In several conversations recently the question, what can I do when adding new products to help with SEO has come up so I decided to put together a list of SEO tips that you can use as a checklist when adding new products. I am going to keep it super simple so everyone can be successful.
Keywords Are Important
As with any SEO activity you need to start with keywords that people use to search so you can capitalize on the maximum amount of traffic possible for every single product you add. The words you use for the product name and description have a large impact on your chances of SEO success when it comes to ecommerce sites. Now is a good time for five minutes of keyword research.
Product Name & Page Title
The title tag of your product page is the most important element and on over 90% of the online stores I see the title of the page contains the product name. You want the high volume keywords in your page title because this helps with ranking in the search engines. Use the keywords you found with SEO Blogger in your product name. If your product name is not in the page title you need to edit your template; a subject for another day.
Meta Tag Settings
Before you get all excited about adding a full fledge product description you are going to take a less traveled path and go to Meta Tag Settings. I am not going to discuss the merit of meta tags within the search engine algorithms because regardless I believe they are important for reasons beyond just search rankings.
Your meta description should be a sales pitch to a prospective customer that is looking at a list of search results. Imagine two other websites are next to yours and the meta description helps a customer choose who to buy from; obviously you want it to be you. Including your keywords is a bonus. The meta keywords should be your list of keywords from WordPress SEO Blogger.
Benefits Bullet List
People love the quick list of benefits so they can quickly make a decision. Add a bullet list of the benefits of your product that resonate with your customers to help search rankings and boost the sales ability of the page. Did you notice I used a bulleted list in this post already? When done right this will boost your SEO effectiveness and create better sales copy.
Product Description
Do you already have the perfect product description all typed up waiting for you to copy & paste? Go ahead and do it; now check your keyword usage for the product description against the keywords you picked out in Wordtracker SEO Blogger. I am sure you picked 2-3 great keywords and they were used in your product description 2-3 times each. Great job! For those of you like me that have all zeros next to your keywords; go back to your product description, read it and find opportunities for editing where you can include the keywords while sounding normal.
Multiple Images & Alt Tags
Do you have more than one image for your products? If not you need to take more or find more from a legitimate source (customers are an excellent place to start). Multiple product images help customers make a buying decision because it gives them more detail. You will also want to add alt tags that include your keywords for each product image. If you are not familiar with alt tags you can find out how to use them here.
Embed A Video
Bust out the video camera and start filming your products. You can also search YouTube if your product is popular and embed customer videos. Remember there are several benefits to product videos beyond just embedding on your product page. You have the chance of showing up as a video result in Google’s universal search results (the default) and are in front of an avid group of video watchers; the YouTube community.
Grade Your Page
Now it is time to check your work; however, unlike school you can always retake the test. My personal favorite is the SEOmoz Term Target tool because it gives an easy to understand grade broken down by important elements. Every element of your product pages affects SEO and the Term Target does a great job of visualizing the importance of each HTML element for you.
Refresh Google Base
I know you already have your current products listed for free in the Google Merchant Center (aka Google Base, Froogle and Google Shopping) so get your new product added to your product feed. You can do this by running the Google Base feed in Template Data Feed; then upload the new feed in Google Merchant Center.
Write A Blog Post
You did all the hard work; make sure you let people know! Write a blog article announcing the new product listing or guest post on some one else’s blog that appeals to your target customers. You can include the pictures and video from your product description in the blog post announcement to help with content.
Follow the SEO tips above when you add a new product because you want to beat your competitors in the search rankings and bring in new customers with every new product.
