Using HubSpot to Develop an Effective eCommerce SEO Strategy

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Generating quality traffic to an online store is something 1.3 million eCommerce businesses are trying to accomplish in North America alone. With millions of eCommerce stores vying for website visitors, the competition to be on favorable search engine results pages (SERPs) is inevitably thick.

Fortunately, there are many free and paid SEO resources businesses can use to rank higher in search engines. One of the most popular and effective resources is HubSpot; let’s discuss how to use HubSpot to develop an effective eCommerce SEO strategy.

Before we begin, let’s hear HubSpot’s definition of SEO strategy from their article called “How to Create an SEO Strategy for 2018 [Template Included]”:

“Modern SEO strategy is the process of organizing a website’s content by topic, which helps search engines like Google understand a user’s intent when searching. By optimizing a web page around topics first, you can rank well for long-tail keywords related to that topic.”

Factors for Developing an SEO Strategy

First of all, developing an effective SEO strategy is an ongoing effort for marketers, as search engines are constantly changing and evolving their algorithms and criteria for SEO rankings. Basically, once an SEO expert thinks they have a handle on SEO best practices, search engines and SEO tools change the nature of the game.

Two examples are Google’s Panda update in 2011 and their move to encrypted search around 2013. Essentially, the state of SEO is always evolving as search engines change the way they crawl, recognize, prioritize, and rank keywords and data on websites.

An article from HubSpot called: “Your Google Rank Doesn’t Matter Anymore”, written by Matthew Howells-Barby, explains the state of SEO in 2018:

“Go back five or six years and we had so much more information on the keywords that users were searching for to reach our web content. All of this information was available transparently within Google Analytics, and you could get relatively accurate search volume estimates from within Google’s Keyword Tool.

The first major update that changed this was Google’s move to encrypted search…

Next up, and more recently, was Google’s decision to move search volume estimate within their Keyword Planner tool to show estimates in broad ranges. Instead of learning that a keyword was being searched for 1,400 times each month, we’re told that it’s searched between 1k-10k times per month.

These changes have forced marketers to adapt their search strategy to focus on individual keywords and shift to a topic-centric content strategy…”

Essentially, SEO practices must reflect these changes, and eCommerce businesses must adjust their SEO strategies to optimally benefit from them. HubSpot is a great resource for developing and accomplishing these goals.

4 HubSpot Resources for Developing an SEO Strategy

While there are myriads of SEO tools, articles, podcasts, websites, and eBooks available online, HubSpot is undoubtedly one of the best resources eCommerce businesses can use. Here are their resources and tools specifically for improving SEO tactics:

• Content Strategy Planner 
• As-You-Go-Type optimization 
• Free Integrated Analytics 
• SEO educational resources 

Content Strategy Planner

Although HubSpot’s Keyword Tracker Tool has been discarded, their content strategy planner tool is still available. Using the topic cluster method to formulate content strategy, eCommerce businesses can use this tool to gain deeper insights into their content strategy. As they explain:

“…topic suggestions based on relevance, competition, and popularity, as well as access to monthly search data so you can estimate how ranking for specific topics will translate into organic traffic gains. Then use HubSpot’s integrated content tools to create clusters of web pages and blog content around each of your core topics.”

As-You-Type Advice Tool

Anytime content is being created, HubSpot’s as-you-type tool shows up on the same page to give SEO advice on how to optimize the content (blog posts, landing pages, site pages, product descriptions, etc.). Essentially, a side panel will appear that has built-in to-do lists, meta information, article metrics, and other helpful SEO information and advice.

Free Integrated Analytics

HubSpot’s free inbound marketing automation software contains reporting and analytical tools to help eCommerce businesses gain insights into their website’s performance. This tool can help marketers improve on-site SEO by showing them which pages are performing better, where traffic is coming from, and what offers are driving the most conversions. Used in combination with Google Analytics, this tool will help marketers understand the state of their site’s SEO.

HubSpot’s SEO Educational Resources

HubSpot has both free and paid for educational resources specifically centered around the topic of SEO, including:

• HubSpot’s blog articles
• HubSpot Academy (free online courses) 
• Free eBooks (Maximize Your eCommerce Site with SEO and Social Media) 
• Inbound Consulting for eCommerce (paid for) \

With HubSpot’s SEO resources alone, eCommerce marketers can become experts in SEO best practices and tactics, yet HubSpot is only one of the many resources available online. Essentially, the only constraint marketers have in becoming experts is time availability; with eCommerce businesses to operate, owners and managers don’t generally have the time to become SEO experts, which is why HubSpot is such a great resource.

HubSpot condenses information and presents it in a way business owners and managers can understand. SEO and digital marketing, in general, is a vast topic online; marketers can easily get lost in the details and use their time inefficiently. HubSpot’s tools and resources help simplify and optimize this complexity.

Reaching SEO Strategic Objectives

Developing an SEO strategy is an important aspect of digital marketing for eCommerce businesses. As online technology advances with cloud and mobile computing technology, software capabilities are creating a streamlined and integrated relationship between disparate systems; this is creating strategic opportunities for online businesses of all sizes, including eCommerce.

HubSpot’s tools and resources can help eCommerce businesses both develop SEO strategies and then reach their objectives effectively. They do this by integrating with other tools and sharing:

• insights 
• data 
• case studies 
• best practices 
• statistics 
• tips/advice 
• templates 
• resources 
• tools 

Every online marketer understands traffic equals leads and conversions, yet understanding how to get the amount of traffic needed to reach KPIs is where many fall short. With access to such a large online marketplace, eCommerce businesses have the exciting opportunity to share in the $2.8 trillion worldwide online eCommerce revenue if they can generate enough traffic.

Reaching SEO strategic objectives means eCommerce businesses are growing and effectively reaching their target audiences, as well as converting visitors and bringing them back. SEO tactics have a lot to do with getting these results, as organic search engine traffic is gold to eCommerce stores.

Using HubSpot’s industry-leading tools and resources gives eCommerce businesses the knowledge and resources to develop effective SEO strategies. Essentially, integrating HubSpot into holistic digital marketing efforts will enhance and improve overall results.