Have you ever shopped at one of those deep-discount stores?
The aisles can be a wreck.
Products are sprawled out in the aisle, on the floor, in random piles — anywhere but where they should be.
Finding what you’re looking for is a nightmare.
Think of your on-page product descriptions as aisles of a store.
Are customers more likely to purchase an item in an aisle that’s crowded, disorganized or hard to look through? Or are they more likely to purchase an item in an aisle that’s well-maintained, organized, and easy to browse?
The answer is obvious.
Your customers want an organized, simple shopping experience – and they want to get all the information they need about your products in one place.
Why Should I Optimize My On-Page Product Descriptions?
The big reason is SEO.
Many eCommerce stores will just duplicate the information found on pages elsewhere when selling a particular item – leading to a flood of websites using the same images and the same product descriptions.
This is a big no-no and could be killing your conversion rate.
If you take pirate content from another site, there will be nothing to set your store apart from the rest of your competitors – and this will be reflected in your search rankings. Google and other search engines will penalize you for duplicate content, and your eCommerce store will not live up to its full potential.
By taking the time to optimize your on-page product descriptions, you can make it easy for your customers to browse your store, you can avoid penalties for duplicate content, and you can maximize conversions. So keep reading, and learn about a few easy-to-implement ways you can start optimizing your product descriptions
1. Start With Product Names (and URLs)
When choosing a product name, you should keep your descriptions short, but ensure that it’s descriptive.
For example, if you are selling a pair of Nike Free 4.0 Flyknit shoes, the product name could simply be: Nike Free 4.0 Flyknit Running Shoes.
Long, complex product names are just going to confuse your customers, and make it harder to browse your store. Keep things simple, yet descriptive.
In addition, the URL for your product should reflect the title. Using the above example, the URL to this specific product could be something like: www.yourstore.com/shoes/nike/nike-free-run-4-running-shoes.
Using a consistent, clear, and descriptive format to name all of your products and create URLs will ensure that users have an easy time navigating your website, and browsing your products.
2. Add Meta Titles And Descriptions
Next, you will want to make sure that you optimize your products for SEO.
Great meta titles and descriptions are a key factor in helping customers find your products in search results.
In the screenshot below, you can see an example of what meta titles and descriptions look like in Google:
The meta title and description are what users will see when your product pops up on a search engine like Google – they’re like billboards, directing customers to your site so that they can learn more about your product.
How to change meta titles and product descriptions in Magento
To change the meta title or description for a product in the backend of Magento, follow these steps:
- Log into Magento
- Click Catalog > Products
- Click the product you would like to modify
- Scroll down and click Search Engine Optimization
Here’s a screenshot of where you’ll end up:
Meta titles should be 55-71 characters in length, and combine the name of the product with a Call-To-Action (CTA) to encourage customers to click the link.
Using the above example of Nike running shoes, an example meta title could look like this: Save On Discounted Nike Free 4.0 Running Shoes | Shop Now
The meta description serves a similar purpose, but can be a bit longer, with a recommended length of between 120-155 characters.
An example meta description could be: Looking for a great deal on Nike Free 4.0 Running Shoes? At Shoes ‘R’ Us, we’ve got the best deals on a huge variety of Nike running shoes. Shop now, and save!
3. Write Your Own Product Descriptions, And Be Thorough!
This is one of the most time-consuming parts of adding new products to your store, but it’s well worth it.
When you write a product description, you have the opportunity to make a sales pitch to a potential customer – and sell them on the product more effectively than other stores. You can also integrate SEO keywords naturally into your text, which can boost your page rankings in Google and other search engines.
That means that you should do your best to make your product descriptions unique, comprehensive, and informative.
Include the following information:
- A basic description of the item
- A list of specifications
- Features and benefits of the item
- Warranties (if applicable)
It’s okay to use product descriptions from other websites to gather information about the product and its features, but don’t plagiarize. Not only is that unethical, but you could get penalized for duplicate content in search engines. Tools like Copyscape are useful for checking your text, and ensuring that it’s unique.
4. Use Optimized Images
Huge, non-optimized images are one of the biggest reasons for slow Magento websites.
Whether you’ve taken your own photos or are using photo supplied from a manufacturer, follow these best practices to optimize them:
- Convert .PNG and .GIF images to .JPEG to reduce file size while preserving quality
- Resize images if they are excessively large
- Make thumbnails as small as possible while preserving image quality
You can also use free compression software, like Squoosh.app to reduce the size as small as possible before losing any quality.
Don’t have the time to optimize your images? No problem! There are many few extensions on the Magento 2 Marketplace that will handle this entire process for you automatically.
5. Don’t Forget Alt Text!
Beyond optimizing your images for better loading times, you should also make sure you add a complete, comprehensive alt text for each image.
Alt text tells search engines what a particular image is about. Sear engines like Google still cannot interpret images on their own, so they rely on alt text to display image results. Alt text is also critical for users who are vision-impaired and may be using screen readers.
Good alt text is descriptive, but not spammy. Again, let’s take the example of a pair of Nike running shoes as an example.
This would be an example of good alt text: Woman running wearing black Nike Free 4.0 running shoes.
This is descriptive, contains the keyword you want to target (Nike Free 4.0), and makes it clear what the image is about.
The is not a good example of alt text: Nike Free 4.0 buy running shoes online best running shoes 2019 sale on running shoes reviews flyknit sale nike shoes.
This is just keyword stuffing – it doesn’t actually inform a search engine or a user about what’s in the picture.
You should aim for a natural, descriptive alt-text. If you’re having trouble, just ask yourself “How would I describe this photo to someone who can’t see it?”
How to enter alt text in Magento
To change alt text on your Magento product images, follow these steps:
- Click Catalog > Products
- Click the product you want to modify
- Scroll down and click Images And Videos
Finally, you can click an image to modify its alt text:
6. Enable Product Reviews for Your Website
If you don’t have product reviews enabled for your Magento website, you need to enable them.
Now.
95% of customers read reviews before making a purchase.
And studies have shown that online reviews can increase conversion rates by as much as 270%.
That’s not a typo.
That’s two-hundred and seventy percent.
Holy cow. If that doesn’t convince you, check your pulse.
Luckily, Magento 2 comes with out-of-the-box support for product reviews.
How to enable product reviews in Magento
- Click Stores from the admin sidebar
- Choose Settings > Configuration
- Choose Catalog > Catalog from the panel on the left
- Next, expand the Product Reviews section. Toggle Allow Guests to Write Reviews to Yes.
That’s it! Now, your customers can leave reviews of your products.
Follow These Tips to Optimize Your On-Page Product Descriptions
With the above tips, you can easily edit and modify your product descriptions to be more effective – and to appeal to customers, boost sales, and maximize your SEO profile. So don’t wait. Follow these tips and start improving your Magento 2 store today.
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