Search Engine Optimization for Marketplaces
Search Engine Optimization (SEO), or the process of optimizing your website to improve its rankings in search engines like Google for particular keyword phrases, is a custom process for each website. That’s not to say that there isn’t an established art and science to SEO, but rather, that SEO requires more strategy than flipping a switch. After all, SEO is based on search engines seeing your site as a valuable resource to internet users searching for specific keyword phrases.
As you’re likely to have competition for those rankings, and have to follow best-practices as established by companies like Google, it’s important to have a plan of action that will most effectively utilize your marketing resources, and work toward your goals.
Overall, SEO can be broken into two main areas of focus. These include on-site efforts related to having-quality keyword-rich content, properly tagging your content, and following web development standards to help search engines identify and see value in the various pages within your website. The other set of factors relate to buzz about your site on other relevant and high quality websites across the internet, mainly in the form of backlinks. This helps search engines to judge that other people think that your website is an important resource too.
When it comes to multi-vendor marketplaces, there are a few main points that will make your website unique when compared to other types of sites, including more traditional E-commerce websites:
First comes your keyword research. Many websites can rely on a strong content and merchandising strategy that the website owners control. In a multi-vendor scenario, you may not have nearly as much control over which product pages exist on your website at any given time. This means that you may need to focus your SEO efforts on more generic keyword phrases, such as the names of the category pages within your website. You may also find that it’s important to create more static content pages or even a separate blog, in order to have more pages that you can optimize.
Secondly, in addition to ranking well for traditional keyword phrases that will drive in consumers of the product types offered on your website, it’s likely that you’ll also want to attract sellers. Creating pages on your site that talk about how you can “sell your insert product name here”, for instance, can be a great way to start. Remember, if your website doesn’t have strong content for a keyword phrase, you’re not likely to rank for it in Google.
Thirdly, don’t forget that as a marketplace, you can leverage your sellers to help build buzz about your site on social media, and backlinks from blog posts and other relevant web pages. While you don’t control every action of your sellers, and don’t want to over-complicate your relationship with them, you can create graphics that they can post on social media, articles on your website that they can share, and so forth in order to enable this group of stakeholders to help with grassroots SEO efforts.
Overall, search engine optimization requires ongoing attention and efforts in order to yield the desired results. Rankings improve incrementally over time as search engines continually reevaluate your website, finding new changes and improvements. We often like to equate it to a hike up a mountain. There’s no express elevator to the top, but getting to the summit can be extremely rewarding for your business.
Like any other professional service, it’s always recommended to work with a vendor with relevant experience, expertise, and a track record of getting results. It’s also important to choose experts that have the language skills and other local specializations that will help them to spread your message effectively. With that in mind, Rand Marketing, an Arcadier Partner is offering free SEO evaluations for Arcadier clients. Request yours today at https://randmarketing.com/request-consultation/, or by calling 1 (954) 530–6125.
— Robert Rand, CTO, RandMarketing.com
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