In the world of e-commerce, it takes a perfect blend of valuable components to make your site a search-friendly online shop that is ready for customers to come in and convert. How is this done? With content.
Content is essential to every part of your e-commerce site and yes, you still need to optimize it for search engines. Although you may have specific paid media campaigns directing traffic to your site, what about everyone else who didn’t click on your ad? Don’t you want them to come take a look around as well. When it comes to how much written content you should have, we say, the more, the better. Plan out a strategy to get content on the page as possible, while still being relevant and not being pinged by Google for repeating yourself with duplicate content. Here are a few ways to content ball rolling, if you’re not sure where to begin.
Beef Up Your Product Descriptions
There are people who are succinct when it comes to product descriptions and in some situations, those do just fine. But don’t you want your customers to know what they’re getting from all angles? Include the specifications, colors, and materials of your products. Tell the user where they can use the product and why they would want to.
Think about it this way – when someone lands on your product page, you want to do everything you can to entice them to add the item(s) to the cart and checkout. This is done with eye-catching imagery and rich, descriptive content. Show your customer that what they’re looking at will prove to be valuable to them.
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It’s also important to note that many e-commerce sites will try to break up content by splitting it up into different tabs so it doesn’t look like one big block of text, but this can actually have a negative effect on your site since Google considers that hidden content.
Organize Items With Category Pages
When you group your items together into product categories, it makes the user experience better for your shopper and also gives you a chance to add more unique content to those category pages. Since each product page most likely won’t have its own place on the main navigation of your website, decide which category it falls under.
Once you’ve grouped products together, create a few paragraphs of content speaking to the category as a whole. For example, on an e-commerce site selling beauty products, there might be a product page labeled “lipsticks” which would describe what qualities of the lipsticks are special to the brand. Are they organic or cruelty-free products? Do they only sell shades of red? Are they the longest lasting lipsticks ever made?
The product page will tell you what’s good about the group and then, the product descriptions will tell what’s good about the individual. Pro-tip: This content is important to add, but make sure to lead with the products. The last thing you want on an e-commerce site is a big block of text before seeing any of the products. A best practice is adding the copy below the product images.
Blog Better – Create Quality Content Related To Your Products
Speaking of blogs, your site should have one. Yes, even for an e-commerce site. There are a few reasons having a blog is a good idea. First, it replenishes the content on your site, so it never gets stale. Google’s goal is to provide users the best answer to their search and knows things change rapidly. . It wants sites they can crawl and capture info to pass on to their own users. Furthermore, blog posts allow you to link internally back to the product and category pages.
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For example, if you sell organic coffee, a blog about the different roasting techniques and how to find your perfect flavor provides great opportunities to link back to the different products on the site. This will help your e-commerce site capture those people who are trying to understand different coffee roasting styles. This also has benefits from a technical SEO perspective.
Essentially, if you have something of value, share it in a blog. This can be an announcement of a newly released product line, tips for how to use your products or make the most of them, or it can be as mentioned, a story about the history of your company and its employees. The key is to be consistent, to make it worth the read, and add interlinks to product descriptions where applicable. It also gives you a way to demonstrate the value of your products in a way that uses storytelling for your audience.
Start A Series Of “How To” Articles
Nearly all e-commerce sites can benefit from easy-to-follow how-to articles. These list how to use the products listed on your site. For example, if you sell yard equipment, a good idea would be to list articles for how to use each product. Sure, people most likely know how to use a shovel. But do they know how to start a garden with one? Do they know how to get started on their spring cleaning project? These types of readable and relatable articles is to show people other ways they can benefit from what they’re buying from you. With a little creativity and salesmanship, demonstrate ways your product should be, but also could be used.
Find A Place For Q&A
It’s nice to have a central place where common customer questions are answered. What are the shipping fees? What is the return policy? These are the kinds of questions people who visit e-commerce sites have time and time again. Rather than making them submit a request for something that can easily be answered on your site, add it to a Q&A page. Today, people want immediate answers.
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You can also use this page to answer new questions from people who leave comments on your social media pages, when people leave reviews, or even when they call into your customer service center. Once you’re familiar with what people are asking, you can have the answer readily available, creating an optimal customer experience, and sneaking in extra, valuable content.
Add A Video Page With Descriptions
Does your company have YouTube channel? Are there videos of your products being used? These are a great resources for new users as well as current fans of your brand. Each video should be optimized for search engines by adding the product name (when relevant) and leaving a short description of what the video is about. If you have a growing video library, make sure to keep them organized for easy navigation. Some people learn better visually, so while you may have beautifully written product descriptions, it might be better for some to see it in action.
Say “Yes” To More Content On Your E-Commerce Site
When first building your site, you may have thought the product images speak for themselves and in some cases, that’s true. However, by adding more content to your site, you improve the user experience, you look good in the eyes of Google, and you have more places where people can link back to your site.
Keep in mind that a minimum of 300 words on a page is a good start when adding content. For areas where long-form content (about 2,000 words) may not be as obvious, such as video descriptions, don’t force the content, but make sure you’re hitting all the relevant points. The goal is to bring value to the user.
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Also, refresh your site content every so often. Sometimes it won’t require a full rewrite. You can either add to what you already have or update the content to reflect your current products. Make sure that you aren’t listing anything that’s been discontinued. Most importantly, make sure you don’t have duplicate content across pages. Imagine people coming to your site for the first time, the first impression is what’s going to make them stay and click around or bounce off and find what they’re looking for elsewhere.
Tackle these tips one by one and start a content strategy for your e-commerce site. Don’t feel like you have to update everything at once, but make sure you are providing enough content on your site to make it into the search engines and gives the user the information they need for their buying decision. While there is no magic number of how much content you should write, as long as it’s serving a purpose, we say keep adding more.