To boost customer retention through e-commerce content, it’s essential to make your approach interactive and engaging. Incorporate polls, questions, and prompts that encourage your audience to comment and share their opinions. Additionally, consider participating in community events or forming business partnerships that create new engagement opportunities, keeping your content fresh and relevant. Reusing content across various platforms—such as emails, blogs, and social media—ensures a consistent message while saving time and resources. One effective strategy is to create content series or themes that span several weeks. This method helps maintain customer interest by weaving your story over time, fostering a deeper connection. While it’s tempting to jump on every marketing or social media trend, it’s crucial to align your content strategy with what resonates most with your target audience, ensuring lasting engagement and retention.
How to Increase E-commerce Traffic Through Content Generation
Need to learn how to increase e-commerce traffic to your website? You can improve site traffic by creating engaging content.

Need to learn how to increase e-commerce traffic? Need more visitors to your website? Retail and e-commerce businesses can improve the number of visitors to their websites by creating engaging content that complements the products or services they sell. Learn how to enhance your SEO by crafting informative blog posts and optimized product descriptions. Engage your target customer and build your brand by telling your story.
Meet the Experts
Blair Castle
Blair is a seasoned marketing professional with a robust background in strategic communication and digital marketing. Her early career involved creating digital strategies for local nonprofits and businesses, where she specialized in search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing and brand management. Since joining the FedEx Digital Commerce Solutions team, Blair is a vital contributor supporting customers and Sales across all segments, leveraging her expertise in SEO and e-commerce content strategy. She is currently the Lead Editor of an internal e-commerce trends report, delivering insights that empower Sales teams to drive customer success.
Julienne Reyes
Julienne is the founder of Belugabee, an online stationery and sticker business that gives back to the environment and children in need. She and her team lead hands-on initiatives like arts and crafts and reading programs, showing how giving back can be fun. With over 10 years of marketing and finance experience, Julienne started Belugabee in 2020 during the pandemic and has grown her online community to over 80,000 people, with plans to reach 200,000 by the end of 2025.
How to Increase E-Commerce Traffic
Creating strong content is essential for standing out in today’s e-commerce landscape. It’s not just about getting attention but also about building trust and driving real business results.
Create Content to Reach Your Growth Goals
Creating strong content is the foundation of a successful e-commerce strategy. It helps businesses grow in three big ways:
- Building Trust: Consumers are increasingly selective about where they spend their money. High-quality, authentic content—whether it’s a blog, a product description, or a social media post—demonstrates your expertise and authenticity. For example, if you own a dog bed company, sharing how your dog bed solves arthritic issues in elderly dogs could help you encourage a hesitant new customer into purchasing for their pup. Trust transforms casual browsers into loyal customers.
- Driving Engagement: Strong content sparks meaningful connections. Engaging articles, videos, and visuals grab attention can encourage interaction, whether it’s a comment, share, or follow. These interactions grow your audience organically. Remember, content that resonates keeps people coming back for more.
- Improving Conversions: Content acts as your silent salesperson. A clear product description, a compelling how-to guide, or a short video demonstrating value can directly influence buying decisions. Plus, strategically using keywords in these content pieces ensures your business appears where your customers are already looking.
Ultimately, strong content isn’t just about words or visuals—it’s about answering your customers’ needs and creating a journey they value. Businesses that invest in great content see not only higher traffic but also stronger relationships and sustainable growth.
7 Content Strategy Tips for Smaller E-Commerce Businesses
Content strategy plays a huge role in scaling a small e-commerce business. It aligns your content with your business goals and ensures you deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. There are a few ways this is done.
- Establish Your Brand Identity: A clear content strategy helps define your brand voice and positioning. Whether it’s an educational blog, social media post or email newsletter, consistent messaging builds recognition and trust with your audience.
- Reach the Right Audience: With a solid strategy, you can create targeted content tailored to specific customer personas. For example, instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, you might craft content that speaks directly to pet owners looking for eco-friendly dog beds or shop owners looking for unique bed options to add to their inventory.
- Support SEO and Visibility: A good content strategy includes optimizing for search engines. You want Google to work for you. Try producing valuable, keyword-rich content helps your site rank higher and driving organic traffic. This is especially valuable for businesses that aren’t ready to venture into the paid ads space.
- Drive Consistent Growth: A good content strategy allows you to plan campaigns around seasons, trends or new product launches. By anticipating customer needs, you stay ahead of the curve and drive consistent engagement and sales.
- Scale Efficiently: When your content strategy is well-structured, it ensures your resources—time, budget, and creativity—are used effectively. You can repurpose content across platforms (e.g., a blog becomes a social post or video) to maximize its reach without reinventing the wheel.
- Post a Variety of Content: Post many different types of content to appeal to different types of users. Mix it up with static photos, galleries or collages, videos, articles or blogs, and more.
- Repeat Your Main Points: Don’t be afraid of repeating your main points (in different ways) many times to really drive your main message home to your followers, customers, and prospective customers.
Content strategy is the roadmap that transforms a small e-commerce business from surviving to thriving, helping you scale efficiently while keeping customers engaged and loyal.
SEO Essentials for Small Business Owners
A quick SEO way to improve SEO that small businesses often overlook is optimizing existing content with long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are more specific, lower-competition phrases that directly address what your audience is searching for. For example, instead of targeting “dog beds,” you might focus on “orthopedic dog beds for large breeds” or “eco-friendly washable dog beds.” These terms attract customers who are ready to buy because they have clear intent.
How to Increase E-Commerce Traffic with Longtail Keywords
- Start by reviewing your existing content (blogs, product descriptions, FAQs) for keyword ideas and areas for improvement.
- Use tools like Google Search Console or free keyword research tools to identify long-tail phrases people are already searching for but you aren’t targeting.
- Update your content to naturally include these phrases in headings, subheadings, and body text.
Improve E-Commerce SEO with Image Alt Text
Another quick keyword win is to optimize image alt text with these long-tail phrases. Search engines cannot “see” your images, so when you upload an image, there is an opportunity to add a description to that image. These descriptions are mostly invisible to your customers, but search engines are giving you credit for whatever keywords you add to them. Most website building or hosting platforms.
5 Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid
There are 5 common pitfalls that come to mind when working on your SEO strategy.
- Ignoring the Customer’s Intent: Many businesses tend to get caught up on keyword integration without understanding the searcher’s intent. Think about what your customers are searching for and match your content to what your audience is looking for.
- Neglecting Mobile Optimization: Search engines focus on the mobile experience over the desktop experience of a website. When building a website or making changes to content, make sure you are focusing on the mobile experience as well. Use responsive design, compress images, and ensure quick loading speeds. Test your site speed regularly using Page Speed Insights on mobile devices.
- Overlooking Content Refreshes: Publishing content and forgetting it. Outdated information can hurt your rankings and credibility. Regularly audit and update existing content with fresh insights, updated links, and current data.
- Keyword Stuffing: Overloading content with keywords to manipulate rankings. This leads to poor readability and penalties from search engines. Google is more intuitive than that. Focus on natural language. Use keywords strategically in your content, but prioritize quality writing.
- Don’t Rely on One Channel: When your content foundation is in place, consider diversifying your strategy across multiple channels, including email, social media and (when you are ready) paid ads, to avoid dependency on one source.
Brand Storytelling and E-Commerce Traffic
Crafting your perfect brand story involves balancing authenticity with strategic optimization. No matter the channel, the storytelling should be cohesive. Some actionable items include:
Identify and Use SEO-Friendly Keywords
- This is your foundation. Research keywords that align with your brand’s values and customer interests. For example, if your brand story focuses on sustainability, integrate phrases like “eco-friendly products” or “sustainable pet supplies.” Naturally weave these keywords into your story, including titles, headings, and meta descriptions.
Leverage Storytelling for Social Media Algorithms
- Social media platforms prioritize engaging content. Share bite-sized, compelling elements of your brand story—like behind-the-scenes moments or founder motivations—that resonate emotionally.
- Use hashtags strategically, including branded hashtags and trending ones related to your niche.
- Geo-tag your posts, if relevant, to your target location.
Encourage User-Generated Content (UGC)
- Invite customers to share their experiences with your brand and repost their content. UGC not only extends your story but also boosts discoverability through their networks.
Align Content with Platform Preferences
- Tailor your story for each platform. For example, longer-form storytelling works well on YouTube or a blog, while short, punchy captions thrive on Instagram or TikTok. One content piece can be split into multiple unique experiences for your customers.
- Write a clear and engaging hook. In a simple sentence or two, tell viewers the most relevant information about that post. Remember how quickly social media users swipe away from content if they aren’t immediately engaged.
SEO and Growth Tools
There are several resources and tools businesses can use to analyze performance and understand what their customers are looking for.
From a website functionality perspective, they can use tools like Google Analytics to monitor which pages customers visit most, how long they stay and where they drop off. This can help you identify what content engages with your customer and what content needs improvement. Heatmaps, like Hotjar, can show businesses where their customers physically spend the most time as well as areas of frustration and loading issues.
- Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results.
- Google Analytics is a free tool that allows e-commerce businesses to build a deeper understanding of their customers.
- Hotjar and Fullstory are heatmap analytics tools that help users understand how visitors interact with individual website pages.
- Canva and Lumen5 are powerful design tools that can be used to create all types of internal and external projects.
From an SEO perspective, there are numerous tools that can help identify keyword opportunities to attract new customers. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, or SEMrush help identify what your audience searches for and what keywords your competitors are having success with. Look for high-intent, long-tail keywords relevant to your niche. For example: If you sell pet supplements, keywords like “best supplements for older dogs” or “natural horse supplements” can guide your content creation.
Lastly, listen to what your customers are saying. Customers are giving you feedback all the time, through comments and likes on an Instagram post and reviews on your website. Every interaction is an opportunity to understand your customers that much more.
AI Tools for E-Commerce Traffic Growth
As digital e-commerce evolves, so do the opportunities for small businesses, but the most popular one at the moment is Generative AI. Generative AI solutions, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, are algorithmic tools that leverage vast amounts of data to generate answers to a wide array of prompts. In other words: AI is your unpaid intern. AI can help businesses craft content ideas, research keyword opportunities and help you fine tune your demographics to help personalize your customer experiences. A few examples of how AI can help you are:
- Streamlining Content Creation AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, or Copy.ai can quickly generate high-quality content, from blog posts to product descriptions
- Enhancing SEO Strategies AI-powered keyword research can help identify untapped, low-competition long-tail keywords like “organic calming supplements for cats.” Just ask the AI tool for keyword ideas in your industry.
- Automating Social Media Content AI tools like Canva or Lumen5 can help create engaging visual content, while scheduling tools like Buffer or Hootsuite automate posting. Use AI to generate captions, hashtags, and post ideas based on trending topics.
- Competitive Analysis and Content Optimization Use AI to analyze which content types (blogs, videos, infographics) drive the most traffic in your industry and replicate their success.
AI empowers small businesses to work smarter, not harder. That being said, AI should only be used for drafting ideas. You always want add a human touch to ensure the content feels authentic and aligns with your brand voice and saves you from any potential copyright issues.