E-commerce is expected to take even more of the retail pie, with growth of nearly $11 trillion between 2021 and 2025.
More and more e-commerce sites want a piece of this pie, and it’s crucial that your search strategies deliver.
Add to that the fact that advertising costs are reaching prohibitive territory to see results that often sink, and smart SEO practices become more urgent than ever.
10 Do’s Of Ecommerce Product Page SEO
Here are 10 dos and 10 avoids for a successful SEO strategy.
1. Fine-Tune Your Keyword Strategy
Keyword research is the foundation for product page optimization.
When doing keyword research, always use topics based on the products users are searching for. Don’t put it on volume. Instead, think about relevance and what it will become.
If you have data from other channels like paid search, use it for keyword and topic research and include ad copy with high click-through rates (CTR) in your meta descriptions.
Product pages have transactional intent, so make sure your landing pages are optimized for searchers who are ready to buy.
“Series S60l & Expression E52 brush” strongly indicates that they are willing to buy it due to the specific nature of the search.
Make it easy to take that important next step.
2. Optimize Titles And Meta Descriptions
Title tags and meta descriptions are very important in product page optimization.
Be sure to include details such as:
3. Mark Up Product Pages With Structured Data
Having the right kind of structured data can help your brand appear in rich snippets.
All product pages must have a product outline and a review outline, which is:
4. Add Clear And Helpful FAQs
High-quality content that addresses user needs is key to ranking high in the SERPs.
If users don’t find your content useful, your bounce rates will be high and customers may decide not to buy from you.
Most category and product pages have clear optimized content and do not have an FAQ section marked with structured FAQ data.
Instead, they tend to rely on user-generated content (UGC), which is a mistake.
Let’s say I have a question about a product and I don’t want to talk to a chatbot or call customer service.
If the brand in question has built an FAQ section with answers to frequently asked questions by users, I can easily find the information I’m looking for, and so can other customers.
This helps the brand to sell more products.
5. Always Write Unique Product And Meta Descriptions
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen an eCommerce site use the same description for every product on every product. It’s a huge missed opportunity.
Each item can be categorized for branded and non-branded keywords and therefore should have a unique description to take advantage of SEO.
Provide helpful and meaningful information to encourage consumers to click on your listing, thereby driving more traffic and sales.
Google search screenshot, August 2022
6. Share Real Testimonials And Customer Reviews
Product pages with customer reviews see 52.2% higher conversion increases than their non-reviewed counterparts, so it should be a no-brainer.
Real testimonials from customers who have tried your product mean that consumers in the market are trying to figure out whether to buy from you.
That’s why it’s so important to share with customers their experiences with your products and how they helped solve their problems.
But there are other advantages as well.
Reviews help build trust, especially if you have the endorsement of a well-researched celebrity or influencer.
They also provide fresh and unique content that Google wants. Be sure to mark them with the revision outline.
Screenshot from Zoya.com, August 2022
7. Test Landing Pages To Find The Best
Tools like Optimizely and Google Optimize provide an intuitive way to test even the smallest variations on product pages, which you should absolutely do to find the ideal setup.
Changing the location of the call to action, for example, can result in more conversions.
Experiment with your page design options to see how they best support sales.
8. Use High-Quality Video And Imagery
One of the drawbacks of shopping online is that you can’t physically touch or try on the product you’re considering.
High-quality images and videos can fill this gap by providing end users with the information they need to feel confident in their purchases.
Recently, my search for a cordless drill led me to the Home Depot site. The company’s site ranks highly for this period, and its landing page is packed with powerful content, including:
This was a great user experience because I wanted to know how many batteries came with the drill and if it came with a bag.
Screenshot from homedepot.com, August 2022
9. Minimize Page Load Times
Your product pages should be optimized for mobile. More and more consumers are searching online this way.
Fast loading web pages will get your content in front of your target audience faster and provide a better user experience.
This in turn helps increase sales, revenue and pages per session. It also gives you a leg up on the competition.
It also lowers bounce rates.
10. Audit Your Product Pages For Technical Issues
Product pages can often be duplicated due to faceted URLs, which can cause many SEO headaches, such as:
To avoid these problems, inspect the pages to see which technical elements and content need to be optimized, if any.
10 Don’ts Of Ecommerce Product Page SEO
1. Don’t Use Product Descriptions From The Manufacturer’s Website
This is one of the most common mistakes I see when optimizing product pages.
Many manufacturer descriptions are not convincing, lack all the information the customer needs and are not optimized for search.
It’s worth taking the time to write more informative and engaging descriptions. The more detailed information, the better. This can be the difference between being found and being invisible.
Also, remember that you don’t want duplicate content, which will hurt your SEO efforts.
2. Don’t Kill Your Seasonal Pages Once Peak Is Past
This is a common mistake I see brands make.
While it may seem reasonable to remove seasonal pages after the peak period, doing so will leave you with the same battle every year, once again, trying to regain the authority your site needs to rank for seasonal conditions.
And by the time you do this every year, it’s probably too late.
If you have a seasonal product page that has generated rankings, traffic and sales over time, don’t take it down.
Amazon is a great example of doing this right. They have a dedicated Black Friday URL that only gains authority over time.
Amazon can then update the page as the peak Black Friday season approaches.
3. Don’t Use Automated Optimization
It is not best practice to dynamically populate product pages with the product name as the title tag, brand name, and anything else.
Also, using automated descriptions and changing some variables can have a negative impact on your CTR.
Instead, include relevant information in headlines that you can’t automate. This can help your website rank for targeted keywords.
All titles and meta descriptions must be unique.
4. Don’t Pull Out-of-Stock Pages
Sometimes products run out, especially when supply chains are stressed.
But if the product is temporarily unavailable, you should keep the URL live, especially if the page has rankings and traffic.
As with seasonal pages, it seems counterintuitive.
In fact, a more profitable strategy is to keep these pages alive and provide links to other relevant products until the item is back in stock.
Screenshot from Karmaloop.com, August 2022
5. Don’t Use The Wrong Type Of Structured Data – Or None At All
Structured data (i.e. reviews and product data) can help your website rank in rich results and drive more traffic and sales. Having product data can help rank your website into rich segments.
Many brands use the wrong types of structured data or don’t implement structured data at all. Both hurt your website’s ranking.
Google Search Console screenshot, August 2022
6. Don’t Use Weak Calls To Action – Or Omit Them Entirely
Many brands often lack strong calls to action (CTAs), but clean and simple CTAs are essential for any site.
Remember that the primary job of your product page is to drive revenue and sales.
If users take too long to find how to buy your products, they will visit your competitors’ sites. Make it easy and convincing to buy from you.
7. Don’t Optimize For CEO Keywords And Keywords With No Volume
Often, when a CEO asks an SEO specialist, “Why aren’t we ranking for keyword XYZ?” The answer is that XYZ has no search volume.
Think like a customer, do your research and use the data to decide which keywords to use.
For example, if I’m optimizing for “lego spice girls back in stock”, it won’t be worth it because users aren’t actually searching for this term.
Once I qualify, I won’t get many sales due to low volume.
8. Don’t Miss Opportunities For Internal Linking And Backlinks
Links are very important for e-commerce.
Often, brands build links to their homepages and category pages, but forget about their product pages.
But these pages can rank, especially for long-tail keywords that have high purchase intent and can significantly increase your revenue and sales.
That’s why you should always support product pages with internal links as well as paid social media to improve visibility and performance.
9. Don’t Charge The Wrong Price
Not having the right pricing strategy can lead to consumers not buying your products and possibly not trusting your brand.
This is especially true when prices rise on high-demand products, as we experienced during the baby food shortage.
We all know the laws of supply and demand, but paying 20% more for infant formula is crazy. Fortunately, states are dealing with rising prices.
10. Don’t Forget Mobile Optimization
To understand how important it is to optimize for mobile shopping, consider that over 60% of online shoppers in the US shop via mobile devices. And more than a third are mobile-only shoppers.
Not having a mobile product page can cause users to not even consider purchasing products from your site.
Wrapping Up
By sharpening your SEO strategy, you’re also burning your brand.
By giving consumers the best information available (and quickly) about a product, a compelling reason to buy, answers to common questions they anticipate, and a real third-party thumbs up, you’re giving them reasons to return to your website.
Brand building is a long-term commitment. Even if it doesn’t lead to an immediate purchase, it ensures that customers can trust you.
And being vigilant with your SEO is an important way to build that trust.
Featured Image: ImYanis/Shutterstock
What are the main types of SEO?
So the different types of SEO are:
- Technical SEO
- Page SEO
- Content SEO
- Off-page SEO.
- Local SEO
- Mobile SEO.
- eCommerce SEO.
What are the main parts of SEO? The three main components of SEO are: Technical SEO. On-Page SEO (or Content SEO) Off-Page SEO (or Links)
What are the types of SEO?
There are three main types of SEO: Internal (On-Page SEO) External (Off-Page SEO) Technical SEO.
What are the 7 types of SEO?
The seven different types of SEO in digital marketing are white hat SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, local SEO, YouTube SEO, app page optimization, and technical SEO. Search engines play a tremendous role in ensuring increased growth, visibility and it is possible to grow organically using SEO best practices.
What is SEO and its types?
The term SEO, Search Engine Optimization, refers to improving your website’s visibility in Google search results for relevant keywords or search phrases. SEO helps generate site traffic naturally.
How many types of SEO optimization are there?
The three types of SEO are: On-page SEO â Anything on your web pages â Blogs, product copy, web copy. Off Page SEO â Anything outside of your website that contributes to your SEO Strategy – Backlinks. Technical SEO – Anything technical to improve Search Rankings – Site indexing to help bot crawl.
What is the golden rule of SEO?
Well-written content attracts the reader, increases search engine rankings and traffic, and increases the chance of quality links from other sites.
What are the 4 main components of an SEO? Each component builds upon and complements the others. The stronger the connections between each of the 4 SEO components — technical SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and content — the better the results. Knowing about connections will help us better understand how to use them effectively.
What are the 3 C’s of SEO?
Simply put, the fundamentals of SEO can be boiled down to the 3 C’s: Content, Code and Credibility.
What SEO 3?
A local SEO 3-pack is a list of the first three businesses you see in search results when you search for keywords like ‘near me’ or ‘near [Location]’. for a local business, Google generates a list of potential businesses that match your search query.
What is an SEO strategy?
An SEO strategy is the process of organizing a website’s content by topic to improve its likelihood of appearing in search results. It’s basically the process you follow to maximize your chances of getting organic traffic from search engines.
What is the meaning of SEO strategy? SEO is search engine optimization, which is a set of practices designed to improve the appearance and placement of web pages in search results.
What is SEO and examples?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of getting targeted traffic to a website from a search engine’s organic rankings. Common SEO-related tasks include creating high-quality content, optimizing content around specific keywords, and building backlinks.
How does SEO work example?
Some examples of signals that search engines use to rank web pages are: Presence of keywords in the title tag â A keyword or synonym is mentioned on the page and in the title tag. Web Page Load Speed â The web page loads quickly and is mobile friendly.
What is SEO in simple words?
Search engine optimization is the science of improving a website to increase its visibility when people search for products or services. The more visibility a website has in search engines, the more likely the brand is to capture business.
What is SEO in digital marketing with example?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of getting traffic from free, organic, editorial or natural search results. It’s simply the name given to the activity of trying to improve search engine rankings. In many ways, it’s just quality control for websites.
How long should product descriptions be for SEO?
The product description should be between 305-400 words, or as long as necessary to provide a brief overview of the product’s main features and benefits to the consumer.
How long should a Shopify product description be? Don’t worry too much about the length. A product page can be completely effective with less than 50 words of product description. Conversely, a product page may need 500 words to answer every question a user might have.
What is good SEO for a product description?
Know the SEO basics These are: Identifying promising keywords: high search frequency and low competition are ideal. Use keywords naturally in body text, as well as metadata and titles. Avoid sentences of more than 20 words.
Why are product descriptions important for SEO?
Benefits describe how the product features will work for the buyer. Benefits address how your product will improve their lives. Describing the benefits is much more helpful to your audience than listing the features. Adding product benefits makes your description relevant to the buyer, which improves SEO.
What makes a good product description?
The best product descriptions are directly and personally addressed to your target audience. You ask and answer questions as if you were having a conversation with them. You choose the words your ideal buyer uses. You use the word ‘you’
Why is 200 words the optimum word count for a product description on an eCommerce website?
Did you know that the first 200 words of your product description are the most important? This is especially useful in eBay product descriptions that their search engine Cassini scans and indexes based on the optimal word count. On Amazon, it’s your points that should be keyword rich.
How long should Amazon product descriptions be?
Product titles cannot exceed 200 characters, including spaces. This upper limit applies to all categories. Some categories may have an even lower character limit. For details, see Templates for Specific Categories.
How many words should a product description be?
How long should the product description be? The product description should be between 305-400 words, or as long as necessary to provide a brief overview of the product’s main features and benefits to the consumer.