Although we aren’t quite ready to say goodbye to summer yet, eCommerce retailers have had December 2nd 2013, aka Cyber Monday, firmly circled on their calendars for months. E-retailers are feverishly working to implement the optimal digital strategy that will see them sell record breaking inventory this year. But when your business goals are the same as your competitors’, how can you get an edge?
That edge comes from optimizing your site’s product and category pages. There are many small changes you can make as part of your seasonal digital strategy that add up to higher ranking and improved conversion rates.
Here are five must-do product optimization steps to prepare for Cyber Monday:
1. Apply the 80:20 rule.
It likely isn’t financially or logistically feasible to update every product listing on your site. We recommend focusing on the top-20 percent best-selling merchandise first. That way, if you still have time to optimize more product listings before Cyber Monday, you can. If you don’t have time, you’re confident that you have optimized the most popular products and will be getting the best ROI for doing so.
2. Know your keywords.
Almost all effective internet marketing strategies involve detailed keyword research. While there is likely one obvious description of your product that should be included in the headline and description of your product (e.g., rocking chair), smart online retailers also add distinguishing terms (e.g., wood rocking chair). This digital strategy combines a primary keyword with what is known as a long-tail keyword, and it will help shoppers find exactly what they’re looking for.
Use the Google Keyword Tool to automatically generate a list of relevant keywords and keyphrases for your product, and choose terms that have significant search volume.
3. Be Unique.
If your website features manufacturer product descriptions that are found on your competitor’s sites, you may be penalized by Google’s search engine. Your pages will get docked for duplicate content, and those retailers that invested in unique content of their own will likely find their listings above yours in search results. Ideally, your content should be ‘refreshed’ and different from last year’s descriptions, too. Invest in creating original product content that is reader-friendly, with a relevant primary keyword and long-tail keyword. Quality product descriptions are easy for your customers to read, and will tell Google that your content is unique and up to date.
4. Optimize product data.
Optimizing your product data is absolutely crucial to increasing conversion on site. Product data means all the information describing the objective physical information of your product (e.g., the material it’s made of, dimensions, color). This data often appears in list form as part of your products’ specifications. Though it’s not the most enthralling content, its accuracy is essential to ensuring your onsite customers find the right product, quickly and simply. For example, if a person searches for “wood rocking chair,” and they get a rocking chair that is labeled as wood but is actually made of aluminum, clicks off-site spike markedly. E-commerce retailers with accurate and complete product data have higher conversion rates, making investment in this area one of the strongest sources of positive marketing ROI in eCommerce.
5. Set up ROI tracking.
Implementing these essential steps to product description SEO will help boost visibility and, as a result, sales. But you don’t–and shouldn’t–take our word for it. Your business needs systems in place to track and measure results. First, you need a baseline ranking for where your product URL currently lands among search results. To find this, simply search for all of the keywords and keyphrases you want to target and record the place where your pages are ranking. Use a tool like SEM Rush. In regular intervals, check to see how your URLs are doing.
You’ll also want to track sales data. You are likely already doing this, so you should have last year’s data to compare this year’s Cyber Monday sales numbers to and get a clear picture of your ROI. Remember that the sooner you optimize your product description content and product data attributes, the more of an impact your efforts and investment will have on December 2nd this year. So what are you waiting for? Start optimizing!
Contact EnableVue if you’d like to discuss these ideas further.