The world of SEO is huge, but since the web is increasingly focusing on e-commerce platforms, I want to pay extra attention to that for once. With the prospect of offering hundreds or even thousands of products (or variations thereof), SEO is an extremely important factor. With all the developments that take place, misconceptions often creep into the world, let me try to debunk the main misconceptions with an eye on e-commerce platforms in this.
1. Google Ads Keyword Planner Tool misconceptions
This point is perhaps two-fold and therefore also with reason nr 1 in this list.
Keywords are important, but we live in a time where that is just starting to become less important.
If you look at the primary purpose of a Google search engine, that is; give the best answer to the search query. But how do you do that?
Keywords or intent?
Do you do that by basing yourself on keywords? No, you look at the intent (and possibly at the previous behavior) of the person doing the search. With that you get more suitable content than just keywords.
Often a search falls in 1 of the 4 moments below;
- I-want-to-know
- I-want-to-go,
- I-want-to-do
- I-want-to-buy
These moments as Google calls them and further explains; https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/micro-moments/4-new-moments-every-marketer-should-know/,must be appropriately seized to attract the attention of your customer.
Keywords can help but search is much more focused on intent / behavior than many specialists in the SEO world often dare to admit. Often because it is easier to target a keyword than an intention.
Keyword Planner Tool accurate?
Beyond that fact, it has been proven from various quarters that the Google Ads Keyword Planner Tool is simply not very accurate with the estimates it provides. Yeah a common misconception.
Moz has written a very in-depth item about this; https://moz.com/blog/ranking-keyword-research-tools which I would certainly recommend if you still want to stand behind the Google Ads Keyword Planner.
2. Content is King and the misconceptions
Before I explain why it would not be the most suitable solution in the case of an e-commerce focused platform, I would like to make one thing clear first;
Content IS King!
For an enormous number of platforms, websites, etc., “Content is King” is certainly still true. You want dynamism, you want well-written content intended to meet the search intention of your visitor and potential customer.
You have to spend time there, you have to think about what fits your target group and demography. Be informative (or even educational), be commercial, be challenging.
Content and E-commerce
If you look at an e-commerce platform, you will often be talking about hundreds or even thousands of products. Then you have things like variants, combi deals and so on.
In fact, you have a lot of content, even without having to create content.
The need for content is then simply different. But that does not mean that you have to tackle the product content limply. No no, be informative, commercial and challenging; in fact everything you would normally be.
If there is room and the applicability for a specific blog for your niche or for in-house news / developments, then of course it is good to do. But don’t do it to do it.
3. Linkbuilding is a prioriteit, a misconception?
Obtaining links is not a bad thing in the long run. But there is a misconception in the SEO e-commerce world that getting links must be given a very high priority. There are often other SEO issues that you need to do earlier than link building.
Link building takes a lot of time
Link building is also time-consuming if you want to do well. Getting links can be fast or slow and you have no real control over that. In addition, you must keep in mind that your link profile appears organic / natural to Google.
Building a link profile that takes into account all factors that are important, such as Trust and Citation flow, is quite a lot of work. In addition, you must request links from the necessary parties, pages, etc., as well.
Sometimes it is extremely easy, you request your link, it is arranged.
Sometimes it is painfully slow or there are conditions. You request your link, you are asked to provide more information about how and why, you are faced with costs for placing the links or you simply do not receive a response for weeks (or months).
These are all scenarios that can occur and that you need to be prepared for and it is often better to look at link building at a later stage.
4. Dealing with customer content
On an E-commerce platform you are already dealing with customers and their associated accounts as standard. In many cases you will give the customer the opportunity to give a review, feedback or the like, so that you can ultimately improve your service.
You can do this on your own e-commerce platform or at parties such as TrustPilot / TheFeedbackCompany / Google (Reviews). The main tip here is if you do it externally to do something of a display on your own medium. What others say and find has an enormous power.
But one thing you often see in the field of e-commerce is that people are afraid of “bad” reviews or feedback. Sometimes you even see that if such interactions are not 100% positive, they will be banned or deleted.
Deal with the bad and try to make it good
You must see these interactions as an opportunity. If you have a 100% squeeky clean own medium in terms of reviews / feedback … but people indicate on a Trustpilot / TheFeedbackCompany / Google (reviews) that it shouldn’t be. Then that doesn’t really come across to other customers and possibly new customers.
You can deal much better professionally with what people say than actually becoming a victim of censorship or even being misleading.
It can take you some time and effort, but it can actually show that you can handle your platform and business in a better way with such situations.
5. Be unique – don’t try to replicate others
Imitation is the purest form of flattering, is a saying that is often uttered and also applies often when it comes to developments.
In essence there is nothing wrong with that; Watching a competitor to see how they handle business is nothing wrong with that. But you should not just base your efforts on what they do. On the web you have to show what makes you unique.
Being unique can be done in a lot of ways. That can be done by means of how you express yourself, how you shape things, how you work after sales, what your USPs (unique selling points) are, etc. In fact you can think of everything, you can certainly be unique in it in an appropriate way. to be.
That does not mean that you can learn things from your competitors, far from, such research is even advisable. But you don’t lose by pursuing party X because you want to be exactly as they are.
Be yourself and be unique and make it as attractive as possible for your customers!
I myself am constantly looking at how I can do everything I can to improve the customer experience but also the SEO in all areas, not only in the field of e-commerce. This also includes exposing misconceptions that play a role in the field of technology.
Are you looking for someone who thinks along with you and will also honestly tell you whether or not you are dealing with misconceptions? So feel free to contact me so that together we can see what I can do for you!
