Introduction and Welcome

[00:00:00] All right guys. Welcome back to Follow through Fridays. I'm here with my dog, Dezzy.

[00:00:04] She may be making an appearance if you're watching this video. 

[00:00:07] I wanted to share a little bit about why I feel like we're successful using Google as a primary traffic driver for our store.

Background of My E-commerce Store

[00:00:15] So just to give you a little background. To my e-commerce store, collage wood.com averages about $5,000 to $10,000 a month in sales. 

[00:00:22] And just so you understand what we make, we are a handmade custom product self-fulfilled, e-commerce store. 

[00:00:30] I started on Etsy. 

[00:00:31] It was very easy to make the transition to Shopify. 

[00:00:34] And the return policy that we have, which is a no return.

[00:00:37] No refund policy because everything we make is handmade and manufactured by myself, one part-time employee, and two contractors. 

Challenges with Amazon and Social Media Shops

[00:00:45] Now, where I've run into problems with that is on Amazon. 

[00:00:48] And Amazon, especially if you do FBA, they require you to have a return policy for the most part. The only way to get around that is if you're a handmade seller and you require customization at checkout.

[00:00:59] So that's the workaround that I created to where people had to customize their photo props so that they couldn't just use the photo prop and then mark it as no longer needed when they returned it to Amazon. So that is just some background on our store. 

[00:01:14] Now in terms of Facebook and Instagram shops. 

[00:01:17] They are going away from Shopify, being able to integrate with Facebook and Instagram shops. 

[00:01:22] The problem for my business as a handmade seller is that our return policy does not meet the requirements of the Facebook or Instagram return policy, possibly not even TikTok shop.

[00:01:33] So that's why I don't sell there, and that's why I won't sell there in the future because their return policy is not, it just doesn't work for us because you often have people who will. Surprise, buy your product, use it, and wanna return it rather than actually pay for it. So we are too small to deal with that, so we just don't.

[00:01:50] And one of my favorite things about Shopify is that we control our return policy. 

Success with Shopify and Google

[00:01:56] And this week on Shopify, we had a thousand dollars sales day, which I always try to celebrate those because when you have a $1,000 plus sales day, it's, that's a big day, so I always try to make sure that I document it.

[00:02:08] And this particular sale came from Google and the sale itself was $1,200. 

[00:02:15] So when I went, just diving deeper just a little bit into Google Analytics, I looked to see that he found us on Google. 

[00:02:23] And then he came back three times in one day and then converted and actually finished his purchase.

[00:02:29] So that's another thing I love about Shopify. 

[00:02:31] If a customer can be tracked, they tell you like where that conversion came from. So that was pretty exciting. 

[00:02:37] And diving a little bit deeper into GA four and the analytics insights that GA four gives you, I. Organic search has appeared in 61% of our conversion paths.

[00:02:48] So that means that in one way or another, whether it was, through Google or through social media, organic marketing has contributed to 61% of our conversions. So that's our website, which is, on page SEO. Which is what I talk about a lot. 

[00:03:02] And Pinterest, which is my number one offsite, SEO strategy for driving traffic and qualified leads to our website. 

[00:03:10] So they tag team to bring a 61% of the revenue and. 

Importance of SEO and Organic Marketing

[00:03:13] I tell you all this because sEO is critical for handmade or self-fulfilled sellers to succeed and compete online.

[00:03:22] Number two, you've. Got to learn how to leverage high domain authority sites if you're a small business. Number three, topical authority is a creative experience in e-commerce, but necessary for you to drive the best traffic. 

[00:03:36] And number four, conversion rate optimization or CRO. 

[00:03:41] As this week's guest, Zoe Ashbridge calls it. It's key once you start driving traffic.

[00:03:46] And. And we do all of this in the SEO squad, which is my monthly membership for business owners with websites. 

Why SEO is Critical for Handmade Sellers

[00:03:51] So let's talk first about why SEO is critical for handmade self-fulfilled sellers to compete online. Okay. First of all, SEO is built around unbranded search, which means when you are competing for a customer.

[00:04:06] You are not necessarily competing against a brand name. 

[00:04:10] You are competing against a product type or a service type, or a problem solved. 

[00:04:17] And so that's why SEO is so critical for small businesses is because if you solve a certain problem and you can put that problem into words, especially words that match what your dream customer or your ideal customer is searching for on the internet.

[00:04:30] Then you can show up as a search result. You don't have to be a huge company. You don't have to be a company that has been in business for 50 years to be able to compete and get to the top of the search results. You just have to be able to answer the customer's question better than anybody else. And so that's where SEO and SEO strategy comes in.

[00:04:47] You also don't have to be all things to all people. 

[00:04:50] What I recommend for the people in our group is that they pick one thing, what I call your perfect product. 

[00:04:55] Focus on your perfect product and driving traffic to that particular thing.

[00:04:59] And then once we've exhausted all of the things for that one perfect product. Then we move on to what we would consider our second perfect product. 

[00:05:07] But rather than get overwhelmed by all of the things you could do, focus on what you can do to promote that one perfect product so you get more sales at that one thing.

[00:05:15] And you'll find that putting in all of that effort towards one thing. Really exponentializes like the power of the marketing efforts that you're putting in. 

[00:05:23] Okay, so that's number one. SEO is critical to compete online. And it allows you to compete with the bigger brands.

Leveraging High Domain Authority Sites

[00:05:29] Number two, when you're a small brand, you've got to leverage high domain authority sites to generate the right leads. For me, that's Pinterest. 

[00:05:36] Because Pinterest is a place where people go for inspiration. They go for ideas, they go to find ideas. They go to find examples of what they want to create. 

[00:05:45] I happen to sell a product that falls into that inspirational and aspirational category.

[00:05:51] So what I mean is this, if somebody's going to celebrate something on a, at a specific event or on a specific day, they are going to search for ideas around that day or ideas around that event. 

[00:06:02] Or ideas for gifts for the person that they're trying to buy for.

[00:06:05] So that's why Pinterest is such a powerful traffic driver for someone who sells products because I. People are always looking for how other people use similar products or celebrated similar events and made it awesome. 

[00:06:19] They can use your approach as a jumping off point for inspiration to make their event or their experience that much better.

[00:06:26] Where this really crisscrosses with SEO and your low domain authority site and their high domain authority site. 

[00:06:33] Is that you can leverage Pinterest to rank for keywords that are more difficult to rank for on your own. 

[00:06:39] And so that has been. My secret weapon in terms of using Pinterest to drive traffic to my e-commerce store.

The Power of Topical Authority

[00:06:47] Number three, topical authority is a creative experience in e-commerce. 

[00:06:51] Now, this week in the SEO squad, we were talking about topical authority. 

[00:06:55] We are talking about creating content around our perfect product.

[00:06:58] And we were also using surfer to do it. 

[00:07:01] Surfer SEO is my number one SEO tool that I use almost daily. 

[00:07:06] To optimize my website, find keywords and, come up with ideas for content. Whether it's on my website, on customer websites, or for an offsite strategy like Pinterest. 

[00:07:18] As product sellers, we want to optimize our product pages, right?

[00:07:22] So that's one of the things that we've been working on inside of the SEO squad. 

[00:07:26] And so that's why it's so important whenever you hear these terms like domain authority. Topical authority, optimization, any of those things. 

[00:07:34] It really is a creative process to figure out how you can apply that best to your business. 

[00:07:40] Because how someone applies it to their business may not be the best way.

[00:07:44] For you to apply it to your business. But again, just like people go to Pinterest for inspiration. 

[00:07:48] You can use someone else's ideas about optimization as a springboard to optimizing your website the best that it could possibly be optimized. 

[00:07:59] For your end user on the internet. So I just, I love that. I love that.

[00:08:03] Topical authority is a creative experience in e-commerce. 

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

[00:08:05] And then once you start driving traffic, that's when you need to start focusing on conversion rate optimization. And Nina was on the show earlier this week and we were talking about how driving traffic is not the same as driving revenue. And it's also side note, not the same as driving profit.

[00:08:23] But to just back it up to the beginning. 

[00:08:24] The first thing is driving traffic, and so once you have started to drive traffic, that's when you can start to think, okay, if I'm getting traffic to this page, but my conversion rate is low, or it's not converting. 

[00:08:36] Or I'm not getting either email signups or I'm not getting product sales, or whatever, what could potentially be happening on this page that.

[00:08:43] Is preventing sales from occurring. And so another thing that we've been talking about in the squad is just having, just taking turns, evaluating the user experience on those pages. So once you've identified your perfect product and you have been driving traffic, then it's time to optimize that experience for the user.

[00:09:01] And this is just a continuing process. And so that's why I just, I love meeting every week with the people in the group because we are, continually optimizing. 

[00:09:10] Then there's always like a little new thread that we can pull on, or there's another thread that we can continue to pull on.

[00:09:16] Or we're finding out what threads are the most important to pull for profitability. So that's really exciting. 

Recap and Key Takeaways

[00:09:22] So those are the four things that I wanted to share with you that number one, SEO is critical if you are a handmade store or you're a self fulfilled. Product seller or service provider.

[00:09:33] Number two, when you're starting out or, and until you've built up the domain authority, that is like 40 or 50 plus. 

[00:09:39] You've got to learn how to leverage high domain authority sites to generate the right leads for your website. And then number three, topical authority is a creative experience in e-commerce. And it's a creative experience in search engine optimization in general. 

[00:09:53] Don't be afraid to be creative in SEO. It's actually what makes it a lot of fun. 

[00:09:57] And finally, once you start driving traffic, CRO Crow AKA conversion rate optimization, is then the key to actually converting that traffic into paying customers. 

Invitation to the SEO Challenge

[00:10:08] So it's just one foot in front of the other. 

[00:10:11] It's a process that is continual. 

[00:10:13] And if you enjoy talking about these things and you want some more eyeballs on your site to give you feedback. 

[00:10:19] Or you wanna be able to talk about these things, I wanna invite you to the supercharge your SEO challenge that I'm hosting at the end of the month.

[00:10:26] You can go to three day challenge.com/. Forward slash SEO and sign up. Okay, so I'm gonna say that again. It's three day challenge.com/seo and we are gonna talk about how to identify your perfect product. 

[00:10:41] So that you can then get a head start and just the momentum. As you develop your SEO strategy for your website. So I would love to see you there.

[00:10:51] If you are a small business owner with a website, this challenge is for you. 

Conclusion and Farewell

[00:10:54] And if you found some value today, I would love it if you could just take a few moments to rate and review the show. 

[00:11:01] And, maybe if not now, maybe you know, sometime this week. And then also share it with a friend. If you have a small business owner friend that has a website, I'm on a mission to empower small business owners with this knowledge of optimization, of search engine optimization so that you can feel confident in optimizing your website for search. 

[00:11:19] And to find more customers who are in the market to buy what you sell. So thank you so much for joining me today, and I will see you next time on the Simple and Smart SEO show or follow through Fridays.

[00:11:32] And until then. Keep moving forward my friend. You're doing awesome.