SEO for Product Pages

SEO for product pages is one of the best tools an online store can use to increase sales. But rather than a 'do it once and do it right' strategy, like with all SEO, regular and ongoing effort is required. eCommerce SEO or SEO for product pages is about undertaking tasks to increase the visibility of products by using techniques which can increase rankings on search engine results pages or SERPS.

Almost without exemption, every online business faces competition within SERPS from other businesses selling similar products. Customers see these results when using a search engine like Google or Bing, with many choosing to visit websites which are either paying for advertising or ranking within the first SERP page. Having your product pages ranked within the top 10 results on that first page will give you the opportunity for increased organic website traffic, leading to better brand awareness and increased product sales.

When selling online, the importance of having an SEO strategy specifically for your product pages is vital. This strategy will clearly state the tasks and when they need to be done, including prioritising the specific pages and products you want to focus upon first.

SEO Strategy for Product Pages 

SEO or search engine optimisation is a whole website approach. The techniques are the same or similar to ones used on other web pages, but with this we're taking an eCommerce focus.

• Keyword research - this involves identifying the specific words and phrases to use within your website, which for this are most likely to be product related. Identify the keywords you are currently using, their rankings and the amount of traffic and sales you are receiving from them. As well as identifying the keywords used by customers in search engines, also check out what keywords your competitors are using and what their rank is. Our article What is Keyword Research explains more about doing the research, including what online tools could be used. 

• Site architecture - the number of clicks from your home to a product page needs to be as few as possible, ideally three or less. The way a person navigates your site is how a search engine will too. An easy to navigate site will have a higher ranking than one which has multiple levels of pages. Learning more about how to improve user experience is recommended. 

• On-page SEO - this refers to the specific actions you take within your website to improve your visibility online. A great way to start is by undertaking a website content audit. This will help identify the areas of content to focus upon. 

• Link building - the links other websites have directly pointing to your products can improve your SEO. However, these links need to be from high quality and well ranked websites. Common links are from business directories, social media, product manufacturers and product reviews. 

• Product prioritisation -  ranking on page 1 of Google in the first position is a great goal, but is highly unachievable for most online stores. Instead rank your product pages in terms of which ones you would like to receive the most organic traffic from initially. Then work through this list focusing on SEO optimisation for each product. 

• Product descriptions - a well written product description is capable of ranking highly in SERPs. Our Guide On How to Write Product Descriptions explains more about this in detail, but generally speaking you should include the product's key features and benefits, heading and meta tags, keyword research and unique product descriptions. 

• Meta tags  - meta tags are small snippets of text added to a page which are mostly seen only by search engines, with some seen by your website visitors. Button text, filenames, meta descriptions and meta title are all meta tags, and more information about what you need to do with them can be found in our article How to Optimise Your Web Pages Meta Tags.

• Headings - headings within your product description play an important role in helping search engines identify the most important parts on a page. By default, your product name will be a Heading 1 or H1, which is the most important heading and each page should only have one of these. The next headings should be an H2 or H3 depending upon importance and are usually subheadings.

• Reviews - social proof is seen as highly beneficial by both search engines and other customers. Having reviews enabled on your website, plus on other sites such as Google My Business is well worth having. Learn how to enable reviews on your website in our guide. 

Where to next? As explained, SEO remains almost the same for every page within your website. Our SEO Resources are a great place to learn more information about how to manage this yourself, or contact one of our recommended experts for paid consultancy.