Tip 4: Write engaging product descriptions
Having quality product descriptions is key if you want your visitors to convert into paying customers once they’ve reached the product page. Product pages must be written to convert using relevant images and sales copy.
However, your product descriptions should also be optimized for search engines. You’ve already done the hard part and searched for relevant keywords, so now you must find a way to include them in product descriptions where possible without reusing the same keywords throughout different product descriptions so search engines know which pages to rank for which keywords.
To write engaging product descriptions, consider your customers and what they’re looking for when they visit your product pages. In many cases, they’ll be working for a quality product that solves their problems. For example, someone looking for loose-leaf tea will look for features about where the tea is grown and what flavors to expect.
Your product descriptions don’t have to be long, and they shouldn’t be. Instead, they must be detailed to help visitors understand the product and convince them to make a purchase.
Tip 5: Write alt texts for images
Alt texts help search engines understand photos since they can’t read them like they can copy on a website. Since search engines like Google can’t see images, they need descriptions to understand what an image is showing. Alt text, or alternative text, provides search engines with the necessary description they need to further understand the content on a page.
Alt-texts are important for SEO because you can use keywords to describe images and help search engines rank your pages for target keywords. Alt texts are also used by screen readers to improve the accessibility of a website for those who are visually impaired. Therefore, you should avoid stuffing keywords into your alt text. Instead, write alt texts for humans and search engines by using your target keywords where possible as long as the alt text still makes sense.
Remember, the goal of Google and other search engines is to help people find relevant content based on their search query and intent. If you stuff keywords into your alt text, you’ll send the message that you don’t care about the users and are instead trying to target search engines.
Tip 6: Avoid duplicate content
Duplicate content is content that’s repeated in more than one place on the web. Duplicate content can appear on your own website, or it can be copied from another website and placed on your site. E-commerce websites may sometimes have duplicate content when they reuse product descriptions from another website, especially if they get their products from a manufacturer. However, you should avoid doing this because it can hurt your rankings and prevent you from gaining visibility online.
Instead of duplicating content, create unique content that’s engaging and informs and educates your visitors. While rewriting product descriptions or content that’s already been created for you by another company is time-consuming, it’s well worth it to increase the chances that your web content will rank over your competitors.
You should avoid duplicating content of any kind, not just product descriptions. If you copy blog posts or content that’s not yours from another source, search engines may penalize you for it. Ultimately, it simply isn’t worth the risk to duplicate content on your website, even if you’re allowed to use that content for e-commerce marketing purposes.
Tip 7: Keep URLs short and concise
Complex URLs make it more difficult for search engines to crawl your site because they can’t figure out which pages relate to other pages in your website hierarchy. Meanwhile, short and concise URLs improve user experience by telling website visitors what a website is about before they dive in too deep. You should include keywords in your URLs but only when it makes sense. Keyword stuffing URLs will do more harm than good, so focus on user experience rather than search engines and you may be surprised with a boost in rankings.
Tip 8: Make sure your website loads quickly
Page speed is another SEO factor to consider. Part of technical SEO, loading time impacts the overall performance of your website. For example, if your website loads slowly, you can expect visitors to quickly become impatient and abandon the page altogether. While page speed can and will affect your conversions, it can also impact your organic website traffic.