What Are Ecommerce SEO and Marketing Agencies?
We’ve seen an enormous growth of ecommerce business worldwide over the last few years. And this growth is not about to stop any time soon.
Global online retail revenue stood at 446.8 billion dollars in 2017, and it’s estimated to hit the 700 billion mark in 2022.
Hence it’s no surprise that SEO marketing agencies are on the rise as well. The competition is fierce and the industry standards are high, so gaining any kind of competitive edge is of utmost importance.
Plainly speaking, SEO (search engine optimization) is a set of best practices and strategies that are supposed to improve your website’s search engine rankings.
Your search rankings depend on how user-friendly your website is. SEO agencies can make your website more user-friendly by making technical on-site alterations, improving your content and building a strong backlink profile.
When it comes to ecommerce marketing companies, they use various forms of online marketing to ensure better online visibility for ecommerce brands.
Although SEO doesn’t really resemble any traditional form of marketing, a lot of digital marketing agencies offer SEO services as well. SEO and marketing usually go hand-in-hand and they’re both considered a must for ecommerce firms. At the end of the day, they have the same goal – to boost your online presence which will, in turn, boost your sales.
How To Select An Ecommerce SEO And Marketing Agency
1. Which SEO And Marketing Services Do You Need And Does This Agency Have The Necessary Expertise?
Ecommerce SEO and marketing agencies offer a wide choice of different services. Let’s just name a few:
- SEO
- PPC
- Social media marketing
- Web design and development
- Email marketing
- Display advertising
- Conversion rate optimization
- Content marketing
- Influencer marketing
- Website analytics
Which one you’ll choose depends on your niche, target audience, your business goals and of course, on how well-optimized and well-advertised your ecommerce business already is.
For most company owners and decision makers, it’s difficult enough to evaluate which of the abovementioned services their business needs, let alone evaluating if the ecommerce marketing agency is competent enough.
Therefore, don’t rush into any decisions, try to find the weakest links in your online presence and look for agencies that have the best reputation in these fields.
2. Examine The Previous Projects That The Ecommerce SEO Agency Have Completed
So how do you get familiar with the work of a certain agency? The first step would simply be taking a look at their previous work.
Every reputable ecommerce SEO marketing company has some kind of online portfolio where you can check out their earlier projects. If they’ve uploaded some case studies, even better – you can inspect in closer detail what was the intention of each project, its methodology and results.
The more experience the agency has with your industry, the better. That means they are already familiar with your market and target audience. If they have already been involved with numerous companies from your branch, they certainly have a good idea about what works and what doesn’t.
Also, don’t hesitate to check if their own website is well-optimized and whether their social media accounts are strong. If they can’t handle their online presence properly, there’s little chance they can handle yours.
3. Client Reviews And References Speak Volumes About The Agency’s Ability To Deliver Results
When it comes to online retail, as much as 74 percent of Americans think it’s important to read reviews about the item posted by other buyers. And you should apply the same tactic when choosing the right SEO marketing agency.
While reading online reviews about the top ecommerce marketing agencies is quite helpful, it’s even better if you could hear some impressions directly from former clients. That way you can find out about the quality of their work and their company culture in more details.
If it’s difficult to find reviews or former clients and partners, you should be very careful. There’s a chance that these people are amateurs or even impostors. Never go for an agency that has no reliable account of their previous work.
4. Decide When You Want The SEO Marketing Agency To Deliver Results
Essentially, both SEO and digital marketing are long-term strategies and it takes time until you can actually see some significant effects.
Namely, it normally takes at least 4 to 6 months before you can notice serious improvements in your website’s rankings. When it comes to SEO marketing services, you need to be patient, since there’s no success overnight.
Same goes for any kind of ecommerce marketing services. There are no shortcuts here – you won’t be seeing any true progress instantly.
However, that doesn’t mean there’s no difference as to how long this process takes in different ecommerce marketing companies. Before you start working with an agency you need to talk openly about your needs and their capabilities in terms of time limits. And of course, once deadlines are set it’s imperative that the agency meets them.
5. Determine Your Budget Before Hiring An Ecommerce SEO And Marketing Agency
Ecommerce companies have a wide array of choices when it comes to marketing, in terms of different channels, strategies, as well as the price range.
A great thing about digital marketing is that there’s something for everyone’s budget. Obviously, the more you’re willing to spend the chances are better that you’ll see real effects.
So once you narrowed down the choice of top ecommerce SEO marketing agencies, determine your budget and check which agencies can offer you the best deal for your money.
Top Ecommerce SEO & Marketing Companies
5 Traits Of The Best Ecommerce SEO And Marketing Agencies
1. Top Ecommerce Marketing Agencies Understand Your Brand Identity, Mission And Goals
In addition to being acquainted with your industry as a whole, it’s vital that the SEO marketing firm you hire understands your brand.
It’s not necessary that the agency shares your values, but it’s important that they recognize the importance of maintaining your brand’s identity. Every company is one of a kind and its image can be truly boosted only by highlighting what’s unique about it.
2. Top Ecommerce SEO And Marketing Firms Create Campaigns That Work Together To Achieve Your Goals Efficiently
The best ecommerce marketing companies understand that any SEO and/or marketing effort should be taken and analyzed as a whole.
For instance, in the long run, your SEO will improve your social media presence and vice versa. Thus coming up with creative solutions that will combine the two approaches and making sure you get the most out of them is a trait of a truly successful ecommerce SEO and marketing agency.
3. Best Ecommerce SEO And Marketing Companies Have An Efficient Workflow and Work Collaboratively
A successful campaign is never conceived and executed by just one person or one department. This especially goes for really big projects. Teams of designers, search engine optimization experts, copywriters, social media managers and many others all cooperate and work hard to achieve a single goal.
Thus the communication and collaboration between the teams have to be smooth and quick. An efficient workflow is a basis of any promising business or marketing endeavor.
4. Top Ecommerce SEO Companies Have Access To Top Talent, Tools And Resources
Strong Google ranking is an absolute must for any ecommerce business.
As much as 43% of all ecommerce traffic comes from organic Google search.
Therefore, you have to make sure that the best SEO experts are working on improving your rankings. Since SEO is sometimes a highly technical and data-driven job, it goes without saying that they should use the best available tools and software. You don’t want to lose half of your traffic because of someone’s incompetence or technological shortcomings.
5. Best Ecommerce SEO And Marketing Firms Have Full-Service Offerings And Put Strong Emphasis On Professional Relationships With Clients
As it was said, ecommerce digital marketing agencies often offer optimization services as well. Having the same agency working on both your marketing and your SEO can be very handy as it allows for a more integrated approach to building your brand online.
Furthermore, reputable ecommerce marketing companies are aware of the fact that the client-agency relationship should be carefully fostered.
49% of clients have reported that they’re working with only one or two agencies at the time, so people from the most prominent agencies know that there’s a very limited pool of potential clients and partners.
These agencies recognize that without a truly professional approach they’d be erased from the map very soon.
How Do Top Ecommerce SEO And Marketing Companies Charge?
1. Ecommerce Marketing Firms Charge By The Hour
Paying by the hour may seem like a fair solution when working with an ecommerce marketing agency. Especially for clients that are not too familiar with SEO and marketing. Since you can’t estimate the size of the project yourself, it sounds reasonable to let the agency do their job and pay an hourly rate for their efforts.
Nevertheless, this billing method can get tricky as agencies normally have a hard time assessing how much time they’ll need to achieve the goals that were set.
In addition, if they seem slow, you can’t tell if that’s because they’re inefficient or because they just need more time. There are numerous factors that can interfere with the process and a lot of them are quite unpredictable.
2. Ecommerce SEO Companies Use Results-Based Billing
This method is probably the most generous towards clients. Unless you get your promised rankings or if your KPIs happen to be underperforming, you’re not paying the full price (or not paying at all).
It can be risky for agencies, though, since there’s no real guarantee that the desired results will actually be achieved. Even the most reputable of ecommerce SEO and marketing agencies can be only partially confident about the success of the project. However, if they’re willing to risk, you should go for it.
3. You Can Pay Monthly Retainers To Ecommerce SEO And Marketing Companies
Monthly retainers can be quite convenient for both ecommerce SEO and ecommerce marketing. They’re both long-term strategies that take several months or years. You could even say that both SEO and online marketing are actually never-ending processes.
Having that in mind, it’s best to stick to a single agency during this period of time. They’ll have a much easier job once they get familiar with your strengths and weaknesses, as well as with your company and your brand image.
And since you’re already committed to one ecommerce marketing agency, paying a monthly fee seems like a rational choice for a number of reasons. Apart from not having to calculate the number of hours they do every month, it also develops strong ties between an agency and the client, which can only bring good things to this relationship.
4. Ecommerce SEO And Marketing Agencies Receive Flat Fees For Projects
If you don’t have strict time limits, sometimes it’s best to simply pay by the project. This project can be very well-defined in terms of expectations and results, so you don’t have to worry that you’ll be tricked by the agency. And until the project is finished you won’t have to pay the full price, so you’re protected.
And of course, if you like how this ecommerce marketing and SEO agency carried the project out, you can choose to go for a long-term commitment with them. It’s a great way to actually test the agency’s capabilities.
Ecommerce SEO and Marketing Agencies Have An Organized Process For Success
1. Ecommerce Marketing Agencies Have Their Strategy Laid Out
The process of most ecommerce SEO and marketing companies starts with laying out a detailed overall strategy.
You should work together with the agency on this. You’ll have to explain your brands’ values and mission so that they can make effective plans on how to improve your Google ranking, your conversion rate or social media presence.
It’s also crucial that you have a good idea about your long-term plans, in terms of traffic, engagement or sales. Only then the ecommerce marketing firm you hired can set off to a strong start and make a sound and effective strategy that will meet your goals.
2. Ecommerce SEO Firms Conduct Market Research
After the strategy has been laid out, the agency will have to look into your competitors’ online channels. They have to know how strong they are, how they rank on search engines and which strategies they applied in order to get the most of their website or social networks.
Doing a research on competition can be especially valuable for ecommerce SEO agencies in the process of developing a keyword strategy. Analyzing how industry leaders employ keywords and which ones they use most commonly can be very valuable for your company.
3. The Best Ecommerce SEO Companies Utilize These Steps When Boosting Rankings
1. Conducting an audit
Optimization process normally stars with an SEO audit. Namely, the best ecommerce SEO agencies will always thoroughly inspect your website and check how each and every little detail of your website affects your rankings.
First up, they’ll perform the aforementioned keyword research and determine which queries you should be optimizing your website for. In general, small or up-and-coming companies should avoid highly competitive keywords. Instead, they should try ranking products and category pages for some more specific, long-tail queries.
Another important element that the ecommerce SEO agency will have to check is your site speed. If it’s slow, they’ll have to find the causes to that. It’s not just that Google has started rating website performance as one of the crucial ranking factors, but fast page loading can also keep the users at your website for a longer period of time.
Namely, 40% of your visitors will be tempted to leave the website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load a page.
Moreover, earlier this year, Google has announced that they’re beginning to implement mobile-first indexing when ranking search results. This puts the emphasis on mobile performance and user experience of your website.
This comes as no surprise, since mobile traffic has surpassed desktop traffic back in 2016. And in 2017, mobile browsing already accounted for 63% of overall internet traffic. Hence optimizing your website for mobile devices in terms of design and content is an absolute must.
Of course, the list doesn’t stop here. The agency needs to ascertain if your website is fulfilling dozens of other conditions.
These include some of the general best SEO practices such as a quality backlink profile or some more technical aspects such as sitemaps, image alt descriptions or H-tags. They’ll also have to check some elements that are characteristic of ecommerce websites, like unique product descriptions or canonical tags for filtered previews.
2. Conducting A Keyword Research
As it was said, quality keyword research is an integral part of any sound SEO strategy.
A part of this job can, in theory, be done manually, but most SEO experts prefer to use some of the most reliable SEO tools or plugins, such as Ahrefs, Yoast SEO or SEMrush.
The keyword strategy needs to be adapted to your industry, your brand and the scope of your business. Once the agency determines the most important keywords, they should start implementing them and adapt the content on your website accordingly.
3. Optimizing Your Site Technically
Apart from altering the content, the best ecommerce SEO companies will do a thorough technical optimization of some of the on-site features.
The point of these modifications is improving the user experience of your website. This means speeding it up, as well as making it easy for users to read, navigate and buy.
4. Continually Monitoring Best Practices, Competitors And Ranking Placement
SEO isn’t a process that has a definite beginning and the ultimate end. You need to make sure that your website remains well-optimized and that any new adjustment you make or fresh content you upload fits the best SEO practices.
This also means tracking how you rank compared to your biggest competitors. Since Google’s algorithm is constantly changing and your competitors are probably also working on SEO for their websites, your #1 ranking can be gone in a blink of an eye. Therefore, best ecommerce SEO firms will continually work on maintaining or improving your rankings.
4. The Best Ecommerce Marketing Companies Use These Tactics To Boost Your Online Presence
1. Creating A Strategy
When it comes to ecommerce marketing, it also starts with establishing a long-term comprehensive plan. It includes deciding which platforms to use to advertise and distribute content, which tone and language suit your target audience and what kind of content is of interest to them.
For instance, if you’re trying to reach a somewhat educated audience, LinkedIn may be the right place as 50% percent of its users hold at least a college degree. Or if you’re planning to target women, choosing Pinterest seems like a good choice, since 45% of online women use it.
Obviously, the strategy that the ecommerce digital marketing agency lays out needs to be aligned with your goals and values. The plan should also account for how the agency intends to provide ROI, or in other words, how exactly is your business going to profit from the strategy.
2. Designing Visuals, Writing Copy And Executing Campaigns
Next up are genuine creative tasks. Once the plan is designed, it’s time to put it to work and create some actual content.
Designers, copywriters and social media managers are basically taking it from here. They need to adjust the visual identity and the voice your brand uses to address the audience according to your target market.
These are the jobs that demand expertise, creativity and experience. Big plans amount to nothing if the execution is below par.
3. Monitoring Success And Adjusting Any Elements As Needed To Ensure Success
Proper execution of the campaign means more than just posting the previously prepared content. Top ecommerce marketing agencies should also pay close attention to the feedback the campaign is getting.
They have to be flexible, as sometimes things don’t turn out the way they planned. Sometimes, the audience is unpredictable and although the strategy looks flawless and very well-thought, it may end up as a complete failure.
Thus it’s critical that the results of the marketing efforts are closely monitored. If something simply doesn’t work, for every reputable agency this means they’re going back to the drawing board.
5 Questions To Ask Before Hiring An Ecommerce SEO And Marketing Agency
1. What Platform Do You Recommend We Build Our Website On? Why Will That Improve Our SEO Rankings And Organic Traffic?
First things first - choosing the right platform should be one of the priorities both for you and the ecommerce SEO agency you hired.
The most popular ecommerce platform is WooCommerce, with 31% of ecommerce sites having been built on this platform. It’s followed by Magento, OpenCart, Prestashop and Shopify.
This comes as no surprise, as WooCommerce is the extension of the most popular CMS, WordPress, which powers 30% of websites worldwide. WordPress is also considered the most SEO-friendly CMS, with numerous plugins that can help you with your optimization efforts.
2. Which SEO And Marketing Tactics Will Give Us The Best Return On Investment?
Calculating ROI in marketing has always been quite tricky. However, numerous analytical tools have changed that, and there are relatively reliable ways to calculate how much money has a digital campaign brought to your company.
That means that ecommerce marketing agencies have to provide a way to make value for the money they charge. And not just that, they need to have a solid plan on how to do it in advance. Only this way they can prove that the campaign they conceived is not just a mere shot in the dark that may or may not hit the target.
3. How Will You Determine Our Short-Term And Long-Term Goals? How Will You Formulate A Strategy To Achieve Them?
A top ecommerce SEO and marketing company should be able to not just help you determine your goals, but also work out the exact process that should lead to achieving those goals.
This implies that they should establish a number of short-term goals that should serve as stepping stones. True success can only come as a result of a long, gradual process. The agency should have all these steps carefully laid out and thoroughly explained.
4. What Tools Do You Use To Gather Data And Track Performance For SEO And Marketing Campaigns?
Tracking feedback and performance of the campaign is a crucial part of any marketing effort. We’re in living in an era when advertisers have all the needed data just a click or two away.
Thus it’s very important how well-equipped the ecommerce SEO and marketing agency is in terms of tools they use for this purpose. You want them to have the best possible software for the job at their disposal.
5. How Will You Analyze Our Competitors’ And Target Audience’s Behavior?
Again, the success of your campaign depends largely on how well the agency has looked into the online behavior of your most prominent competitors. Best ecommerce marketing agencies need to showcase a combination of data-driven rationality and a creative impulse needed to implement what they learned about the competition.
That’s why they’ll need a set of reliable online tools to gather this kind of data.
Same goes for your target audience. Without having the proper knowledge of it, based on hard facts and significant experience, the results of the campaign will most likely be less than impressive.
Who Are The Team Members At A Leading Ecommerce SEO And Marketing Agency?
1. Project Manager
In most companies, project managers serve as a point of contact between the client and the company.
They’re also at the core of companies’ organizational structure, connecting different teams and departments. Their task is to ensure seamless communication, regularly check on the progress of each project and make the workflow as efficient as possible.
2. Marketing Strategist
Marketing strategists are team members with significant experience and deep knowledge of the advertising industry.
Thanks to their expertise, they can always see the big picture and make up comprehensive marketing strategies. These strategies represent a starting point for any successful marketing campaign. For ecommerce marketing firms, these individuals are very valuable.
3. Digital Marketers
Together with marketing strategists, digital marketers work on implementing different online campaigns and integrations.
Their knowledge of digital tools and advertising practices is of utmost importance in the execution of campaigns. Without competent digital marketers in the agency, it’s very difficult to drive traffic, conversions and sales.
4. Web Developers
Since the technical aspect of SEO and digital marketing is critical, web developers play a decisive role in ecommerce SEO marketing agencies.
Their job is building websites that are well-optimized for search engines in terms of both back end and front end. All on-site features need to be in place, the website performance is expected to be impeccable and web design has to be spot on.
Nowadays, it’s extremely important that the websites are optimized for mobile devices as well, so agencies have to have developers who specialize in mobile development.
30% of mobile shoppers have given up on buying from a website because it wasn’t mobile-friendly.
5. SEO Specialists
An SEO specialist is to an ecommerce SEO firm is what a playmaker is to a basketball team. They’re at the heart of all SEO operations in the agency.
They lead SEO optimization initiatives, conduct audits, advise improvements to boost rankings, perform research on competitors and your website’s performance, as well as plan and execute numerous other SEO-related activities.
6. Content Marketers/Copywriters
One of the most important SEO factors for a website is the quality and relevance of the content it offers. Search engines calculate it using numerous parameters, so the creators of this content have to be familiar with the rules and best practices of SEO.
Number one job of copywriters is writing highly valuable and relevant content. This may include anything from articles, blogs or social media posts to product descriptions.
Having a blog on your website can be a very effective way of driving traffic and boosting your rankings.
In fact, 45% of marketers claim that blogging is their number one most important content strategy.
7. UX Designers
UX designers are crucial for your website’s SEO. These designers focus on visual solutions that are supposed to improve user experience, which is basically what search engine optimization often comes down to.
Their goal is to make the website as accessible, usable, pleasing and easy to browse around as possible. An outstanding UX designer is a great addition to any ecommerce SEO marketing company.
8. Graphic Designers
Graphic designers also often know a thing or two about UX design, but unlike UX designers, their focus is simply on creating visual collateral for marketing campaigns.
By combining typography, motion graphics and images they tend to establish a proper visual identity for the client’s company. They also need to understand the client’s brand and execute a visual strategy that fits the brand’s values and target audience.
Why Do I Need An Ecommerce SEO Marketing Agency?
Online retail is the future of business and there’s very little doubt about it.
A staggering 96 percent of Americans that have internet access have made an online purchase at some point in their lives.
And this number certainly won’t be facing a decrease in the foreseeable future.
Your product or service may be top-notch, but it’s of no avail if nobody knows about it. Quality simply isn’t enough.
Online businesses should naturally turn to digital marketing channels and online methods of boosting their visibility. SEO and marketing agencies that specialize in ecommerce offer a wide range of services that can grow your business significantly.
Ecommerce SEO and marketing agencies are very well aware of all this and they’re also growing on a daily basis. Choosing the right one shouldn’t pose a problem for any business. Just check out our list and find your perfect match.
Discover the best eCommerce SEO marketing companies in the agency listings above.
