Shopify is a really useful platform for ecommerce. It’s so good that it is used by over 1 million businesses worldwide. Some of those businesses include huge brands such as Kylie Cosmetics, Gymshark and Redbull. The Shopify platform is user friendly, designed with built in templates and add ons to assist in the easy creation of a scalable online store. Although creating an online store with Shopify has been made easy, driving traffic to Shopify is the difficult part.
Pushing potential customers in the right direction and towards your site involves a variety of elements. Ultimately, there are two digital marketing methods that are key in driving traffic to your website. The first approach is via paid search and the second is through organic search. This article will discuss both digital marketing methods, what tactics to use and the benefits of using them.
Paid Search
The first digital marketing technique we are going to discuss is paid search. Paid search involves search engines such as Google or Bing who allow advertisers to show ads on their results pages. It can also use social media to target or remarket to potential customers. This method is cost effective and is more likely to provide you with short term results.The reason paid search is cost effective is because it works on a pay-per-click model otherwise known as PPC. This, as the name suggests, means that you only pay when a user clicks on your ad. Paid search is a great way to increase awareness of your brand and make you more visible to potential customers.
Examples of paid search:
- Traditional pay-per-click advertising through search engine ad text.
- Google shopping
- Remarketing
- Display ads
- Social media advertising
There are a whole host of benefits of using paid search advertising. First and foremost it allows you to be extremely targeted. You can categorise who you target based on age, gender and location. In the case of remarketing, you can target users who have already demonstrated an interest in your product or service by reminding them on social media. Other benefits include that it is quick to execute, flexible, cost effective and is measurable. This is great because it provides you with the opportunity to alter your paid search approach to generate the best results.
Using paid search to drive traffic to your site
First of all, we shall talk through the traditional method of paid search. By this we mean that when you search for something in google, you are presented with pages full of results. At the top and bottom of these search results are normally paid ads. In the middle you can find organic search listings which we will cover later in the article. The paid for ads have a high chance of being clicked on due to their location on the results pages. This makes it a great way to drive traffic to your site. Below we have attached an example of a paid ads in search engine results. At the top of the page you can see google shopping ads, these are another great way to boost the traffic to your site. This is because they drive more quality traffic to your site, particularly traffic with clear buying intent. Beneath the google shopping results are the traditional PPC ads and beneath them are organic search engine results.
Another reason why Shopify is a great platform, particularly for ecommerce sites is that it is a google partner. This means that Shopify merchants have the ability to reach consumers through google search and the other services google provides.
Organic Search
The next best digital marketing practise we recommend for any online site, but most definitely for Shopify merchants is search engine optimisation. This is also commonly known as SEO. SEO is critical for any successful online business. It plays a fundamental role in organically driving traffic to your store. Search engine optimisation is the process of improving your site to make it more appealing to search engines. In turn, these search engines like google will display your site within the search engine results. The better optimised your online store, the higher it will rank in these search engine results. The higher your site ranks, the more clicks and traffic your site will receive.
Examples of SEO
- Keyword optimised pages
- Compelling title and meta description
- Fast load time
- User friendly pages to improve customer experience
- Backlinks from external sources
- Regular quality content
Organic search results are the lifeblood of any successful marketing campaign. It is important to consider that organic search optimisation is a long term approach and does not provide instantaneous results. However it is worthwhile because consistently focusing on SEO will allow you to stand out from the competition, can increase brand awareness and ultimately boost site visitors which should in turn increase conversion rates.
One agency who has effectively integrated a combination of both organic and paid marketing is Our Digital Team. They apply the actions discussed in this article on a weekly basis for a number of clients. Effective paid and organic search marketing can lead to a significant increase in site traffic. There are many benefits of site traffic, the main benefit being that it provides your business with the opportunity to generate profit.
Benefits of combining paid search and organic search marketing
So far this article has covered both marketing approaches. Paid search advertising and organic search marketing. Using both in tandem means that you should be able to generate short and long term results. Although it is great to see immediate results, its important to look to the future and create objectives for future growth. Some of the benefits of using organic and paid marketing are:
- Improved search engine results
- Increased site visitors
- Better quality of site traffic
- Higher conversion rates
- Cost effective
- Improved return on investment (ROI)
- Become more authoritative and trustworthy
- Create measurable results
- Target specific audiences directly
- Broadcast your brand and brand message across multiple channels
Overview of boosting traffic to your Shopify store
We hope this article has been helpful by giving you an insight into behind the scenes of the digital marketing landscape. The purpose of this article is to help you understand the difference between paid search and organic search and how both are essential to boosting traffic to your Shopify site. This is crucial in increasing conversions for your brand and ultimately generating profit, which generally is the whole point of an online store.