Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Product Descriptions (SEO)
-
So I would like a few opinions. How long should a product description be? Enough to get the point across? 100 words? 800 words? Over detailed? Any advice would be appreciated.
-
Hello mattl99!
You are really fortunate. You got two 10x responses from Roman and Bob.
I'll add just a little... about.... Your visitors and your niche...
If you are selling very simple and common items that everybody uses and knows about then you don't need to write a huge description - just explain the specs. But, if you are writing about things that involve effort, knowledge and creativity of your visitors to purchase, then you need a lot more than specs. Items for do-it-yourself projects, items for craft/hobby projects, or the tools, parts and accessories needed for complex goods. These require a lot more effort and the visitors both need and expect your expertise to help them decide, purchase, use and enjoy.
-
It completely depends on your niche, your goals, your competition, the amount of time you have, and the expertise level of the person writing the description.
Your Niche and Competition:
Google the top 5-10 product descriptions from a high traffic, important keyword in your industry. For best results, track at least 10 keywords. Each keyword can be different, so you may have to be careful there. Look at the top 5-10 results for a product-related term. Are they long descriptions? Are they short. Are there none? What's the content of them? What features and topics do they have? How's the UX and mobile? I could go on and on.
Your Goals:
Are you looking to do a 10X product description or just throw a little something together. I always recommend re-writing the manufacturer's information in your own words at the very least. See Rands Why Good Unique Content Needs to Die for more
This brings in the writer's Experience Level
Are you a beginner or an expert in the niche? You may not be able to write 10X content if you know nothing. Try rewriting the manufacturer's info for starters. You will learn a lot. Never copy and paste from another website into your own!
Which ends with time and scalability
Do you have all the time in the world or 5 minutes per description. Most medium difficulty level niches require a store with lots of content and at least 200 products just to get started, but it can vary widely and it really depends. Try balancing between not spending enough time and spending all day on one 10X product. Try making your top 10 hitters (by profit) 10X. or make your top 30 or 50 10X. 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your products. Sometimes it's more extreme.
I hope I have helped.
-
According to Statista, the average CTR for paid search in e-commerce is a mere 2.69% ( _Average clickthrough rate (CTR) in Google AdWords - USA between August 2017 and January 2018 ) _That’s the equivalent of being eternally ranked immediately below position five.
In my opinion SEO for products, descriptions bring up a host of difficult questions
- Which keywords should you target?
- What’s the perfect description length?
- Should you write for engines or people?
- Where and how often should you use keywords?
Getting the answers right is essential. Here’s how I do it
- Write for Buyers, Not Bots
- Major on Benefits (Include Features)
- Target the Right SEO Product Keywords
- Let Buyer “Awareness” Drive Your PDP Length
- Create Unique SEO Product Descriptions for Each PDP
When writing your descriptions, always ask yourself:
**Does this help the online buyer? Does it inform them, enlighten them, and, ultimately, help them make a purchase decision? **If you start from square one using this approach, you’re already on the ideal path to writing amazing product descriptions for SEO.
1. Write for Buyers, Not Bots
The number one rule for good SEO any time, anywhere, is to write for people first … not the search engine web crawlers.Here’s why: what’s good for your audience is good for search engines, because their main concern is usability.
The whole point of search is to help users find exactly what they’re looking for. If your product descriptions align with this goal, you’re going to please Google and rank well.
2. Major on Benefits (Include Features)
You cannot write an informative, accurate description of a product unless you understand that product inside-out. Vague knowledge of a product will lead to an equally vague description, one that is unhelpful for your online buyers as well as the search engines.
3. Target the Right SEO Product Keywords
Your job of correctly optimizing SEO for product descriptions must include using the right keywords. This will help search engines understand your pages, which will help internet searchers find what you’re selling.
So, how do you find the right keywords, and how do you use them strategically?
It’s all about narrowing down to the right phrase, and it all starts with a solid keyword tool. SEMrush is a great option, as is KWFinder or Moz Keyword Explorer. These tools let you research specific keywords and give you valuable data about factors like:
- Search volume (how many people are searching for a given keyword)
- Keyword difficulty (how hard it will be to rank for a given keyword)
- Related terms you can potentially use in your content (e.g., longtail keywords)
4. Let Buyer “Awareness” Drive Your PDP Length
Your process of optimizing SEO for product descriptions also needs to include writing at the right length for good search engine results. Unfortunately, there is no set length that works for every product. Instead, best practices demand that you base the length of your descriptions on what your audience needs.
5. Create Unique SEO Product Descriptions for Each PDP
Another must for good SEO is to avoid duplicate content at all costs.
In general, creating similar descriptions for all the products in your online store can cause problems for search engines trying to index your pages.** IN SUMMARY**
SEO for Product Takes Work … But It’s Worth It
There’s no doubt about it: SEO for product descriptions can be tricky.The key is to think of the online buyer’s information needs first and foremost. Then, follow the best practices to make sure your product description SEO skills will net the attention of search engines.
That’s the simple rule of thumb for writing winning product descriptions that do their job without a hitch.
Hopes this info will help you
Regards
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
-
Schema description wordcount guidelines ?
Hi is there a wordcount guideline for the description field in Ravens schema creator ? according to their page on event schema an excerpt from the page will show up as a short description but then their tool has a field for adding a description! I was just adding some edited copy from the page into this but if it already pulls in an excerpt is there any need ? I take it its a good idea for better control of what's displayed in rich snippet, if so what's suggested wordcount limit ? cheers dan
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Should I add PDF manuals to my product pages?
Hello. A lot of the products I sell on my e-commerce site are very technical. I decided to add PDF data sheets, manuals etc on each of the product pages to improve the customer experience. Now I am not sure if it was the best thing to do. I have noticed a couple of times that the PDF is out ranking the product page in the SERP. For a few products, the PDF ranks but the product page doesn't. Anyone got any ideas?
On-Page Optimization | | DavidLenehan0 -
What's the best practice for handling duplicate content of product descriptions with a drop-shipper?
We write our own product descriptions for merchandise we sell on our website. However, we also work with drop-shippers, and some of them simply take our content and post it on their site (same photos, exact ad copy, etc...). I'm concerned that we'll loose the value of our content because Google will consider it duplicated. We don't want the value of our content undermined... What's the best practice for avoiding any problems with Google? Thanks, Adam
On-Page Optimization | | Adam-Perlman0 -
Duplicate meta descriptions
Hi all, I'm using Yoast's SEO plugin and when I run a On Page report card here on SEOMOZ it says there are 2 descriptions tags I've been trying to fix this but can't (I'm new!) Anyone any ideas on this? Thanks Elaine
On-Page Optimization | | elaineryan0 -
Do I need a Meta description for every page?
HI Guys, We have just developed a new website and I'm looking to add meta descriptions with relevant key words to the pages . As the site has over 80 pages it is quite an undertaking and i was wandering if pages, such as the shopping cart and FAQ's etc, need meta descriptions as well? Thanks in advance : ) Pete
On-Page Optimization | | dawsonski0 -
What is the most SEO friendly Shopping Cart?
What is the most SEO friendly shopping cart? I have been using zen-cart for 6 years. Seems Google doesn't like it as much as other carts. I started a new site about 6 months ago using Magento. When I build links to this site the terms move. The terms are very similar. So I would imagine the competition is the same. I am curious if anybody has tried with different carts and found anyone to be better than the others. Also the new site has about one tenth the amount of products but has a lot more pages indexed.
On-Page Optimization | | kicksetc0 -
Missing meta descriptions on indexed pages, portfolio, tags, author and archive pages. I am using SEO all in one, any advice?
I am having a few problems that I can't seem to work out.....I am fairly new to this and can't seem to work out the following: Any help would be greatly appreciated 🙂 1. I am missing alot of meta description tags. I have installed "All in One SEO" but there seems to be no options to add meta descriptions in portfolio posts. I have also written meta descriptions for 'tags' and whilst I can see them in WP they don't seem to be activated. 2. The blog has pages indexed by WP- called Part 2 (/page/2), Part 3 (/page/3) etc. How do I solve this issue of meta descriptions and indexed pages? 3. There is also a page for myself, the author, that has multiple indexes for all the blog posts I have written, and I can't edit these archives to add meta descriptions. This also applies to the month archives for the blog. 4. Also, SEOmoz tells me that I have too many links on my blog page (also indexed) and their consequent tags. This also applies to the author pages (myself ). How do I fix this? Thanks for your help 🙂 Regards Nadia
On-Page Optimization | | PHDAustralia680 -
Does keyword at the very front of meta description have impact?
I know that it is important to have your primary keyword target as the first word or two words of your title tag. But what about your meta description tag? does it matter where they keyword is in the description tag? I see a lot of other sites stuffing their keywords right at the front of the description tag and it looks somewhat unnatural. What's your take? do you put the primary keyword as the first word or two words of your description tag?
On-Page Optimization | | A Former User0