One of our recent webinars began with an astonishing statistic: It’s recently been predicted that by 2040, around 95% of all purchases will be made via eCommerce, and it’s likely the pandemic has only accelerated that estimate.
Kristina Azarenko, eCommerce and Technical SEO Consultant and Founder of MarketingSyrup, shared this statistic in her recent webinar “How to Create Unique Content for Your eCommerce Product Pages.”
For online businesses, it’s now more important than ever that your products rank well in search engine results, especially in Google results, the world’s most used engine. Kristina acknowledged that this subject, its challenges, and its potential solutions are vast, so she focused on product pages for this webinar.
There are three main problematic issues with product pages, Kristina began:
- Almost identical product pages found on different URLs, for variations like color, size, etc.
- The same product is found in different categories and has different URLs.
- Products are listed on company websites with the manufacturer’s original description, (and other companies are naturally also using that description).
Why are these issues such a challenge? Kristina explains that all three contribute to a fragmentation of information, which in turn makes it hard for Google to select which product to rank. This also means that companies are wasting money by not building product pages that compete effectively, she pointed out.
The bottom line? “Create high-content product pages with unique content so you can stop losing money,” Kristina emphasized. She then moved on to expand on these three issues, sharing how to combat them for your product pages (which naturally leads to higher conversion and increased revenue).
Issue # 1: Almost identical product pages found on different URLs
Naturally, most products have numerous variations, including color, size, material, and other product options. It’s not a good idea to create a different URL for each variation of a product, Kristina explained, unless there’s a clear demand. Otherwise, one URL with variations living within it is the best guarantee that Google will rank the product and that customers will find it when they search.
Of course, there are exceptions, Kristina pointed out; trust your data to determine which products merit their own URLs for product variations. “There’s no one-size-fits-all—it all depends on your data.”
Issue #2: The same product is found in different categories and has different URLs
The journey the user takes on a website should not influence the URL; the URL should lead them directly to the product via one category, Kristina emphasized.
Solution A: Remove the category indication from the URL—this is a relatively easy, quick fix. An example would be changing “site.com/women/t-shirts/v-neck-slim-fit-top.html” to “site.com/products/v-neck-slim-fit-top.html.
Solution B: Choose your canonical product version and make other product variations point to it with a tag. Use the canonical element to specify to Google which is your “preferred” version of a web page, thus solving duplicate content issues.
Issue #3: Products with the original manufacturer’s description
Whenever a customer sits down with their device and Googles their desired product, they’ll receive a seemingly endless sea of different listings. What can an eCommerce business possibly do to stand out?
The more unique content you can add to your product page, Kristina asserted, the better chance you’ll rank well on Google and attract more customers. How to do this? She shared several tried-and-true tactics that will draw customers in:
- Customer reviews. Unique content and real-world stories about your products can persuade shoppers to make a purchase. You can make it easy for reviewers by supplying prompt questions that will guide their contributions to your review collection.
- Customer photos. Again, unique, authentic, and visual “stories” about your products from shoppers who’ve purchased them are invaluable in compelling additional sales.
- Customer Q&A. This can augment what you’ve included in your product description and can go a long way towards helping build trust in the shopper—after all, these are real people who have looked at the same product and asked—and received answers to—questions that have helped them decide whether to purchase. Your customer support team can supply commonly asked questions and answers, and Google Questions can also help you select questions you want to highlight.
If you want to learn more about how to best optimize your eCommerce product pages and increase your conversion rates, watch our full webinar here.
