Crafting product pages is one of the most important parts of selling your products online. On top of displaying the product and giving users a way to purchase it, each product page should be optimized to rank in Google and draw people in. And for that, you need product descriptions.

For Google to rank a product page, it needs to have text content to work with, which means having more than just the name of the product and a photo.

A product description gives Google’s algorithms — and more importantly, users — something to read and learn from.

But how can you craft online product descriptions that successfully harness search engine optimization (SEO)? Below, we’ll go over seven ways to improve SEO for product descriptions.

Read on to learn more, and then consider partnering with WebFX — the agency with over 500 client testimonials — for our SEO services. Just call 888-601-5359 or contact us online to get started!

7 tips for improving product description SEO

SEO for product descriptions often depends on a few select factors. By optimizing your product descriptions for those factors, you can ensure that your product pages get a boost in rankings.

Here are seven ways to improve your online product descriptions!

1. Keep things simple and scannable

When writing product descriptions, don’t overcomplicate things.

You don’t want to drive readers away because there’s too much information for them to process at once. Keep your product descriptions short, succinct, and scannable.

To make your content scannable, use bulleted lists rather than paragraphs, and incorporate plenty of white space around the text. These things will make users more likely to visit and stay on the page, improving your SEO.

2. Provide information

Another way to help users have a better experience on your product pages is to make sure your descriptions are informational.

Given that your product pages are entirely designed to get users to buy, it can be tempting to stuff your descriptions with purely persuasive content. But if your descriptions are nothing but self-promoting fluff, they’ll do nothing to draw in users.

Keep your descriptions informative and make sure every sentence or bullet point serves beneficial information about the product.

When your product descriptions are genuinely helpful, users will respond positively. Google will then recognize that behavior and rank you higher.

3. Highlight benefits, not features

One of the best ways to sell your products is to focus your product descriptions on the benefits of the products, not their features.

The difference between benefits and features is in some ways a subtle one, but it’s also very important to be aware of.

Essentially, features are impersonal descriptors of a product, while benefits are the ways those features can help users. For example, let’s say you’re selling a phone case, and you advertise that the phone case is made of carbon fiber. That’s a feature, not a benefit.

To rephrase it as a benefit, you could say that the phone case “can withstand drops of up to X feet.” That will be much more appealing to users, drawing them in more successfully.

To be clear, you can still list features — just be sure to also name their accompanying benefits. That’s what happens in this product description for a fishing pole, where the page lists features and benefits alongside one another (e.g., “2-piece construction for easy transport”).

4. Integrate keywords strategically

Keywords are essential for product description SEO since they are how Google ranks you in search engines.

Whenever you write a product description, you should start out by brainstorming some basic keywords associated with the product. From there, you can build out your keyword list with related keywords.

The next step is to integrate those keywords into your product description. Insert keywords where appropriate, but don’t do so in a way that will make the content confusing to read, or that Google will interpret as keyword stuffing.

5. Know your audience

When you’re writing product descriptions, you’re not just writing for algorithms. You’re writing to real people, and for your product pages to do you any good, you need to have a sense of your target audience.

Before you begin working on your product pages, have a detailed idea of who makes up your audience. You should be able to classify your target audience based on:

• Age
• Demographics
• Location
• Socio-economic class

Knowing these things will tell you how to write.

On top of your audience helping to determine the appropriate style of your writing — casual, formal, or otherwise — they can also be key to the content of your writing. Your descriptions should match user search intent, or what your audience is looking for when they come to you.

6. Incorporate multimedia

Online product descriptions are important in part because they give Google content to read and rank.. That being said, your product image is just as important as your product description and the best product pages will have a blend of text and images.

Along with the textual component of your product description, be sure to include visual multimedia like images and videos. The images could show the product from various angles, while a video could show how it works.

Whatever multimedia you choose to use, give users something to accompany the text content. Be sure to compress any images you use so your pages will load faster, and give them alt tags — short, descriptive blurbs — so they can still contribute to your rankings.

7. Include a call to action (CTA)

Finally, each of your product descriptions should feature a call to action (CTA).

Without a CTA, it’s unlikely that your page will produce conversions — and you should provide many of them!

The following constitutes as a CTA:

• Phone number
• Contact form
• “Buy now” button
• “Learn more” button

However, on a product page, the main goal is to get users to convert, so using a button that encourages users to purchase will be the most effective at moving users through the funnel.

If you display your products online but don’t have an online store, the “purchase” button should be replaced with a CTA that directs users to how and where they can buy the product (e.g., “Call us to buy!” or “See where this item is sold”).

Get help improving SEO for product descriptions with WebFX

Ready to start driving more results with your product description SEO? Let WebFX give you a hand! With over 20 years of experience in SEO, we know everything about writing product descriptions to appear in rankings.

With our SEO services, you’ll get help implementing all of the tips listed above. You’ll also receive a dedicated account representative to keep you updated on everything we do for your site.

Just give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online to get started today!