4 Content Optimization Tips for E-commerce Websites
Guest Author, Nick Stamoulis
E-commerce sites often struggle with their SEO. Boring, bland product descriptions make up the bulk of the content, the URL structures are often a mess and because they rely so heavily on graphics the site speed is very slow and most of the site looks blank to the search spiders. However, that doesn’t mean that there is no hope for e-commerce sites when it comes to optimizing their content! SEO best practice guidelines still apply, but an e-commerce site might have to approach it differently than another site.
Here are 4 content optimization tips for e-commerce websites:
1. Make the product descriptions unique.
One of the most common problems plaguing e-commerce websites is that they all use the same product description sent over from the manufacturer. How are you going to make your website stand out when your content is duplicated across a dozen other e-commerce sites? Why should a potential customer choose your site over the competition? Rewrite the generic product descriptions so they include your unique selling point! Don’t be afraid to beef up the product description if you need to; the more content you have the more information there is for the search spiders to read and index. It is also easier to incorporate keywords naturally when you have more content to optimize.
2. Add customer reviews to product pages.
Customer reviews can help from both an SEO and user-experience standpoint. Online buying has become a very social activity. Consumers want to read peer reviews BEFORE they make a purchasing decision so they know it’s the right decision for them. Why let your potential customers venture off site to read a peer review when you can build it right into your website? This helps build consumer trust in your e-commerce site and might be the last push a visitor needs to become a customer. Consumer reviews also gives your site more unique content for the search spiders to read and index.
3. Create Meta data templates
If your e-commerce site is relatively small, writing unique Meta tags, Meta descriptions, title tags and H1 tags (elements of on-site SEO) might not take that long; if your site has 3,000 pages it’s another story. One way to help speed up the content optimization process of an e-commerce site is to create a dozen or so Meta data templates that you can use at random throughout your site. For instance, a Meta description template for a furniture e-commerce site might look something like this:
Shop online with [COMPANY NAME] to find unique [ROOM] furniture sets in a variety of wood types and stains. Click here to order your new [ROOM] furniture.
They could use that Meta description (and slight variations) for the dining room, bedroom, living room or kitchen furniture pages of their site. Over a large enough site, it won’t read like duplicate content. By changing up the targeted keywords depending on the page you can optimize them accordingly.
4. Try different call-to-actions
At the end of the day, an e-commerce site’s job is to sell your company’s products. One way to help your conversion rate is by changing up the call-to-actions throughout your site. For instance, with the holidays rapidly approaching you could incorporate call-to-actions such as “Buy now and guaranteed delivery by Christmas” or “Spend $50 or more and receive free holiday shipping!” There is no “perfect” call-to-action or incentive that is going to make all of the visitors to your site buy right then and there; so change it up! Find the right call-to-action that seems to resonate best with your target audience. Remember, each site is different so what works for your competition might not always work for you.
About the Author – Nick Stamoulis
Nick Stamoulis is the President and Founder of Brick Marketing a Boston based full service SEO firm. . You can contact Nick Stamoulis at nick@brickmarketing.com
These are really solid suggestions. Good descriptions are really important, you want to make your product stand out from the crowd and a good description can help you do that. Customer reviews are great too, they give your business, or product some clout.
I am fully agree with you that an e-commerce site’s job is to sell company’s products so the content must be optimized in such a way that potential customer will choose your site over the competition…..
Hi everyone,
Thanks for taking the time to read and leave comments. I hope you’re able to apply some of these tips to your own site.
Best,
Nick
Hi Nick – I work for a small, family-run label supplier here in Houston, Texas. We have an e-commerce element to our website and have been working with an SEO company for the last couple of years. Traditionally, we were a catalog business with people calling in to order. We thought that everyone who needed us already knew about us. Then we opened the online store and boy were we wrong! The investment in our website and SEO has proven a sound one.
Anyways, thanks for sharing! – Aly
How often would you recommend changing up the keywords, and meta descriptions?
That’s what we’ve all been waiting for! Great potsing!