Let’s say you open a brick-and-mortar bakery instead of an online store. This illustrates the importance of SEO for ecommerce. Clarissa’s bakery is your bakery. Clarissa’s bakery is your dream. You spent months renovating it and creating the best cupcake recipes in the country. When you open your business, don’t put a sign in your front yard.

Without a sign, you can’t tell anyone you make the best cupcakes in the world. Your windows are shut and no one can see in. Clarissa’s is a mystery. They don’t know what Clarissa does.

You can’t just wait for customers to visit your store. Even if your brand name appears on the storefront, it is useless unless context (e.g. You can’t make people see your brand name on the storefront unless you provide context (e.g. cupcake displays in your windows).

Let’s switch gears. Clarissa’s bakery is offering an online cupcake delivery service. The website should look something like the following:

You have been launching your site for one month now and are already seeing traffic. You are also seeing higher sales than you expected.

The little blurb you added to your homepage was used by search engines to rank you and give you context. Search engines used this paragraph to find your website by searchers.

• Cupcake delivery service
• Gourmet cupcakes
• Cupcakes in Erie
• Cupcakes in Pennsylvania
• Handmade Cupcakes
• Gourmet cupcakes delivered
• Cupcakes delivered [to] party
• Cupcakes to be served at weddings in Erie

This list could continue. Although the keyword phrases above don’t appear together (they have just a few words between them), search engines have enough context to determine whether you can deliver cupcakes at a Pennsylvania wedding.

Keywords that aren’t in the right places on your website won’t rank well. This stands for optimizing your site by using the right keywords.

How to Identify your Keywords

Before you start writing copy or adding keywords to your website, it is important to understand what keywords customers are searching for online. 

Grab a piece of paper, a pen, and some pencils. Take a piece of paper and a pen.

• Any very specific and lengthy search terms (ex. Vanilla cupcake with blue frosting, and hot pink frosting”) – The search volume is low so you can easily run

• Anything that isn’t relevant to your products (ex. Places like “Erie” and “Pennsylvania”)

• No term that does not provide the content users want (e.g., “cupcake recipe” if you want to rank for it), you need some

You should limit your keyword list to just one or two keywords. Someone searching for “cupcakes”, for example, might be looking for recipes, photos, decorating ideas, tips, or a local bakery.

Once you’ve identified your niche, it’s possible to make a long list of both short- and long-tail keywords you can use on your website. Clarissa would be better off with queries such as “cupcake delivery in PA” and “buy cupcakes Erie”. These queries show intent and are more important than general interests.

You can narrow down your search terms to find out how many people have searched for them. The tool can also be used to determine search volume, difficulty, and competition.

This is a lot of competition. These keyword ideas show many suggestions with medium to low competition that still deliver a fair number of search results.

We are only a theory. Let’s talk “cupcakes Erie”.

We’re now

Let’s look at the keywords surrounding our niche: cupcake delivery

High volume, low competition. The business might be able to rise to the top of searches for these location-based keywords depending on how close Clarissa can deliver. However, it will have more conversions if you use long-tail keywords that show intent to buy or find something locally.

This guide to keyword searching provides an in-depth lesson on keyword identification.

Where do I place keywords on my website?

There is a way to get around the keyword-selecting madness. There is a way around our keyword-selecting madness.

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Some keywords are more difficult to find than others, especially if they are competitive. Search engines know these tricks and will not improve your search engine rankings. 

Here are some more ideas for keyword placement.

• Titles for pages

• The header text, like H1, H2, etc.

• It is a good idea to include a paragraph on your page copy.

• Links to other pages on your site if applicable

• Headers, footers, and menus are all acceptable. While a few lines of text are acceptable for the footer, a long list of keywords is not.

• In image alt text

Keyword optimization is a matter of common sense. You will eventually master this art.

What other things should I do to improve my SEO?

SEO goes beyond keywords. While search engines use keywords for relevancy, other factors can also affect your ranking.

User behavior determines how well your website ranks. A high bounce rate can indicate that search engines are not getting the information they want. Your site could drop in search engine rankings.

Linking is also important for SEO. Search engines can interpret a high number of links as a sign that you are trustworthy. This can help you climb the ranks. However, link quality is equally important. One link from a national news website carries more weight than 100 from a blog that nobody has ever read.

Search rankings and visibility can be affected by many other factors such as website architecture, meta tags, and keywords in hyperlinks. If you aren’t ranking well, Kobe Digital may be a good option.

Let’s now move on to the final topic before you launch your website: customer service.