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​How to get more organic traffic. A lesson on Keyword research

Ready for a lesson on easy SEO for Ecommerce?
Recently I asked our Inner Circle Ecommerce Coach,  Sarah, to show us how you can start getting more organic traffic when you implement her simple keyword strategy.

You can listen to the lesson in this episode of the podcast.


What is Keyword research?
It’s simply the process of finding the best keyword phrases to use on our site. It helps us determine the content to write and the best phrases to use to help our potential customers find us and learn more about our products and our brand.

Who should use keyword research?
All ecommerce store owners should use keyword research because it will help them make the best choices for product and collection titles. aIt will also help store owners find the most searched topics for their blog or article content.

Why is keyword research important to me?
Ranking for a keyword phrase in the search engine isn’t good enough, because the keyword phrase you are ranking for might not be getting any traffic. In order to maximize organic traffic, you should be using the phrases that people are actually searching for.
You’ll use your research to discover the exact words people use when they are searching, and you’ll be able to see the search volume for these terms.
In super competitive niches, it’s often necessary to find longer tail keyword phrases to try to rank for. For example, it isn’t likely that a small ecommerce store will rank for the term necklace. But, that same store may be able to rank for “beaded handmade necklace”. 

Ready to give it a try? Here’s where you start.
While brainstorming is a good starting point, keyword research is best done using a tool that can, at a minimum, provide average search volume. The three tools I use and recommend are Google Ads Keyword Planner, Keywords Everywhere Chrome Extension & Ubersuggest. You’ll find the links to these tools at the bottom of the article.
When you’re using one of these tools, start by brainstorming some starter phrases. These are  sometimes called “seed keywords”.  You’ll enter your starter phrases into the tool to come up with lists of possible phrases to use. 
Ideally, you’re looking for keyword phrases that have a decent amount of traffic, and with a low enough level of competition that you have a chance of ranking for that specific phrase.

The best way to start is to go as broad as possible and then see what comes up from that broad search.

You can also brainstorm multiple phrases you think buyers are looking for and your keyword tool will recommend additional phrases. 

Finally, if you’re using a tool like Ubersuggest or SEMRush, you can “spy” on a competitor’s keywords by entering their domain or one of their product pages to get ideas.

Want to see keyword research in action? Here are some examples:

For the store owner that sells high end dog collars
Questions to ask/brainstorm: what are they made of? Small dogs, big dogs, all sizes? Colors?

• Designer dog collars – 9900 searches/month – Medium competition
• Luxury dog collars – 3600 searches/month – Medium competition
• Luxury dog collars for large dogs – 110/Mo – Medium comp
• Fancy dog collars with bling – 90 Searches/Mo – Medium Competition
• Handcrafted dog collars – 40 Searches/Mo – Low comp – Good secondary keyword
• Designer bling dog collars – 30 Searches/Mo

For the store owner that sell bath bombs with surprise toys inside
Questions to ask/brainstorm: ingredients, what is the toy, colors

• Kids bath bombs – 0 Searches
• Bath bombs – 49,500/mo – Med – High Competition
• Bath bombs with toys inside – 1600/mo – Medium competition
• Bath bombs with surprise – 880/mo – Medium competition
• Bath bombs with surprise inside – 480 – Medium competition

For the store owner that sells collectible, symbolic jewelry
Questions to ask/brainstorm: What material? What type of jewelry – rings, earrings, necklaces…? Handcrafted? Colors? Gender? What makes it collectible or symbolic?

• Talisman – 49.500/mo
• Talisman necklaces – 720/mo – medium comp
• Amulet Necklace – 1600/mo – medium comp
• Talisman Jewelry – 590/mo – Medium comp
• Amulet Jewelry – 320/mo – medium comp
• talisman pendant necklace – 40/month – medium comp

I’ve found some keyword phrases, what’s next?

Once you’ve decided on the primary keyword phrase for your product, you’ll want to incorporate this into the product name & description, the SEO page title and meta description. (in Shopify, this is found at the bottom of the product creation page under “Search Engine Listing”). 

You should also use your primary keyword phrase in the alt text of your first image. Use the primary keyword phrase naturally in your description. Once or twice in a shorter description is fine.

Remember this:
Without some type of keyword research, you don’t know whether the terms and phrases you’re using are helping or hurting you in the search engines. 

Working on your SEO a little at a time, you may see results in as little as 30 days but expect it to take several months to see large shifts. Highly competitive keywords can take months, or even years to rank for. Start with long tail keywords for the quickest traffic wins. 

You should only use 1 keyword phrase per page of your site. You don’t want to try to rank multiple pages for the same keyword phrase. This confuses Google, which will ultimately decide which page to rank or none at all. 

Review a few keyword research tools and decide which is best for budget and time. For a demonstration of any of the tools or help with using them, Inner Circle members can book a call with Sarah, our Inner Circle Ecommerce Coach, specializing in SEO. You’ll find her booking information in your classroom.

Links to the tools mentioned:
Ubersuggest: https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/

Keywords Everywhere: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/keywords-everywhere-keywo/hbapdpeemoojbophdfndmlgdhppljgmp

Google Keyword Planner: https://ads.google.com/intl/en_ca/home/tools/keyword-planner/

New FREE Course

GROW YOUR SALES

(without breaking the bank)

Conversion School is a step by step process to grow your sales,
without spending a fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products.

Works for Ecommerce stores at all stages.

Start getting consistent sales, and see significant sales growth every month.

New FREE Course

GROW YOUR SALES

(without breaking the bank)

Conversion School is a step by step process to grow your sales,
without spending a fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products.

Works for Ecommerce stores at all stages.

Start getting consistent sales, and see significant sales growth every month.

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Have you built your Sales Funnel yet?

If not, read on to see why every Ecommerce store owner should do this work. What follows is an in depth look at the Sales Funnel of a 6 figure store. It’s a great opportunity to see what’s possible for you when you build your Sales Funnel. 

If you prefer to listen, jump to the podcast episode

Recently, I sat down with Renee Harris, a long time Inner Circle Member with a successful shop that supports her family. Renee’s sales have been down over the past 2 years, and she had been spending hours every week, scrambling to get more sales.

In January, we released the Sales Funnel training to our Inner Circle Members and she decided to jump in and build her own Sales Funnel. 

Within minutes, Renee saw exactly what she had been missing, and why her sales had slowed.

Five months later, sales are up 28% and today she’s sharing the work she’s been doing that has changed everything for her.

Watch the video and don’t miss the last few minutes where Renee shares an app that has created radically loyal customers. It’s gold!

Here’s what Renee was missing:

• When Renee used her store’s data to build her Sales Funnel, she was shocked to discover that she was failing to keep the top of her sales funnel full.
• The good news was that she had been doing a great job of converting the people she had in her Sales Funnel.
• The bad news was that she only had a tiny Audience of 26,000 at the top of her Sales Funnel.
• We recommend that all stores set a goal to have 100,000 – 200,000 people in your top of funnel audience, and at only 26,000, Renee’s audience was just not big enough to find the customers she needs to grow her sales.
• Once Renee knew the cause of her slowing sales, she focused on building her audience every month.
• Building a big, warm audience at the top of your Sales Funnel is relatively easy, and using video and engagement ads makes it quick and affordable.
• Renee wanted to build her audience quickly, so she booked a call with Cathy, one of the Ecommerce Coaches in the Inner Circle.

Learn how to build a big top of Funnel Audience here: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/build-a-massive-audience-with-a-brand-video-episode-162/

By February, Renee’s audience size had doubled, and her sales were starting to get back on track. She worked on building her audience every month, and by June, Renee’s top of Funnel audience had tripled, and her year to date sales were up by 28%.

Renee is back, and in control of her income.

Lessons Learned:

Neglect your Top of Funnel Audience, and your sales will stall.
Filling the top of your Sales Funnel is important for the long term health of your business. It’s work that every store owner should do consistently. It’s low effort work that has a big impact on your sales. You can watch your Audience grow when you build your Sales Funnel each month.
Building an Audience for your store is easy and affordable. When you do it consistently, you’ll see increased traffic and sales over time.

Tracking and Measuring gives you proof of your success.
Most store owners measure their success by sales. In reality, it takes time to warm up your audience and turn them into customers. When you build a Sales Funnel and update your data every month, you’ll be able to see your progress, and measure your success at every stage of the customer journey. Doing this will keep you on the right track, and help you stay motivated and excited to keep doing the work that leads to sales.

Adding more products is a short term fix. And it’s expensive.
When sales are slow, most store owners start thinking about how they can increase sales by offering more products. The truth is that this is an expensive way to grow your sales. You’ll be more profitable, and create lasting growth by finding more customers to buy the products you already have.

Ready to build your Sales Funnel?

See the Sales Funnel graphic our members us, and get the instructions in this episode of the Podcast

See Renee’s shop here:
https://hardlotion.com/

New FREE Course

GROW YOUR SALES

(without breaking the bank)

Conversion School is a step by step process to grow your sales,
without spending a fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products.

Works for Ecommerce stores at all stages.

Start getting consistent sales, and see significant sales growth every month.

New FREE Course

GROW YOUR SALES

(without breaking the bank)

Conversion School is a step by step process to grow your sales,
without spending a fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products.

Works for Ecommerce stores at all stages.

Start getting consistent sales, and see significant sales growth every month.

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Is keeping up with Social Media a constant source of stress for you?
Do you feel like you should have a plan, but don’t know what that even looks like?

Are you wondering if all your effort on Social Media is worth it? 

The truth is that most store owners can’t afford to ignore Social Media.

Here’s why you can’t afford to ignore Social Media:
The number one reason that most people aren’t getting sales is that they don’t have enough eyeballs on their products. Even though organic reach has declined, Social Media is still the very best place to find ‘your’ people and get your products in front of them. You can find thousands of your people on Social Media – and you can do it for very little money.

You might not know this important fact:
You can use Social Media platforms to build a huge audience of several hundred thousand people. These are people who have indicated their interest by watching one of your videos, or engaging with a post, and you can capture them in an audience, and then show them more of the content they’re interested in. 

About 2% of those people will click through to your site, and some will become customers.

I don’t think Social Media is optional for most of us. It’s how we get eyeballs. 

We use Social Media to fill  our Sales Funnel and start the customer Journey.

The goal is to systemize your content – so it’s easy to create posts that attract your perfect people.  Do this and you won’t be stuck doing your own Social Media forever.

What if you had a plan that allowed you to have one meeting a month. If you’re working solo, you’d have a meeting with yourself, but if your goal is to outsource Social Media, you could meet with your Social Media assistant.

In the meeting you’ll decide what products or events you’re featuring each week, and once you do that, you’ll walk away with 4 weeks worth of posts and videos that are aligned with the content and promotions you’ll use for your email campaigns.

It might sound too good to be true, but this is the system that we’ve been using to make Social Media easy. 

It’s allowed me to feel confident that my Social Media content is relevant, engaging, and is attracting more of my target audience. 

Since we’ve been using it, my Social Media Manager, Katy, has all the content she needs to do her job well, without having to ask me for content all the time. That’s a huge burden off my shoulders. 

Most store owners struggle to outsource their Social Media

I’ve seen so many people outsource their Social Media, only to bring it back in house a few months later.

When I ask why, the number one reason I hear is that the content wasn’t right. The store owner was having to edit all the posts, and it was too much work.

Many store owners give up because the assistant they hired needed too much from them, and the store owner was left feeling like hiring help actually created more work.

I knew that there had to be a better way. Early this year, I started working with my Social Media manager Katy, to come up with a system that would eliminate most of the pain points that we all experience with Social Media.

The outcome I wanted was for store owners to have a simple, repeatable, system that they could use to create great, relevant, quality content that builds their audience. It had to be do-able in a couple of hours a month. Lastly, it needed to be clear and simple so store owners could hand it off, and be confident that their content would have an impact on sales.

We came up with a system – and Katy spent several months testing it with some of her clients and using it on her own ecommerce store. We know it works, and we know it will help other store owners finally get Social Media off their plate. So we created a new course.

Last month our new course, Social Media Made Easy, was available to Inner Circle members only, and now we’re making it available to everyone who is ready to finally have a system for their Social Media.
I think every store owner can benefit from the strategy and process we teach in the course.

Grab a pen, and get the framework here on the podcast

Or, keep reading for a look at the strategy and process we’re using

The Strategy

Many store owners are frustrated with Social Media because they often can’t see if it’s working. This creates an internal struggle when you’re setting your priorities and deciding how much time to dedicate to Social Media. dedicating our time to it.

We’ve become very clear on the outcome we’re looking for, and how we are measuring our results.

I think you might find this helpful too, because this simple system of measuring shows me the impact of the work we’re doing.

My one clear outcome from Social Media is to build my audience. I track the size of my audience every month by measuring my 30 day reach across all platforms. This gives me a clear picture of the size of my audience.

It’s a metric that the entire team understands. Because we set “audience size” goals, and measure our results every month, I know that our Social Media plan has an impact on our results.

We post Consistent messaging across all platforms every week. 

Communication is the hardest thing, and it took me a long time to learn that people have to hear the same message several times before it really sinks in. 

Over the years, I’ve seen evidence that this is a fact.

I see it in our Inner Circle Members every month. Even though we have the same live calls every month, and members receive multiple emails and notifications, one of the most commonly asked questions is “where’s the link”?

I see it in my own behavior. I find myself asking again and again for information that’s been shared with me before.

People are busy. Our attention is scattered, and Social Media is noisy.

Clarity leads to results. Our strategy is to create clarity for your audience by consistent messaging across Social Media and Email Marketing about one product, or one Event a week.
It might feel repetitive, but it works.

Clarity comes from seeing one message multiple times.

Confusion comes from seeing multiple messages once.

Listen to this episode of the podcast to see how to apply this strategy for more effective emails

The Process

We plan our “weekly” content once a month. Because each week is all about only one product or one event, it’s relatively fast and easy to block out the weeks and decide what we’ll be posting about.

We use our Content Matrix to identify and record the talking points we will use to create a full week’s worth of content for our posts.

Watch here as Katy and I create a week’s worth of content in less than 10 minutes.

Use the Matrix content for Social Media posts, but we also use it for our emails, so we’re creating a consistent message everywhere, and we don’t have to stress about coming up with more ideas.

We’re set up to recycle our content. Sadly, nobody is watching what you do closely enough to call you out on reusing content that has worked well for you. It’s smart to recycle your content every few months.

We have a process that others can learn. When you have a strategy and systemize your Social Media, you can train others to use this repeatable process. You’ll cut your workload down to one meeting a month, and be confident that your social media is getting better results than before.

Click Here to Start Using Social Media Made Easy

New FREE Course

GROW YOUR SALES

(without breaking the bank)

Conversion School is a step by step process to grow your sales,
without spending a fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products.

Works for Ecommerce stores at all stages.

Start getting consistent sales, and see significant sales growth every month.

New FREE Course

GROW YOUR SALES

(without breaking the bank)

Conversion School is a step by step process to grow your sales,
without spending a fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products.

Works for Ecommerce stores at all stages.

Start getting consistent sales, and see significant sales growth every month.