Looking to boost your online store's revenue? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a powerful tool that can make it happen. By enhancing your website's visibility in search results, such as on Google, SEO can attract more visitors to your site and drive more sales to your business. If you're not leveraging SEO, you could be leaving a significant amount of revenue on the table.

Understanding the Power of SEO

Over the past five years, effective SEO strategies have enabled numerous online stores to generate millions of dollars. It's time to discard outdated SEO strategies that no longer work. This guide will show you what works to get more customers and sales through online search.

Is SEO Right for You?

Not every business is ready for SEO. If you've tried SEO before and it didn't yield the expected results, don't lose heart. It may be a sign that you need a fresh, more effective plan.

What Drives SEO Results

Four main things can help your online store get better SEO results:

• Improving Collection Pages: Enhance your collection pages to target specific keywords.

• Creating New Collection Pages: Add new collection pages that your store doesn't already have.

• Internal Linking: Link to your pages a lot.

• Link Insertions: Get links from other websites that already have traffic.

Let's look closer at each of these.

Improving Existing Collection Pages

Most agencies don't change their collection pages to target a single keyword. They might focus on product pages or ignore collection pages. If they do work on collection pages, they might only do it once. That's not enough.

You should regularly check your collection pages to see if you can improve their ranking. This could involve changing the title, adding internal links, and making other minor adjustments.

Creating New Collection Pages

Many agencies will try to optimize your product and collection pages. However, they then proceed to write blog posts. Blog posts can be helpful, but they shouldn't be your first focus.

If you are an online store, you should approach blogs in a different way. Blogs are the least likely source of income. You need to create new collections. For example, say you sell compression socks. Instead of just having a general "compression socks" collection, you could make new collections like:

• Compression socks for travel

• Compression socks for the elderly

• Compression socks for gout

• Compression socks for plantar fasciitis

These collections are designed for individuals seeking specific items. Creating these particular collections can help you reach a wider audience of customers. It's best to make as many of these collections as you can before you start writing new blog posts. Your money comes from these specific collections, not from blog traffic.

Internal Linking

Internal linking is a simple but effective SEO tactic. It involves linking between your blogs, from blogs to collections, and between similar collections. The more you link, the better. A well-planned internal linking strategy can significantly enhance your SEO.

Link Insertions

Link insertions are when you get links from other websites. This can be challenging, but it's worth it. Many agencies engage in guest posting because it's a relatively straightforward process. But guest posting has problems.

When you write a guest post, you have to create the content and pay a fee. You also have to bring traffic to the post. There are often many guest posts on the same site. The website manager isn't going to link to all the posts or promote yours. Your guest post might get lost on the website and never get any traffic.

Link insertions, another critical SEO tactic, are often more effective than guest posts. You give up some control, but you get more traffic. You find websites in your area that already have traffic. Then, you suggest changes to their content so you can add a link to your site. For instance, if you sell compression socks, you could add a link to your site in an article about foot health on a popular health website. This provides a valuable link on a page that people are already visiting.

Finding the right sites and pages requires more effort, but the resulting boost in traffic makes it worthwhile. Want to find the right websites for your industry?

SEO Myths Busted

Here are some common SEO myths that you should know about and understand why they are not true:

Myth 1: Most SEO Agencies Are Good

This is not true. Many SEO agencies are not very good. They might tell you that SEO takes 6 to 12 months to work. This allows them to charge you for a long time without delivering results.

If you don't see results in the first 6 months, something is wrong. You should see improved rankings, increased clicks, more traffic, and higher revenue. Good agencies will be open with you. They will explain how things work, why they do what they do, and how it generates revenue for you. Many agencies will send you a report once a month and say, "We wrote these blogs and built these links." You don't know if it worked or not.

Good agencies will tell you when a new backlink goes live. They will ask you questions to better understand your customers. If you don't know what your SEO agency has been doing for the last 6 months, they are probably not doing anything.

Myth 2: Blogs are the Most Important Part of SEO

Blogs can be helpful, but they are not the most important thing, especially for online stores. The money is made at the bottom of the funnel, which is your products and collections.

Some agencies will write blog posts because it's easy. However, blog content may not generate any income for you. It's better to fix your product and collection pages first. If you write blogs without doing that, it's like trying to cover up a mess.

Some agencies offer packages that include additional blogs and backlinks at a higher price. But they are writing easy blogs and building low-quality links.

The SEO world has changed. Focus on your products and collections first.

Myth 3: More Backlinks Mean Better Rankings

This is not true. You can purchase a large number of cheap backlinks, but they may ultimately harm your site. It's better to have fewer, high-quality backlinks.

Some agencies will build a lot of links for a low price. But the links are probably not very good. A good backlink can cost anywhere from $50 to $3,000.

Myth 4: SEO is Good for Every Business

This is not true. SEO is not right for every business. If you are a new business generating less than $10,000 per month, SEO is unlikely to be beneficial to you.

SEO works best when you have a large number of products. If you have fewer than 100 products, don't spend money on an SEO agency. Continue spending money on paid ads until you've grown more. Most businesses that work with agencies are already generating over $100,000 per month. SEO works for them because they have already grown with paid ads.

If you earn $75,000 to $100,000 a month or more, consider using SEO. But if you are making less than that, focus on paid ads.

Conclusion

SEO can be a great way to increase revenue for your online store. But you need to know what you're doing. Focus on improving your collection pages, creating new collections, building internal links, and getting good link insertions. And don't believe the SEO myths. With the right plan, you can use SEO to grow your business.