Content Marketing for Retail Websites

When you do online retail sales, your content may be primarily a catalog: pictures and brief descriptions of your products. People are coming to shop with you, after all, so they just need to see the goods. Your thoughts about your online presence may be mostly about your shopping cart.

But keyword-rich content can do wonders for your e-commerce business. Particularly if what you sell is a commodity — that is, people can buy the same things from many sellers — then you need to give your customers a reason to buy from you, not from someone else.

Providing a good shopping experience is part of that, of course. But don’t overlook the value of useful content in sending customers your way.

• Blogs can send you traffic. If people come to your blog for your valuable content, they’re likely to click through to shop as well. Obviously, your business should have a blog. But you can also benefit from content at independent blogs. Our educational site provides teachers with lesson plans, ideas for classroom themes, and useful links to other websites. It also provides links to my clients’ websites when they have something useful to the readers, and why shouldn’t it? This blog was second only to Google organic search in sending traffic to my educational supply store client, and it does a good job for other clients as well.
• Articles can send you traffic. Good, interesting articles at respectable article supply sites are often republished, increasing the influence of the links placed there. As with any use of content for marketing, the information has to be honest and useful. Answers to questions your customers ask you can be a great starting point for this type of article. If someone asked you, there are probably plenty of people asking Google. Providing the answer demonstrates your expertise and brings people who need your products to your website.
• Content on your own site can bring search traffic in. The content I write in support of people’s products often ends up higher for search than their websites, where they may have only that photo and description. I figure that’s okay, since visitors are likely to click through to the client’s website. However, making the descriptions on your website richer is likely to bring visitors to you directly. Add a recipe for your cooking ingredients, or a fashion tip for the clothing you’re selling, and you not only add value for your customers, but you also give the search engines something to sink their metaphorical teeth into.