This interview is with Modestas Mankus, Founder at Talks Grow.

Modestas Mankus, Founder, Talks Grow

Welcome, Modestas! Could you please introduce yourself to our audience at CMOTimes.com and tell us a bit about your journey to becoming an SEO expert?

Hi, I'm Modestas, the founder of Talks Media Group. My journey into SEO began when I was around 14, building personal websites, playing around with meta-information, creating blog content, and realizing the power of SEO when it came to converting users to customers.

How has your experience with eCommerce, particularly with newsletters and understanding customer behavior, shaped your approach to SEO?

Well, SEO is such a wide topic and plays into a lot of different marketing channels. The main key point I learned is that people search with intent, and that intent is how we empower the architecture of the website and the content it holds.

My primary goal is always to understand the consumer. Once you know them, SEO suddenly becomes easier.

Many of our readers are marketing leaders looking for tangible SEO strategies. Can you share an SEO tactic that consistently delivers impressive results, particularly for eCommerce businesses?

There are a few that deliver great results, one of them being long-tail keywords for product categories. It's a niche test I've done on a few tester sites before implementing it for clients, and it has worked wonders due to how niche and intent-based they are. One to test for everyone; just ensure that you're careful with cannibalization.

You mentioned the effectiveness of personalized email marketing in a previous answer. How can eCommerce businesses leverage SEO to enhance email personalization and drive conversions?

Well, SEO is great at giving you answers and what people desire, so personalization can be gathered from the data you have through organic SEO. Creating effective funnels that utilize personalization will drive conversions, through email and other channels, too.

Speaking of personalization, how important is site structure and user experience in SEO for eCommerce, especially when aiming to provide a personalized shopping journey?

Might be the biggest point. Forget about SEO for a second. User experience will make you win or lose an order. Badly optimized pages kill conversions. When you put SEO into it, you should still primarily focus on the user-experience site. Don't fill your site with needless text purely for SEO's sake. Make it user-friendly, and results will follow—I promise.

You emphasized the significance of checkout offers as a cross-selling strategy. From an SEO perspective, how can eCommerce businesses optimize product pages to effectively promote these offers without disrupting the user experience?

Well, testing is the key here. You need to set up A/B tests and also try out different types of placements for cross-selling or upselling. It's important to ensure your site feels safe and that the products you offer as extras are related to what the customer is already buying. So, don't spam your site with a bulk load of upsells; simply focus on adding one or two, shout about the offer, and see the conversions. If it doesn't work, rotate, try again, and see if that wins.

Inventory risk is a major concern for eCommerce businesses. Can you elaborate on how SEO can be used to gauge product demand and inform inventory decisions?

Trends in SEO are a key part when it comes to building the site, so understanding search volumes will help with understanding demand and what products you should stock, though this may not give a clear indication of the actual amount of stock needed.

Looking ahead, what emerging trends in the SEO landscape are you most excited about, particularly those relevant to CMOs and marketing leaders in the eCommerce space?

I hope voice- and image-searches will make a big jump.

Finally, what advice would you give to aspiring SEO professionals looking to make their mark in the ever-evolving world of digital marketing?

Don't be scared of change. If it works, don't change it.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Marketing is a tough game; go easy on yourself and others. Learn, love, and most importantly, share.