Why Is Ecommerce SEO Important?
If you have an ecommerce store, you know how important your website is to your business.
In fact, for many businesses, a large portion of their sales come from online orders. With more people using their phones and mobile devices to shop online, it is more important than ever that online shoppers can find your website.
To ensure that your website can be easily found by searchers, your website must be displayed on the first page of Google’s search results for a related query, or search term.
If your website is not displayed on the first page, your decreased visibility will result in less traffic to your site which means fewer online sales. For example, if you sell eco-friendly water bottles online, your website should be listed on the first page of the search results for a search query such as “orange eco-friendly water bottle.”
This is because most online shoppers will click on one of the first results that they see.
To get your website to rank highly in the search results, search engine optimization is a necessity.
SEO is a way to tell Google that your website is trustworthy and is relevant to a particular search term. That way, Google will be more likely to list your website on page one. With a large ecommerce store, it can be time-consuming to optimize your whole site for search engines, so many companies choose to hire an SEO agency to handle the work.
Why Hire an Ecommerce SEO Company?
Hiring an ecommerce SEO agency can help your business counter several challenges, including:
- Finding the time to optimize your store
- Learning the ins and outs of ecommerce SEO
- Developing an ecommerce SEO strategy
- Following through on an ecommerce SEO strategy
- Getting the results you want from ecommerce SEO
Deciding to work with an ecommerce SEO agency can introduce challenges, though.
You have lots of options, from agencies to freelancers, and it can become overwhelming. It’s also tempting for many businesses to hire an agency that offers cheap rates, but these agencies are often more trouble than they’re worth — and they almost never make lists for the top ecommerce SEO firms.
Why Hire a Top Ecommerce SEO Agency?
While can hire any SEO to work on your ecommerce store, hiring a top ecommerce SEO agency offers immense advantages.
With one of the best ecommerce SEO firms on your side, you can expect:
- A strategy customized to your store
- A consistent point of contact
- A white-hat (or ethical) approach to ecommerce SEO
- A regular schedule for sharing SEO work and optimizations
- A transparent approach to pricing and reporting
Working with an agency that your business can trust will make a difference in your day-to-day. You can trust, for example, that your ecommerce SEO company is optimizing your site and working towards your company’s long-term goals. You also don’t have to second-guess your invoice because, again, you can trust your agency.
How to Choose the Best Ecommerce SEO Company
When choosing an ecommerce SEO agency to manage your online store, you need to make sure that you are choosing a trustworthy agency that will provide you with positive results. SEO is an investment, so it is important to be on the same page about various costs and expected results.
To help you choose the best SEO agency for your ecommerce store, we compiled a few questions you should ask an agency before hiring them:
- What do your services include?
- How much do your services cost?
- Do your services include a contract or are they month-to-month?
- What experience do you have with ecommerce and my kind of products?
- What experience do you have with my specific ecommerce platform (Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, etc.)?
- When can I expect to see results?
- What happens if the SEO doesn’t work?
- What kind of reporting do you provide?
- What will I need to provide your ecommerce SEO agency?
- What tasks will your agency handle and what tasks will I need to handle?
These questions provide a basic foundation for finding the best ecommerce SEO firm for your business.
What to Ask the Best Ecommerce SEO Agencies About SEO Pricing
Cost is a factor when comparing top ecommerce SEO firms.
SEO is a service that encompasses a variety of smaller services, and therefore, many agencies offer custom packages at varying costs. You should ask cost-related questions upfront, so you are aware of every cost and fee.
Asking these types of questions of your SEO agency will help you understand the overall cost. Make sure you know exactly which services you are getting and how much they are going to cost you before hiring an SEO agency to manage your ecommerce website.
Get started with these cost-related questions, like:
How much does ecommerce SEO cost?
How much ecommerce SEO costs will depend on the agency and SEO package. In most cases, top ecommerce SEO firms charge several hundred to several thousand dollars per month. Depending on the company, your ecommerce SEO costs may include an onboarding fee, which involves strategy development and setup.
What is your management fee?
This is different from agency to agency, but there is often a management fee that accompanies SEO packages. Ask about the management fee upfront so that you are aware of additional costs that are not part of the SEO package. Then, you can shop around to find the best ecommerce SEO agency that aligns with your budget.
What is the monthly cost?
When it comes down to it, every agency should be able to give you a clear monthly cost for SEO. After discussing packages and management fees and deciding on an SEO plan, the top ecommerce SEO companies should be able to break down the cost line by line.
Because most agencies will charge you on a monthly basis, it is important to know what the monthly cost comes out to. This will help you determine if SEO is affordable for your business.
What services does the monthly fee include?
SEO covers a wide range of services, from writing and implementing new website content to building links on the site. It is a good idea to ask about the services included in your SEO package so that there is a clear understanding of the work being done.
Doing so will also tell you if there are added fees for additional services, or if there is one price for everything. Some agencies will charge you for individual services while others have one overall fee.