The Direct-To-Consumer (D2C) e-commerce sales in the United States surpassed 128 billion U.S. dollars in 2021.
This growth of the D2C e-commerce market is due to the competitiveness of its players. D2C organizations are deeply rooted in a digital and online presence, cutting out the intermediaries, and shipping their products direct-to-consumers. Better pricing, free, fast, and convenient delivery, and easy returns are some of the reasons why online shoppers prefer buying directly from manufacturers.
Among the main reasons for this tremendous growth of D2C brands are eCommerce platforms such as Shopify. The platform has helped several D2C brands set up their online stores and make their products or solutions reach their target audience in no time.
On the flipside though, D2C brands often struggle to rank high in the SERPs due to the fact that they overlook the need to focus on content. If you see some of the leading D2C brands, they’re the ones that tend to have more informative as well as valuable content.
This is where D2C SEO enters the picture.
While it is not the only thing that helps these brands acquire customers, it is definitely something that pays off in the long run alongside the online paid advertising campaigns. Having said that, a majority of D2C brands tend to focus on three crucial aspects.
Some Crucial Aspects Of D2C SEO That Solve Major Challenges
1. Enhance Brand Visibility Through Collection Pages
If you want to target a wider section of your target audience, the first move should be to opt for Collection pages.
Collection pages help group a set of related products into specific categories. Take the case of Barkbox – a subscription based D2C brand for pet parents. They’ve segregated their products into different categories like – Food, Dental, Toys, and Personalized Gifts, making the content easy to find.
If you notice, it’s also something that helps attract a broader audience who’re essentially looking for very generic product information. Now the essential elements that are required for collection pages can include – the product detail, informative content displayed both at the top and bottom of the page like reviews and FAQs.
2. Focus On Packing A Punch Through Product Pages
The second option is to opt for product pages. These pages are used for targeting users who’re more interested in a specific product.
Taking the case of BarkBox, they’ve put treats as one of the products with an entire page dedicated to it. The page further includes details of the products like the pricing with high-quality images. The page also includes ratings from the users, which makes it super easy to filter the information and make an informed decision.
It’s critical for the users to see the product details on these pages as they can’t physically check the product before purchasing. So the more informative this page is, the easier it is for users to go ahead and make the decision.
3. Build High Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are basically links procured from other websites that point to yours. These are sort of connection signals, which tell search engines that a website is indeed credible and trusted by the target audience.
While there are several ways to earn backlinks, one of the best ways forward is to go for guest posting on relevant websites and churn high quality content. In fact, if your posts are published on high domain authority or high page rank websites, it will ensure that you’ll end up getting quality backlinks that’ll boost your rankings on the SERPs.
BarkBox’s news on The Washington Post for instance, is a great example of how the D2C brand received a high-quality backlink from a reputable website. This can be one of the strategies that you can adopt as a PR strategy for some quick wins.
Additional SEO Tactics for D2C Brands
- Target long-tail keywords: It’s important for D2C brands to focus on specific keywords with lower competition to attract a niche audience.
- Mobile optimization: It’s critical to ensure D2C websites load quickly and function flawlessly on mobile devices.
- Local SEO: It’s also important to optimize the Google My Business listing for better local search visibility (in case the D2C brand has a physical store).
- Create great, shareable content: Look around for inspiration and opt for content that appeals to your target audience. GoPro for instance, leverages user generated content to promote its products. This can be one of the key strategies to overcome your content creation challenges.
- Analytics and tracking: It’s non-negotiable to monitor website traffic and user behavior to measure SEO performance and identify areas for improvement. These analytics will also come handy for performing A/B tests for instance.
- Shopify for D2C: Shopify is one of the most user-friendly eCommerce platforms due to its SEO-friendly structure,customization options, and built-in blogging capabilities. D2C brands may give it a try to reap the platform’s benefits.
- Use automation: With AI in the picture, you can scale your SEO efforts by automating the entire processes with help of several tools that are readily available on the market.
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Conclusion
SEO is a long-term investment and is especially profitable for D2C brands when done right. It needs consistent effort to make sure that you land the best results including churning out high-quality content and backlinks. Pranav aptly emphasizes this with the metaphor:”Traction is the fruit of visibility but only when the seed of quality is sown.”
