SEO for Ecommerce Sites: Using Keywords Naturally and Providing Product Descriptions

Most companies set up websites with the intention of imparting information to their consumers and improving their online reputation.  But with an eCommerce site, the goal is simpler and more straightforward.  An ecommerce site can be considered successful when its sales approach the projected mark.  So SEO for ecommerce sites has to be geared towards this goal.

The Rules of Good Writing

Many of the same SEO rules that apply to other websites can be modified and used for ecommerce sites as well.  Keep in mind that SEO or search engine optimization is the creation of written content.  As long as your SEO expert follows the rules of good writing, you’re bound to have an organized, helpful, informative website that will encourage the customer to make purchases.

Keywords 

In order for your website to do well, it has to first be found by search engines and this involves the use of keywords.

• Keyword Stuffing.  Formerly, when search engines had not yet wised up, people used to liberally sprinkle keywords all over their writing in order to get good rankings.  A website selling hair care products might have used content of this sort: “Hair care is extremely important to most women.  If you’re looking for hair care products, you’ve come to the right place.  Not only do we sell shampoos and conditioners for hair care, we also sell other hair care products like hair masques, hair oils etc.”
• Disadvantages of Keyword Stuffing.  Do you notice the unnecessary use of the term “hair care” in the above piece of writing?  Not only does this go against all the rules of good writing, which emphasize word and sentence variety, but it can also be really irritating to consumers looking to get real information.
• Using Keywords Naturally.  The solution is not to overuse keywords but to use them sparingly and in a natural way.  3-4 times within a 500-word piece of content is more than enough.  And most of the time, you won’t be writing something so long for an ecommerce site.  It’s only under the “About Us” link or the “Our Philosophy” link that you might need to write anything close to 500 words.

Bad Keyword Placement

Natural  Keyword Placement

Product Descriptions

In general, an ecommerce website consists of a lot of descriptions of products.  However, a description has to be written with care if it’s going to encourage the consumer to buy the product.

• Providing Specs.  First of all, you need to make sure that you get all the specs right.  For example, if you’re selling shampoo, you need to include the quantity of the shampoo in the bottle and its ingredients.  If the shampoo contains some kind of ingredient which is especially good for hair, you need to tell customers what its benefits are.
• Providing Information that Promotes Your Product.  This is not the place to hold back or be modest.  If your product has won a prize, tell your customer that it has won a prize.  If certain well known people in the industry recommend it, this is another piece of information that can help the customer while promoting your product at the same time.  If the product has been proven to be beneficial through scientific testing, this should also be mentioned.
• Writing in an Internet-Savvy Way.  Keep in mind that SEO is not just about providing information.  You also need to make sure that the information is given in a way that suits the internet genre.  You can’t provide paragraph after paragraph of information like you would in a magazine article.  Instead, it’s a good idea to use bullet points, subheadings in bold font and lists because these keep people reading.  Plus, try to be concise in everything you write so that each bullet point doesn’t exceed a few lines.

These are some of the basics of SEO that you can use in e-commerce sites.  Contact us to help optimize your eCommerce store.