Of all the sections making up your website, the product pages are the most important. The most common mistake marketers make with their e-commerce websites is that of either neglecting the product page entirely or simply copying and pasting the product description provided by the manufacturer.
This error can cost you dearly.
Do the same, and you may miss out on the opportunity of featuring favourably in the search results, naturally and organically, and of attracting free traffic to your site.
In this article, we’re going to show you four simple ways to optimise your product pages and help you both improve your Google ranking and increase your sales.
1. Optimise your images and use product videos
For the majority of prospects, product photos play a key role in the selection and decision-making process. This is why it’s important to use only high-quality images showing your products from a range of different angles.
To make the SEO for your product page easier, ensure your images load quickly (this is one of the key SEO performance metrics) and add alt text containing your target keywords. Alt text is text included within an HTML tag that can be used to explain in keywords what Google can perceive from your images.
Also consider adding videos of your items: not only are videos more effective at conveying the message, but they also encourage people to spend more time on the page. Engagement and session duration are important SEO ranking factors.
2. Let customers leave reviews on your products
Customer reviews play a crucial role in optimising product pages for e-commerce sites They have the power to increase both your SEO ranking and your sales.
As well as providing testimonial proof, reviews also serve as an additional source of text containing keywords, and these keywords often get picked up by Google.
Furthermore, customer reviews are considered user-generated content (UGC), which is another of Google’s ranking factors. You can also check out this link to find out how to write a product page that sells.
3. Include long-tail keywords in the product page description
Keywords are the first thing to consider when starting work on your SEO plan. However, there are certain things you need to be aware of when choosing them.
For example, you should consider using long-tail search terms, even if you’re mainly interested in short, commercial keywords.
Long-tail keywords may have lower search volumes, but they are more specific and tend to have higher click-through rates. Though the ranking they provide is based on less competitive Google queries, you stand a greater chance of achieving an advantageous position with these kinds of keywords. You will therefore appear more prominently in your customers’ Google search results.
And more importantly still, long-tail search queries are associated with higher levels of purchase intent. If someone searches for “backpack for mountain hiking” instead of just “backpack”, for example, then that person is very probably ready to make a purchase.
When it comes to searching for keywords, you can use professional tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs and TextGuru, which are paid services that also offer trial periods.
4. Create comprehensible and understandable URL slugs
As a general rule, you should always use URL slugs that people can actually read for both your product pages and your website as a whole.
There are at least two reasons why human-readable URLs are better than random sets of symbols.
Firstly, they help with the SEO for your e-commerce product pages, as you can include your target keywords in the slug.
Secondly, they improve the user experience, making the site easier to browse and navigate for both you and your visitors.
An example of a poor URL:
https://www.site.com/blog/yA2rtpeppEED56ddf/
An example of a good URL:
https://www.textmaster.com/blog/7-tips-to-help-you-make-your-e-commerce-website-accessible/
Tips for writing good URL slugs:
Use only lower-case letters, and link words together with hyphens. Include one of the item’s technical features. Do not forget that URLs must not exceed 2083 characters in length.
