Marketplace SEO: Definition, Benefits, and How to Apply it

With the development of online trading platforms, the existence of a marketplace SEO is increasingly needed.

This strategy involves a series of techniques designed to increase a product's ranking and visibility in the marketplace.

Being at the top of the ranking provides a greater chance of getting relevant potential buyers. This type of potential buyer is easier to encourage or convert to make a purchase.

So, how do you implement marketplace SEO?

Before knowing it, first understand the meaning and benefits in the following guide.

What is Marketplace SEO?

Marketplace SEO is the process of optimizing online stores to get a higher ranking on search pages on the marketplace itself and on search engines.

The main goal of this strategy is to increase product visibility, attract more potential buyers, and increase sales. An example of a marketplace that can use SEO implementation is Shopee.

Benefits of Using Marketplace SEO 

Today, the online business environment is increasingly competitive. Marketplace SEO can help ensure that online stores and products are found by potential buyers.

Apart from that, there are still other benefits to implementing this strategy. Here's the explanation:

1.  Build Trust and Credibility

Marketplace users tend to trust and choose products that appear in the top rankings because they are considered more relevant and of higher quality.

When an online store already has trust and credibility in the eyes of users, the conversion from leads to sales will take place more easily.

The implementation of SEO can help marketplaces be ranked at the top of search pages.

2. Getting Better Reviews

One important factor in a prospect's buying decision is product reviews. Positive reviews will help strengthen a product's reputation and influence a customer's purchase decision.

SEO in the marketplace will increase the chances of your website getting good reviews from customers.

3. Cost-Effective

Marketplace SEO can be a more cost-effective marketing strategy compared to paid advertising.

In paid advertising, the strategy will only get results if there are costs incurred.

On the other hand, organic optimization can increase visibility and exposure without incurring additional costs.

4. Competitive Advantage

In the second quarter of 2019, total transactions on Shopee reached US$3.8 billion (around Rp. 54 trillion).

If the average Shopee transaction value per month is around IDR 18 million, this will be a big loss if it is not utilized properly.

Having an effective SEO strategy in the marketplace can give a business a competitive advantage.

This strategy will help the online store rank higher, thereby gaining abundant exposure and attracting more potential buyers than competitors.

5. Getting Traffic

Another benefit of optimizing an online store using SEO is that a website gains more and more relevant traffic. This quality traffic has more intensity to buy products.

How to Implement Marketplace SEO

Marketplace SEO is one of the best ways to increase traffic while generating profits.

This strategy will yield optimal results if planned properly. This section will explain how to implement a well-planned optimization strategy, such as Shopee Marketplace SEO:

1. Researching Keywords

Keyword research is used to find relevant and popular keywords in a market niche.

These keywords also serve to optimize product descriptions, titles, and product tags.

In conducting keyword research, there are several indicators that need attention, namely:

1. Search volume: This indicator looks at the traffic potential of a keyword. The greater the search volume, the greater the traffic potential.
2. Competition: The level of competition for ranking can be seen through this indicator to see the traffic potential of a keyword. The greater the level of competition, the more difficult it is to compete for top rankings on search pages.
3. Keyword intent: When users are about to make a purchase, they usually use keywords that have intent. For example, the keywords "sell" and "buy". This indicator shows the traffic potential of a keyword. The greater the search volume, the greater the traffic potential.

Apart from searching for main keywords, marketplace SEO practices must also be able to find LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords. LSI is a collection of words that are related to the topic.

Search engines use LSI keywords to determine content that fits user needs. Examples of LSI keywords are "memory" and "specs".

2. Making UGC

UGC (user-generated content) is content that is used to differentiate oneself from others. Good UGC content can encourage customers to leave product reviews and testimonials.

Reviews and testimonials are very important to gain trust and credibility from users. In addition, positive reviews and comments will help increase the product's ranking and exposure in the marketplace.

3. Updating Product Pages

Product pages should be updated regularly. This will keep the content relevant in the eyes of search engines. There are several sections that must always be updated, namely, title, price, description, features, and reviews.

In the product description section, you can update the optimization by inserting keywords. Enter the main keyword and some LSI. Ideally, product descriptions should be 300 words. In this way, search engines will easily crawl.

Another part that is no less important is the review. This review played a role in increasing the number of transactions by up to 270 percent. In addition, reviews will affect the SEO marketplace in two ways.

The first way is to provide material for search engines during the crawling process. Examples are user reviews such as "convenient", "fast", and "cheap". These reviews can also be used as keywords to optimize SEO in the marketplace.

Another way to lure users to stay in online stores for a long time. The longer a user visits an online store, the better the search engine will rate it.

4. Adding Schema Markup

Schema markup affects the appearance of the online store on the search page. These attributes can provide a rich search result display and attract the attention of potential buyers.

In addition, schema markup will effectively provide more detailed and structured information about the product to search engines.

Online stores that use schema markup will display a featured snippet. This form can double CTR (click-through rate) and transactions up to six times.

5. Setting the URL

A URL is a digital address that directs to a website. It is important to have SEO-friendly URLs, as they will help search engines understand content and improve product rankings on search pages.

There are several things that need to be considered when creating an SEO-friendly URL, starting with keeping the URL short (50–60 characters),

Equate it with the page title, remove some words that are not needed, and avoid including categories and subcategories.

So, that was an explanation of marketplace SEO, starting with its meaning, benefits, and how to implement it.

Optimizing the marketplace through an SEO strategy is the right step to increase visibility, drive quality traffic, and build customer trust.

This strategy is monitored and makes periodic improvements according to performance analysis and changing trends for long-term success in the marketplace.

If there are problems when running the optimization, SEO services from cmlabs can help your business implement an SEO strategy to do digital and organic marketing.

Implementing the right SEO strategy provides an opportunity for your business to grow organically.