Search Engine Optimization means working to improve the visibility of your website on search engines through incorporating content, links, and other various means of optimization. One of the essential steps in SEO is creating and promoting product pages that serve as informational hubs that drive visitors directly to relevant pages on your website.
Product Page SEO
Product pages help businesses include detailed and informative content about their products, including photos, videos, features and benefits, up-to-date pricing information, recent changes or updates to an existing product, and more. Creating unique and relevant content for each product page adds value to your site and improves overall conversions. It is also important that this content is SEO friendly so that search engines are more likely to point people looking for your product in your direction.
How Important Is Product Page SEO?
Marketers are under the impression that creating a concise and informative product page will help them rank well in search. However, there is more to making great product pages than you might think. Product pages must meet diverse expectations and needs by converting visitors into leads and customers. Thus, you must have a comprehensive process for creating SEO-friendly product pages.
Best Product Page SEO Practices
In this article, we will be covering a few of the best practices you can use to optimize your product page. We hope you find this helpful guide if you are an eCommerce store owner or an SEO expert.
Keywords Research and Strategy
You are in a very competitive niche and have a lot of products to sell; having good keyword research and content strategy is crucial. Keyword research is a critical component of any successful e-commerce business.
Keyword research starts with understanding what your customers are searching for. First, you need to understand their motivations and needs to create a product page to help them find what they want. Next, you need to find the keywords people use to search for your products. Finally, once you have identified these keywords, you should focus on optimizing them so they rank well in search engines.
Keyword research helps you understand what people are searching for so that you can apply product page SEO best practices for those terms. It also enables you to determine whether or not a particular keyword is profitable, which will help determine whether or not it makes sense to invest time and money into advertising with Google Ads.
Descriptive Product Titles
Your product page title is the first thing people see when they land on your site. This is one of the most critical parts of your overall marketing strategy for search engines and customers. The length of your product title is vital in search engine rankings. If you keep them short and sweet, they will bounce around the search engines and not stick around too long.
However, long, descriptive product titles are one of the best practices for improving your search engine ranking. You can make long product titles successful by including the most critical keywords in your item name so that customers who search for those terms can find you. The title should be descriptive but not too long. The ideal length for a descriptive title is between 10 and 15 words.
Meta Title And Description Optimization
Meta title and meta description are the first things a user will see when they land on your website. They are also the first things that Google looks at in its search engine optimization (SEO) algorithm, so it is worth optimizing them for SEO purposes.
The meta title and meta description describe your page and should be clear, concise, and easy to read. They should be about 100 characters long, include keywords related to your topic, and have a call-to-action (CTA).
The key to writing compelling meta descriptions is using keywords relevant to your content while using words that make sense in sentences. In addition, it is essential to write these descriptions with an eye on what people will read rather than how keywords appear on search engine results pages (SERP).
For example: If you were writing a blog post about how to create a website logo and you wanted people who searched “create website logo” to see your post, it would make sense to use related words like “create” or “create a logo” or even “tutorials creating logos.”
SEO-Optimized Product Description
A compelling product description and conversion of search keywords are two of the most powerful tools in your marketing for product page SEO. Product descriptions attract searchers to your webpage, improve traffic flow and conversion rates, and provide an appealing first impression.
You want to increase sales, and you know your product description is a significant factor. Therefore, it is crucial to optimize your product descriptions for search. Use intriguing words and include long-tail keywords to ensure your products are found in the search results and rank higher on the SERP. Moreover, being able to write good product descriptions is essential not only for search engines but also for your customers.
Adding FAQs
You have created your product page and added images and other highlights, but you suddenly realize you are missing something. What is that? FAQs. You should be adding FAQ content to all the pages on your site. Why? Well, here are some reasons why it is a good idea to add FAQ content to your pages:
- FAQs are a great way to provide additional details and increase the amount of information available on your product page.
- They answer people’s questions about your product, increasing conversion rates by helping customers solve their problems.
FAQ content is one of the best SEO tools to help your website rank better on Google. Improving the quality of your product pages is essential for long-term success.
Use Quality Images and Video Content
Images and videos are two of the most powerful digital marketing tools that you can use to enhance your product pages. However, they are also one of the most challenging components to get right. Most people have a hard time thinking through what they want to say with their images and video content, so choosing items that have meaning for your audience is essential. Here are some tips for creating quality images and video content:
- Use high-quality photos — Avoid using low-quality or stock photos when creating content for your website because they will be seen by people who are less likely to trust them as authentic images.
- Use short clips — Videos should be short enough that they do not take more than a few seconds to view on mobile devices. Longer videos can effectively drive traffic back to your site if they include valuable information about your products or services. Still, shorter clips will help keep visitors engaged with your brand for more extended periods.
Add Alt Text to Images
Adding a descriptive ALT text to images is one of the best practices for improving search engine visibility. Search engines use image ALT tags to determine what is essential about an image, so adding this information will help improve your rankings.
The most common way to accomplish this is by adding an alt attribute to the HTML tag for each image on your website. This is a good idea because it makes your content more accessible and readable and makes it easier for Google to crawl and index your site correctly.
Use Structured and Consistent Product Page URLs
A well-structured URL is essential in product page SEO. A URL should contain two components: a domain and a path. The domain component is the URL part that identifies the website’s hostname, while the path component is everything that follows it.
For example, if you have an eCommerce website selling women’s clothes, your product URLs might look like this:
shoes.mystore.com/women/leather-boots.html
shirts.mystore.com/women/shorts.html
In this case, each URL contains exactly one domain (the store) and one path (the category). This structure makes it easier for search engines to crawl your website and correctly index your content.
Google has a special algorithm that looks for specific keywords in these URLs, so if you have a product page with an SEO-friendly URL, it will be ranked higher than other pages for those exact keywords.
Include And Link Product Attributes
According to the best practices for Product Page SEO, you should include and link product attributes and use them as keywords. For example, if your product is a pair of shoes, you can have your brand name, product variation, and “shoe” as keywords in the description. In addition, you can use phrases like “men’s shoe” or “women’s shoe.”
You can link your brand name to your business website and other attributes to the relevant pages, like linking “men’s shoes” to the category page. You can also link to your website’s sales page or blog with a link to the product page. This will improve your SEO by making it easier for customers to find out more about your products after buying them.
Using Proper Breadcrumb Navigation
Breadcrumb navigation is a method of organizing a site’s navigation that lists each page in a hierarchical format. They are meant to help users navigate the site, which can be frustrating when they do not function as intended.
It enables users to understand how they navigated from one page to another and how they can return to their previous location. A properly coded breadcrumb structure is essential for SEO because it allows search engines to crawl your site correctly and identify the pages you want them to rank for.
Breadcrumb navigation is a great way to help users find their way around your site. It is beneficial for sites with lots of content. The breadcrumb navigation should be positioned at the top of the page so it is easy to read while scrolling down the page.
Mark Up Product Pages with Structured Data
Google has made it easier than ever to mark up your product pages with structured data, as well as making it easy to embed this data into your product pages.
Structured data is a way to make information available on the web in a machine-readable format using standardized APIs that allow machines and humans alike to understand and use the information. Additionally, many e-commerce platforms have APIs that would enable merchants to integrate structured data directly into their websites.
Google can use structured data from a tag or an attribute to help rank products in search, meaning products with timely information will rank higher for shoppers looking for them.
Display Product Reviews and Testimonials
When customers search for a specific product, they will want to see what others say about it. Therefore, reviews and customer testimonials can be highly effective in helping you attract new customers and build trust with existing ones.
Customer reviews are also crucial for SEO because they help people find the best products for their needs. For example, a person looking for a new blender might be more likely to look at a page full of reviews from satisfied customers than one that only has company-written content.
Increase the loading time of your product pages
One of the most important things to do on your product pages is to increase loading time. If a user has to wait too long for the page to load, their mind goes elsewhere, and they will leave. Product pages are not just about selling. It is also about providing the best user experience for your customers.
The best way to ensure your product pages load quickly is to use HTML5 and CSS3 so that browsers do not have to wait on images or JavaScript files. If you have pictures on your site, consider using a service like Unsplash or Pixabay instead of hosting images on your server.
In addition, mobile devices have different capabilities than traditional desktop computers. So it is helpful to create responsive websites that work well on all devices and screen sizes.
Optimize and Test Landing Pages
If you are not already doing this, it is time to look at your landing pages. If you have a website, make sure you have a separate page that offers the same product or service differently. For example, if you provide lawn aeration services, create one landing page for each type of lawn you service (e.g., residential vs. commercial).
For each product page, you create, ensure all relevant content is available on the home and product pages (eBook, paperback, etc.). This includes images, videos, and other assets necessary for conversion and the customer journey.
For brick-and-mortar businesses, test your website on multiple devices and browsers to ensure visitors can find what they are looking for. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly and has a clear call to action, so visitors know where to go next.
Conduct Site Audit More Frequently for Technical Issues
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a continuous process, and you cannot just go away for a couple of months and expect your efforts to pay off. But you can still take steps to improve your SEO performance by performing a site audit more frequently. A site audit is looking at all aspects of your site and identifying any issues or opportunities for improvement. It is an ideal way to discover what works well on your website and needs work.
The goal of the site audit is to identify and fix any problems before they become more significant problems that require more expensive and time-consuming solutions.
An excellent way to do this is by conducting regular searches on Google for your target keywords. If there are no results, you likely have an issue with your content or backlink profile.
Apply Product Schema with Reviews
The schema has two main sections: one for product details and one for reviews. The review section allows you to show customers how others have rated your product or service, giving them a sense of what others think about it.
Product schema works best when you apply it on pages where many reviews or products can be rated (such as an Amazon page). However, if you only have a few reviews or products, applying product schema to these pages may not make sense because the information will not be used much.
When applying product schema to your pages, try using the same format as Amazon on their site (e.g., rating stars and written text).
Include Product Details in XML Sitemap
Including product information in your XML sitemap is a good idea for product page SEO. This is because Google and other search engines will read the content of your XML sitemap when they crawl your site.
The good news is that Google has made it easy to include product data in your sitemap! This feature lets search engines know exactly what is on your website and where it is on the page.
You can then add this information to your product pages by using the rel=”canonical” element. The rel=”canonical” attribute tells the search engine that this website is the canonical version of another website. So if there are duplicate versions of the same product, Google will know which one to pick.
Link Unavailable Product Pages to The Available Ones
When a product page is unavailable, it often means that the product is currently out of stock or may be sold out. This means that your users will not be able to purchase that product from your store and will have to look for other alternatives.
By linking your unavailable product pages with the available ones, you can direct users interested in purchasing that particular item to the appropriate page where they can find it. This helps you retain customers and encourage them to come back again and again.
Use Captivating CTAs
CTAs are a great way to build trust with your customer and clarify what they should do next. They should be short, and to the point, so they are easy to remember. Here are some tips for creating CTAs that will resonate with your customers:
- Do not overuse CTAs — Create CTAs that clearly explain your product’s or service’s benefits, but don’t use more than one CTA on a single page. For example, if you have a blog post that contains multiple CTAs — such as “sign up for our newsletter” and “learn more about our product” — use one CTA per page instead of two on each page.
- Use action-oriented language — Avoid using passive language like “you can” or “we will,” implying that you do not need to take action or make any changes yourself. Instead, offer customers a clear path for them to abide by telling them precisely what you want them to do next — for example, “Click here if you want more information.”
- Ensure your CTA works with other elements on your page.
Include product suggestions or “products you may also like”
Product pages are the heart and soul of e-commerce. This is why product page SEO is so important. Product pages are a place where you can tell stories about your products and even set up sales funnels or apply cross-selling techniques.
Take advantage of every opportunity to sell and include product suggestions under the “products you may also like:” section. While it is essential to provide a list of products, you should also offer suggestions related to your product. For example, if you sell instructional books on how to cook, include links to similar products with detailed descriptions and images. The more relevant the products are to your customers’ needs, the more likely they are to increase their order size. This can help you gain more traffic by ranking higher in organic search results.
Product Page SEO
We hope we have been able to provide you with a useful step-by-step walkthrough of the process involved in SEO for product pages. The main takeaways from this guide are clear: include images, use longer descriptive product page titles, optimize for performance and be consistent. To take your e-commerce site to the next level, we also recommend you work with our SEO experts to put together a content marketing strategy to supercharge your marketing efforts and optimize the design of your e-commerce site.