SEO For Aftermarket Parts
Running a successful eCommerce store in the Aftermarket arena presents a few challenges that, once understood, can be dealt with. The first challenge is understanding what SEO means and how to really take your website products and get them in front of the general public that want to purchase them.
Setting the ground rules:
- SEO is part of a full strategy. It is not a one and done task.
- SEO is not an ad campaign and although you can use SEO to market your parts, it is organic growth. This means it's growing on it's own timeline and you won't typically see results overnight.
- Optimizing your pages only brings you traffic. Other factors come into play once a customer is on the page.
- For successful SEO outcome you need to spend the time on your site to optimize the pages, images, titles etc.
The good news / bad news scenario with SEO in the Automotive Aftermarket industry:
- The bad news - You are competing with thousands of other sites that want to get the attention of the same customer you need.
- The good news - only about 3% of your competitors will do what it takes to get their websites optimized, so if you do put effort into your SEO, you can really see some amazing results.
What makes the search engines deliver up a page on the first 10 results of a search?
Google has over 200 filters that are used in determining if a web page will show up for any given search query. Some of these filters are areas you can control, others are not so easy but don't panic!
Ignore every promise and guarantee that you get via email the same way you ignore the "miracle diet pill". Bottom line is that you are running a real business with real competition and there are solid business concepts that must be followed.
Google is not out to get you. Their goal is really simple if you think about it. They want to give their customer (this is the person that just typed in a search) the best possible page for the search word or phrase. With that in mind, what does Google think is a good page?
Right about now is where most business owners are starting to add up time and effort in their minds. This is where a majority of Aftermarket parts owners stop learning and start coming up with their reasons why they can't or won't be able to spend the time to do what they need to get organic traffic to their sites. Good news for those of you who really do want to create a legacy for yourself and family.
If you really are at this point and you have decided you don't have time or desire to learn how to work within the rules of eCommerce then there is PPC (Pay per click) options that will cost you more in money than time. Paying for ads is still not a guarantee of business. It is a guarantee of traffic but traffic only means business when your parts are positioned correctly in shipping, pricing etc.
We've put together several articles that will break down each stage of SEO to allow you to better take in the main factors as smaller steps to get you where you want to be.
Here are the first steps to Optimizing your parts for the Search Engines:
- Keyword Research
- Page titles / URL's / Meta Description / On page content
- Images
- Links pointing to the page
- Social factors
- Monitoring results
The ASAP Network was created to help you succeed in your eCommerce store. If you understand the game, you have a better chance of winning. You don't have to compete with ad budgets if you understand the value of SEO. Your website can allow you to appear as big or small in the eyes of the customers that visit your site as you want.
The .com craze and the concept that "if you build it, they will come", really isn't reality in the current eCommerce playing field. You can be a great success but it will take a little knowledge and a lot of elbow grease.
Our team takes calls from owners that need personal help or have questions about their sites. If you'd like to have your site looked at to let you know where your weak and where your strong, just email our team and set up a call. We do not charge members for this call.
