1. Lack of product descriptions
It is a mistake of most online stores. The owners of these stores focus mainly on the quality and number of images in the opinion that it is sufficient for selling and do not consider it important to dedicate their energy to the product description. However, this is a serious mistake, as the absence of texts significantly reduces the chances of the product being placed on the Google search results.
Consider these recommendations when creating labels:
- Create quality labels to help customers decide
- Don't copy texts from other websites
- it is also important to keep in mind that the description does not hinder purchase (if the text is too long)
- Product descriptions should be rich in keywords relevant to your product
2. Using product labels from manufacturers
The problem is that these labels are available to a large number of online stores and subscribers, and most of them automatically just copy them to their store without editing. Sooner or later these will have a disadvantage in Google searches. Google increasingly and effectively filters out duplicate content sites.
Another disadvantage of these descriptions is that they are not produced by manufacturers for purchasing purposes.
For online stores with thousands of products, creating unique text for each product is time-consuming and challenging. In such cases, always make sure that even if we use texts from manufacturers, we should always add some unique texts. This will prevent complete compliance with other online stores.
Also, apply the 80-20 rule, so if 20% of your sales are generated by certain products, it would be advisable to edit at least these ones.
3. Absence of product reviews
Up to 70% of customers browse customer reviews of a product in an online store or forum before buying it. This means that if there are no customer reviews in the online store, visitors are most likely to find a competing web store to find the information they are looking for.
Look at Amazon, for example, it let users not only buy their products, but also review the products, comment, or even share their purchases with others.
They have created a unique community in which people share their experiences, these buyer's reviews have proven useful in terms of search optimization:
- Buyers themselves create their own textual content (labels) for the products, completely free!
- customer reviews keep product pages alive. If websites are updated frequently, we encourage Google to visit the online store more often and index its subpages.
4. Optimizing product pages by monthly searches for specific terms
Although common phrases are effective for specific categories or main pages, they are not suitable for product pages.
For example, let's say we have a product page (with Simpson's patterned socks) that we optimize for term "socks". Since this product is quite specific, it is very likely that the customer will immediately go back to the search results and look for socks elsewhere.
Therefore, it is wise to choose a more specific term for optimization or long tail terms. For example, the term "Simpson socks" is likely to have lower traffic in general, but it will be suitable for them and a larger percentage of customers will buy this product.
This also plays an important role in search engine optimization, as Google also monitors the percentage of returns, ie whether Google users have found what they were looking for. If too many people return from the online store to the search engine, then Google will evaluate that the page is not relevant to the search term and will be listed lower.
Here are some suggestions on how to optimize your product pages:
- use model or product number in Title or H1
- use the name of the brand in the title or in H1
- fill in alt in pictures
- avoid repeating keywords on product pages
- if possible, never use iframes to display text content because the texts you see will remain invisible to Google
5. Using a Non-Unique Title Tag
There may be a problem with duplicate Title tags on the web. As in most cases, Google likes unique content, so you should always try to include a unique text in each sub-page of your eshop in Title or Meta description.
It has already been said that most users often use non-unique expressions to search for a product, but also longer terms. As a result, two parameters can be used in Title, which can be different for each product - for example, in addition to the selected text, the Brand / Manufacturer name and the Product itself. Even very similar products will have a different Title.
6. Unedited / short urls
If we use SEO friendly urls in our store, the name of the product itself and the location of the product page in the online store are clearly visible before opening the search result. From an SEO perspective, it is important that each product has a URL that always contains the product name (or keyword).
Another advantage of using search engine URLs is that customers are already aware of what they can expect from a website and the bounce rate will be lower.
7. Using the same text on different online subpages
Duplicate content / text on web pages can lead to search engine penalties or lowering your ranking in search results. Therefore, try to exclude such pages from indexing.
Here are some tips to reduce duplicate content:
- Use the canonical tag to determine which website you would like to index
- You can add the nofollow attribute (Google does not follow this link) to links that display duplicate content. However, this method may cause problems in finding a link that should use the nofollow attribute
Bonus tip:
Focus on design
Google is a search engine that pays special attention to user satisfaction and experience. That's why the store should be easy to use, clear and clean. If customers spend more time on websites and have lower bounce rates, it will be a great signal for Google to reward your site with a better position for that keyword.
Expandeco is still there for you, do not hesitate to contact us for any information, not only about online marketing.
