Mastering SEO often feels like climbing a giant iceberg. First you hear one thing and then another. Today’s best practices might not be tomorrow’s. And so on and so on…
Fortunately, you can navigate the chilly waters of SEO and come out on the other side poised for SEO success.
In this article, we’re discussing six essentials of E-Commerce product pages for SEO success. We’ll give you some resources so you can learn more about SEO and stay on top of current changes.
First, let’s define SEO, or search engine optimization. This is the process by which you maximize the number of people who visit your website while ensuring that your E-Commerce site appears atop the search results on any given search engine.
SEO is vital to your E-Commerce site’s success. So, let’s dive into the six essentials of E-Commerce product pages for SEO success.
#1: Refine the Structure of Your Website
Search engines like websites that are structured well. Sites with poor navigation don’t rank well in web searches. Your website’s navigation impacts your SEO success. It affects your conversion rate optimization and determines whether visitors stay on your landing page or bounce off.
You must make it easy for your E-Commerce visitors to navigate around your product pages and actually find the products they are looking for.
It’s essential to keep your site structure simple. Consider your home page, page sections and product pages. A tertiary menu works well for most E-Commerce sites. For others, you may need to add an additional category if your site is particularly large.
A few important tips for organizing your navigation to improve SEO success:
- Have a top level navigation at the top of your site.
- Use the sidebar to show your sub-categories.
- Use breadcrumb navigation to make it easy for your website visitors to backtrack.
- As visitors move deeper into your E-Commerce site, consider dropping off parts of the navigation. For example, once they’ve gone to the lady’s area, drop the men’s section off the sidebar and offer multiple choices for women.
One more thing to consider on your product pages is using your keywords as menu choices in your navigation.
#2: Take Time on Title Tags
Title tags are often forgotten when designing product pages, but they are very important. They are an easy way to boost you SEO success and make clicking easier for customers performing web searches.
Title tags are what drives click-through rates. Create a dynamite title tag, and you’ll be poised for SEO success.
When customers are looking for products, it’s your title they’ll see first in web searches. It tells potential visitors what your page is about. It is the first indication they have about your product. It tells them whether or not they’ll be interested, which is why it’s so important. Make it simple and to-the-point.
It’s worth noting that title tags are the first SEO element mentioned in Google’s SEO Starter Guide. This is another reason why we emphasize their importance when it comes to SEO.
Your product pages should have title tags that are about 50-60 characters with spaces. They should briefly describe the page’s content and use keywords and a call to action.
#3: Do Product Keyword Research
You want to rank well for your product keywords for SEO success. This means doing some research on your product keywords. Keyword research means more than just writing down everything that comes to mind.
You’ll want to use Google’s Keyword Planner. Once you’re on this page, follow the prompts to research your product keywords. Continue to drill down on keywords to pick the ones most relevant to your product page, and then be sure to use them sparingly on the page. Keyword stuffing is not a good idea.
Don’t forget the long tail keywords. This is a phrase of three-four words that is very specific to your product.
Targeting long tail keywords is essential as we move through 2016.
Plus, long tail keywords can garner quality traffic and a higher conversion rate. Besides using the Google Keyword Planner, you can look at your Google Analytics to see what users are searching for.
#4: Craft Your Own URLs
You have the ability to change your product page URLs. No one wants to look at a string of letters, numbers and symbols in their address bar. Give each of your product pages its own URL.
When crafting your product page URLs, use keywords that include your product name for SEO success. Always separate words with dashes and use no stop words such as of, the, and, etc.
You might want to include the category as well as the product name if your E-Commerce store is large. Consider also adding brand names such as www.store.com/womens-jeans-levis. This also helps your search engine rankings because you’ve been specific.
#5: Be Creative with Your Descriptions
The quality of your content is important to Google. So important, in fact, they will only give you a high-ranking presence in search if you have good content.
So, in comes our discussion about the descriptions on your product pages. Each page should be about a single product, and everything on the page should support it. Don’t stuff your page with keywords.
Additionally, don’t copy the manufacturer’s description and use it on your page. Why not? Because Google likes original content.
To stand out from your competition (who might have used the manufacturer’s description), write your own product information. Be creative and unique.
Lastly, don’t cut the description short. You want to write enough to make your product dance off the page, and enough to make Google mark your content as worthwhile.
#6: Increase Your Site Speed
Have you ever checked out the speed of your E-Commerce site? You can bet Google has, and they’ll reward quick sites with SEO success.
Go to Google’s Page Insights to learn about your site. It’ll show you what you need to do to make your site and your product pages faster on all devices. A few tips:
- Optimize your images.
- Check out your competitor’s site speed and make sure yours is faster.
- Use compression and minimize CSS and Javascript.
- Eliminate unnecessary plugins.
To Conclude
You have many resources at your disposal when it comes to the six essentials of E-Commerce product pages for SEO success. Whether you’re using WordPress, Shopify or something else for your E-Commerce site, you can find many of the tools necessary for your success right in your content management system or with multiple plugins.
SEO success can be attainable for your E-Commerce product pages with some attention to detail and a little research.
If you’d like more information on how to leverage the six essentials of E-Commerce product pages for SEO success, we can help. Landing pages and conversion rate optimization are our specialty. We can help you improve your SEO so you increase your click-thrus and conversion rates. Contact us today.
We’ll provide you with our FREE site performance analysis so we can work on your landing page conversion rates.
Image: Rita Willaert
#4 is a big one, and is one of the biggest things you can have over the big dogs like Amazon and eBay. Big sites like those are obviously forced to use URLs that are just jumbles of numbers and letters, so you can get an edge by crafting your URLs for each product and optimizing them for SEO. It might seem insignificant, but the effect can actually be huge.