Convert Organic Traffic Into Customers: 16 Ideas for eCommerce Stores

eCommerce organic traffic gives you 1600% more ROI compared to paid traffic. 

But you need to give organic visitors a reason to stay on your site.

Here’s a list of 16 ways how to optimize eCommerce websites to convert those organic visitors. 

How To Improve eCommerce Organic Traffic Conversion Rate

1. Use nudges in your blogs

Nudge blog visitors: find a way to send them to your product page. 

Here are a few ways to be subtle yet convincing about nudges while bringing in organic eCommerce traffic:

✅ Offer relevant links within the content

Take a cue from eCommerce jewelry brand Mejuri, which offers product links as nudges alongside helpful resources that can help shoppers decide on purchasing in their “resources” page: 

✅ Feature all relevant links as callouts at the top 

This works especially well when the blog explores a super specific topic—and these products are all connected to the topic. 

Here’s what OUAI does on their sustainability blog: 

✅ Make “giving back” the source of attraction

After all 73% of shoppers believe a brand can lend itself to a worthy cause and also make profits. 

In fact, it’s such people that makeup brand Thrive Causemetics targets through this nudge on their blogs:

👉 Key Takeaway: To convert more organic traffic, your nudges have to elicit a clear emotional response, be it urgency or exclusivity or philanthropy.

We recommend you read: 30 Best Examples of Nudge Marketing in eCommerce

2. Apply more precise in-session marketing

Organic traffic essentially means anonymous visits, and anonymous visits mean any eCommerce store has to try harder to build confidence & sell. 

Here’s a glimpse at a study conducted by Session AI:

In any case, it’s been a while that research proved it takes a shopper about 8 touchpoints to be convinced of a purchase—with the right kind of in-session marketing, you just stand a better chance. 

Here are a few things you can do to ensure more organic traffic converts:

✅ Use mystery to pique their “beginner’s mind”‍

This can especially work for those who directly know little about your brand but have likely heard great things from others. 

✅ Make opting in super easy‍

Most of us are still used to email opt-in discounts but there are other ways to do this as well. 

Check out how Net-a-Porter offers a push notification opt-in on their sale page, making it very attractive for organic visitors:

✅ Feature attractive limited time “free shipping” nudges

Considering 75% of shoppers prefer free shipping (compared to 25% who prefer fast shipping)

Here’s how Nordstrom does it:

Other ideas you can implement:

✅ Feature both “view more” and “add-to-cart” product recommendations on the homepage

✅ Retain separate links on bundles and offers in the main navigation

✅ Make the primary navigation a sticky menu

👉 Key Takeaway: Detect intent in real-time if you want to make a difference through organic traffic - use AI tools like Nosto or Limespot if you will - because top organic traffic for eCommerce also happens to be intent-based traffic. 

3. Create “authority” across your site

You want your organic visitors to trust you right away. 

Here are a few ways to do this across your store:

✅ Highlight certifications & awards

✅ Make space for press mentions

✅ Create call-outs out of reviews 

✅ Showcase review strength on a third-party platform like Trustpilot 

✅ Mention how many people have trusted you and bought from you

eCommerce nutrition brand Gaia Herbs highlights celebrity endorsements, talk about the values behind their products, feature expert content on all ingredients they use and even showcase their B-Corp status:

Key Takeaway: Feature a mix of authority-based social proof to convert your organic traffic faster.

4. Create value-add content on your product pages 

You want shoppers to get familiar with your product? Help them. Give them something to read.

There are several ways to get product page content to increase organic search traffic:

✅ Feature a short how-to video

✅ Offer styling or use context tips

✅ Include UGC that carries insights about the product

✅ Showcase recipes or other DIY content

One eCommerce brand that enriches their product page content through this approach is Good Mylk—notice how they feature three separate preparations that has the main product in common:

👉 Key Takeaway: Use quality content across product pages pack more power into your organic visits - because even if most of them don’t buy right away, this will create brand recall.

5. Use gated content for longer lifecycle products

While gated content may not work for perishables and day-to-day essentials, it can create engagement and organic conversions for high-ticket products. 

This is the kind of content you'd not make freely available—but hide behind an email opt-in pop-up.

So, if you sell tech, expensive perfumes or jewelry or are in the furniture space, consider gating:

✅ Insightful videos by experts 

✅ Limited time product drops

✅ “Ideas” that the shopper can apply while using your products

Here’s a quick example from children’s brand Lovevery—notice how their messaging instantly reduces cognitive load and puts the shopper at ease:

👉 Key Takeaway: The gated content you feature on your eCommerce store has to seem like it’s not to be found anywhere else, for the best organic traffic to convert. 

6. Optimize with long-tail keywords

If you run a makeup store, optimizing for “red lipstick” may not be enough to attract those who’re likely to buy. 

However, something like “red lipstick for weddings” is way more specific and will draw a highly targeted crowd of shoppers. 

One eCommerce brand that works hard to optimize for long-tail keywords and also reaps conversion results is Etsy—here’s a quick example:

👉 Key Takeaway: Don’t just feature long-tail keywords across product pages, but also bring them into category page banners and homepage section descriptors.

7. Improve search engine visibility through seed keywords

Along with long-tail keywords, you’ll have to pay attention to “seed” keywords if you want to attract organic conversions. 

These are shorter, more generic phrases that capture what your store specializes in. 

For example, if you have a tyre store, optimizing for seed keywords like “car tyres” and “two wheeler tyres” will help you make your store visible in the tyre category. 

Here's how you can find the right seed keywords for your eCommerce organic traffic:

✅ Figure out the main areas your business operates in (is it skincare? is it baby clothing?)

✅ Do an audit to find out competitor keywords

✅ Check out the "People Also Ask" section on keywords being referred to

👉 Key Takeaway: Expand seed keywords into long-tail keywords that serve different kinds of organic traffic intent including transactional and comparison-based.

Do check: Convert More Paid Traffic—9 Strategies That Always Work (eCommerce)

8. Bring out brand USP in your meta descriptions

First impressions matter. 

We’ve noticed how important the meta description is—especially when it clarifies what the brand does, why it does it well and what kind of products it sells.  

One eCommerce brand that differentiates their meta description is Death Wish Coffee—organic visitors will quickly see how this brand is about “bold” coffee: 

👉 Key Takeaway: Ensure to A/B test meta descriptions to arrive at the one that stands out for top organic traffic. 

9. Make your CTAs tapworthy

Your CTAs are the gateways for shoppers to navigate more of your site. 

Write them well and you can have more people click. 

Here are a few tips you can consider to improve organic traffic conversion rate:

✅ Veer away from the usual “shop now” and “learn more” if you’re pitching an offer or giveaway (a more actionable “get shopping” would be more catchy)

✅ Color code & block them based on priority (for example, if you have an ongoing sale, make “shop the sale” more distinct than the other “shop now” CTAs)

✅ Use relevant microcopy alongside to create better impact

Take a look at what DTC brand Huckberry does with some of their high-intent CTAs:

👉 Key Takeaway: Something about the CTA has to break away from the clutter around it to appeal to eCommerce organic traffic — whether it’s the personal language or the color it features.

10. Enrich “alt text” in product images

This is the only way you can create an extra layer of attention from the search engines—while optimizing for organic visitors who might have visual disabilities. 

Enriching alt text of your images also ensures those who search images for products, will find you organically. 

Here are a few non-negotiable to-dos when it comes to optimizing for organic traffic conversions:

✅ Use descriptive language that exactly hints at what the image contains

For example “5’ 10” female model wearing a Size S slate gray cardigan” is way more precise than “gray cardigan wearing model.”

✅ Offer context in the product description—this helps shoppers imagine better

An example would be “an orange waiting to be juiced by the Wattabee N1 1L Juicer on a table” versus a more generic “an orange to make juice.”

👉 Key Takeaway: Focus on using keywords naturally in your alt text to rank better and be found by organic visitors who’re also keen to buy. 

11. Encourage product comparison behavior

Since a chunk of your organic traffic visitors are going to be in research mode, to convert them, you’ll have to enable them to make product comparisons. 

It’s either this or you lose them to one of their many open tabs. 

To get organic shoppers to enjoy your product comparison UX::

✅ Use a different “Compare” CTA on homepage and category pages—instead of this opening up into a different page, you can show a pop-up that contains the comparison info

✅ Use a “Compare” CTA as a sticky menu button apart from add-to-cart on product pages

✅ Create a filter option that says “compare similar products” so that checking it can reveal only the necessary comparison info 

One eCommerce brand that checks all the UX boxes for great product comparisons is Wayfair:

👉 Key Takeaway: Make it easy to know that shoppers can indeed “compare” in-store—display the feature prominently for more of your organic traffic visitors to engage for longer.

12. Build trustworthy backlinks to your store

One trustworthy link from an authoritative website is worth more than a few hundreds from unknown or less known sites. 

Which brings us to how you can backlink more effectively for the most quality organic traffic. 

Suggestions we’ve seen working for organic eCommerce conversions include:

✅ Suppliers linking back to your website

✅ Affiliates posting your site links in the content they create

✅ Brand collaborators linking back to your site (in this case, a great blog comes in handy)

✅ Optimizing your content with non-product based keywords so that more organic backlinking can happen

👉 Key Takeaway: The best rated organic traffic for eCommerce will find you when you establish backlinks with niche-relevant websites & blogs with high authority. 

13. Use “hybrid landing pages” to do the trick

Hybrid landing pages take conversions up by some notches—because they offer SEO-led content along with conversion-driving elements like social proof. 

This makes it possible for both human beings and robots to land up more effectively on these pages. 

Here’s how you can make them shine for organic conversion:

✅ Offer a clear description each product you’re promoting—how it’ll impact will set expectations

✅ Talk about “the idea” that sets your products apart

✅ Feature social proof that’ll instantly build trust

✅ Use high intent keywords that’ll bring conversion-ready audiences

One eCommerce brand that develops snappy hybrid landing pages is Squatty Potty—the brand makes them engaging, interactive as well as SEO-rich:

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👉 Key Takeaway: To make your hybrid landing pages appear for more organic visitors, spruce them up with mid to long-tail keywords that carry both educational & transactional intent.

For more inspiration, read: 33 High-Converting Product Landing Page Examples

14. Recommend products based on audience profiles

It’s most common for eCommerce brands to describe their top-selling categories on the homepage. 

But if you recommend products based on a number of audience segments (body type, product use frequency type etc.,) you may see better organic traffic conversion. 

Here’s what cosmetic brand Kiko Cosmetics does to draw attention from organic traffic across multiple audience segments—they introduce a descriptor for each category type:

👉 Key Takeaway: Keep switching the way you organize this section through the year to gather more data on the intent of organic traffic visitors (for example, during peak season, turn the sections into different gifting types or gifting price thresholds).

15. Beat competition through a satisfaction guarantee

When people haven’t heard about your store but feel the curiosity to visit, a guarantee can be a conversion-driver. 

Here are a few ideas you can explore to convert organic visitors to your store:

✅ Feature a money-back offer

✅ Display an extended return window on the first purchase

✅ Offer a price-match guarantee 

✅ Create an exchange policy where the shopper can go for a different yet similar product

eCommerce brand Ritual offers their satisfaction guarantee right under the primary CTA for greater impact—this is helpful for healthcare and skincare brands to keep shoppers captive:

👉 Key Takeaway: If you have a satisfaction or money-back guarantee, the most reliable way to attract best retail organic traffic is to set up a separate page which incorporates related keywords like “risk-free shopping”.

16. Use differentiated email opt-in prompts

If your email opt-ins are perpetually about X% off on first purchase, organic visitors will likely not respond. 

Why? Every store is doing the same thing, all the time. 

To create more differentiated email opt-ins for organic eCommerce visitors:

✅ Ask to select preferences / problem areas in the opt-in pop-up

✅ Vary the offer (for a more mature audience, introduce “free shipping” on X orders)

✅ Do some value-add (offer a discount but also throw in some gated content)

👉 Key Takeaway: Set rules at the back-end where pop-ups are triggered based on intent of organic visitors based on where they are on the customer journey. 

Questions eCommerce leaders also ask:

What can I do right away to improve organic store traffic?

While there are many CRO & SEO improvements that you can make over a course of time to bring & retain organic customers to your site, here are the 5 things that will immediately help you discover traffic:

✔ Get visual search optimization right—be it comprehensive alt text for images across your site or elaborate schema markups for visual search engines, the more your visuals rank, the more organic visitors will know of your store’s presence. 

✔ Develop more in-depth product content—the point is not to restrict your scope to just product descriptions or even category descriptions - attempt to bring in category specific guides that offer product comparison and also add insight and value based on customer segments. 

✔ Make more space for user generated content—work with more hashtag campaigns across social media and make the UGC on your site have a problem-solution hook to attract & retain the best organic traffic in eCommerce. 

✔ Optimize for voice search—in the age of AI, this is absolutely imperative to bring in quality organic visitors who’re willing to engage with your content - so consider incorporating more natural language into your FAQ sections and also optimize the overall site content for long-tail question-based keywords. 

Recommended reading:

Getting Traffic But No Sales? 21 Reasons Why (+ How To Solve)

18 Brilliant Ways To Convert First-Time Visitors Into Buyers (eCommerce)

31 Creative (Yet Economical) Ways To Drive Traffic To Your eCommerce Store

11 Guaranteed Ways To Boost Revenue per Visitor (eCommerce)

Why Is Your Conversion Rate Low: Possible Causes + Solutions

Top-notch UX = Top-notch organic conversion

98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.

Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

And this is the problem Convertcart solves.

We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.

How we can help you:

Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.