Why is it Important to Have Fully Optimised Product Descriptions?

Vital for any e-commerce site, product descriptions should be fully optimised for search engines and written to entice customers.

High quality content written with your audience in mind will engage potential customers, whilst being fully optimised will appease the search engine gods. Whether you’re selling wizard hats or server monitoring software, it’s imperative to keep this in mind at all times.

Quality content

Product descriptions may seem to be the bane of your life (especially when you have 1,000 to write) but they are essential in persuading customers about the benefits for your products.

If you don’t mention what it is, what it looks like and what it does your customers will have no idea what you’re selling.

The level of detail is dependent on your word/character limit, but typically those with greater detail give the customer a much better feel for what you’re offering. Describing the material, finish, style and size of the product helps the customer build a better image in their head.

Using high quality detailed descriptions alongside pictures of the product lets the customer see what you’re describing, eliminating any doubt in their mind and, in turn, bringing them closer to buying.

Engage with your customers

Customers will come to your page with certain questions in mind. If your content answers these questions, or gives alternative options, then your product is more likely to fulfil a customer’s need.

Customers on a product page are likely to be at the end of the sales funnel so your descriptions need to be enticing enough to convert them from a potential customer to a paying one – don’t just list the specifications.

One way to use your copy to guide a customer into buying is to eliminate any potential guilt they may have about spending their hard-earned cash. Highlighting the USPs and benefits of the product whilst reassuring the customer of the product’s value helps to alleviate any guilt.

Below are a few methods for eliminating potential buyer’s guilt: 

• Mentioning a limited time offer (e.g. ‘only on offer today’)

• Mentioning that it’s a good deal (e.g. ‘a great deal for a first time buyer’)

• Mentioning that the product is ‘essential’ (e.g. ‘an essential winter accessory’)

To make sure your product descriptions truly resonate, sell the customer a lifestyle, not a product. Use emotive and descriptive language to build a connection between your product and a desired lifestyle – e.g. “Perfect for lounging around on the beach, these linen shorts are made from…”

It is essential to differentiate between similar products. Reading the same description for a slightly different product is very disparaging, as you have to differentiate between the original and the duplicate (imagine Blade Runner, but much less exciting.)

SEO optimisation

Product descriptions are very important from a SEO point of view. If you don’t have any type of description on a product page it can be very, very difficult to rank on the top 10 SERPs for that related keyword.

Having just a picture of your product doesn’t help you rank as search engines can only see the alt-tags of pictures.

Unique content creates value for customers and is also rewarded by search engines, whilst duplicate content is looked down upon and banished from the realms of high-ranking SERPs.

Manufacturer descriptions should be avoided for two reasons:

1. These descriptions will be used by other websites, creating a plethora of duplicate pages that are all penalised.

2. Manufacturer descriptions are not written to sell – they are matter-of-fact and simply state the specs.

The power of keywords

Having unique descriptions will ensure that you rank for your search terms and will make you stand out amongst your competitors.

Use the keyword planner to research relevant keywords for your site to further optimise your page. Doing so is essential, as pages that are optimised based on keyword research tend to perform better in SERPs.

Research which primary and secondary keywords to base your content on and insert these in the headings and main body of text with care – keyword stuffed content is spammy and awkward to read.

Longtail keyword research gives you all of the possible ways people are searching for your product. Find the longtail keyword and break it down into smaller keywords for use in your content.

For example, the (very long) longtail keyword “Peach cotton knit jumper with V-neck and elastic cuffs by Topshop size 12” can be chopped into “peach jumper”, “cotton knit v neck” and “Topshop jumper” to name a few.

Using these keywords in your descriptions allows you to cast a much wider net and gets you much more visitors to your site.

These keywords should also be used in your title tags, ensuring that each page has a unique title tag with a primary and secondary keyword.

Having fully optimised product descriptions is of great significance – you may have great content written in your brand’s tone of voice, but it will fail to get any visitors if it doesn’t rank well in the SERPs.

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