Online Shopping During COVID: Ecommerce SEO Is More Important than Ever

Recently, AusPost released their annual eCommerce report. The key takeaway? COVID-19 has caused eCommerce activity to go through the ceiling, more than doubling in many cases!

Have you noticed that you’re doing a lot more of your shopping online lately?

If so, you aren’t the only one – due to lockdowns and business closures, online shopping is seeing unprecedented growth. According to AusPost, there’s been a huge jump in eCommerce activity throughout the nation.

And if your business is going to capitalise on this growth, you need to ensure that your website is up-to-date and ready to accommodate more online sales and business.

Fail to do so, and you could miss out on awareness, miss leads and lose sales.

Here are some numbers

It’s a long, long report – if you want to read it for yourself, all you need to do is follow this link.

The main takeaway? Due to COVID-19, eCommerce is booming.

And because we love numbers, here are some other stats pulled from the report comparing April 2020 to the same time in 2019:

• 5.2 million households shopped online
• 2.5 million households are shopping online each week
• eCommerce activity was 6.8% higher than the lead-up to Christmas 2019
• 200,000 new online shoppers were recorded
• The number of households shopping online grew by 31%

And they’re just the stats for April 2020 – an update in August revealed that since then, eCommerce activity is up 157% compared to the same time last year in Victoria alone!

There’s a lot more to the report, including in-depth charts breaking down changes in demand by type of product, as well as by state and even by delivery method (it’s an AusPost study, after all).

For today though, we’re going to just focus on what the boom in online shopping prompted by the pandemic means for you.

What you need to generate leads and do business online

While each business is different, over the years we’ve noticed that there are a handful of proven strategies and smart tools that are essential for any eCommerce store, whether they sell lollies, PPE or shoes.

Adding eCommerce support to your website

If you sell a product and you don’t have eCommerce functionality, you need to fix that, ASAP!

And when we say that, we mean a proper eCommerce system.

While doing everything through email contact forms can get the job done, it’s unwieldy, inconvenient and takes up a lot of your time – especially when there are platforms out there like Shopify and Square Online that do everything automatically.

Need to build an eCommerce website? That’s something we’d refer to our good friends at Confetti Design.

They take care of building the site, including setting up eCommerce systems, while our team focuses on…

eCommerce SEO

What good is a fantastic, modern eCommerce site if none of your customers are finding it?

The right eCommerce SEO strategy doesn’t just make you visible online – it ensures that your website is being found by people who:

• Live in the area you service or deliver to
• Are looking for your products or service
• Have high intent to purchase or call
• Fit your ideal customer or client

Because while visibility is great, unless you’re reaching the right people in the first place, it isn’t going to automatically translate into more conversions and sales – luckily, that’s what our team of SEO specialists is here for.

Online pay-per-click advertising

Whether it’s Google Ads, responsive banner ads or even Facebook Ads, online pay-per-click advertising (PPC for short) is a great way of helping your eCommerce store gain traction.

Unlike other types of advertising, you’ll only pay when someone clicks your ads, meaning you only pay when your campaigns perform.

PPC is quick to set up, and is a cost-effective way to get immediate traffic from people who are actively looking for your products and services.

As with SEO, it’s important that your PPC Melbourne campaign is carefully designed, with a focus on ensuring you spend your money on keywords that will translate into an improved bottom line.

Mobile-friendly website

While desktop and laptop computers continue to dominate online shopping, the report notes that a sizable amount of purchases (just a little bit under 40% of total online purchases) are made using tablets and smartphones.

Of course, your eCommerce site needs to be able to support these devices in the first place if you want to get these sales. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re missing out completely on a lot of potential sales!

On top of helping you secure mobile shoppers, a mobile-friendly website also works wonders from an SEO standpoint as well, helping direct potential shoppers to your website.

Make your business eCommerce-ready with our SEO agency in Melbourne

While it’s still too early to predict what the world might look like when we come out the other side, what we know for sure is the fact that it’s more important than ever that the digital side of your business is up-to-date and ready.

And that starts by getting in touch with a pro.

Upgrading the digital side of your business can take up time – something that’s in short supply for most small business owners.

Not only that, but it also requires a carefully thought-out strategy to ensure that you get the results you want.

Our SEO agency works hard to ensure that the digital side of your business is performing as it should, offering a range of different services with our partners that:

• Expand your eCommerce operations
• Generate the traffic that you want
• And ultimately, get you more sales

Are you ready for the digital future? Find out how our SEO agency in Melbourne can help you by calling 07 3732 6522, or by clicking here to get in touch online.