Think SEO SHOP to Drive Online Sales

Thank you to Valley Business FRONT for featuring our Vice President, Carrie Cousins, in their March 2025 issue.

Every business that sells online is looking for a better way to drive traffic and sales to their e-commerce store. A solid search engine optimization strategy is one long-term path to generating sales.

SEO SHOP is your quick guide to planning and managing SEO for your e-commerce website with 7 tips to help you create stronger SEO for your SHOP.

• Start with keyword research. Knowing what words people use to describe your product or service can help you know what language to focus on with your product information. Think about audience as well. For example, if you sell tennis shoes, people might also search for sneakers, kicks, running shoes, walking shoes, etc. (Or are your shoes only for tennis players?)
• Embrace user intent. Users visit a website for one of three primary reasons – to learn something, to do something, or to be entertained. What type of user are you serving? Your best opportunity to make a sale is from a “do” user.
• Optimize pages and checkout for mobile users. From product pages to ease of checkout, everything on your e-commerce site has to be lightning fast and work on a phone. Bonus points for your business if your online store allows direct sales on other platforms, such as Facebook or Instagram. (If you aren’t sure about how to do that a marketing agency or digital partner can help.)
• Share content to grow the funnel. Some of my best e-commerce clients sell the most product from links embedded in their own content. This includes blog posts with content relevant to the product being sold with links to purchase, video how-tos or tutorials, and product guides that that emphasize ease of use.
• Hone in on technical SEO. There’s nothing more detrimental to online sales than a broken link, crawling error, or missing information or title that causes search engines to skip your site altogether. Run a technical audit at least annually to ensure that your online store is in to technical shape.
• Organize product pages for quick checkout. How easy is it to add something to the cart and check out? Product pages need a clear and direct path: Add to cart → Cart preview → Enter payment information and complete checkout. Make sure key elements of the shopping experience, such as the cart are visible and accessible at all times. (Keep that checkout process as simple as possible too. Only ask for information you absolutely need to ensure a smooth and quick purchase for shoppers.)
• Prioritize speed and user experience. A light fast website will make users happy and keep them moving through their buying path. Compress images, minify code, and use caching where appropriate to ensure that pages load quickly and allow shoppers to see everything they need to make a choice. A fast website can actually encourage impulse buying!

Carrie Cousins is the Vice President at LeadPoint Digital in Roanoke. For 15+ years, she has helped businesses tell their stories and get better results online with practical digital marketing strategies. She is also an active leader in AAF, serving on the local and district boards, and is an adjunct professor at Virginia Tech.