Pointless copy on product list pages makes me feel compromised...
-
When working on ecommerce websites we insist that product list pages need at least 250 words of copy that is optimised for our keyword phrase ... lets say "17 inch bike frames". So we have some crappy copy written that goes something like this....
"We have a great 17 inch bike frame for you whatever your requirement. Take a look at the frames below .... blah blah blah totally pointless text blah blah blah........."
This text is of no use to the user as the page is merely a means of them getting to a suitable product page. However, the copy is pretty essential if we want to rank well for "17 inch bike frames" and not having copy on product list pages could land us in hot water with Panda ...especially if we have lots of them on a site using the same page template and with no copy on them.
Does anyone else feel uneasy with adding this crappy text to pages? It's only there for search engines and that is something that Google say's we shouldn't do but I know for sure they're not going to rank me as well if I don't have it.
I'd be interested to hear other people's opinion on this. It's always annoyed me. Does anyone have any good tips for making this type of copy on product list pages less forced and crappy?
-
Yes. I completely agree. Think kind of text is crappy, pointless and I don't even think it'll do much to help your rankings (Google can sniff out "SEO optimised" copy from a mile-off).
The approach I take for this kind of things is to get an actually decent writer to craft the copy, without considering keyword optimisation whatsoever and just trying to make it as useful as possible for the user.
Assuming the writer doesn't use obscure language for the sake of it, this text will show enough relevancy for appropriate keywords and topics that the text will be better "optimised" than anything created for "SEO".
-
That might not have enough variation if the only variables changing in the transcript are the size of the wheels.
If the traffic justifies writing unique content for those pages and you have the bandwidth, then go for it. Maybe put it in a jquery show/hide or low down on the page so it's not in the users face if it's a bit rambling.
-
Hey Miki,
Great suggestion for product pages themselves but do you see it working for product list pages (product category pages) ?
Suppose we could have the shop owner running through and giving a brief intro to the different types/brands that have 17 inch bike frames and then produce a transcript of that.
-
I would consider making a 90 second video on the product, and including a transcript of the video for the text/content SEO needs.
Hope that helps
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
CAPTCHA Alternatives to Improve Page Load Speed
Recently I had to install reCAPTCHA on my site. The site contains domain name generators and they were being misused, in the words of my host: _Addition of a Captcha will go one of two ways - hit the bruting on the head as intended - OR it will increase the load and the impact by rendering the Captcha's. _ Have noticed that reCAPTCHA adds a fair amount of code 32% of page size and 5 requests. I want to replace reCAPTCHA with an alternative, has anyone got any ideas? Cheers. Justin
Web Design | | GrouchyKids0 -
Best practice for product detail when all products are onepage
HI there,
Web Design | | Hephey
I have a page utilizing isotope with multiple products with small text excerpts and when you click an item i opens a detailed view without requiring a new page load. I've read some of the one page posts but can't get my head around what's best SEO wise when dealing with possible duplicate content. I guess one method could be to have the product list with small excerts of text and all the details hidden in some json and then when the user clicks it, it will open the product and fill with details from inline json. The click action is overring the a tag action e.g. with jquery, so the the a tag has a clean url to a proper subpage with meta, h1 and all that stuff so google can follow it. The jquery thing enables the navigation without a page reload and I can update the document url with pushState.
The subpage, if visited directly, includes the same animation stuff as the master but now has h1, p meta specific to that product but still with same effect, navigation and layout as the master page. Does anybody know if there is a better way to do this with one page sites when wanting to seo optimize detailed contents?0 -
Attachment Pages
i have hundreds/thousands of images on my site, but for some reason the images on this page - http://indigocarhire.co.uk/top-of-the-range-car-hire/ - are being flagged as attachment pages, meaning im getting errors for duplicate titles, missing metas ect why are these images and only these ones being flagged up, they have been added in exactly the same way as every other image on the site appreciate any advice Thanks
Web Design | | RGOnline0 -
Site as one page - SEO implications
We may be inheriting a site and will be asked to do SEO for it. We will have control over the development of the site, so this structure is what it is. My question is - how significant of an impact do you think this is going to have and can you think of any workarounds that may help? Basically, the user experience of the site will feel similar to multiple pages. However, this site will, in essence be one page and pull various content through javascript from different locations. I have not seen the site yet (and believe it is still in development), but this is how it has been explained to me. Any thoughts? My first thought was to add a blog to add page depth to the site and expand the content. Any other thoughts are welcome and appreciated. Thanks. (I know this is limited information, I'm sorry. It's just about all I have to work with right now, and I was a little concerned and was hoping for a second opinion)
Web Design | | AdamWormann0 -
ECWID How to fix Duplicate page content and external link issue
I am working on a site that has a HUGE number of duplicate pages due to ECWID ecommerce platform. The site is built with Joomla! How can I rectify this situation? The pages also show up as "external " links on crawls... Is it the ECWID platform? I have never worked on a site that uses this. Here is an example of a page with the issue (there are 6280 issues) URL: http://www.metroboltmi.com/shop-spare-parts?Itemid=218&option=com_rokecwid&view=ecwid&ecwid_category_id=3560081
Web Design | | Atlanta-SMO0 -
What happens if I 301 Redirect my homepage to a different page on site
If i were to 301 redirect the index page of my website to a page in a different subdirectory of my site would that adversely affect SEO? Does your home page need to be in the root of your site? I'm asking because a developer has told me that it would be best to do that since he needs to install OpenCart on the root of our domain...
Web Design | | SheffieldMarketing0 -
Order of my products on page?
Hi, I read somewhere that Google reads a page in a certain way. All my product pages are listed (or most of them) in Alphabetical order. Now say I am targeting brands named Cruyff and Money Clothing, should I put all the Cruyff and Money products above everything else? See here for example... http://www.designerboutique-online.com/jackets/ They are in Alph order, except the sales items at the bottom. So would it be beneficial to do this? To put my targeted brands at the top of the page? And if not, is there anything I should be doing with the layout of the products to improve/help with SEO? Thanks Will
Web Design | | WillBlackburn0 -
Landing Page - is this one a good landing page?
Hello Everyone, I want to ask about this landing page: http://www.rpgdicas.com.br/builds/diablo-2/build-necromancer-summoner-diablo-2.html It's in portuguese-brazil. What should I improve? Any tipps will be apreciated keywords: Build Necromancer Summoner, build necromancer summoner diablo 2, so on... thanks, everyone.
Web Design | | augustos0