The Role of SEO and Digital Marketing in E-Commerce Success

In today's e-commerce world, a good product or competitive pricing alone is not enough. A strong SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and digital marketing strategy is essential to stand out from thousands of competitors and reach potential customers. Organic search traffic has become a critical element for long-term customer acquisition and sustainable growth.

However, SEO does not only mean ranking high in search engines by adding keywords. Many factors determine SEO success, from technical infrastructure to content optimization, from user experience to authority building. As Epigra, we integrate SEO and e-commerce software development processes to enable brands to gain a competitive advantage in digital.

In this article, we will discuss SEO and growth marketing strategies for e-commerce sites and provide a comprehensive roadmap from technical optimizations to conversion rate increase methods. If you want your e-commerce site to rise in Google rankings, increase conversion rates and expand your customer base, this guide is for you!

Technical SEO and Software Optimization

E-commerce sites do not only focus on content and keyword optimization to rank higher in search engines and attract more organic traffic. Technical SEO ensures that a site is better crawled by search engines and the user experience is flawless. Giants such as Amazon, Trendyol, Temu and Hepsiburada make SEO success sustainable with the investments they make in this area. The most critical components of technical SEO include site speed, mobile compatibility and SEO-friendly site architecture.

Site Speed and User Experience (UX) Optimization

Site speed is a critical factor that directly affects conversion rates for e-commerce sites. Google attaches great importance to Core Web Vitals (CWV) metrics in particular. These metrics are key indicators that measure a website’s performance and user experience:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): The time it takes for the largest block of content on the page to load. (Ideal time: <2.5 seconds)
• First Input Delay (FID): The time it takes for the user to first interact with the page. (Ideal time: <100ms)
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Unexpected visual shifts while the page is loading. (Ideal value: <0.1)

Amazon’s Ultra-Fast Page Loading Strategy

One of the biggest factors in Amazon’s ability to maintain high conversion rates is its ultra-fast page load times. Amazon uses technologies such as content delivery network (CDN), browser caching, lazy loading, and AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) to ensure that its pages open instantly. It also optimizes page speed by minifying JavaScript and CSS files, server-side caching, and prioritizing loading of critical resources.

The advantages of high speed for an e-commerce site are:

• Lower bounce rate: Users quickly leave slow-loading pages.
• Higher conversion rate: Fast-loading pages improve the shopping experience and increase sales.
• Better rankings: Google rewards fast and user-friendly sites.

Recommendations for e-commerce sites that want to increase site speed:

• Use compressed images in WebP format.
• Minimize JavaScript and CSS files and remove unnecessary code.
• Use CDN (Cloudflare, Fastly, Akamai, etc.) to make static content load faster.
• Optimize dynamic content with server-side caching.

Mobile Compatibility and Responsive Design

Shopping from mobile devices accounts for the largest share of the e-commerce sector. For this reason, Google places great importance on mobile compatibility with mobile-first indexing (prioritizing the mobile version in the index). Sites that are not mobile-friendly are both weak in terms of user experience and fall behind in SEO rankings.

Basic requirements for SEO on mobile:

• Fast loading times: Since mobile internet speeds vary, pages need to open quickly even with low connection speeds.
• Responsive design: Page elements should scale to fit all screen sizes. - Easy navigation: It is important that menus and buttons are sized appropriately for touch screens.
• Using AMP: AMP can improve the mobile experience by allowing pages to open faster.

Trendyol’s Mobile Optimization Strategy

Trendyol is one of the most successful e-commerce sites in Turkey in terms of mobile compatibility. Both its mobile application and mobile website are optimized in terms of user experience and SEO. The site offers fast loading times, allowing users to shop instantly. Features such as Dynamic content caching, minimal use of JavaScript, and touchscreen-friendly navigation are the main factors that increase Trendyol’s mobile performance.

Best practices for mobile compatibility:

• Create responsive designs that work seamlessly on all devices.
• Avoid heavy animations and large images.
• Minify unnecessary HTML and CSS files to increase page speed.
• Create intuitive and easily accessible menus for mobile users.

Site Architecture and URL Structures

An SEO-friendly site architecture makes it easier for both search engines and users to understand your page. A poorly structured site can negatively affect the crawl budget, causing your pages to be incompletely indexed by Google.

An SEO-compatible e-commerce site architecture should have the following features:

• A logical and shallow category structure: Users and search engines should be able to reach important pages with a few clicks.
• Organized and readable URL structures: Meaningless parameters and long URL strings can negatively affect SEO.
• Comprehensive internal linking strategy: It is necessary to improve user experience and strengthen authority flow by using smart internal links between related products and categories.

Hepsiburada’s SEO-Focused Product Categorization System

Hepsiburada has a strong site architecture in terms of SEO. Main categories, subcategories and product pages have a hierarchically organized structure. In addition, by using strong internal links between category and product pages, both user experience and browsing efficiency have been increased.

For example, SEO-friendly URL structures should be as follows:

❌ Bad example:
www.website.com/?category=123&product=56789

✅ Good example:
www.website.com/kadin/giyim/elbise/siyah-midi-elbise

Recommendations for creating an SEO-compatible site architecture:

• Organize category and subcategory structures hierarchically.
• Create a breadcrumb (tracking path) structure that visitors can easily navigate.
• Check for broken links and redirect errors regularly.
• Create an XML sitemap and add it to Search Console so that Google can crawl the site more efficiently.

Content and Product Page Optimization

One of the most important SEO components of e-commerce sites is optimizing product pages. Product pages should not only contain content that informs customers, but should also be understandable for search engines. Correct keyword usage, detailed descriptions and structured data markups ensure that pages rank higher in Google search results.

How to Write SEO-Compatible Product Descriptions?

Basic elements to consider when creating an SEO-compatible product description:

• Unique and original content: Instead of copying product descriptions from the manufacturer, it is necessary to write original and informative texts. Google penalizes copied content.
• Keywords that match user intent: It is necessary to determine which terms users search for the product the most and use these words naturally in the descriptions.
• Emphasizing the benefits of the product: Instead of technical features, it is more effective to explain how the product will benefit users.
• Readable and fluent text: Short paragraphs, bullet points and emphasized words should make the content more understandable.
• Related product recommendations and internal links: Users should be directed to similar products to keep them on the site longer.

For example, Temu uses the following strategies in SEO-compatible product descriptions:
✅ Offers original and detailed product descriptions.
✅ Enriches the content by adding user reviews and frequently asked questions.
✅ Places keywords naturally.
✅ Recommends similar products with internal links.

Stand Out in Google Results Using Schema Markup

Schema markup (structured data markup) allows product pages to be displayed as rich results (rich snippets) in Google search results. Using structured data, Google can display product prices, availability, ratings, and reviews directly in the SERP.

For example, the following JSON-LD code can display price and star ratings in Google results when added to a product page:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "Product",
"name": "Wireless Bluetooth Headphones",
"image": "https://www.siteadi.com/kulaklik.jpg",
"description": "Wireless Bluetooth headphones with long battery life and superior sound quality.",
"brand": {
"@type": "Brand",
"name": "XYZ"
},
"aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"ratingValue": "4.7",
"reviewCount": "523"
},
"offers": {
"@type": "Offer", 
"price": "499.99",
 "priceCurrency": "TRY",
 "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock"
 }
}
</script>

Advantages of using schema markup:

✔ Displays product information directly in Google search results.
✔ Increases click-through rates (CTR).
✔ Provides differentiation from competitors.

Temu increases organic click-through rates by using rich snippets and user reviews on product pages. It is also recommended that e-commerce sites strengthen their SERP visibility by using schema markup.

Link Building and Authority Building

On-site optimization alone is not enough for SEO success. Google also takes into account the reliability of sites by having a strong backlink profile. Links from high-authority sites positively affect the rankings of e-commerce sites in search engines.

How to Create a Strong Backlink Profile?

Strategies that can be used for gaining backlinks:
✅ Being featured in press releases and news sites: Publishing content on major news sites with PR activities earns strong and natural backlinks.
✅ Sharing content on industry blogs and authoritative sites: Creating branded content on e-commerce and SEO-focused blogs makes it easier to earn backlinks.
✅ Broken link method: Detecting broken links on industry websites and suggesting that they direct these links to your own page is an effective method.
✅ Partnership and collaboration programs: Natural backlinks can be earned as a result of agreements made with suppliers, manufacturers and business partners.

How to Get Links from High Authority Sites?

• Getting backlinks from Wikipedia: Wikipedia is a highly reliable source. It is useful to create content that shows your site as a source on pages about products or services.
• News sites and sectoral portals: Links can be obtained from high authority news sites through PR agencies or by sharing content directly.
• Product review and comparison sites: If bloggers and review sites produce content about your brand, you will both gain authority and receive backlinks.
• Educational content and guides: In order to gain authority in your field, you can create detailed educational content and ensure that these content are shown as references by authoritative sites.

Increasing Authority of Large E-commerce Sites with PR Work

Large e-commerce brands stand out in building authority with digital PR work. For example:

• Amazon naturally gains backlinks thanks to new projects and collaborations that are constantly featured in the press.
• Hepsiburada constantly receives links from news sites thanks to its content featured in Google News.
• Trendyol creates a strong backlink profile with its collaborations with social media phenomena and influencers.

Thanks to these strategies, links from authoritative websites increase brand reliability and improve SEO performance.

Growth Marketing and Performance Marketing

One of the key ways to grow in e-commerce is to increase conversion rates by integrating SEO with performance marketing. Growth marketing strategies focus not only on driving traffic but also on converting visitors into customers.

Conversion Optimization (CRO) and A/B Tests

Conversion optimization (CRO) improves the experience of website visitors so that they take the desired action (purchase, fill out a form, etc.).

✅ Increase Conversion Rates with A/B Tests
A/B tests are used to compare two different versions of a web page or creative to determine which one performs better.

• Button colors and CTA (Call-to-Action) texts: For example, Amazon has been known to increase conversion rates with color and text changes on its "Add to Cart" button.
• Product page layout: Page layouts that facilitate users' shopping journey can be tested to achieve higher sales rates.
• Pricing and campaign messages: Customer response can be measured by using different pricing or discount messages.

Example: **Amazon uses the version that provides the highest conversion rate by constantly testing button colors and CTA texts. **

Retargeting and Remarketing Strategies

Cart abandonment rates are around 70% on average on e-commerce sites. Remarketing strategies should be implemented to minimize this loss.

✅ Tactics to Win Back Abandoned Users

• E-mail marketing: Sending reminder emails to users to remind them that they added their products to the cart but did not purchase them.
• Dynamic remarketing ads: Using Google Ads and Facebook Ads to show special ads that include products that users browsed or added to the cart.
• Discounts and incentives: Increasing return by offering special discounts to the user.

Example: Trendyol increases its sales with personalized dynamic remarketing ads by targeting users who abandon their carts.

Influencer and Affiliate Marketing Integrations

When SEO and performance marketing are combined with influencer and affiliate marketing strategies, it is possible to reach a wider audience.

✅ Combining SEO with Influencer and Affiliate Marketing

• Backlink gain: Natural backlinks directed to e-commerce sites by influencers and bloggers reviewing products strengthen SEO performance.
• Attracting more traffic: Traffic directed to product pages is increased thanks to affiliate marketing.
• Creating social proof: Influencers' recommendations increase brand authority and accelerate users' purchasing decisions.

Example: Hepsiburada increases brand awareness with influencer collaborations, while also gaining quality backlinks that contribute to SEO.

Result: Growth in E-Commerce with SEO and Marketing

To achieve sustainable growth in e-commerce, SEO, digital marketing and technical optimization must work in an integrated manner.

• Technical SEO improves site performance and user experience.
• Content optimization helps attract more organic traffic.
• Backlink strategies strengthen the authority of the website.
• Growth marketing and CRO increase sales by converting visitors into customers.

📌 You can increase your sales with e-commerce SEO and digital marketing solutions offered by Epigra.

🎯 Contact us for a free analysis and consultancy offer!