According to Ethan Cramer-Flood’s analysis published in February 2022 on eMarketer, global e-commerce sales are expected to grow 12.2% annually compared to 2021, adding up to an extra $603.68 billion in spending.
To stand out among all the retailers competing online and boost your sales, you need to combine good user experience with strong SEO practices to get the most out of every product page.
A Product Page Built for Search Engines
Your product pages need to be built with SEO in mind so Google can index them easily and rank them well in organic search results.
1. Fine-Tune Your Product Page Tags
The tags on a web page include the meta title, meta description, H1, H2, H3 and H4 headings, and the alt text on images. These should be filled in with your main target keywords, since they’re what tell search engine bots what a page is about.
The meta title and meta description are the first things people see in search results. You should stick to the recommended character counts so users get full information and are more likely to click through to your site. A good rule of thumb is no more than 160 characters for the meta description and 60 characters for the meta title.
The H1 heading carries the most weight when it comes to indexing a product page, since it tells Google what the page is really about. It needs to include the main keywords that describe your product or service. The H2, H3, and H4 headings help organize the page content and should also be fine-tuned. Generally speaking, H4 headings aren’t used much, since they tend to clutter a product page with too many sub-sections.
2. Keep URLs Simple
A good product page starts with a clear, short URL. A URL should be built around the main keywords of the page it leads to. For example, a product page for an Italian sofa should have “italian sofa” somewhere in the URL.
To keep URLs simple, skip connecting words like “and,” “or,” “of,” “the.” And always separate the words in a URL with hyphens, since other separators like spaces aren’t recognized by Google, which means it won’t be able to read your keywords properly.
That said, changing existing URLs can hurt your search rankings if you don’t set up the right redirects. That’s why it’s usually best not to rename URLs that are already live, since it takes a lot of prep work around redirects and carries real risk for your rankings.
3. Write a Unique Product Description
Your product description matters a great deal, since it’s how you present the product to potential buyers. They need to be convinced quickly, based on what’s in front of them, that your product fits what they’re looking for. So the description serves a sales purpose, but it also helps the page rank better.
The page should open with an introduction that highlights your selling points and includes the main keyword and at least one secondary keyword, for SEO purposes.
From there, add more detailed paragraphs about the product, covering things like its features, so you build a richer set of related terms around it and give your SEO a boost.
The product features matter too, since they bring together all the information buyers need to make a decision more easily. What’s included will vary depending on what you’re selling. For clothing, that might mean a size guide, a description, where it’s made, the materials used, and care instructions.
4. Add Customer Reviews
Search engines reward pages that get updated regularly. Adding customer reviews to your product page is a low-effort way to keep it fresh. It also builds trust with potential buyers, and with Google.
Shoppers like being able to see what other customers experienced before making a purchase. So reviews are a great way to boost your page’s SEO, and they tend to lift conversion rates too. It’s worth putting some thought into how to get more reviews on your product pages.
For example, after someone makes a purchase, you could send an automated email offering a discount in exchange for a review of their experience.
5. Sort Out the Technical Side of SEO
The technical side of SEO often gets overlooked, but it plays a real role in how well a product page ranks. This covers things like page load speed, structured data for reviews, and canonical tags.
You can check a product page’s load speed easily with PageSpeed Insights, which flags the heaviest files so you can fix them. For example, JPEG images tend to load faster, so they’re usually a good choice.
Structured data, in SEO terms, is a snippet of code meant for search engine bots, giving them direct information about what’s on a page.
Canonical tags help avoid duplicate content by telling search engines which page is the original. Duplicate content can actually hurt your rankings, so this matters more than people think.
A Product Page Built for Users
The five tips above are the ones that matter most for a product page’s SEO. Other things come into play too, like internal and external linking or how often keywords appear.
But don’t lose sight of the fact that a product page needs to work first and foremost for your actual customer. Google isn’t the one buying your product. The online shopping experience should be as smooth as possible to make it easy to buy and to convert.
6. Pick a Strong Call to Action
The call-to-action button is at the heart of your product page. The most common ones are things like “add to cart” or “grab our exclusive offer.” This button should stand out clearly (font size, button color) and be placed well to help drive conversions.
There are tools that can help you get more out of your CTA. Software like Hotjar, for instance, shows you the “hot spots” where a call-to-action button is likely to work best. A/B testing is also a common way to compare two versions of a CTA and see which one performs better.
7. Add Trust Signals
A product page needs certain things to reassure potential buyers and help them feel good about making a purchase.
- The price should be clear and easy to see, along with payment and shipping details, so shoppers get a full picture of what they’ll pay right away. The page should also make clear that payment is secure.
- Delivery time gives online retailers a real edge. Shoppers increasingly expect fast, reliable delivery, so it’s worth putting that front and center.
- The return policy should be easy to find on the product page to reassure buyers, along with contact information for customer support, to show there’s follow-up after the sale.
- Product details (stock, origin, materials, colors, and so on) and customer reviews also help build trust, and that tends to lift conversion rates.
8. Use Strong Visuals
The best product pages make full use of images and videos. Shoppers are more likely to buy when they can see a product from different angles. These visuals help make up for the fact that you can’t touch or try something when shopping online.
So the images and videos on a product page need to be good quality and true to life. Besides making for a better experience, images also affect how well a page ranks in search.
9. Make Your Product Page Mobile-Friendly
A product page needs to work well on mobile. Since it’s often the first contact a customer has with your business, everything on the page should be easy to tap and access, so people can order easily from their phones.
10. Set Up Cross-Selling
Showing shoppers other products improves their experience and strengthens the internal linking across your site. These products can be similar (upselling) or complementary (cross-selling).
This is a solid way to get people to look at more product pages, which keeps them on your site longer. It’s also a good way to open up more chances for a sale. Amazon does this well with its “frequently bought together” section.
SEO tactics and user experience go hand in hand. Bringing the two together gives your customers a smooth shopping experience while keeping your pages well-positioned in organic search results.
