Blog content can be used to drive e-commerce sales by attracting customers and pushing them through a funnel; this works by capturing users who are searching for informational content instead of product information and bring this relevant traffic to your site through optimized content. The goal is to then push customers to product pages and encourage sales.
As your content gains new links from outside pages, this will also send relevant traffic back to your site, giving you more customers to nurture through the funnel.
To get the best results from your content marketing, Kevin recommends following several key tips:
- Doing quality keyword research. To do this, he suggests using the GSC to find low-hanging fruit opportunities, and to use tools like SEMrush’s Keyword Research tool to reverse engineer top-ranking content. You can look for what types of content and queries your competition is ranking for, and use that to create your own competitive content.
- Creating long-form content, which will typically beat out shorter content in the algorithms, as it offers more value. To track your results in the SERPs over time, you can use SEMrush’s Position Tracking tool.
- Keep the featured snippet in mind, as it can get you placed at the very top of the SERPs and get you noticed. Even if a customer searches for “best golf pants” and sees plenty of Google shop listings, the featured snippet of a blog post ranking the best pants will grab your attention most. If you create that post, you determine which pants get the most sales.
- Remember to consider semantic search, as voice search is being increasingly popular among users and is directly affecting search best practices. Think of semantic terms that users are likely to say but not type, and keep an eye out for supporting keywords.
- Optimize for CTR in the SERPs. You don’t just want to rank well; you want to get the clicks, too. To do this, entice the user and make your post look as relevant as possible. You can use the time or year in the title, or use other techniques to help you stand out.
- Always be conscious of link building. See if people you know (including friends and colleagues) would be willing to link to your content. You can also try to see if other sites targeting similar keywords would be interested in a guest post. Since you can’t always grab that top SERP spot, this is a great way to get relevant eyes on your content. When you get started with link building, Kevin recommends starting with the easy ones. SEMrush’s Link Building tool can help you identify those.
If you really want to stand out (which you should), it also helps to go for a multi-medium approach. Kevin recommends creating video content that supplements the blog content. This video can be embedded within the blog post, keeping traffic on your page for longer, in addition to gaining traction and views on its own on YouTube and driving more traffic to you that way.
By following these SEO best practices (and avoiding the most common SEO mistakes), you will be in good shape to drive organic traffic to your site on a long-term basis.