What good is a product if nobody knows it exists? This is the driving force behind search engine optimization, or SEO—you have to connect your audience to your product.
eCommerce SEO plays a critical role in determining the visibility of a brand’s product pages in search engine results. By aligning user search intent with a robust SEO strategy, brands can significantly improve their product page rankings, driving traffic and boosting conversions. Key elements such as compelling product descriptions, user-focused content, and optimized visuals are essential for capturing the attention of potential buyers and satisfying search engine algorithms.
Understanding the intricacies of eCommerce SEO is vital for brands aiming to outshine competitors and engage their target audience. High-quality, keyword-rich content that resonates with both search engines and shoppers is no longer just an advantage; it’s a necessity. Creating a seamless bridge between the products offered and the needs expressed by consumers when they search related terms is key.
A powerful product page is not only built on keyword optimization but also relies on a strong technical SEO foundation. Factors such as loading times, mobile-friendliness, and intuitive navigation work together to provide a user experience that encourages exploration and minimizes bounce rates. Taking a strategic approach to eCommerce SEO can transform a simple product listing or category page into a compelling sales pitch that works around the clock.
Why Does Product Page SEO Matter?
eCommerce SEO stands as a pivotal element for any online brand aiming to capture the attention of potential customers. As consumers increasingly turn to search engines to find products, SEO on product pages is not just beneficial, it’s essential. This targeted approach to SEO ensures that eCommerce websites and product listings appear prominently in search results, directly aligning with the consumer’s intent to purchase. Consequently, this heightened visibility translates to increased traffic and, ideally, a higher conversion rate.
Effective eCommerce SEO strategies holistically enhance the discoverability of products within search engine results pages (SERPs), allowing brands to outpace competitors by appearing at the forefront of consumer searches. Moreover, it ensures that the traffic drawn to the eCommerce store or site itself is of high quality; users who land on the product pages have a clear interest in the offerings, thus paving the way for better engagement and potential sales.
This focus has far-reaching implications for eCommerce platforms, as well-executed product page SEO not only drives sales but also contributes to building brand authority and trust. When products rank highly, it’s a signal to consumers that the brand is reputable and trustworthy, essential in fostering long-term customer relationships. In essence, by investing in strong eCommerce SEO practices, brands stand to gain sustained organic traffic growth and a robust online presence.
A Guide to SEO Jargon
Navigating the sea of eCommerce SEO can be daunting, especially when confronted with its unique vocabulary. Understanding the jargon is essential for creating optimized product pages that stand out in a crowded market and appeal to both search engines and customers alike.
To empower brands in the digital marketplace, the following section provides a comprehensive glossary of SEO terms.
Search Engines
“Search engine” makes up two-thirds of the SEO acronym, so it has to be important. Most people think of Google search when they think of search engines, and yes, Google is one of the biggest in the world. But it’s not the only search engine, and it’s especially not the only one you should consider.
Search engines are any website or internet service that returns a list of results for a query. Put simply, the user enters a word or phrase, and the search engine serves up some results. So, Google is a search engine, as is Yandex in Russia, and Baidu in China. But so too is YouTube, Amazon, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Bing, and countless other websites.
The important thing to keep in mind regarding search engines is that there are dedicated engines, like Google, and in-site engines like Amazon’s search bar. You will likely want to optimize your site structure for both search traffic types.
Many of the tactics that make for good SEO are also tactics that make for good CX.
Long-Tail and Short-Tail Keywords
A lot of SEO conversations revolve around keywords. Keywords are the phrases that an internet user searches on the aforementioned search engines. Crucially, a keyword doesn’t have to be one word. It can be a single word or a string of words. It can be a complete sentence or a sentence fragment. It doesn’t even have to make any sense at all, but the search engine will do its best to return relevant search results.
There are two main types of keywords: long-tail keywords and short-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are, well, longer. They tend to have more words in the phrase. Beyond that, long-tail keywords have more intent behind them. There are more descriptors, modifiers, and the like that show that the searcher has a better understanding of the topic. For example, a long-tail keyword is “purple women’s tennis shoes size eight.”
On the other side are short-tail keywords. These are much broader in nature, because they’ll contain fewer words. A short-tail keyword is “tennis shoes.” Keywords like this indicate that the searcher hasn’t quite narrowed down what they’re looking for yet and will want to browse through the suggestions. You’ll want to optimize your product pages for both types of keywords.
Search Intent
Thankfully, intent makes more sense if you think about it outside the realm of eCommerce. Why do we do anything? That’s intent—you might be hungry, so you eat some food. You might have run out of toothpaste, so you buy some more.
In SEO, search intent is all about what the searcher wants to achieve with their query. There are a few broad types of search intent, including:
- Informational: What’s the weather? What time is the Super Bowl? These are informational searches. It’s when a person just wants to learn information about your product and might not be ready to buy now.
- Navigational: This is when people know where they want to go. Your brand name or product name is a good example of this. The searcher has preexisting knowledge. For example, you might open Google and search “wiser.com” after reading this blog. That’s navigational.
- Transactional: These are the money-maker searches. This is when people are ready to buy and are looking for a specific product or service. A slight tweak to our example above fits: “Nike purple women’s tennis shoes size eight.” These are the keywords you want to go after if you’re trying to create a product page that converts visitors into buyers.
You want to think about intent when you are optimizing your product pages. The copy should reflect the intent of the searchers and the purpose of the page. You want to be the answer to their search query.
Schema
Schema is a word you’ll see a lot if you’re doing any research on product page SEO. There’s good reason for it, too—schema is very important in the eCommerce product pages space, and in most facets of SEO. However, it can be a little confusing at first.
In general, schema is a structure that provides consistency or a plan to a concept. In SEO, schema is a bit of code you build into your product page that tells the search engine how to read and display your page. It’s great because search engines have a mind of their own and can interpret your page in unique and unexpected ways. Schema is one way you communicate to engines that says, “take this information from my page and show it in this way.”
You should visit Schema.org if you want additional resources. Schema markups to consider include product (to clearly identify similar products from one another), and breadcrumbs (so you can show how the individual product relates to its broader categories). Schema can even show off ratings and reviews and organizational details, such as websites, phone numbers, and addresses.
10 Tips for Better Product Page SEO
Now that you know a few foundational terms, you can move on to optimizing your product pages to get in front of more shoppers. Here are the 10 best places to start.
No. 1: Keyword Research
Which search terms do you want your product pages to show up for? This is the basis behind eCommerce keyword research. See which terms people are searching, optimize your page around those terms, and serve up your page the next time they search.
Of course, this is overly simplistic. You need to start with a strong understanding of search engine traffic and what your page currently ranks for (assuming it’s an existing page and not a new one). Wiser Solutions has a competitive share of search tool that shows you the organic product performance of your brand based on keyword rankings on search queries. You can also use your own research, such as visiting Amazon, searching a product-adjacent term, and seeing if your page shows.
Once you know what you rank for, you need to see what people are searching for so you can find a list of relevant keywords related to your brand. There are a variety of tools available, either for a price or for free. You can use Google Trends, SEMRush, Moz, Ahrefs, and many others to get started. Look for keyword ideas with a healthy balance of search volume (how many searches occur on average per month) and competition (how tough the competition is for that keyword, making it easier or harder to rank). Look for gaps between what people search and what you rank for and consider updating the page to include those keywords if relevant to your product.
No. 2: Schema
We discussed schema earlier, so we won’t spend too much time on it here. But it’s massively important for eCommerce brands. Ideally, you can ask your web developer or technical SEO consultant to update the pages of eCommerce sites with the proper schema. If it’s just you, go back to Schema.org to find some guides on how to implement the proper markups.
No. 3: Ratings and Reviews
Ratings and reviews are a big piece of the product page SEO puzzle. Good, honest reviews can set your page apart and help you rank. This is because some search engines use reviews as a metric of legitimacy. The sites obviously don’t want to promote scammers or spammers, so accurate reviews can be a quick way to tell if the seller is legit.
You can use Wiser to see how your ratings and reviews compare to the competition if you want a quick snapshot of where you need to spend more time getting five-star reviews. Focus your efforts on pages on your site that lack a reasonable number of reviews to boost your overall SEO health.
No. 4: Alt Text on Images and Videos
Another quick win for any product page is high-quality images and videos. You want your page to accurately represent that product, and there are few ways to do that better than a picture or video.
However, there’s a little step you can take on the backend to really set your pages apart—alt text. Images and videos have an option to add alt text, which is just a description of the media file. Most search engines can’t really tell what’s in an image without this textual clue, plus it makes your page more accessible to site readers. Write clear, unique descriptions of each image and video and enter them in the alt text field. Include meta description with a keyword if you can, and you’re already significantly better than most competitors.
No. 5: Unique Copy
Duplicate copy is a big no-no in the world of SEO. There are a few reasons for this. For starters, duplicate pages make it difficult for the search engine to tell which page is the one that you want to show. That means people could interact with two of the same pages, creating a confusing experience.
Duplicate copy on unique pages is also a red flag for search engines. Always write original meta descriptions, meta titles, product descriptions, and other copy snippets. It might feel like a lot of effort, but it’s worth it. Every single page, product, or variant can rank in the search engine rankings, so why not give it a fair shot with unique copy? Plus, shoppers can pick up on the repetition if they’re browsing multiple products, and this can give them a poor impression of your brand.
No. 6: Testing
Testing is another huge part of product page SEO. Most of the tactics we recommend are based on best practices, industry standards, and experience. However, your brand and products are unique. It’s nearly impossible to know how something will work without testing.
Therefore, always be testing. If you have multiple product descriptions, run them both and see which one has more conversions. Try different schema markups. Test out a product image vs. a product video. SEO is great because it’s a big sandbox that lets you play around and learn new things. Take advantage of that to find the right strategy for your brand.
No. 7: Saved Pages
This one might come as a surprise, as it’s a common mistake in eCommerce—deleting pages. Generally, you should not delete product pages if they’re no longer in use, out-of-stock, or discontinued. Why? Search engines award pages link equity, which is a fancy way of saying it’s earned some goodwill from the search engine. Deleting the page loses all your previous hard work.
Instead of deleting the page, you can hide it from the search engine or the end-user (but don’t delete it), or better yet, redirect it to the most similar product available today. Setting up a redirect correctly will pass that link equity to the new URL, saving your hard work and paying that value forward.
No. 8: Trust Your Eyes
This one might feel counterintuitive, but it’s a good habit to get into when you’re working on your eCommerce website and SEO. Trust your eyes. Bots are great, and they’re part of every tool in SEO. However, they can’t know everything, and they won’t understand every nuance of your business.
This is where you come in. Always read your pages. Think critically about the recommendations for keywords from whatever tool you use. Just because it’s a high-search-volume phrase doesn’t mean it’s best for your brand or right for your site structure or product. There’s always some context to target keyword that requires a human touch.
No. 9: Responsive Design
How do you shop? Do you use your laptop? Smartphone? Tablet? Voice commands via your smart speaker? There are a ton of ways to shop online today, your online store and your product pages should be optimized for the most relevant options for your customers.
The good news is that many tools, like Google Analytics, can tell you the most common device used to browse your web pages, whether desktop, mobile, or tablet. This is important because how the page looks will differ based on the device. Therefore, incorporate some responsive design so the page will render properly for all screen sizes.
Again, this is all about serving up an enjoyable customer experience.
No. 10: Site Speed
Last, but certainly not least, is page speed. This is how fast the product page takes to load. You have fractions of a second before you lose the attention of the site visitor. Think about it—how long would you have waited for this blog post to load before exiting out? One second? Five seconds?
Page speed is affected by a lot of things, including the size of the imagery and videos, the amount of text on the page, the server quality, and more. There are tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights that can tell you how long it takes for a page to load and how you can speed it up. Often, there are quick wins that will have a positive impact on your overall page performance.
Elevating Your Product Pages with SEO
Elevating your eCommerce site experience through effective SEO strategies is essential for brands that aim to thrive in the digital marketplace. The key takeaways to enhance product pages revolve around detailed, unique content augmented with rich media and descriptive alt text. These elements, when carefully crafted and tested, contribute significantly to a brand’s visibility and searchability, ultimately drawing in a more targeted and engaged audience.
Brands must adopt a meticulous approach to product page maintenance, avoiding the pitfalls of deleting pages that can lead to the loss of valuable link equity. Instead, strategic redirection to relevant products can preserve hard-earned SEO gains. As brands continue to enhance their eCommerce SEO competency, they not only refine their product pages for the discerning algorithms of search engines but also curate an online presence that resonates with authenticity and attention to consumer needs. These practices are not static, but rather an ongoing, dynamic process vital to the growth and success of an eCommerce venture in the digital age.
Editor’s Note: Contributing writer is Alexandria Flores. This post was originally published in December 2021 and has since been updated and refreshed for readability and accuracy.
