Boxwood Bulletin: SEO ECommerce Marketing News and Tips (August Edition)

As we wrap up summer and enter into fall, it’s also time to share a wrap-up of the big SEO eCommerce marketing news that you and your marketing team should pay attention to. This month, our weekly newsletter, the Boxwood Bulletin shared information on holiday shopping, social media updates, and more.

In this blog post, we will summarize the news, analysis, and tips that had us putting on our thinking hats this past month. Let’s dive right in!

Straight from the horse’s mouth (Google, that is!) – we bring you a fact that may seem to counter every piece of advice you may have received. 

In an interview with Search Engine Journal, Google representatives advised business owners to focus on long-term business goals, and not a specific keyword, when selecting a domain name.

This piece of news had us stop the scroll. Why? Because it’s something we’ve inherently known. You may have too. But every piece of evidence out there seemed to say the opposite. How many times have you come across domain names like, “indoorpipes.com?!” 

However, it’s not often that Google is crystal clear about what’s an important ranking factor. In this case, they are. According to Google, the reason you shouldn’t focus on a keyword when picking a domain name is simple. Let’s say your business does specializes in indoor pipes. It’s not a given that you will continue to limit yourself to indoor pipes forever. In fact, hopefully, your business will expand on the products or services you provide. The domain name “indoorpipes.com” won’t make so much sense if, say, you started selling bathroom fittings too.

Okay, so how should you strategically approach the selection of a domain name? Here is what we recommend:

Think Long-Term, Think Deeper: The name of your business is at once a personal and public thing. When picking a domain name, think of the problem you are solving instead of just the product you are selling. This will help you come up with something memorable and unique to you while also leaving scope for product expansions.

Don’t Over Index on a Keyword: Keywords are important, yes. But what’s more important is your brand’s name and your business goals. You can always work with keywords by creating content, providing useful information, and building your site structure well. But don’t use keywords as the guide to naming your business and domain name.

As always, Google is cooking up a new search engine feature. Their latest creation? A “streamlined checkout process” designed to simplify checkout. With the feature, shoppers can seamlessly transition from Google directly to your eCommerce store checkout pages. According to Google, merchants are buzzing with excitement about this pilot feature.

This move by TikTok strengthens its power not only over businesses but also consumers who will view the platform as a one-stop shop that provides entertainment and also allows you to shop without going anywhere else. It also demonstrates the increasing importance of needing to be on social platforms without losing ground on your owned channels.

Participate If You Can: We are strong believers in a multi-pronged marketing strategy. If your team has the bandwidth to maintain and grow a TikTok account, then we encourage you to give this feature a try. Social media platforms account for more than $1 trillion dollars in sales for eCommerce businesses, so view them as an extension of your other sales channels.

Combine Your Marketing Goals: Social media gives you the unique opportunity to combine your awareness and sales goals. Use it to introduce people to your products and convert them to paying customers.

Recognize Other Opportunities: While you may expect to make sales on TikTok, it’s important you also use the opportunity social media provides for direct customer feedback.

Content teams have witnessed some shifting scenarios this past year. While the promised popularity of video continued to gain ground, the introduction of AI tools like ChatGPT threatened to do away with the need for content creators.

However, Search Engine Journal’s State of SEO report for 2024 clearly showed that most marketers will focus on content in the coming years.

Even as things have been increasingly volatile in the content space, it’s only because this is an extremely important part of your marketing toolkit. While its face continues to evolve – from short-form to jingles to long-form to vertical videos – content is the way you connect with your audience.

Pay Attention to E-E-A-T Content: As AI continues to make inroads, it’s interesting to see how Google responds. The search giant has made it clear – it’s not against AI content. What it won’t rank is unhelpful content. This is why you should prioritize experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness in your content.

Don’t Over-Rely on AI: AI is useful and we are all in agreement on this. However, it’s important that you enable your content teams to differentiate themselves and your brand by not over-relying on this tool that’s still in its infancy.

A longstanding guide for retailers and marketers, the Google Holiday Marketing Playbook has recently been updated. It may seem like it’s too early to begin planning for the holiday shopping season, but we assure you it’s not!

One of the things that stood out to us in this development was Google encouraging business owners to deploy AI tools to make their marketing more efficient. While marketers have been wondering if Google will penalize AI content, the search giant is making it increasingly clear that it won’t.

Use Google Ads’ AI Features: While again, we don’t recommend giving all the control to it, we encourage you to try using Google Ads’ AI features. Testing its capabilities can help you reach the best-performing versions of your ads.

Listen to Your Customers: As consumers have more options with every passing month, it’s natural for their purchasing journeys to become longer. Make sure you meet them at various stages through their journey to deliver the information they need and make it easy for them to purchase from you.

Connect Your Merchant Center Account to Your ECommerce Platform: Connect your Merchant Center account to your eCommerce platform to seamlessly show your products and services organically across Google.

Bloomberg News reports that merchants using Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime program will soon see an additional 2% fees on each sale.

This move by Amazon, especially right as the holiday shopping season kicks off, has once again demonstrated that the marketplace has a tight grip not only on customers but also on retailers.

Pay Attention to Your Owned Channels: We say this constantly – while it’s important to leverage other channels, your owned channels are integral to your business. When you invest in your own website or email newsletter, you are limiting the amount of control you give to giants like Amazon. Use your website as the goalpost you want to drive traffic to.

Mimic the Amazon Experience: While a wide variety of choices is definitely attractive to Amazon shoppers, people are also used to the easy user experience and efficient customer care they receive on Amazon. Mimic this experience on your website.

Use Content Marketing: One of the things that sets your business apart from Amazon’s numerous sellers is trust. Utilize content to build and nurture trust among your customers so they organically seek you out when they are looking for products.

At Boxwood, we are invested in our clients’ businesses. If you are curious to know how your marketing efforts are performing, schedule a free consultation with us. We love to learn, investigate, and dissect information to see what we can do better. Let’s talk!