Thanks to advances in technology and changes in the way that search engines work, the opportunities in search engine optimization are greater than ever for Ecommerce store owners.

What You Will Learn

Bigger Opportunities in a Bigger Market

Things have changed a lot in the world of search engine optimization (SEO). Back in the day, you could slap up a few spun pages of content linking to an offer, fire up your favorite black-hat link-building tool and blast your way to six-figure income.

Not anymore. Google has gotten a whole lot smarter, and such tactics are likely to result in your site being attacked by the Google ‘Zoo’ – Penguins, Pandas and maybe even Possums. These algorithmic updates are designed to weed out the junk, and they are getting better and better at doing it. Low-quality sites are getting down-ranked, penalized and even banned (quite right, too!).

Consequently, many people who relied on their search engine optimization skills to make a living have run for the hills. They have abandoned SEO in favor of the latest shiny object in the online marketing world.

There’s nothing wrong with trying new strategies, of course. But I think writing off SEO is a big mistake. Only search marketing can deliver thousands of hungry prospects who are not only interested in what you have to offer, they are actively searching for it!

Secondly, SEO is far from dead. But it has been re-incarnated. From the ashes of black-hat SEO, a new Phoenix has arisen – an era where ethical marketers can not only survive, but thrive and prosper.

For Ecommerce store owners who do things the right way, this is the best time ever to invest in SEO. Here are 10 very good reasons why you should be making search engine optimization a priority:

#1. Online Sales are Growing Fast

The shift towards buying products and services online is continuing at a frenetic pace. Year on growth is running at over 23 per cent. Ecommerce sales will top $6 trillion in the near future...that’s a huge opportunity!

With such a massive online market, there are unlimited opportunities for marketers. There are more niches than ever to take advantage of with professional search engine optimization.

#2. Search Queries are Growing Even Faster

There seems to be no stopping the continued growth in search. Google now handles over two trillion searches a year, which works out a whopping 63,000 searches per second.

Most of this growth is fueled by rapid growth in the number of mobile searches. This trend shows no sign of stopping anytime soon. In the years ahead, the number of mobile searches will just continue to accelerate.

So a much bigger market…and far more searches than ever – what more could you want?

#3. Greatly-Increased Opportunities to Rank

A decade or so ago, the way people searched was pretty simple. They would typically enter a broad two-word or three-word keyphrase, such as: "bluetooth speaker"

In recent years, though, the way people search has become a lot more complex. We are much more likely to construct detailed queries to find the exact information we need, such as:

‘Where can I find an affordable bluetooth speaker that will connect with my iPhone automatically?’

This has resulted in exponential growth in the number of terms a website can rank for, and SEO has changed accordingly. The old-school SEO method of trying to rank for a keyword that gets lots of searches is increasingly irrelevant.

Nowadays, it is much more important to build an authority site with great content. People will want to link to this quality content, and then the site will naturally rank for a whole host of different keywords.

As a result, there has never been a better time to build a website that attracts more and more search traffic over time.

#4. Advanced SEO Research Tools

The old era of spammy SEO has long passed, and the world is a better place as a result. Webmasters today are lucky to be overwhelmed with an amazing choice of products and services designed to make SEO more productive and efficient.

The SEO tools that we have at our disposal today are simply awesome. Just to make it clear though, I’m not talking about black-hat link-building tools. I am referring to the amazing research and analysis tools we can use to get ahead in SEO.

These tools give us amazing insights into a whole host of search engine optimization topics, including:

#5. Less Spam in the Search Results

When Google first released its Penguin update in 2012, the impact was like the Black Death sweeping across Europe in the Middle Ages. Many thousands of websites were struck down, and webmasters everywhere trembled in terror, awaiting the day when their business would be destroyed, too. The big cleansing was underway.

The end result of this is that the search engine results are now cleaner than ever. Google is very good at working what is useful content, and what is spam. That’s bad news if you are a black-hat spammer…but it’s good news if you create a genuinely useful website.

Now you can rank for keyphrases that are important to you, without facing stiff competition from those who spam their way into the rankings. This is the best time ever to rank real websites with genuine content.

#6. Multiple Ways to Rank

In the early days of Google, the search results pages where somewhat dull. There was nothing on the page expect 10 organic results, shown in plain text.

Now we live in the era of blended search, and that means there are multiple ways we can get our content into Google. Video is huge, and YouTube videos typically rank well. But there are also opportunities to rank using maps, images, news items and tweets.

With more ways to rank, we have more chances to succeed. And that has to be a good thing, right?

#7. Social Media Promotion

Creating great content isn’t enough. Somehow, you have to get the word out so that other people start linking to it. And social media offers a great way to do that.

We take Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for granted now, but they weren’t around in the early days of SEO. It was much harder to promote content, and to get the initial links needed to get content ranking.

Now we can promote new blog posts and other content very easily through social media platforms. One tweet, one pin or one Facebook share might be all it takes to get the ball rolling.

#8. More Conversions than Ever

The website technology we have access to nowadays is impressive indeed. Even without any technical knowledge, we can create beautiful websites that are optimized for maximum conversions.

We can build high-value products such as training courses and membership sites, and sell these more easily than ever. We have new and better ways to build mailing lists and stay in touch with subscribers.

All of this means more revenue from every click obtained from search. So there is more reason than ever to maximize those clicks.

#9. Win Back Lost Prospects through Re-targeting

Back in the day, there was no way to win back website visitors who had left without subscribing to our mailing list. Thanks to re-targeting, all that has changed.

Now we can use Facebook and Google re-targeting to advertise to those lost prospects as they surf the web. Research has shown this to be a highly-effective way of winning people back, and that customers won this way can be very profitable.

#10. A Huge Return on Investment

So when you put it all together, what does this mean? Quite simply, it means a huge return on investment.

Search engine optimization has always been a strategy that delivers high return on investment. Now that return is higher than ever.

So don’t give up on search. Instead, get good at it – very good.

Then you will be able to tap into an unlimited stream of prospects for many years to come, and turn your Ecommerce store into a profit machine.