How SEO Can Influence Last Minute Shoppers

MoreVisibility - May 14, 2008

While thinking about what to write, I realized that I had an experience this weekend that is a perfect testimony of why having a presence within the major search engines is so important.

I was racking my brain trying to figure out what I was going to get my mom for Mother’s Day (yes, a little last minute) and the first thing that I did was hop onto Google and search for “Mothers Day Gifts, Raleigh, NC”. Within about 5 minutes I had purchased a gift card from a spa just down the road from my mom’s house and ordered a bouquet of flowers to be delivered to her the very next day. After my sigh of relief that it was taken care of and I could go about enjoying the rest of my weekend, I sat back and realized just how important Search Engine Optimization (SEO) really is. If it wasn’t for that particular spa and florist taking the time to effectively optimize their sites using the keywords that I had searched for (including local keywords), I wouldn’t have stumbled across their site and would have been forced to find another gift. But because both of these links appeared within Google’s organic search results, I found them easily. In addition, my entire shopping experience (a total of about 5 minutes) was quite painless. The ease of making purchases through these websites was almost effortless and very user-friendly.

Having just moved to Florida, I truly appreciated the ability to find something so easily near my hometown. So keep in mind when optimizing your site that you can take advantage of last minute shoppers. I also highly recommend including local keywords as these can help searchers from out of state, like myself, find your products or services.