FACT: ecommerce sites require a different approach for search engine optimisation and online marketing than your 'regular' websites.

This is because of the sheer volume of products being sold on your typical ecommerce site, often running into many thousands of products. This generates a range of challenges and opportunities requiring a more in-depth understanding of how you architect, optimise and market your site down to an individual product level, but which keeps in step with ever-changing search behaviour without needing a continuous, time-consuming and expensive re-optimisation program.  

Example: A large DIY retailer is reported to have 12 full time staff continuously optimising their products. Just like the Forth bridge being painted, once they reach the end they start all over again!

FACT: Search engine positions will be dramatically impacted by unannounced changes to the way Google works.

So you thought the hard work was taken care of by optimising your ecommerce site correctly? Wrong. In the UK, Google is reported to have anything between 76% and 90% of the UK search engine market share. Whatever the true figure, they're way out in front. So it follows that changes in Google's search engine algorithm will have a dramatic impact on your position and visitor volumes.

Example: January 2009 witnessed the sudden promotion of major brands in Google's organic search results, which followed Google CEO Eric Schmidt's revelation that: 'The internet is fast becoming a "cesspool" where false information thrives...Brands are how you sort out the cesspool'. That must have been a very worrying statement to all but the biggest online retailers.

FACT: ecommerce SEO & Online Marketing Doesn't Matter On Its Own

Getting excited about driving visitors to your ecommerce site is great, but a key part of an effective ecommerce marketing strategy has to be to look at the architecture and usability of your site and how smoothly your checkout process works.

Example: With conversion rates often around 2% and cart abandonment rates running up to 67%, it's imperative you make the buying experience as user-centric and easy as possible. Otherwise you will have wasted your valuable time and money and reduced your ROI significantly!

FACT: Social Marketing Will Add To Your Success

Online retailers who fail to recognise the benefits of social marketing and formulate an appropriate social marketing strategy will be left behind by competitors who have implemented one. The key is to recognise the inherent sales opportunities within each form of social media and to start engaging with savvy, bargain-hunting consumers who trust each other more than they trust websites.

Example: Online consumers are between 23-40% more likely to buy a product that has been reviewed by others and rated with 5 stars compared to products without recommendations.

FACT: Focusing On The Right Measures Brings Greater Success. It is often surprising how little time is spent by online retailers analyzing all the key measures which will affect their sales performance and checking how they compare to their competitors. By introducing a balanced scorecard with all the correct measures, performance can be improved more quickly and greater returns generated.

Example: The speed at which your website pages loads is measured by Google. If it's too slow then your Quality Score goes down as well as your page position while your Adwords costs go up