Study Finds Ecommerce Experts Believe SEO is Crucial
Using effective SEO practices on your ecommerce business website can ensure a steady, reliable flow of targeted traffic that should give you a good conversion rate and a healthy bottom line, and according to a recent survey from the online trade publication Practical eCommerce, search engine optimization has become a top priority for digital marketing professionals.
The Magazine conducted the study in April 2010 and concluded 95 percent of respondents said SEO was important to their business, with 3.1 percent said they didn’t know, and only 1 respondent replied that it was not important. The survey found that 82.8 percent of respondents indicated their website is search engine optimized, while 11 percent said it wasn’t and 6.3 percent professed they did not know. In addition, the survey found that 40.6 percent of respondents “completely” understand SEO, while 54.7 percent understand it “somewhat” and 4.7 percent said they don’t understand it at all.
This news comes after a recent survey conducted by Genius found that many B2B organizations are missing out on opportunities to use SEO. Of the respondents, 32 percent of B2B companies didn’t use SEO tools, reported Genius. Similarly, many didn’t use social platforms, like blog software or social media, either.
A report recently released by Conductor reported that among the top 500 ecommerce companies based in the United States, the average grade it awarded for their use of SEO was a D. While most seem to understand its importance, many organizations have not implemented it as well as they could to enjoy optimum benefits. Without SEO, eCommerce organizations will struggle to draw both impulse online shoppers and those who use search engines to find the best prices for planned online purchases.
When it comes to search engine marketing, it seems natural search has emerged as the most effective. A recent study from Internet Retailer found that 51 percent of retail marketers said a quarter or more of their website traffic comes from natural search, compared to 28 percent who said so for paid search.