In addition to optimizing your product listings for customers, you need to ensure that users can find you in the first place. By using sound search engine optimization (SEO) principles you can ensure every single product listing will be found quickly and easily by your target audience, and across multiple channels. This article will explain some of the key elements involved in effective product SEO that will drive more traffic to your website and ultimately convert visitors into customers.
In an ocean of similar products it is essential to stand out. Adding a good product description for each product you offer will not only help your customers make an informed decision but, if written well, can give the search engines the juice they need to power traffic to your site. Include keywords for your product and avoid duplicate content at all costs.
Think about how your potential customers might search for your product and what words they might use. If your product is made by a leading brand name, always include that brand name prominently in the title. If the product is more generic, make your title as descriptive as possible. Some people may search for your product by the SKU, so it might be a good idea to include this information.
Unless it’s a product you have researched in detail, you wouldn’t buy a product in a store with nothing to go on but a name or description. You would want to see the product first. The same goes for your webshop products, and this is when investing in professional photography can really pay off. Want to give in-depth product demonstrations using video? Even better. A series of high-definition photographs of your product from all angles can make such a difference to your conversion rate.
Nothing can sell products better than online reviews. In fact, according to research by eMarketer, over 70 percent of consumers look at online reviews before purchasing a product. Of course, to attract the best reviews you will need to ensure that your products are as-described and delivered on time. Once you have quality and logistics just right you should start to see your five-star reviews come flooding in.
By encouraging social sharing of your products you can send signals to search engines about how popular your products are. Each share you receive through social media is like a vote for your product, and it is one that could get your products ranked higher in search results over time. You will need to test out various social media strategies; however, a good place to start is to include a Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest button beside every product so it can be shared easily with a single click.
Your products deserve as much exposure as possible. However, optimizing them one by one and remembering to do this for all future products can turn into an administrative nightmare. Do you have hundreds or thousands of products that you need to optimize and keep up-to-date throughout their lifecycle? A product information management (PIM) system could help you make light work of a huge task and get the best return on your optimization efforts.
