If you feel that you are already getting enough visitors from the Google search results and therefore do not need SEO, you are wrong. Because Google changes its search algorithm again and again, this means that the rankings are subject to large fluctuations. An online shop that still has several top ten keywords today can no longer be found at all immediately after the next Google update. It is why SEO is an ongoing process in which a website or an online shop has to be readjusted and adapted to the algorithm over and over again.
What are the SEO updates?
There is a high probability that your competitors will try to overtake you with their robust SEO measures to win over customers. You can only survive on the Internet in the long term if you optimize your online shop for search engines. Otherwise, your competition will soon overtake you and put you on the first page of search results. The Google Updates Panda (2011) and Penguin (2012) were particularly sensational. They improved the quality of search results and severely punished the distortion of competition caused by spam and purchased back links. Other important Google updates are Hummingbird (2013), Rank Brain (2015) and BERT (2019). Google is continuously improving its search algorithm and releasing influential core updates at ever shorter intervals. It increases the complexity of search engine optimization increasingly. In the face of this challenge, closing yourself off from it will most likely have negative long-term effects.
Local SEO: More visitors for your store
Local SEO meaning in business is particularly important for you if you run a stationary retail store besides your online shop. As a result, you will appear more frequently in the search results of people who are near your store. Promising measures for local search engine optimization are a well-maintained Google My Business profile and location-based keywords that contain the name of the city in which you operate. In general, your contact details should be up-to-date and consistent on all public platforms.
Mobile SEO: More visitors via smart phones
All retailers should now be aware that mobile search and responsive web design play an enormously large role in e-commerce and that they are becoming increasingly important. From a technical point of view, it has long been established that RWD was just the beginning. Mobile-First has long been on everyone’s lips and Google in particular has been emphasizing this approach for years. This means that shop operators should first think about how their online shop will be displayed on mobile devices before turning to the desktop version.
Ecommerce and responsive SEO
The so-called Mobile Friendliness has been the official ranking factor for Google since 2015. Since then, individual URLs can be checked with a test tool for their suitability for display and operation on mobile devices. The test tool is now even displayed directly in the search results.
If you look at the data of your online shop, you will surely notice that the number of hits via mobile devices is growing. This trend continues to grow and must also be taken into account in ecommerce SEO. Google is increasingly evaluating the mobile view of online shops through mobile-first indexing. It is therefore necessary to have a user-friendly mobile layout, ensure fast loading times and make it easier for Google to crawl mobile content.
Conclusion
SEO is much more than just optimizing an online shop for keywords. SEO has become a holistic discipline in recent years. Free tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console give you a quick insight into the actual status of your online shop. Make sure that your online shop is optimized for smart phones.
