Dubai is the hub of all shopping festivals and malls. Millions of people swarm over to Dubai each year to run berserk on a shopping spree. This is the facade of Dubai that most of us are familiar with. There is however another side to this thriving country that we are still oblivious to. E-commerce is turning into a mammoth 15 billion dollar industry. Online shopping has grown up a whopping 1500% in the Middle East just in the past decade.

What’s more, the region boasts one of the highest internet penetrations in the world. This makes Middle East a hotbed for E-commerce businesses. Imagine yourself as an entrepreneur or business owner reading this, eyes wide open in awe and anticipation. You would surely be licking your lips at the ripe for picking fruit, but before you start jumping over with joy, there are many challenges you need to overcome to make your E-commerce business a thriving success.

From licensing to infrastructure, payment gateways to delivery, everything needs to be taken care of. In a market dominated by giants such as Amazon and Alibaba in addition to a host of local players, how can you make inroads? One way to go about this is to master E-commerce SEO. Here are six proven ways to grow your E-commerce sales.

1. Choose Keywords Wisely

All businesses aspire to rank higher on the first page of Google. Suppose you manage to achieve that feat, but is it the end goal? No, right. In fact, ranking on the first page of Google will not benefit your business if you are ranking for the wrong keywords. This is why it is important to do your due diligence in conducting a comprehensive keyword research.

Analyze the terms your competitors are ranking for. Use long tail keywords to target the right customers, since long tail keywords bring 70% of search traffic. To choose the right keywords, you need to think like a customer. What terms will they be searching for and what links will they click on the search results?

2. Optimize, Optimize, Optimize

From product discovery to purchase, there are many separate phases in a customer lifecycle. 89% of customers start their buying process with a search engine. Even if they are making a purchase offline, 65% consumers still conduct online research . This is very important especially if you are selling electronics, apparel or appliances as most consumers would research for such products online and buy them offline.

You goal is to stay perceptible on the first page of google for main keywords, since your audience is more apt to trust the first few results they see-To achieve that goal, you make it easier for search engines to crawl your website. This happens when you optimize your website for search engines by adding relevant keywords in the meta title, meta descriptions, product descriptions and product titles.

3. Get Structure in Order

Your E-commerce website structure matters for both PPC and SEO, which is why you must pay attention to it and get it in the right order. SEO companies in Dubai know it. Search engines look at the structure of your website when ranking it. The easier it is for search engines to crawl your website, the more chances your website has of ranking higher.

Make your website structure as simple as possible and make it easy for users to find products that they are looking for. The structure of your website should not be deeper than three levels. If it has more than three levels, you will end up losing sales due to complicated navigation. Another benefit of keeping the level down to a minimum is that you get a simple, readable URL.

4. Need for Speed

According to Kissmetrics, 40% shoppers will abandon your website if it fails to load in 3 seconds. When it comes to conversion rates and customer satisfaction, something as seemingly insignificant as a one second delay in page load times can reduce the customer satisfaction by 16% and decrease the conversion rate by 7%.

For instance, if your E-commerce business is making $100,000 in sales, a delay of one second could cost you $2.5 million in sales every year. Google also considers page speed as one of the major ranking factors, forcing E-commerce businesses to make website speed a priority. If your E-commerce website is taking a long time to load, visitors will abandon your website before viewing products and services.

Test your E-commerce website speed with Google’s Page Speed Insight tool by pasting the URL in order to glean a detailed report. It even highlights issues that are bringing your E-commerce website down to a crawl. This make it easier for you to iron out these kinks and reduce the time your website takes to load.

5. Build Authority

What is the first name that pops up in your mind when you hear the word ‘E-commerce’ websites? Amazon, right. Did you know why? The brand has spent decades building its reputation and today it has transformed into an E-commerce juggernaut. If you want to reach where Amazon is today, you will have to build authority and trust. You can do that offline by continuously delivering value to customers and online by building backlinks.

Harness the power of influencer marketing and find influencers in your niche to promote your E-commerce business. Bigelow online tea store is the best example in this regard, as they managed to boost traffic and increase sales with influencer marketing. Once users start to see your E-commerce business as a reliable business, your sales will automatically grow.

6. Offer Secure Payment Options

When E-commerce industry was in its infancy, customers were reluctant to give out their credit card details online. Things have improved significantly with the introduction of newer, more secure payment options. If you want to succeed as an E-commerce business, you must offer users multiple payment options, so they can choose one according to their needs.

Switching your E-commerce website to HTTPS and SSL certificates is another way that E-commerce businesses can win back a user’s trust. Major E-commerce platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce also follows free SSL certificates with their plans, making it easier for E-commerce businesses to secure their E-commerce websites.

How do you do your E-commerce SEO? Feel free to share it with us in the comments section below.