How to Use SEO: Content Optimization to Increase Sales
You know you've got a stellar product and a great brand – now it's time to get customers to take notice. Whether You're selling your products through a marketplace or on your own website, spending a little time working on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can have big results that can increase your sales.
What is Content Optimization?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It's a series of best practices and principles that help people find your products when they're searching online. One of the most effective, free ways to increase your search rankings (and attract the right kinds of customers) is through content optimization.
When talking about SEO, you'll often hear experts only refer to what Google does, or how things look in Google results. This is because Google is the leading search engine, and many of the other search companies follow their lead. Don't worry, though – when you do some of the SEO steps we'll be talking about today, people will be able to find you more easily on all search engines.
In order to optimize your website or product page content to perform well online, there are a few essential areas we look at:
Keywords
Product and page titles
Originality
Image alt tags
Metadata
URLs
Chances are, you've probably already started dabbling in each of these areas without even realizing it!
Keywords for Website and Etsy SEO
The first place to start when planning your digital marketing is the keywords: what are people searching for that can lead them to your product?
If you're like most people, your first reaction is probably to think of the most straightforward description of your product, like a handmade purse or watercolor painting.
In fact, 76,000 people around the world searched for "watercolor painting" in the past month, and the pages of possible results stretch on and on. With large art brands and publications producing content on this keyword, it's going to be challenging to push your new product page up the Google ranks.
The solution is to be more specific! How can you further clarify what it is you are providing?
Watercolor painting ideas had 3,500 searches
in the United States in the past month.
Watercolor painting for kids had 250 searches in the same timeframe – and about 50% of people actually clicked on results.
Watercolor painting of flowers had 80 searches.*
Try searching for keywords with the Mangools/KW Finder tool below.
While it's tempting to try to optimize for the phrase with the biggest search traffic, remember that lot of people search terms and don't click on anything, or don't click far enough into the results to find you. By focusing your content around a more specific search term, you're dealing with a smaller group of people but ones who are very clear on what they want. By being able to deliver it on the page in front of them, you're more likely to connect with (and convert) a paying customer this way.
Keyword usage is still essential if you are selling products through a platform like Etsy or Creative Market. Your product pages still show up in Google search results, and using specific keywords can also help marketplace websites bring your products to the forefront when people search the inventory.
Turning to Google itself is useful for figuring out what people are searching for. Type in some phrases you've thought of and look at the "searches related to" section at the bottom. This gives you a starting idea of how different word combinations relate to each other. You can also explore Google Trends to see how searches change in popularity over time.
Creating Optimized Product Content
Once you have a better understanding of your ideal keywords to use, it's time to put them into action. It's important to select just the most one or two relevant keywords for your content. Any more, and things become confusing for customers and search engines alike.
You're going to want to use your most important keyword in your title. Not only does this help catch the eye of potential customers, but search engines (including the internal ones that power sites like Etsy) understand that the words in the title are most important to the product. Place your keyword toward the beginning of your title to ensure it doesn't get cut off in any search results.
Going back to our watercolor painting example, if you're selling painting kits for children, you might format your title like this:
Easy Watercolor Painting for Kids –
Complete Kit with 5 Colors and Template
You'll want to repeat your keyword a couple times in your product description.
If you're writing a longer piece of content, such as a blog post about the products you sell, put your top keyword in some of the subheadings you use to break up the content.
The Importance of Original Content
When writing your content, keep everything as original as possible. If two of your web pages or product listing pages contain nearly identical content, search engines won't understand the subtler differences. They will choose only one page to show in results. Therefore, if you have two very similar products on different pages, you'll want to write completely unique content for each one. This can be a drag if you're selling several versions of the same product in different sizes or colors. Look for a feature called "variants" or "product variations" when setting up your pages. This allows you to combine all versions of a product into one page. Think about the last time you bought clothing online. You probably had to click on a button or drop-down menu to pick your size, right? That's a variant in action.
SEO Extra Credit
While keyword usage and originality are the most significant ways to optimize your content, there are a few other things you can work on to go the extra mile:
Image alt tags
An image alt tag is a few words that are used to describe a photo. It helps search engines understand what the picture is about, and it can also make your website more accessible for anyone with a vision impairment. Most popular website platforms will give you a space to enter the image alt tag when setting up your page. If you don't see one, give your image file a descriptive name that includes a keyword, such as "kids-watercolor-kit-5.jpg." This can help to take the place of a typical alt tag and deliver some benefit.
URLs
The web addresses of your pages can have an effect on SEO! Many websites will auto-generate a URL for you based on your product or page title. If you can create your own, keep it short, simple, and feature your top keyword.
Metadata
The meta title and meta description of every page are what you see in search engine results. It gives anyone browsing more information about the pages that have been presented to them. Google will automatically generate something to show here. Still, if you can input your own meta title or meta description text when setting up your pages, it's another great chance to use your keywords.
A Competitive Edge
While working on your SEO may seem daunting, you don't have to have a perfect site overnight. Take the process page by page and focus on improving what you can. If you feel stuck, are losing valuable business time, or find things are getting a little too technical, you can work with an e-commerce consultant or SEO writer to help you get a plan in place.
Most new e-commerce shops and vendors don't even think about SEO when they're getting started. Whether you, too, didn't know much about it at first or you're just getting started online, there's no wrong time to begin. By optimizing now, you're putting yourself ahead of your competition who haven't begun the process and are helping ideal customers find you.
Emily Gertenbach is an SEO writer/consultant and founder of (e.g.) creative content. Through her business, Emily helps online businesses get better traffic and conversions through content optimization and good site architecture. Connect with her at www.egcreativecontent.com or on her blog, The SEO Writer.
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* All data from Ahrefs, May 2020