We have entered an era where e-commerce is taking over and Amazon is King. Everyone can start their own online store or site and build a successful following with the right tools.

Bill Widmer, an e-commerce content marketer and white hat SEO pro and consultant speaks of his work with well known brands such as a Better Lemonade Stand, Bold Commerce, and Shopify—that build a long lasting following with the use of innovative, unique marketing and several key search engine optimization techniques.

He talks about how his keyword research ties into the content he markets and how the two depend on each other for a successful online presence.

“As far as the fusion of content and SEO, in my eyes, they’re basically one in the same. It’s nearly impossible these days to rank your website without great content on it, and the reason for the content is a lot easier to get backlinks, to then say, a product or category page.” Bill said.  

Organic Growth Versus Growth via Search Engine Optimization

Bill then goes on to talk about how as important as search engine optimization may be, without great content—those that reach the page or online store will not likely return and the great search results and traffic will be for naught.

He speaks of how organic growth from within is most important for a new and growing online business. Approximately 70% of all growth comes organically, meaning that this majority of new engagement is due to the efforts and great content of the promoted company without any boosted visibility and search optimization techniques.

That other 30% may be the smaller portion responsible for true growth, but it can and often does mean the difference between a global branding phenomenon and just a fairly successful online company. 

Bill takes full advantage of the 30% of pure marketing and growth potential by taking over 200 different statistics used by Google to rank and organize search results and narrows them down to the most important 5% of factors.

He then takes this data and dissects and uses them to his full advantage to get the rising company to be seen by as many people as possible.

Backlinks and Latent Semantic Indexing

One of the two most important factors to key in is the utilization of backlinks. A backlink is a link found on another website that directs users to your page.

The other key factor is latent semantic indexing, which is the use of keywords and similar phrases that when typed into a search bar, will more likely direct the user to the optimized site. Consequently, this increases traffic to the page.

When creating blogs or content intended to be promoted via keyword searches, Bill urges users to think more along the lines of common themes that are currently popular. Instead of trying to fit buzzwords into the writing, speak naturally about the popular topic in question and look for the most common themes present in a successfully visible content of the competition. 

The Pillar Approach and Analytics

Since search engine optimization relies so heavily on layers upon layers of keywords linking to several pages or parts of the whole site, it is important to build visibility within the search engines piece by piece.

The more keywords that can be successfully linked back to the promoted site, the more successful the site will be in terms of showing up in numerous different types of Google searches.

Bill then talks about using a “pillar approach” to strengthen your website’s visibility and engagement. With this approach, content creators are urged to look at their online company as the sum of its parts.

By building up the visibility of different aspects and services offered by the company, such as a sneaker company dedicating a section of the site to yoga equipment, one can extend their reach, and in turn —build their brand by branching out into a previously uncharted territory.

The more pages and features of the site that are made visible using great branding and search engine optimization, the more the site will be seen and utilized by new users. 

Bill then delves into key practices to ensure substantial and long-lasting growth through relationship building and collaborations with other online presences with similar fan bases. By getting to know these other companies, one could then begin to work the essential high-quality backlinks to be seen by a significantly larger number of users than without this key visibility tactic.

The more prominent the partner willing to offer a link to the website in question, the more likely the link will be clicked on. Because not only is the endorsement and praise from a company key in building trust with users, it also improves the ranking of the site.

The placement of a link to your site acts as a vote for you that automatically starts building upon and increasing the site’s online presence in terms of new user traffic. 

Key Takeaways and Where to go from Here

The only way to know how your site is performing in terms of visibility and engagement on the specific level, one must focus on following and tracking their growth on an analytics dashboard. This allows them to look for which tactics are performing well and with optimization efforts can be improved upon.

Bill concludes his very informative talk by mentioning his newly published case study on search engine optimization that is full of the most useful and effective methods of improving one’s reach online.

With these detailed explanations of real experiences from several successful online companies, this case study works as a training manual of sorts. This enables the reader to truly become an SEO and backlinks pro if they have the time to put in the work and follow these beneficial practices. 

Bill mentions, that not everyone has the countless hours to spend on optimizing their online content. In these cases, it is always possible to hire a professional SEO consultant and marketing expert to work in concert with the client. This allows you to find the best tactics appropriate for the content of the site to grow the company as much as possible.

Bill himself offers search engine optimization and e-commerce marketing and can be contacted via email at bill@billwidmer.com

About Bill Widmer

Bill is an SEO-obsessed content marketing consultant. He’s written for sites like Search Engine Journal, Social Media Examiner and Content Marketing Institute. Fun fact: He plays the ukulele!