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Online Strategies for E-commerce Sites:
Take Advantage of Search Engines


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With increasing competition it is becoming more and more challenging to run e-commerce sites profitably. The expectations are always set high, however the required search engine rankings are tough to achieve

In practice, the majority of e-commerce site owners tend commit the same mistakes. The following tips ought to shed some rays of light onto the enigmatic mysteries of online marketing.

The right choice of an e-commerce system

Starting with the choice of your e-commerce system you should ascertain that it not only fits your business requirements but that it is search engine friendly. One of the more vital features should be the ability to create static pages, or, at the very least, pages that appear to be static to the search engines.

Focusing on profitable keywords

The most common failure of online e-commerce sites is their lack of focus on the right keywords. Let's say your clients are looking for a blood pressure monitor but your site lists the product as the Multipro 2000 SX. There is no inherent relationship between the query "blood pressure monitor" and Multipro 2000 SX, thus the product will remain invisible to your potential online client base.

It is important that you fully understand how your customers search for your products in the search engines. As the next step, you will need to relate your product descriptions to the actual search terms your potential clients are typing into the search engines.

Considering price comparison & shopping platforms

A good number of online shops are transmitting their product lines to price comparison sites such as shopping.com, Dealtime, Bizrate and Froogle. Even though these providers retain a commission on each product they help sell, it is always worth the effort to get your products listed. Why? Because these price comparison sites don't only get direct traffic from potential buyers, they also receive a steady stream of indirect traffic from the search engines: Many of these comparison sites have such high search engine rankings that it may be sufficient to focus on these sites rather than lose sleep over search engine optimization of your own e-commerce site.

Missing your target market

Even if you do everything right, your online shop won't be successful if your target market doesn't tend to search for your product range online. By using key word research tools (i.e. Overture) you can get a glimpse of how often per month visitors are searching for specific search terms. And if you are only seeing minimal search volumes for your products, you might be better served by focusing on offline marketing campaigns.

Too many competitors?

The other extreme could also be the case: In certain industries (i.e. computer hardware, entertainment technology, books, etc.) there are high levels of search volume. Good news? Not necessarily. The competition here has been around for years, knows the ropes and is solidly established. Don't forget to remain realistic and concentrate on goals that are achievable.

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