
  • Devices: If most of your consumers are mobile users, you need to have a mobile-friendly website or an app.
  • Interests: Insight into a customer’s social life can affect your marketing efforts tremendously. Google Analytics tells you what your consumers are interested in on other parts of the internet. This will help you create better blog content and provide remarketing opportunities for your brands.

Study Customer Behaviour

If you have optimised demographic-based marketing already, you also get access to your users’ shopping behaviour. This includes information on the most viewed and clicked on products, the ones that are added to the cart but not checked out, and products that get purchased frequently.

With all these reports, you can narrow down on the hurdles that lead to the abandonment of carts. You can devise sales and discounts ideas for products that are not being purchased because your users find them too expensive. Similarly, you can grow prices for products that yield repeat customers.

Final Word

Google Analytics is a convenient way to assess valuable data quickly. If you are a marketer or an ecommerce business developer, having powerful tools like Google Analytics is a must. Everyone is trying to outrank you, but you can get ahead of the curve with the best SEO services provides by the best SEO company in Brisbane.

Once customers start resonating with your brand, you will generate more traffic and, in turn, more sales. Their support can make your business grow at an exponential rate. So, in this era where data is king, utilise intelligent tools like Google Analytics to expand your ecommerce businesses.

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      Book a free 45 minute consultation today.

        Shout logo in grey

        As Founder and Director of Shout Web Strategy, Michael Jenkins is at the forefront of digital marketing. Since it’s inception in 2009, Shout has built a strong reputation as one of Australia’s leading strategic SEO agencies, assisting online businesses to formulate, implement and track successful marketing strategies. Michael is a respected thought leader and digital strategist, specialising in online strategy, corporate SEO, Google retargeting, email and conversion rate optimisation, and online reputation management. Follow Michael on Google+, connect with him through LinkedIn or visit the Shout Web Strategy website.

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