e-Commerce sites, SEO tips and best practices for product pages

They are called product pages and all of us have encountered at least one of them when we browse to do online shopping: they are in fact the pages that greet us with all the information related to the item we are viewing, and that have the delicate task of “convincing” us to turn the simple purchase intention into a real expense. It should therefore be clear why those who manage an e-Commerce must devote attention to this aspect, optimizing product pages to maximize visibility on Google but, above all, to increase the conversion rate, and these are the tips and best practices to achieve the goals.

What e-Commerce product pages are

An e-Commerce product page is simply the page on a Web site, and an e-Commerce one to be precise, that defines a product and its features in its entirety, including information such as price, size, specifications, color, manufacturer and more, as well as images of the item, possibly videos and reviews.

Therefore, a product page allows a visitor to examine what the product offers and provides a comparison with other similar products, facilitating the overall buying process.

In addition to optimizing product pages for user experience, however, owners and professionals engaged on online stores must also ensure that these pages are the best possible for SEO, which plays, as we know, a crucial role in attracting potential customers to the site.

The basics of SEO for e-Commerce product pages

Even before they are product pages, however, product pages are (and remain) essentially web pages, to which we should give the classic attention that we give to others published on the site, thus including the good SEO rules that apply to traditional generic content pages.

So this means that it is important to use a title and meta description that is unique and catchy, but most importantly useful to people interested in the product, and then that it is good practice to add images or videos of the product in operation, and still facilitate navigation and answer people’s possible usage questions.

In summary, then, to be SEO-friendly, a product page should neither be too simple nor full of too much information, and what makes the difference is its construction: of course, customers cannot touch or try the product before they buy, so it is the design and content of the page) that will determine whether or not a visitor turns into a buyer by actually making a conversion.

Optimizing the e-Commerce product pages

With the evolution of digital commerce and increased competition-according to HTTP Archive’s Web Almanac, at least 20 percent of sites reviewed globally include a digital sales system-it is more crucial than ever to market yourself effectively and with attractive, functioning and error-free sites, so as not to waste the opportunity and impress at first glance, not least because we may not get a second chance to intercept a customer’s click.

For this reason, we try to offer some useful advice with this list of 10 Do’s and 10 Don’ts for optimizing e-Commerce product pages. The theme is at the center of an in-depth study by Winston Burton on Search Engine Journal, which begins by reaffirming the decisive value of a product page optimized for those who work in the e-commerce field.

Although this is a historical truth, it takes on an even more essential value in this “new world” born after the pandemic, where more and more people connect online to find the products they need rather than go to a physical store, as we also remembered about the recent Google guide to eCommerce.

The competition for the top positions in SERP is really high and to complicate things there are also users, who “use a myriad of different search terms to find the products sold by your brand”. What is needed is an “optimized product page”, which can “not only drive the traffic, but also help to convert simple visitors into buyers”.

A focused target and more conversions

This job can allow us to drive qualified traffic to the website, which can more easily turn into sales since those consumers directly get to what they were thinking of buying originally.

To beat the competition, you need to make sure that your product pages are optimized for maximum visibility, and the article provides some clear and easy-to-implement SEO guidelines, along with a list of pitfalls to absolutely avoid.

In concrete terms, this means following the classic SEO best practices, including the optimization of page titles, descriptions and text content, or working to create internal linking and add structured data, because these interventions can push more customers to visit these specific pages.

Still staying in the realm of generic optimizations, then, we can also try to improve URLs by setting a clear and easy-to-remember format, and set up breadcrumb navigation to let users know where they are at all times. As we know, breadcrumb navigation helps visitors understand the hierarchy of products and navigate to other areas of interest, and it can also help reduce bounce rates.

No less important, with a view to optimizing the user experience, is keeping the product availability “counter” up-to-date (it is frustrating to put a product in a cart because it is reported available and then find out that it is actually out of stock), making the product size/specifications selector easy to use, providing good up-sell and cross-sell options on product pages (which help users explore and purchase related products), clearly listing shipping and return policies, and, last but not least, enabling live customer support, including through chat.

All these tips are part of Product Page User Experience management, which is increasingly an important part of holistic SEO .

10 things to do to optimize product pages

The SEO work for e-commerce starts from these 10 operations to do to optimize the product pages: these are apparently simple and discounted interventions, but they still need to be implemented because they allow us to build a solid foundation for the success of our online project.

So here is the list of 10 dos to have an SEO oriented e-Commerce product page.

1. Adopting a keyword strategy

Keyword research continues to be the basic activity to create content for each type of site and is still the basis for the optimization of the product pages: to be effective, however, you have to look for product-focused topics that users are looking for, without just fixating on the volume.

It is necessary to understand the search intent, think about the relevance and what it could actually convert, also studying the data of other channels such as paid search to “incorporate advertising texts with high percentages of clicks (CTR) in the meta descriptions”

Product pages have transactional intents, so we need to make sure that landing pages are optimized for ready-to-buy users because our goal is to sell the articles on your site.

2. Optimizing titles and meta descriptions

We know that by now: title tags and meta descriptions are very important in page optimization, and product pages are no exception. Among the best practices to apply is the insertion of details such as product and brand name, model number and other useful information to attract potential buyers.

Although for larger sites with thousands of articles it might be complicated, it would be useful to use unique and specific meta descriptions (and titles) for each product; in any case, to begin with it might also be fine to use descriptions created on particular formats, as long as they are precisely not repetitive in information and, above all, correctly state the name of the product.

3. Using appropriate structured data

Entering the correct type of structured data on our pages can help the brand to appear in SERP as rich snippets. Basically, all product pages should implement at least the schema product markup and the one for reviews (which make, for instance, the price or reviews of the product appear with star ratings), allowing you to generate more impressions and clicks, as a result, improve the CTR and increase sales. To check the validity of the structured data entered and the opportunities you can use some tools of the Google Search Console for e-commerce.

4. Adding FAQ content
   

Publishing “high quality content that meets the needs of users is essential to rank higher among the SERPs”: if users do not find our content useful “bounce rates will be high and customers may not buy from you”, writes the author.

Most category and product pages have poorly optimized content and do not have an FAQ section marked with FAQ structured data, but instead tend to rely on user-generated content (UGC), making a mistake.

According to Burton, when the user “has a question about a product and does not want to talk to a chatbot or call customer service” he might visit the FAQ section – with answers to questions that other users commonly ask – to easily find the information you’re looking for. This process helps the brand to be attentive to customer needs and can lead to higher sales: even a recent study on the curve of clicks indicates that multimedia results with Faqs have a very high average CTR, the highest of any type of rich result analyzed, and they are useful to create engagement with people.

5. Writing unique texts and descriptions

Repeating the same description on multiple product pages (or even on all of them) means losing a huge opportunity: each article can be classified by branded or non-branded keywords, and should therefore include a unique description to be able to intercept them.

Last but not least, diversifying texts allows consumers to give better information and can encourage them to click on the tab, thus increasing traffic and sales.

6. Sharing feedbacks from real testimonials and users

Feedback and reviews can give a strong positive boost to the brand, we said some time ago: in fact, according to some research, the product pages that present customer reviews convert 58% more visitors than their review-free counterparts.

An effective strategy therefore also involves users who have purchased and tested the product, who become testimonials to attract other buyers, and it is important to succeed in convincing people to share their experience with the product, indicating how it helped them solve problems and gain advantages.

Even more important would be to be able to intercept an endorsement of a celebrity or an influencer, because this creates even greater trust around the brand.

7. Testing the landing page

There are various techniques and suggestions to create a perfect landing page, but it is essential not to neglect the test activity: besides classic A/B test, the author suggests to use tools such as “Optimizely and Google Optimize, which provide an intuitive way to test even the smallest variations within the product pages”, so as to discover the ideal configuration.

For example, he continues, “changing the location of the call to action could generate more conversions” and it is useful to test the various possible page layout options to see the actual impact.

8. Using high quality videos and images

One of the disadvantages of online shopping is that “you cannot physically touch or feel the product you are evaluating”: inserting high-quality images and videos into the pages can fill this gap and provide end users with the information they need to feel confident in their purchases.

High quality means not only taking care of technical aspects such as size and resolution, but also providing videos that answer common questions about the product or images on the package and overall equipment: in short, anything that can increase the acquisition of information by people and improve their shopping experience, as well as being a lever to gain visibility in visual search and on Google Images as well.

From a technical point of view, then, we should not forget the basic rules of SEO optimization of images (and videos), which call for using appropriate ALT text, including the product name at least in the main image, and placing the image well in the textual context.

9. Reducing loading times

Watch out for loading times: serving fast pages brings our content to the target audience faster and provides a better user experience, which in turn can translate into increased sales, revenue and pages per session, as well as a reduction in the bounce frequency. Simply put, a net advantage over the competitors.

10. Checking for technical problems

Product pages can often be duplicated due to the use of URL parameters, which can cause many problems for the SEO, such as duplicate content, waste of budget crawl, dispersal of link equity.

To avoid these problems, the advice is to check the pages to see which technical and content elements should be optimized, keeping an eye in particular on duplications of title tags and meta descriptions, slow page loading times, broken link, thin content, pages 404, redirect 302 and lack of structured data.

10 errors not to commit on product pages

If this was the list of dos, Burton also provides a decalogue of mistakes to avoid, the classics don’ts: it is always rough and often mainly common-sense oriented indications, but still useful to try to improve our product pages and get better results.

1. Do not use product descriptions copied from the manufacturer’s website

Avoid duplicate content, always and especially for product pages: copy/paste the same descriptions provided by manufacturers on our site is a frequent practice, but it opens to SEO problems and also efficiency.

Not always in fact the standard cards are convincing and optimized for research, while the effort to personally compile the best texts will be rewarded by a potential increase in visibility in the Search, as well as the certainty of providing more detailed and accurate information to visitors.

In addition, the manufacturer’s description could be used on hundreds of other Web sites, and this is a sign of low quality for the Web site in the eyes of both Google and discerning users.

2. Do not use the automatic optimization

It is not a best practice to use a system of automatic optimization of the product pages and to compile in standard way the title tag using always and only the name of the product more brand. It is better to include important information in the titles, also using the data obtained from our keyword research for targeted terms. Also, that general line, all titles and descriptions should be unique.

3. Do not remove seasonal pages at the end of the peak period

Winston Burton then recommends not to delete the pages of seasonal products when they are now “out of season”, because over time “they have built charts, traffic and sales”: while not having a real purpose for most of the year, However, it is necessary to keep them in the freezer in order to highlight them at the right time, so as to exploit the authority they had already gained without having to start from scratch.

Advice that is also confirmed by the words of Google’s Alan Kent, who, speaking about SEO management best practices for e-Commerce, clarified that it is most effective to use the same URL in all recurring events.

4. Do not remove temporarily out of stock products

The management of the availability of products is essential to ensure a good user experience and not create frustration to customers; if, however, a product is only temporarily out of stock and is expected to be available soon (or at least within a reasonable time), it would be advisable not to remove its original page, especially if it has ranking and traffic.

An effective strategy is to keep these URLs alive and use them to insert internal links to other related and relevant products until the time the original product is back in stock, as we were already talking about e-commerce optimization techniques.

5. Do not misuse structured data

Structured data can help a site to position itself among the SERP rich results and get more traffic and sales, but must be used and cared for carefully.

6. Do not use weak call to actions

Providing clear and easy-to-understand CTAs should be a must-have for each site, especially for product pages, which have the primary objective of bringing revenues and sales to the site.

If it takes too long to figure out how to buy a product, customers might leave the site and buy from a competitor, especially if our site loads in more than 3 seconds.

7. Do not optimize the page for low volume keywords

It is important that keyword research identifies useful and searched-for terms, but even more so that the product page is actually optimized for a word that has a good search volume. According to the author, it is not worth working on optimizing a page on a low volume keyword because “users are not really looking for this term and even if we rank we will not get many sales because it has a low volume”.

8. Do not miss out on opportunities with internal links and backlinks

Links are still important for all sites and also for e-commerce, but often brands “create links only to their home page and category pages and forget the product pages”.

Instead, these pages can position themselves, especially for long tail keywords that have a high commercial intent and can greatly increase revenue and sales. Therefore, we should always support product pages with internal links or even paid social, to improve visibility and returns.

9. Do not set the wrong price

Beyond the law of supply and demand, it is crucial to have a fair pricing strategy in order not to lose consumers, who might prefer products offered at more affordable prices.

10. Do not forget about mobile optimization

Users are now running most of their operations via smartphones, and online products are also being sought by mobile: more than 82% of online buyers in the United States buy via mobile devices and 35% of them buy exclusively from smartphones.

It follows that not having a product page optimized for mobile devices is the most serious mistake, which can induce potential customers not even consider buying products from our site and push them into the arms of competitors.

E-commerce product sheets, how to write good and effective descriptions

Within the large SEO copywriting family there is a very specific niche that requires a particular focus: we talk about the production of texts for e-commerce sites and, in detail, the care needed to create effective and convincing product sheets, that can guide the customer in the sales funnel that we have planned and studied.

What are product sheets

The technical data sheets of the products are an integral part of the sales funnel of an e-commerce, because they are the part of text that serves users to inquire and remove the last, residual doubts before the purchase.

Wanting to offer a definition, a product sheet is a marketing copy that contains information about the key features and benefits of the product and its aim is to provide customers with information and specifications to encourage them to invest their money in the products and services on the page.

Why optimizing e-Commerce product sheets

As a general rule, stresses Ricky Hayes on Search Engine Watch, these descriptions should provide answers to questions such as

• Which problem the product solves?
• What does the buyer gain from using this product?
• What distinguishes the product from those of the competition?

By injecting the right amount of creativity and optimization work, we can not only improve copy marketing side, but also increase the conversion rate of e-commerce: since the online purchase does not allow customers to have a tactile shopping experience, the informative text can in fact be a lever to win over customers and show them that their product they are looking at is ideal for their needs.

Effective work in this sense brings concrete results and, the article points out, “creative descriptions of products provide lower bounce frequencies and a better conversion rate of e-commerce compared to shops that do not perform this step correctly”.

The key elements of a good product description

One of the greatest mistakes made by those who manage an e-commerce is in fact to think that the product cards are just a “obligation” (we also talked about the errors in optimizing the product pages): in fact, ideally these descriptions should represent a proposal of unique value and offer, at the same time, the perfect solution to an annoying problem felt by users.

There is a lot of SEO copywriting work behind the creation of an optimized product sheet, and in particular you have to pay attention to:

• Targeted use of keywords

Keywords “keep product descriptions visible in search engines”: the use of the right combination of keywords in the product’s copy” allows Google to provide results that direct potential customers to the pages of your products”, provided you find the right balance between “insufficient optimization leaves you invisible” and an over-optimization “that makes the text appear as mere keyword stuffing”.

• Customer engagement

A product description is winning if it demonstrates how the product meets a need in the customer’s life. On the contrary, a text that highlights only the technical characteristics of the product cannot involve the reader or increase e-commerce conversions, because it focuses only on generic elements instead of providing a real-time solution to customer problems.

• Highlighting specifications

Poorly written descriptions are generally boring and unattractive, and most often contain duplicate content (copied directly from text sent by the original article manufacturer).

Instead, an effective text provides clear (and possibly truthful) information about the benefits and functionalities of the product, answering questions from potential customers and also anticipating such requests.

• Frequent updates

Product pages should constantly evolve based on several factors, including page conversions, bounce frequencies and the latest trends. However, it is important to keep track of changes and adjust the copy of the product according to the insights obtained, with the aim of obtaining the best results.

Eight simple steps to write product description able to increase conversions

But there is another even more crucial issue, and that is the need to write original texts and not just copy/paste descriptions obtained by the manufacturer, that are likely to be found on multiple sites online and will complicate our way to the right place in Serps (in addition to exposing the site to the problem of duplicate content).

We need to understand that product descriptions offer us the opportunity to show the creative side of our business and to show potential customers that our products are ideal for them, because they have unique features, offer the best value for money and are suitable to solve their problem.

Given these premises, Hayes leads us to the discovery of 8 simple steps that allow us to optimize the process of making product sheets for e-commerce and to write, so, texts that are really effective and help us to increase conversions.

1. Focus on target audience

Before writing product descriptions for our e-commerce store it is essential to know our target audience, the kind of audience to which we must and want to turn to.

Trying to write a copy pointing to a huge crowd of customers will inevitably result in out-of-focus descriptions and too generic to win attention and consent; In addition, the tone and language to be used in descriptions depends exclusively on the type of audience we write for.

For example, if we run an online toy store, the descriptions should sound fun and joyful; if instead we sell fitness supplements or any other type of medicine, it would be better to maintain a professional tone.

The process begins by imagining our ideal buyer, trying to find out the best words and phrases that the target audience regularly appreciates and uses.

2. Selling an experience
   

Another mistake made by e-commerce store owners is to focus only on the advantages and characteristics of individual products: in fact, according to Haynes, potential customers “are more interested in the advantages of each feature separately”and so the trick is to “highlight the benefits of each of the product’s features, talking about specifications that will help buyers feel more productive and happy”.

In general, the goal as a marketer is to “sell an experience and not just a product”.

3. Do not include yeah-yeah sentences (obvious fillers)

Writing creative product descriptions is not a piece of cake, but a skill that requires owners to create a copy that immediately attracts the attention of their customers.

Unfortunately, the author notes, “most online sellers write descriptions because they believe it is part of the entire process” and “especially when they are stuck with words, they try to incorporate terms and filler expressions, such as high quality products, premium products and the like”.

In the world of e-commerce, these are defined as “yeah-yeah” sentences, as this is what the visitor thinks in reading them, considering them obvious and trivial: in fact, no one defines the quality of his product as lower than average or bad.

To avoid this reaction, just stick to a few basic guidelines: try to be as specific as possible and highlight the technical aspects of the product, rather than just boast and praise their quality and self-styled advantages.

4. Provide concrete proof
   

Flocking the text of superlatives is useless if we have the evidence to support them and to demonstrate how and why our product is actually the best.

For example, “if you deal with electronic products, you can talk about patents, construction, quoting quality certifications and so on,” explains the author.

What matters is “giving readers the impression that there is something special in your offer”.

Otherwise, if we do not have concrete references “to prove that your product is a real deal, you have to mitigate the copy” or, alternatively, “quote a customer’s testimony to show that there are people who think that your product is the best thing they have experienced up to that point”.

5. Including sensory words
   

According to the expert, studies suggest “that sensory words engage more processing power of the brain and help improve the conversion rate of e-commerce”.

These are descriptive terms, which explain “how we live the world using our five senses”.

For example, if we run an online chocolate store we could write a product card in which we use sensory adjectives such as smooth, crispy, velvety, sweet, aromatic and crispy, to amaze the reader and involve his senses during reading.

In addition, people tend to trust brands that have high quality images included in their products, and at the same time terms like “you”, “new”, “guaranteed” and “free” are powerful and make descriptions more effective in convincing customers.

6. Think about the text design
   

The content is not just writing, it is one of the cornerstones of the content experience, which considers the page as a complex unit to be treated in every detail to ensure the reader a positive experience. This means, for product cards, that we not only have to write a string of words without organization and graphic construction, but that it is important to dedicate time and energy to the creation of texts that are readable in every way, organized and professional.

In practice, we need to make product descriptions more decipherable, because the ease of reading will allow customers to better understand the associated benefits: and therefore, we need to use white spaces to interrupt the flow of words, exploit listed titles and bullet points to separately highlight the benefits of each product, use the right font to improve readability, do not forget to emphasize the main terms with bold and so on, with the aim of not straining the customer’s eyes, making the text clearer and increasing the chances of conversion.

7. Testing the effectiveness
   

To increase the ability to write the right text for the right users it is important to perform various tests, which allow you to better calibrate the description of the product sheet.

A simple and valid tool is the A/B test, also known as split test, which allows to compare two different variants of the same thing to determine which works best in a field test: we can thus verify the effectiveness of descriptions by varying formats, Text length, fonts, and more, and leverage the information you get to optimize product pages and increase conversions.

8. Including all details
   

The goal of writing a convincing copy for a product description is to provide potential customers with all the details, specifications and relevant information they may need to make a purchase.

For instance, if we sell shoes or clothing online, the product page should include every possible detail, including size tables, care instructions, material information and other details to help customers choose the right product for themselves.

Similarly, if we sell food products we must highlight all the details and report, in particular, the list of possible allergens among the ingredients to improve the user experience.