E-Commerce SEO Guide
How to get your products ranking organically and learn about E-Commerce SEO to get the most out of Google shopping's latest update. Download our guide for optimising your products so that they rank organically on search engines. Our guide shows you:
- How to optimise product titles and descriptions
- How to add schema markup
- The best wasy to optimise your data feed
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Table of Contents
Intro
Google have released an update specific to their Google Shopping tab which further enhances the e-commerce SEO opportunities available to businesses. Google has now allowed for organic listings in the shopping section rather than just the paid ads meaning even small businesses without marketing budget can rank their products in the Google Shopping section. This is a MASSIVE opportunity for businesses within all industries, big and small!
All businesses with an eCommerce website can jump straight into this feature to help customise their service or product to the current climate. Search phrases that have increased industry wide include ‘home delivery’, ‘in stock’, ‘near me’ and ‘online delivery’. To rank higher organically on Google Shopping, businesses will need to show whether products are in stock, out of stock or if a product is low in quantity.
There are also a ton of e-commerce SEO best practise criteria to follow to ensure that your products have the best chance possible to rank in the Organic search results as well. This way your product pages can rank organically and your product listings can rank in the Google Shopping to double up your chance of making the sale.
Here is a comprehensive guide on what you can do to get the most out of organic Google Shopping listings.
1
Meta Titles
Meta titles are most commonly formatted in a dynamic structure on eCommerce sites. We know it is seriously time consuming to write specific metadata for every single webpage, however with Google’s new Shopping update, there are a few ways to streamline this.
SEO is important to businesses, as they help put forward and attract the right audience who are genuinely looking for your product or service.
SEO Premier Pointers:
- Include your primary keyword for each product/product type
- Add some of the long-tail keyword variations (where appropriate)
- Include action words (e.g., buy, click, learn, sale, free, etc.)
- Use the character | as the separator rather than a dash or a comma
- Try to keep the length under 60 characters so that they don’t get cut short
2
Meta Descriptions
You knew this was coming next. This may not offer a significant factor in Google’s ranking but there is one thing more valuable than the Google algorithm, and that’s human interest. Your meta description can encourage a click that has the potential to convert.
To help you we’ve mocked up a sample meta title and description below for a Category and Product page to guide you.
Here’s a meta title and description template for category:
Buy <Category Name> | <Category Name> Online | <Website Name>
Shop/Buy <Category Name> at <Website Name> — <USP> FREE Shipping. All of our products are vacuum packed for freshness. Next day delivery as standard for orders placed before 1PM.
Here’s a meta title and description template for Product pages:
Buy <Product Name> | <Keyword 2> Online | <Website Name>
Shop/Buy <Product Name> at <Website Name> — <USP> FREE Shipping. All of our products are vacuum packed for freshness. Next day delivery as standard for orders placed before 1PM.
SEO Premier Pointers:- Include your primary keyword for each product/product type
- Add some of the long-tail keyword variations (where appropriate)
- Include action words (e.g., buy, click, learn, sale, free, etc.)
- Use the character | as the separator rather than a dash or a comma
- Try to keep the length under 60 characters so that they don’t get cut short
3
Header Tags
The Header Tag has authority in Google’s priorities, so it’s crucial to check that your Category and Product titles are labelled correctly as H1’s. There are also other Header types such as H2, H3 and H4 which can be used for varying degrees of importance within your web page structure. Where your H1 is naturally your main heading you can then use H2's and H3's for sub-headings further down the page.
SEO Premier Pointers:- Make the category title (for category pages) and the product title (for product pages) as your H1 tag. Most CMS' auto tag your headers as H1 if you set the font weight to Bold so try this if you're not sure how to label H1's in the website code.
- Only use one H1 Tag per page and then you can use multiple H2, H3 and H4's throughout the page where needed.
4
Product and Category Descriptions
We know how tempting it is sometimes to copy and paste the content directly from your supplier or from another website, but duplicated content can have negative implications on your rankings. When writing unique descriptions, keep in mind that they must be informative to your customer, and also keyword rich for the search engine. Ideally you would have a short description which is displayed above the list of products on the page and then a longer description which shows under the products as not to detract from the user experience.
SEO Premier Pointers:- Around 30-50 words should be in Category Pages to introduce the collection and describe to Google what sort of products are listed.
- Product Details should be at least 150 – 200 words and mention keywords and phrases about the product to help both the customer and the search engine.
- Include your main target keyword in the description, an ideal keyword density is 2-3% so if your description is 100 words long be sure to mention a keyword twice.
- Don’t be tempted to stuff keywords, the description needs to be natural.
- Add in long-tail keywords (more niche terms).
- Make sure they’re well-written and readable for visitors.
5
Schema Markup
Schema markup can be added to your website to show more information to search engines which read more than just the content on your web page, and yes this has a big impact on SEO. There is Schema within the code of the page which Google uses to categorise content and then there is types of Schema which Google will provide relevant information so users can see price, availability and review ratings straight away right from the search results.
This may require some development experience so you might need to reach out to your web developer. You can also get in touch with us for support and we’d be happy to help!
SEO Premier Pointers:
Here are some of the most common schema tags, and the ones we recommend adding to product pages:
- name
- image
- description
- aggregateRating
- offers > price
- offers > priceCurrency
6
Product Data Feed
If you are going to optimise one field in your data feed, we recommend optimising product titles. Your product title is very important in helping Google find, index and return your products for the appropriate search queries.
Here are some industry-tailored formulas you can test to come up with your perfect product titles.
Apparel:
- Brand + Product Type + Gender + Keyword 1 + Keyword 2 + Color + Size
- Gender + Keyword 1 + Keyword 2 + Brand + Color + Product Type
- Gender + Brand + Material + Product Type + Size + Color
Athletic and Outdoors:
- Brand + Product Type + Gender + Keyword 1 + Keyword 2 + Color + Size
- Brand + Sport + Product Type + Color
- Brand + Gender + Color + Size
Jewellery:
- Brand + Weight+ Shape + Style + Occasion + Metal
- Style + Metal Type + Shape + Product Type + Size (i.e., Length, Width, Weight) + Gender + Product Type
- Age Group + Metal Type + Gem Type + Shape + Product Type + Size (i.e., Length, Width, Weight)
Home and Garden:
- Brand + Product Type + Color + Room Type
- Brand + Usage + Material + Usage + Product Type
- Style + How it’s made + Product Type + Color + Size + Brand + Product Type
Generic:
- Brand + Product Type + Color + Material
- Brand + Size (length, width, height) + Product Type + Color
- Material + Product Type + Color + Brand
- Style + Color + Product Type + Brand
- Product Type + Size + Color + Keyword + Brand
SEO Premier Pointers - If your industry isn't listed above, you can almost always mix and match from these options and choose the most suitable one based on your product's main features.
7
Product Images
Product Images are going to be the first thing users see when your ad is shown, so make sure they look great!
SEO Premier Pointers:
- Use high quality pictures (For Mobile Responsive Devices)
- Make sure the variants match the picture (color, size, material etc.)
- Look out for text over the picture (watermarks, sales, manufacture parts numbers)
- Test product images vs lifestyle images (to find which works best for your brand)
8
Summary
- Always include your primary keyword in the product title, as well as long-tail variations if possible.
- Mention your Unique Sales Proposition in the meta description, as this will improve the click-through-rate on your listings.
- Ensure all products have a header tag; this will usually be your category title or product title depending on the page type.
- Your product and category descriptions should always be unique, do not copy and paste from other websites.
- Add a relevant feature image and optimise the img alt tag with your target keyword which supports SEO and also provides the potential to rank in the Google Images listings.
INCREASE YOUR SALES
Take advantage of organic Google Shopping listings by making sure your products appear.
CONVERT MORE CUSTOMERS
Write captivating copy to improve your e-commerce SEO which persuades potential customers.
PAY LESS FOR CLICKS
Improve your Google Shopping quality score and lower your cost per click.
