In many ways, you would think that e-commerce ventures scarcely need must assistance to sell goods. After all, this represents a huge market that grew by a staggering 25% last year, while the convenience that virtual shopping offers considerable advantages to consumers around the globe.
Then we have recurring consumer holiday’s such as Cyber Monday, which is increasingly global in its nature and generated record sales of $2.68 billion in 2014. This potent combination of opportunity and advantage has empowered businesses from around the world, and established a market that will ultimately supersede physical retail.
The Truth about E-commerce and the need to operate a blog
The relatively simplistic nature of domestic e-commerce start-ups and the size of their potential market can be misleading, however, as these factors encourage entrepreneurs to adopt a minimalist approach to running their venture. More specifically, some owners do not take proactive steps to guaranteeing the success of their e-commerce brands, allowing it become ostracised in an incredibly competitive market that demands flexibility, innovation and strategic thinking.
So while some may consider blogging as time-consuming and unnecessary when attempting to manage a domestic e-commerce operation, for example, others recognise that this offers a unique opportunity to build and audience and generate traffic for product-specific landing pages. There are several reasons that should compel e-commerce sites to blog, each of which translate into specific benefits for the business as whole.
Blogging improves your Search engine ranking and Traffic potential
While Google’s increasingly stringent algorithms may have deterred you from blogging or linking to external websites, this represents unnecessary caution that may actually be harming your e-commerce website. When it is managed well and driven by outstanding content, your blog can actively enhance your search engine ranking and increase the amount of traffic driven to your site.
In simplistic terms, blogging creates additional pages for your e-commerce website and creates an opportunity for internal links. You can identify prominent keywords and phrases that relate to your venture and use these as anchors that link back to home and product landing pages, instantly increasingly visibility. Despite any fears that you may have external links are even more effective, as they have a more pronounced impact on SERP’s and help you to develop a natural and compliant back-link profile.
This requires a more thoughtful strategy, however, as you first look to distinguish your blog with insightful and informative content that offers value to readers (rather than overly promotional copy that is used as a vehicle to sell goods directly). These articles can then be shared socially through sites such as Twitter and Facebook, as you use concise introductions to engage readers and encourage them to comment.
Additionally, you can also reach out to similar, authoritative blogs and offer to create guest content for their sites, developing powerful and natural links back to specific pages while creating brand awareness in the process.
Blogging establishes you as a thought leader and builds Trust with consumers
One of the key aspects of Google’s continued algorithm upgrades is the emphasis on prioritising content that has been created for human consumption. This may sound strange, but historically brands have adopted a content creation strategy that was focused on volume and creating as many promotional back-links as possible. This generated swathes of poorly written and irrelevant content, which offered no value to readers at all.
It is this SEO approach that has been all-but eradicated by Google, which explains why link building strategy that you create for your blog must be centred on high quality content. In this instance, blogging can establish you and your e-commerce venture as a thought leader within a specific market, which in offer an entry point into a relationship customers and drive long-term engagement. This is fast-emerging as a core corporate growth strategy, and one that builds trust, reputation and brand loyalty.
Given that e-commerce businesses thrive on sales, it is crucial that they are able to generate long-term and repeat custom. This is hard is such a competitive market, but blogging offers a simple and relatively low-cost method of achieving this while also complying with Google’s content guidelines. You strategy should be underpinned by a commitment to post quality content on a regular basis, as Google regularly trawls and updates its rankings and is known to reward progressive, active blogs.
In terms of the content itself, everything from detailed opinion pieces to in-depth tutorials (and even external guest content if it is from a trusted source) can add value so long as the piece is relevant to your niche and structured accordingly. Try not to become too preoccupied by word length either, as while some experts recommend publishing longer posts of around 2000 words renowned businessman Seth Godin often creates content between 100 and 300 words in length.
The most important thing is to ensure that you do the topic justice and tailor your word count to offer the most value to readers.
Blogging lets you build a brand around your Products
While you may be blogging to drive traffic to your e-commerce landing pages, it is important to strike a balance between promoting products and informing consumers, as this holds the key to maintaining long-term search engine visibility and retaining the trust of customers. If you fail to strike this balance, you may find it hard to build a sustainable and trusted brand.
One of the best ways to achieve this balance is to use your blog as a showcase for your products, or more specifically the story that underpins them. Rather than listing high quality images alongside specification and price information (and a desperate call to action), try sharing the origins of your products with customers and the philosophy that drives any unique selling points that they may have. This turns your blog from an overt sales outlet to a narrative about your business, which organically links to your product pages and can drive e-commerce sales.
Another interesting angle is to explore how your products are made, as complex or unusual processes can make for a compelling visual experience. You can then create videos on YouTube before embedding them on your blog pages, driving potentially viral content that drives traffic, educates customers and builds a brand’s legacy. By informing your consumers about where your products originate from and how they are made, you may also increase conversions when they finally land on a product page.