online store promotion. part 1

The undeniable popularity of online shopping continues to grow, becoming a routine part of daily life. Consumers automatically search for products online, regardless of their needs. Studies indicate that the frequency of consumers turning to online stores for retail purchases will only increase. For businesses, investing in e-commerce offers long-term advantages, considering scalability potential

Research shows that 79% of consumers make online purchases at least once a month, and by 2026, 24% of retail purchases are expected to be conducted online 

Thus, for product-based businesses, having an online store is essential to stay competitive and secure both short-term and long-term benefits

That's taken care of. What's next? Suppose you have developed a high-quality and functional online store, made it visually appealing, modern, filled it with relevant products, carried out all the technical work, etc. After that there are legitimate questions - how to make the online store, firstly, was visible to your CA among competitors, and secondly, brought sales? Relax, we have answers to these questions too

How to promote an online store?

There is no magic solution here. So, if you're looking for something incredibly simple and magical, this article might not be for you. Instead, we'll address this issue more structurally and systematically

Structure of this topic:

1. Where to start with promotion and in which channels
2. Technical optimization of the online store and its specifics
3. Search engine optimization
4. Types of advertising promotion
5. Increasing conversion, working with USP, and acquiring new customers

1. Where to start with online store promotion and in which channels?

Promoting an online store involves a set of specific actions. Let's explore possible channels for traffic acquisition and select the most relevant ones, work with the semantic core, and consider aspects of technical optimization

The first thing to do before developing a strategy is to perform analytics

Competitor search

The effectiveness of your promotion strategy depends on this stage. A common mistake is incorrectly identifying competitors. It’s crucial to understand whom to benchmark against and who your direct competitors are. It's mistaken to think that copying the site of a market leader will secure top search engine positions. More established, authoritative sites with high regular traffic have a certain trust level with search engines. Such online stores might get a pass on some optimization and promotion errors, which is not the case for newer or recently created sites. Therefore, it is essential to carefully define competitors, paying attention to those similar in product range, brand awareness, and other factors

Decide on promotion channels to focus on

Main traffic channels for an online store include:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• contextual advertising
• SMM (Social Media Marketing)
• media advertising
• working with marketplaces
• email marketing

Often, all these channels are used simultaneously to promote an online store. However, it is necessary to later analyze each and understand which are the most effective

Main factors for analysis:

• channel effectiveness (quantitative and qualitative analytics)
• competition in the niche
• regions you operate in
• price comparison with competitors
• seasonality
• potential for increasing sales
• tools your competitors use for promotion
• brand awareness and customer trust level
• customer service quality compared to competitors

Potential for SEO Promotion of the online store

Initially, it is essential to analyze the keywords potential customers might use to find you. If their frequency is extremely low and the variety of queries is not broad, investing heavily in SEO may not be practical. In such cases, promoting through other channels might be more effective

This might be the case with a brand-new market product that users have little information about, or if the product has low demand. In such cases, developing an SMM strategy and allocating resources for SMM promotion could be advisable. Alternatively, various types of advertising promotion could be used. Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all template; each online store requires an analysis and a customized promotion plan

Combine promotion channels for the online store

Do not expect high results from a new site immediately. Website traffic is one of many ranking factors. Based on this indicator, search engines analyze user behavior factors, usability, etc. To generate traffic, it is better to use promotion on social networks and targeted advertising, search advertising, and advertising in the Display Network (DN), and remarketing. Traffic from all these channels not only indirectly helps SEO promotion but also contributes to rapid sales growth in the early stages of your site's operation

Interact with customers through email marketing, promotional offers, and remarketing with additional products

2. Technical optimization of the online store and its features

One of the most critical aspects of successful online store promotion is its technical optimization. The site must have a high level of optimization: loading speed, no code errors, no non-working pages, high usability level, and much more. All these points should be considered even at the stage of preparing the technical specifications for site development 

Why is technical optimization necessary?

• proper functioning of all site algorithms allows correctly displaying information in the user's browser
• loading speed - high page loading speed, especially in the mobile version, allows the user to stay on the site and significantly increases the conversion level
• indexing of the online store - the search robot has seen, «read», evaluated, and added your site to its database for further display in the search results
• meta tags and microdata - allow the crawler to structure the page data and display additional links in the search results, attracting additional user attention

3. Search engine optimization of the online store

Search engine optimization is conducted to raise the site's position in search results and enhance usability. What actions does effective SEO promotion of a site include?

Developing the semantic core of the online store

First, it is necessary to collect the semantic core for your site's products and cluster it (grouping queries into common groups). There are many tools available, both paid and free. If the site is brand new or its positions in the search results are very low, it is advisable to use low- and medium-frequency keywords for promotion

Advantages of «low-frequency» keywords:

• the lower the keyword frequency, the lower the competition in the auction
• low-frequency keywords contain more precise user intent, which can lead to high CTR

At the start of the promotion, it is better to use low-frequency queries, gradually expanding the semantics as the site's positions grow

Developing the structure of the online store site

The catalog structure should be developed based on the clustered semantic core. It is necessary to create landing pages for as many groups as possible:

• low-frequency keywords - product pages and subcategories
• medium-frequency keywords - category pages
• high-frequency keywords - the main page of the site, main sections

When developing the site structure, remember - it must be logical and intuitively clear to the user. A few tips:

• avoid deep nesting of pages - it significantly worsens the usability of any site
• increase the range - an online store with a broad range of products has much more chances to reach the TOP of the search results
• create cards for products that are out of stock, add the ability to request notification of its arrival, or complement the product card with a «Custom order» button

Internal linking

How to use internal linking:

• links in the site menu to all subcategories act as a kind of site map
• use additional tags, for example, in combination with product features
• use blocks with «similar», «popular» products, etc
• «breadcrumbs» simplify navigation and can also be displayed in the search snippet
• use links in the text descriptions

Summary

Thus, promoting an online store is a complex process that requires a systematic approach and the involvement of a wide range of different channels and tools. Primary analytics, developing a promotion strategy and plan, subsequent consistent work, and adjustment of actions based on interim analytics - this is the recipe for obtaining quality results in promoting an online store

In the second part, we explored methods and features of advertising promotion, as well as ways to increase the conversion rate of the online store