eCommerce SEO Long Term Effects: A Year Later, a Year Greater

Some of the most common questions regularly fielded by our digital marketing team have to do with the various aspects of eCommerce SEO. How it all works, what are the most important aspects of optimization; what keywords should or should not be targeted, and countless others similar to these regularly come across our desks on the daily.

Among the most common of all is “How long does eCommerce SEO take to work?” This is a question that is difficult to answer with specificity because of the complexity of our process and the unique variances that exist within each industry. However, there are a few things that we like to drive home for all of our clients.

The gist of the answer is that, while eCommerce SEO services can result in fairly rapid gains, this is far and away the exception and not the norm. We stress the importance of the fact that SEO is a long-term strategy that slowly develops higher domain authority and more competitive keyword rankings over time – and real, reliable results can often take as long as 6 months or longer to manifest.

This is why we love to showcase the success of our veteran clients that have been with us for an appreciable amount of time. Their commitment to the process and our ability to generate reputable, replicable results speak volumes to the process.

One such client is Divinity Clergy Wear, for whom we have performed many services, including migration, design, development and eCommerce PPC management. They have been a client of our eCommerce SEO agency for a year and a half at the point of this publication, and their success is typical of those that partner with us for the long haul.

SEO: Not for Those Who Relish Instant Gratification

Divinity Clergy Wear knew at the outset that to develop higher domain authority and rank for several competitive keywords, a partnership with 1Digital^Ⓡ Agency would not be a short-term bargain.

In December 2019, right about when their SEO campaign began, they knew well that it would take months to generate results. Complicating matters of digital marketing was the fact that they would be leaving their current eCommerce platform for BigCommerce.

It is often difficult to maintain traffic during a migration, let alone increase it, but we managed to hold the line even through a series of complex procedures, along with custom design and development work for their new store. If you’re interested, you can read about them in our previous case study, which focuses on our role as a strategic design and eCommerce development agencyeCommerce development agency partner with this client.

In this instance, the focus is on the long-term success of the project. As one of the preeminent eCommerce SEO companies in the field, 1Digital^Ⓡ Agency was confident in its ability to deliver reliable results for the client that would build on themselves over time. Now, more than a year and a half into their campaign, the numbers are in. Here’s how we made it happen: patience is one of the keys, but not the only one.

How It Works

Our SEO process may be well substantiated by results, but we create custom campaigns for each of our clients, taking into account the unique factors surrounding their industry. In a niche industry such as that for clerical clothing – and served by Divinity Clergy Wear – right at the point of keyword research, we had to pay careful attention to their prospective users’ search intent and the competitive density. We also had to consider the behavior habits of their target audience.

Once we collaborated with the client and developed a list of target keywords, we systematically scrubbed their website, DivinityClergyWear.com, removing duplicate content, rectifying broken links and disavowing toxic backlinks that could have a potentially deleterious effect on the health of their website. Our technical SEO team also audited their website for site structure issues that would need to be addressed, also optimizing title tags, metadata and much more.

Simultaneously, our creative team crafted fresh content for their category and product pages, along with a steady stream of blogs for their eCommerce website, all of them optimized for keyword density, structure and user experience.

With the ongoing content publication aspect of their content strategy, our specialists also continuously monitored both their Google Analytics accounts and their online store’s Google Search Console accounts. This would help our SEO experts detect and rectify any issues associated with traffic.

With the website optimized, content and link-building efforts underway and continuously improving, and their Analytics and GSC accounts under constant surveillance, it became a matter of time and responding to changes as they manifested themselves. Our SEO strategy accounts for all of these, and now, more than a year and a half in, we can compare the results of their campaign and highlight some of our long-term successes.

Comparing Short Term Results to Long Term Results

Even though we did see traction within the first year of their campaign, comparing some of the earlier data with the more contemporary results paints a clearer picture of the value associated with investing in eCommerce SEO services for longer than a year. Ideally, it is a process that should be invested in for several years and only continues to build on itself.

Consider the following screenshot from our proprietary SEO dashboard, which shows some of the more recent keyword movements that this client has experienced within the past few months. Even still, over 18 months into the campaign, we are still targeting competitive keywords with search volumes over 1,000 – and the point here should be stressed that this is a very niche industry. However, although some of these increases are modest, they are modest movements that continue even though we have been targeting some of these keywords for over a year.

Similarly, consider the following screenshot from the same SEO dashboard that shows some of our recent link-building efforts, which are significant, by any stretch. Even now, rounding a year and a half into their campaign, we are continuously adding new backlinks to their website, which continue to improve their domain authority and send them referral traffic.

Actual, concrete figures to their website tell a different, albeit compelling story. The figure below displays organic sessions on their website, comparing the most recent 6 months of their eCommerce SEO campaign to the 6 months that immediately preceded it. The increase, although modest, is steady, pronounced, and visually tangible.

Diving slightly deeper into these figures, you can see the analytical, quantitative figures that correspond to the graphic above. As you can see, organic users, sessions and pageviews all increased substantially – by more than 30%.

What presents an even more compelling picture is the same data, but corresponding to the most recent 6 months of the campaign as compared to the previous period a year prior. This shows how our efforts have built on themselves over time, and although the increases are more modest by comparison, the key takeaway is that results improve at a faster rate as the campaign continues. That is to say, the results from the last 6 months are most impressive, and promise to continue.

The visual is less impressive than the metrics themselves, which give relatively modest increases in organic sessions, users and pageviews – all beneath 10%. However, when considering the steady growth, coupled with the fact that it has experienced an accelerated trend in the past six months, the conclusions are clear. The clients that partner with specialists for eCommerce SEO services for the long term see the best results, and these manifest most strongly often after more than a year in.

How SEO and eCommerce PPC Management Can Work Together

It is worth noting that this same client, Divinity Clergy Wear, has also partnered with 1Digital^Ⓡ Agency for a PPC campaign, the results of which have been the focus of a separate eCommerce case study on PPC management.

Through the crafting of custom PPC ad copy and continuous improvements to their PPC campaign’s ad groups and performance, our eCommerce PPC management team has delivered unprecedented success for this client’s paid search advertising, generating an influx of new customers and sales that are not reflected in the figures given in this case study, as the figures presented here are organic.

To get the full story of how eCommerce SEO and PPC management services are the perfect matches for both short and long-term digital marketing success, read the recent case study on their project.

Contact Our eCommerce SEO Agency Today

1Digital^Ⓡ Agency is an eCommerce SEO company that has specialized in SEO services since 2012 and has mastered the art of customizing a campaign for ideal performance, with respect to industry idiosyncrasies, client-specific circumstances, highly specialized target markets, and much more.

To get started crafting a long-term strategy for your eCommerce business today, get in touch with an eCommerce SEO expert at 1Digital^Ⓡ Agency by calling us at 888-982-8269 or emailing us at info@1digitalagency.com.

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