An essential part of driving sales and online visibility starts with a strong focus on your SEO. Ideally, you want your ecommerce product pages to appear on the first page of a user’s search results. Being on the first page makes you more likely to bring in those organic searches.
This all sounds great, and you are probably wondering — how do I achieve this? Thankfully, there are some small things you can consider when optimising your product page, which will really help you boost your website product pages and get the most of out of your SEO.
Call To Action (CTA)
This may be an obvious option, but ensure you include an effective Call to Action (CTA) on your page. This can be as simple as a ‘buy’ or ‘add to cart’ button. Whatever you choose, it should stand out from the surrounding content on the page and have clear visibility for when consumers land.
If the product description is pushed down the page and can be hard to find, it might be time to consider a re-design. Avoid overcomplicating your CTA and ensure the words used are simple and not overcomplicated. Save clever branding and copywriting for later to use in your product description.
Use the right keywords
Keywords are the foundation of SEO, as, when used effectively, they lead users to your product pages. Keywords are also what Google’s algorithm uses to understand your page. With keywords being such a driving factor for the performance of your website product pages, it’s important to ensure each of your product pages fully optimise the targeted keyword.
Consumers typically use generic keywords to help them find something, especially if they are unsure of exactly what they are looking for. Users will search for colours, configurations, sizes and generic product descriptions. This is why your categories and subcategories become important, as it’s how you’ll be guiding users to find what they are looking for.
As an example, if a user is searching for a ‘green dress size 12’, this kind of search is considered a long-tail keyword. These are keywords more specific and longer than usual. The benefits of having long-tail keywords in your product page is that they more than likely fit exactly what your user is searching for and makes it easier to find. Keywords also help search engines crawl and understand the page.
Relevant product titles
The titles of your product pages must accurately summarize the product you have for sale and include the keywords that consumers search for so the pages can easily appear in the search. Characters are important — ensure you stick with 60 characters or less. When the title is shown within search engines, it’s only the first 60 characters that are shown.
Optimize your media
Remember that images are extremely important for users looking for something online. This is because customers need to see the product before they purchase, as this will help them decide whether this is the product they are searching for.
When it comes to displaying your products, high-quality images are essential. You need to ensure you use high-definition photos because, if the photo is low-quality and doesn’t look like it matches the hard-sell description, it can discourage potential customers from purchasing.
Another important thing to consider is the file name of the image to ensure it’s optimized. This really helps Google to understand exactly what the image is and assists with showing the image in Google’s searches.
These important tips also apply to videos. Any videos included in the product page should be original and properly showcase the product to entice your audience. A key thing to remember is that you should optimize it, so it won’t affect the loading speed of your page.
Unique and high-quality content
A lot of websites can find it too tedious to offer unique product descriptions for every product they offer due to boasting a wide selection. Although this is understandable, it’s going to impact your page performance.
Avoiding duplicate content is extremely important as you need to ensure you are not cannibalizing your existing content (or plagiarizing someone else’s). Having duplicate content will result in your site being viewed as low-quality and will cause a domino effect. Once search engines view your content as low-quality, you’ll struggle to rank.
URLs
When choosing page URLs, you need to ensure Google can easily understand what the page is all about. Ensure you also include your keywords within the URLs if you can. This is helps Google to show your content to the right people and provides a great standardized structure for your URL strategy.
Use unique meta descriptions
Meta descriptions — what are they? They are short descriptions that appear under your page title within the SERPs, which users can see when your page pops up. The description gives the user a small insight into what your product page is actually about and what the content is likely to include.
Google’s guidelines state that meta descriptions be clear and unique to the page and carry a limit of only 160 characters or less. Ensure you include your primary target keyword within the meta descriptions so Google can better understand your page and make it easier for relevant users to find it. You can also include any special offers or promotions to entice users to visit your page.
Page loading speed
Ensure you run a check that your page loads at a reasonable speed. If it takes too long for your pages to load, your users will likely quickly leave your site before seeing anything, skewing your SEO performance.
Optimize your content for mobile devices
Google values websites that accommodate to mobile devices. This is because more people than ever are using their mobile to browse online, and Google is working hard to ensure all mobile users have a smooth browsing experience. That’s why websites optimised for mobile phones are favoured by Google, and they even publish a guide for mobile-first indexing to help developers better understand what they should do, showcasing just how important it is. This is why optimisation for mobile is a smart move for your ecommerce product page, and it will be much easier for users to find your product pages and the product they are searching for.
Reviews
Reviews are great! Using customer feedback to your advantage and providing genuine customer reviews on the products shows your potential customers exactly what they are purchasing and that you are a credible business.
People tend to check and trust reviews, using them to gauge product quality prior to making a purchase decision. Including your reviews can help drive sales and increase your customers’ trust in your site and products, potentially increasing your conversions.
Final thoughts
The main thing to remember is you don’t need to over-complicate a product page. If it includes the key details and information the user is looking for, there is no need to include other information that could be deemed unnecessary. Unnecessary information can be pointless and provides no benefits for your site or the consumer. Ensure your content is direct, straight to the point and accurate.
Finally, don’t just focus on SEO and user experience alone. Consider having a look at the other aspects of your online store, including the product and offer schema, to help Google easily index all the details about your products and show rich results in the search results.