Retail SEO Agency

Retail is very competitive; today, a strong online presence is essential to help you capture a share of not only your local market but also the broader national market.

Whether your business operates solely online or has brick-and-mortar stores, having a well-executed SEO strategy can make all the difference. At Max Web Solutions, we specialise in Retail SEO services designed to help your business thrive by driving more traffic to your website and bringing more customers to your physical store.

With our blend of local SEO,  e-Commerce SEO, technical SEO and omnichannel strategies, we can help your business not only grow online but also increase in-store sales.

Types of retailers we help include:

• Furniture retailers
• Clothing and apparel stores
• Electronics and appliance retailers
• Sporting goods stores
• Home improvement and DIY stores
• Health and beauty retailers
• Jewellery and accessory stores
• Toy and game retailers
• Grocery and supermarket chains
• Pet supply stores

What is Retail SEO?

Retail SEO is the process of optimising your retail website for search engines to attract more traffic, grow sales, and increase brand visibility both in-store and online.

Unlike traditional SEO, retail SEO focuses on enhancing both e-commerce performance and in-store traffic by using techniques that target online shoppers and local customers. As retail becomes increasingly digital, with online sales reaching £217 billion in the UK in 2023, having a strong SEO strategy is no longer optional; it’s a necessity for business.

Most retail customers begin their shopping journey online, whether they’re making an immediate purchase or researching products. Your website needs to be easily found in search results, and once visitors arrive, your site must offer a seamless user experience to convert them into customers.

On the local front, potential customers are constantly searching for businesses “near me,” and optimising your presence for these local searches can drive foot traffic into your store.

Why Does SEO Matter for Retail?

• 81% of consumers research products online before making a purchase, even if they intend to buy in-store.
• Local searches for products, such as “best clothing store near me,” help drive in-store visits and purchases.
• SEO is cost-effective, generating long-term organic traffic without the ongoing costs of paid ads.
• It builds brand authority and trust, helping your business stand out in a crowded market

Difference between e-Commerce SEO and Retail SEO

Retail SEO and eCommerce SEO are closely related but not exactly the same. Both aim to improve the visibility of products or services in search engines, but there are key differences based on the type of business and the focus of the SEO strategy.

Here’s how they differ:

• Retail SEO: Retail SEO applies to brick-and-mortar stores or businesses that have a physical presence but also want to boost online visibility. The focus is often more localised, emphasising local SEO strategies like Google My Business optimisation, location-based keywords, and reviews to attract foot traffic to physical stores in addition to online sales.
• eCommerce SEO: This focuses specifically on online stores, where all business activities occur through the website. It emphasises optimising product pages, category pages, and technical aspects like site speed, mobile responsiveness, and user experience to improve rankings and conversions.

Retail SEO focuses on unique challenges that retail businesses face. KPIs can include optimising product pages and improving your conversion rate to increasing footfall to your physical locations.

In retail and e-Commerce SEO, the focus is not only on building traffic to your website, but increasing sales, and SEO can help with both aspects.

Considering the nature of an e-commerce store, they have a home page, collection pages, and product pages. The product pages have product descriptions and the content has a “commercial or transactional” focus. This differentiates itself from service-based or B2B websites where the focus is more informational.

Content is displayed and digested in a different way to end users and the navigation and site search become increasingly focused on helping customers find the products they need, and fast.

We see more long-form content and lead forms on service-based websites compared to retail product pages, which display shorter product descriptions and add-to-cart buttons.

Recognising the different users of retail and service-based websites helps us to distinguish and set up the content in a way that encourages them to make a purchase decision. Whereas with traditional SEO, more of a focus may be placed on covering a topic in its entirety.

Focus on Retail SEO:

• Product Page Optimisation: Unlike other industries, retail SEO focuses heavily on optimising product pages, including product descriptions, images, meta tags, and structured data (schema) to improve rankings.
• Local SEO Integration: For retailers with physical stores, Local SEO is crucial for driving foot traffic. We focus on location-specific keywords and strategies like Google Business Profile optimisation to ensure local customers can find your business.
• User Experience (UX) Optimisation: SEO in the retail sector goes beyond rankings. We ensure your site offers a smooth, fast, and mobile-friendly experience that encourages visitors to stay, explore, and make purchases.
• Mobile-First Strategy: With more users searching for products and stores via mobile devices, mobile optimisation is critical. Google’s mobile-first indexing means that a mobile-friendly site performs better in search results.

Omni-channel marketing ensures that customers have a consistent and unified experience with your brand across all touchpoints, whether they’re engaging with your website, visiting your physical store, or interacting with your social media pages.

SEO plays a critical role in ensuring these touchpoints are optimised for visibility and engagement.

At Max Web Solutions, we offer a full suite of SEO services tailored to the unique needs of retail businesses. Here’s how we help you succeed:

Keyword Research and Strategy

We conduct in-depth keyword research to identify the search terms that matter most to your business. By targeting high-intent keywords, we ensure your products are visible to customers who are ready to buy.

Customers can interact with our website at different points in the purchasing process. The closer visitors are towards the end of the funnel, the higher the chances they will complete a transaction.

Product Page Optimisation

We optimise every aspect of your product pages, from meta tags and descriptions to structured data and internal linking. This improves search engine rankings and enhances the user experience, leading to higher conversion rates.

Product pages need to be optimised with:

• Unique Product Descriptions
• Product Specifications
• Lead Time Information
• Product Reviews & Review Schema
• Quality Product Photography

Collection Page Optimisation

Collection pages target broader keywords than products such as “red shoes” or “leather sofas”. These high-volume keywords can generate a lot of traffic to your website and can be optimised through enhanced user functions and descriptive copy.

Our full range of SEO services, including backlinking and technical SEO, can optimise your collection pages to compete for high-volume search terms.

Local SEO

For businesses with physical stores, we focus on local SEO strategies that drive in-store visits. We optimise your Google Business Profile, local citations, and store pages to ensure customers in your area can easily find you.

Being visible in the search engines can be a great source of traffic to your store, a focus should always be placed on local customers as search engines prefer to show local businesses for specific searches.

Content Marketing

Through strategic content creation, we help your brand connect with customers. Whether it’s blog posts, product reviews, or industry guides, our content helps build authority and drive organic traffic.

Products that display product information to customers in a friendly, usable manner will have a competitive edge against retailers who neglect content and its use in many forms.

Technical SEO

From improving site speed and fixing broken links to optimising site structure and enhancing mobile performance, our technical SEO services ensure your site is fully optimised for search engines and users alike.

Under our guidance, your retail store will be in safe hands and technical best practices. One issue we see with some retail stores is not redirecting URLs from discontinued products when they still have value to your store through their backlink profiles.

With over 15 years of experience in e-commerce, we will ensure that your website performs to a high technical standard.

If you would like to hear more about how Maxweb can help grow your heating engineering firm, drop us a message or simply call us on 0151 652 4777 to speak with one of our SEO consultants.