If you work in ecommerce, marketing or own a brand then at some point it’s likely that someone will have mentioned SEO to you. If you’re already juggling a hundred different things for your brand, it can sound complicated, low priority and – dare I say it – a little bit boring.
But I think that SEO is a seriously under utilised tool in beauty ecommerce. Here’s an overview of what SEO is, why a beauty brand would need it and how to make a start on it.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation (also known as SEO) is the process of making your website as visible as possible to search engines like Google and Bing. This is to make it so that your brand, products and content shows up in related search results and your ideal customers can find you.
People around the world make billions of online searches every single day, for all sorts of topics. It’s guaranteed that your ideal customers are making searches that relate to your business, and SEO can help you get to that much-coveted first page of Google.
It isn’t a strategy that comes with overnight success, but it’s a long-term investment in your brand and marketing that can give serious results over time. It’s considered to be an organic marketing strategy (i.e. you can’t pay to sway results, though you can invest in SEO experts, content writers and creators to help with this).
How does SEO work?
When you use a search engine and get relevant, useful results back, that isn’t just a happy accident. These search engines have already crawled billions of pages on the internet, ranking them to establish what they’re about, who might want to see it and how useful it is. There are hundreds of different criteria these robot crawlers look for.
The search engines then use algorithms to work out what to show to who after an online search. It’s basically a big content catalogue, and the search engines are trying to point its users in the right way. There are a ton of different factors that these algorithms take into account, but SEO can help you to tick some of the boxes.
One of the ways it does this matching exercise is looking at keywords, which are an important part of creating content on your website that ranks for SEO. You can’t really create content for a website that ranks for SEO if you haven’t done some keyword research.
There are three different types of SEO, and ideally you want them all working together for the best results:
- Technical SEO focuses on website structure, the speed pages take to load and making websites easier for search engine robots to crawl.
- On-page SEO works on optimising the content that’s on your website. This could be blogs, product descriptions, landing pages or web copy.
- Off-page SEO is anything that happens away from your website that helps it to rank better or improves its authority, like backlinks.
Unlike other marketing tools, you can’t just pay to rank better – though you can run paid ads that show in search results (which is a whole other strategy in itself).
Why does your beauty brand need SEO?
If you’re a direct to consumer (DTC) brand, where you sell your products straight to a customer with no third party retailer or platform involved, then the chances are you have a website. You want that website to show in your search results so that potential customers can find you. That’s where SEO comes in.
Lots of beauty brands start out small, and that’s ok. Some of them scale incredibly quickly, using marketing tactics like social media and paid ads. That’s even better. However, both can find it a challenge to balance budget, longevity and results. SEO is a long term strategy that can give great results and doesn’t have to be as eye-wateringly expensive as some other marketing tools.
Beauty is a competitive space. There are new launches every week, products that go viral and brands who copy other people’s ideas (tut tut). I believe that SEO is totally under utilised in the beauty space – many brands take a social-first approach so SEO can give you a competitive edge.
It’s about your potential customers too. If they have a problem, question or they’re just looking for info and you provide the answer? They’re more likely to take notice of your brand and it starts to build trust in what you have to offer. And if you have a product that solves the problem they have? Perfect.
Challenges with SEO
SEO isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, and if it was easy or guaranteed – then everyone would be doing it. Here are some of the common challenges I find brand owners and marketers experience with SEO:
- Dodgy SEO firms – there are a lot of firms that overpromise and underdeliver or they’re a bit underhand with what they offer. For example, they might tell you they’ll get you on the first page of Google search results. Sounds great, right? What they sometimes don’t mention is that it’ll be for something incredibly niche that few people are searching for. Some legit agencies or freelancers will actually get you on the front page, but it’s important to clarify what for.
- Length of time – as I mentioned, SEO is a long term strategy and not a quick fix. You have to be ready to invest time, effort and budget into it to truly see results. But it can be well worth it to make that investment.
- Not guaranteed – a running joke with people who work in SEO is that everything can be answered with “it depends”. And that’s kind of true, it does depend on lots of things, some of which will be out of your control or might take a little time to resolve. A good SEO pro will get you results though.
- Lots of moving parts – you can’t just write SEO content and expect to rank if the way your website is set up is a shambles. And vice versa. You need a balance of technical, on-site and off-site SEO to see real success.
- Finding a writer that gets SEO and your audience – some content that’s just been created for SEO reads like a robot wrote it, and that’s not good for your audience or search ranking. You need a writer that can write human-first SEO content (hello!).
It can also sometimes be tough to get buy in, especially if people don’t necessarily understand what SEO is and why it’s good for the business you’re in.
SEO content for your beauty brand
Looking for support with SEO content for your beauty brand, whether that’s SEO product descriptions, blogs or website copy? I can help you with that.
Get in touch with me to have a chat about what you’re looking for.