Product pages are often under-optimised despite being some of the highest-converting pages for ecommerce stores.
To help you optimise your product pages, I’ve curated 16 tips from the best SEOs in the ecommerce space.
From prioritizing UX to starting your page title with your keyword, here are 16 SEO tips for your product pages.
Prioritize UX and Incorporate Linking Strategies
My best advice for SEO strategy for eCommerce product pages is to prioritize user experience (UX) and website performance.
Having a fast-loading, easily navigable website that provides a positive user experience can improve your website’s ranking in search results, as search engines prefer websites that provide a good experience for users. In addition to that, incorporating internal linking strategies, such as linking related products and categories, can help search engines understand the relationship between different pages on your website, and can improve the overall authority and relevance of your website.
By following these and other best practices for eCommerce product pages, you can improve your website’s ranking in search results and drive more organic traffic to your products.
Georgi Todorov, Founder, ThriveMyWay
Include Unique Images
Make sure the content and images on your product pages are unique! A lot of eCommerce sites will use content or images provided to them by their suppliers, which means that their product pages have similar content to many other websites selling that same product.
If you can put the time and effort into making sure you have unique photos and product descriptions on your product pages, it will help those pages do better at ranking on their own. Also, when your products go out of stock or are discontinued, be sure to check to see if those product pages have garnered any backlinks and be sure to redirect the backlinks to a relevant replacement page.
Many eCommerce sites don’t have a process for properly redirecting the backlinks pointing to their dead pages, and having a process in place will ensure that these backlinks can have the greatest impact possible.
Aaron Anderson, Owner and Link Building Strategist, Linkpitch
Sell to Humans, Not Search Engine Spiders
Copywriting plays a crucial role in converting traffic on eCommerce product pages, especially when selling through search engines. When writing copy for eCommerce product pages, it’s important to focus on the benefits rather than the features of the product, as customers are more likely to make a human emotional purchase based on how the product will improve their life, solve a problem, or meet a need.
You don’t need tools to overstuff your SEO keywords. The copy must be written in a way that is compelling and persuasive, highlighting the benefits of the product and emphasizing why the customer should make a purchase. I prefer “soft-selling” to focus on building trust and rapport with the customer, rather than making a hard sell.
By presenting the benefits of the product in a subtle and persuasive way, the customer is more likely to feel confident in their purchase decision and be motivated to take action.
Brian Hawkins, Marketing Manager, GhostBed.com
Add Internal Links to Product Descriptions
Make sure you add relevant internal links to your product descriptions. This is a great way to help give category or brand pages a boost. When optimizing internal linking, you can be a bit more direct with your anchor text than you can with external backlinks; however, it is still worth varying it a little to include a wide range of related terms and longer-tail keywords you would like to be found for.
Allan Noble ACIM, SEO Manager, Tikkurila UK
Make Titles Eye-catching and Include Strategic Keywords
My best piece of SEO advice for eCommerce product pages is to ensure your page titles contain compelling words. For example, instead of simply labeling a product as “shoes,” try something more eye-catching such as “Men’s Must-Have High-Top Sneakers.” This can help draw attention from potential customers and make them click through to the page.
Additionally, consider adding keywords that are related to the product or industry into the title, like key features of shoes or famous brands. A well-defined title plus strategically included keywords will increase visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). Ultimately, this should result in increased website traffic and sales.
Michael Alexis, CEO, tiny campfire
Do Not Forget Schema Markup
In my opinion, one of the most overlooked SEO factors by eCommerce site owners is schema markup. Schema markup is a form of microdata that provides search engines with additional information about a web page’s content. It helps search engines better understand the content of a page and display it in a more relevant and informative way in search results.
For eCommerce product pages, schema markup can be used to provide information such as product name, price, availability, reviews, and more. This information can then be displayed in rich snippets in search results, which can increase the visibility and click-through rate of your product pages.
To implement schema markup, you can use the Schema.org vocabulary and add the relevant microdata to your product page HTML. It is also recommended to test your markup using tools such as Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to ensure that it is working correctly and providing the information you want to convey to search engines.
Shane McEvoy, MD, Flycast Media
Make Slugs of Your URLs Easy to Understand
URL slugs that are easy for humans to understand should be used throughout your site and especially for individual product pages. Human-readable URLs are preferable to a string of symbols for at least two reasons.
For starters, you can utilize them to improve the search engine optimization of your online store’s individual product pages by including relevant keywords in the slug. In addition, they enhance the site’s usability, making it simpler to use for both you and your visitors. Furthermore, URL slugs that are easy to comprehend make your store appear more professional and trustworthy in the eyes of your customers.
Some advice on crafting catchy slug lines: Put everything in lowercase, put hyphens between your words, and think about including the product’s brand name or a few technical details in the slug.
Tiffany Payne, Head of Content, Pharmacy Online
Focus On Engaging Content for Each Product Page
My advice for eCommerce product pages regarding SEO is to focus on creating unique and engaging content for each product page. This includes optimizing keywords, crafting compelling product descriptions, adding informative product images, and creating related blog posts or videos. Additionally, have internal links to other product pages to help boost SEO and create a better user experience. Lastly, regularly update product pages with fresh content to keep search engine rankings high.
Henrik Partk, CEO, Marketin
Focus on Mobile Optimization
Ensure that your product pages are optimized for mobile devices, as mobile traffic is increasingly important for eCommerce sites.
Mobile optimization involves making a website or app user-friendly and accessible on mobile devices by adjusting the layout, navigation, load times, readability, and image optimization. Fast load times, clear navigation, and legible text are crucial to ensure a seamless user experience. Responsive design and mobile-friendly images also help improve user experience and boost SEO. Optimizing for mobile is essential for eCommerce sites to reach more customers and drive sales.
Alesya Rozhko, Marketing Lead, Hypetrain
Utilize AMP for Page Speed
When it comes to eCommerce SEO, one of the most important factors is page speed. Utilizing accelerated mobile pages (AMP) will help your pages load faster and allow Google to see that you are using this feature. This AMP will allow for multiple products to be loaded faster than without it, and Google will prioritize pages that are using AMP over pages that are not using it.
Scott Krager, Founder, Key Fob Replacement
Use AlsoAsked for Customer Insight On Your Product
You can use AlsoAsked (or any other similar tool) to find questions customers have related to your product. Then, when working on your eCommerce product pages, you can make sure that these pages answer questions your customers might have.
If you’re selling snowboards, for example, your customers might want to know:
- What type of snowboard is best for beginners?
- Is a bigger snowboard better for beginners
- How long should a snowboard be for a beginner?
Nick Zviadadze, Founder, MintSEO
Think About What Your Target Audience Need
Most important is keeping your target audience in mind. Do research about their needs and questions and answer them on your product page. Make sure your product page is well-structured, giving all the information, using pros and cons, using tables, and using high-quality images.
Jarik Oosting, Managing Director and Founder, SmartRanking
Use “Lazy Loading” to Increase Page Load Speed
Unlike backlinks, page load speed is a variable we can directly control when optimizing SEO. “Lazy loading” is a technique that loads images and other content only when they are needed. This means that initial content is loaded first, with additional content being loaded as the user scrolls down. This significantly improves the speed of your product pages, improving both the user experience and its ranking in search engines. It also reduces the amount of data required to load the page, which is especially helpful for mobile users.
Many applications can be used to track page load speed, and several plugins are available to lazy load content, both requiring little-to-no technical expertise. Lazy-loading is the closest thing I can think of to an SEO hack, and should be strongly considered for eCommerce product pages.
Oliver Savill, CEO and Founder, AssessmentDay
Build Links to eCommerce Product Pages
Yes, I know I’m biased as I run a link-building agency. Just hold on a minute though, we build over 600 links a month for agencies and online businesses, and we’ve learned a thing or two about which pages to build links to.
So, the majority of your link building should be to your home page; it’s what Google expects and is extremely natural.
The rest should be going to informational pages such as blog content and then product pages.
Also, a crucial step is to make sure that your informational content is internally linking to those product pages too!
Lastly, when it comes to the actual product page, make sure that you’re covering the target keyword and other semantically relevant terms.
Jason Morris, Owner, Profit Engine Marketing Ltd
Optimize Content to Improve UX, E-A-T & Ranking
Copy-and-pasted manufacturer product descriptions are BS because duplicate content confuses search engines and prevents your page from ranking well in the SERPs, so we should make sure our content is optimized by focusing on unique, valuable content. But how? Leverage the knowledge of your team members.
In addition to including product features and benefits, ask your product, customer service, or sales team for their expert views on how to use the product more effectively. It could help improve the content value, show uniqueness, and build E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness).
You could also consider a “Customer Q&A” section for your product pages. This will provide helpful answers to frequently asked questions and improve the user experience. By having your team experts respond to these questions, you can further enhance the E-A-T of your website. (Note: It’s important to note that E-A-T is not technically a ranking factor, but it can impact your content’s rank).
Iky Tai, Global SEO Specialist, Iky Tai
Your Page Title Should Start With Your Keyword
Your page title should start with the main request you want to rank for. There are many ways to build your page title – your product might have a branded name, some key features you want to highlight, or something else.
Each product I’ve constantly seen at the top of a key Google search has the main keywords at the beginning of the page title; that’s a common pattern. Then, there are other ways to outrank competitors (fast-loading page, description, on-page content, breadcrumbs, etc.) – but you’ll hardly get to the top without your keyword at the beginning of the page title.
Mehdi BOUFOUS, CEO, Panoramata
There you have it – 16 incredible tips to SEO the product pages on your ecommerce site.
SEO doesn’t happen unless you do the work.
It’s not magic, it’s consistency that wins.