What can we learn from the e-commerce survey?

Our survey, answered by 100 Swedish e-commerce businesses, offers a glimpse into how one views things as a client of an SEO agency—or as someone who has chosen not to become a client. Here are some lessons we can draw from the survey.

To begin with, we should remember that this involves just 100 e-commerce businesses. That’s too small a sample to be representative of e-commerce as a whole. The survey is therefore really only a measurement of how these 100 e-commerce businesses view SEO and SEO companies.

Another thing to keep in mind is that, for the most part, the survey doesn’t measure actual figures (except for the question about how much is being invested) but rather the perception of the e-commerce business owner. We found that to be much more interesting, which is why, for example, we chose not to ask what percentage of customers come from SEO but instead used a softer scale, from few to many.

Participating in the conversation is a good thing

Before we dive into the details, it’s important to remember that this isn’t a measure of whether someone deserves trust or is actually good at what they do — it’s about perception. And what our survey of 100 e-commerce businesses shows quite clearly is this: those who actively participate in discussions earn trust. The companies that stood out positively in the survey, on this and other questions, are the ones that regularly engage with e-retailers and speak about e-commerce.

Top Dog, which earned the trust of 27 respondents, has recently been active in online discussions, particularly in forums and on Facebook. Founder Christian Rudolf also writes columns in Dagens Media. Despite being the youngest of the top four trusted companies in the survey, their conscious effort to join the conversation has already built a strong reputation.

Search Mint, trusted by 30 e-retailers, is also relatively new. However, its CEO and founder, Magnus Lundin, is a well-known figure in the Swedish e-commerce scene, especially as the founder of the Emeet unconference — a move that’s firmly placed his name on the map.

Pineberry, with the trust of 45 respondents, and its CEO Michael Wahlgren have had a solid reputation for a long time. With 81 blog posts on SEO and SEM at Sökmotorkonsult.se and regular sponsorships of Emeet, Pineberry is arguably the SEO agency that invests the most in creating and sharing valuable SEO content.

We at Brath, who earned the trust of 60 out of the 100 e-retailers surveyed, are perhaps the only ones more active than Pineberry when it comes to engaging in discussions with e-commerce businesses and SEO enthusiasts online. We participate actively on Ehandel.se, SEO-forum, Twitter, and Facebook.

Perhaps the most telling example came after the survey, when Pierre-Emil Chantereau of Jajja remarked on Facebook: “Damn, we really need to get better at communicating online.” Jajja is probably the largest SEO company in Sweden today — yet they haven’t managed to earn the trust of e-retailers.

Future investments in SEO

About half of the surveyed e-commerce businesses are currently investing money in SEO. That’s not surprising—e-commerce has almost always led the way in online marketing. In this area, they are far ahead of their brick-and-mortar counterparts. What’s more interesting is that a significantly larger share—76% of respondents—plan to invest in SEO in the future.

The SEO industry continues to grow year by year and, along with Adwords, now commands a large share of advertising spending. One could conclude that companies not investing in SEO in the future will likely be in the minority.

Potential for improvement among SEO companies

In my view, one particularly interesting question is what the weaknesses are within Swedish SEO. The most common answer by far is Untrustworthy actors. Many of the e-retailers I meet say they’re called several times a week by different companies trying to sell SEO. It’s not that just having telemarketers makes you untrustworthy, but cold-calling has been a standard approach—at least among the larger companies. If I had to guess, that’s probably what has created the perception that there are shady actors in the SEO industry. Personally, I don’t find that many of them remain—though a few of the old phone directory scammers have now rebranded themselves as SEO firms.

Next come lack of transparency, long contract commitments, and high prices, which together are about as unpopular as the untrustworthy actors. When it comes to costs, I don’t have many comments other than that I often think businesses are overly frugal. I’m fully aware that a smaller player may struggle to afford a larger investment—regardless of the area—but compared to most other marketing efforts, I don’t find SEO particularly overpriced.

Long contract terms and lack of transparency are issues that I and others—such as my former colleagues at Pineberry—have also identified. That’s exactly why we’ve chosen to offer very short contracts (one month) and to work completely transparently with our clients. Of course, many others have chosen a different path. It’s probably because of approaches like ours and Pineberry’s that these issues are less prevalent today—previously, almost all providers tied clients into long-term contracts without “disclosing” what they were actually doing.

Of course, there’s plenty more fun to glean from the data, but these are, in my eyes, the three most interesting points.