Wondering why your competition is selling more, even though you have a larger inventory, high-quality product photos and better customer service? They probably have something you’ve missed – effective product descriptions in your online store. Those that not only present the product in a simple and accessible way, but are also perfectly optimized for SEO.
In a stationary store, customers count on the help of the seller. Kind, smiling and kind advisers can work wonders and convince even the least determined ones to buy. It can be said that in the online store this function is performed by a description. The better it is, the greater the probability that the customer will buy the product from you, and maybe even stay with you longer? Where to start creating descriptions?
Find out who your customers are
To get your customers attention, you need to get to know them well. First, think about who and why is visiting your online store? Gather as much information as possible about your customers: How old are they? How do they look? Where they live? What do they do? Are they singles? Do they have families? How often do they shop online? How do they spend their free time? What are their daily rituals? What annoys them? Remember that the customer is not interested in what you want to sell. For him, the most important thing is what he wants to buy at the moment. Try to discover his motivations, fears and needs.
Where to find information? There are quite a few sources of knowledge about consumers and the Internet. If you haven’t done research before, start with industry reports. Important information on the demographics and behavior of your customers can be found, for example, in online tools such as Google Analytics or Facebook Audience Insight.
Create your perfect client
Once you have the knowledge, analyze the collected information and use it to create a persona, i.e. your model client. Give her a name, age and place of residence. Write where he works. Let your persona have goals and desires, but also frustrations. Suppose you run an online store with organic cosmetics. One of the persona might look like this:
Jessica is 28 years old.
She is the mother of the resolute five-year-old John and the
wife of the architect Tom. She graduated in human
resource management, and currently lives in the capital and works in one of the
corporations in the HR department.
She tries to spend her free time
with her family – actively, preferably outdoors. He cares
about ecology. He does grocery shopping in a local
grocery store. In order not to waste time, she kept
visits to the shopping center to a minimum. Instead of at
a drugstore, he buys cosmetics online. Before deciding to
buy, she checks the composition of products and the opinions of other customers
and influencers. It focuses on quality, price is a
secondary criterion.
If you define personas well, you will discover what to focus on when creating product descriptions. You will write to satisfy the curiosesity and needs of a specific target group. You will also not waste time on too general or technical descriptions. There is a high probability that no one will read them. And if he doesn’t, he probably won’t buy it.
People buy emotions, not products
Before you start creating a product description in an online store, establish the strengths and benefits of having it. Think about what problems it solves. Customers will be happy to pay if you convince them that it is your product that will have a real impact on their quality of life: they will have more time for their family, they will take care of everyday matters faster, they will be more attractive or they will save a lot of money for holidays. This is where knowing your target group comes in handy. What will convince young mothers will not go to teenagers at all.
Use the language of benefits
Remember that the language of benefits is the language of particulars. Support any benefits your product provides with concrete and true evidence. Avoid cliches and cliches. “One of a kind”, “top-quality workmanship” or “the latest fashion” – they mean nothing to the customer. The market is saturated with this type of desert returns, which is why consumers have learned to effectively ignore them.
If you absolutely want to emphasize that your product is in something “the best” – justify why, eg “The thinnest smartphones on the market. It’s only 1mm thick and you can fold it like a piece of paper”.
It’s important to be clear about the problem your product solves. If an orthopedic pillow relieves spine, head and back pain, say it simply, without any special words or fancy phrases. So that the message reaches all interested parties, not only those who have completed a doctorate in acupressure. When you make customers aware of a problem that you can solve, you will awaken in them an urgent purchase need.
The perfect product description in the online store
Length matters
An ideal description should be
around 1000-1500 characters with spaces. Both your
customers and search engines will like this length. In
addition to the criterion of the number of characters, follow a simple rule –
if you read the product description and still have questions, think again.
How much to reveal in the
title?
The title should contain the brand,
model and type of the product, and if possible, also a characteristic, e.g.
color. It is supposed to attract attention, but above
all, it should be understandable and legible. Write for
people, not for the machine. Do not include detailed
technical data and incomprehensible abbreviations in the name. Rely on relevant information that will help customers quickly decode
what the product is.
Instead of “Tdx-18 gha roz. XS ”, write“ Alpine
Tdx-18 gha (red) ski jacket size XS ”.
Also a mistake is the too general
title, which says absolutely nothing about the product.
The title is of great importance
for the positioning of the online store.
Show what cannot be touched
Photos are a showcase of your online store, not only the product. Don’t forget that we buy online with our eyes – we can’t touch the product or try it on. That is why it is so important that the photos are taken professionally and reflect reality as accurately as possible. They should represent exactly what you are selling, taking into account the characteristics of the product (color, shape, texture). Even if you have received photos from the producer, it is worth taking a few extra photos that will show exactly what interests your target group. Thanks to this, you will also distinguish your offer from the competition. A good example is Zappos, which shows the most important features of the products in the pictures.
Product description, or how to increase conversion?
The product description has two primary purposes: it explains the functions of the item and encourages potential customers to buy. Few of the elements on the page have such a direct impact on conversion. If you see customers entering your website, viewing products but not adding them to the cart, they are probably put off by the product description or the lack of it.
When creating a product
description in an online store, follow the basic rules.
– Choose legibility and
transparency. Present the most important features of the product,
– Split text into paragraphs,
– Use boldness to emphasize the
most important things,
– Use bullets that help maintain
clarity and make it easy for the client to scan the text with their eyes
– Use icons and graphics,
– List everything the customer
gets, but also what he won’t get. If, for example, the
set does not include batteries, be sure to write about it,
– Give advice and dispel doubts.
Create a list of questions and answers and present possible
applications of the product,
– Influence the senses and emotions
that stimulate the imagination. Appeal to the sense of
touch, sight, smell and hearing.
A language your customers will love
The right language is very
important in creating descriptions, therefore:
– use short, single sentences,
– use the active side,
– avoid participles; instead of them use
conjunctions: which, what, by what, therefore, etc.
– use dynamic verbs: decreases / increases,
improves, soothes, speeds up / slows down, oils / dries, strengthens / weakens,
– avoid modal verbs that weaken the power of the
message, e.g. “XYZ can minimize the risk of getting sick …”,
– avoid the verbs “to have” and “to
be”; it is called energy vampires – sentences with their participation are
simple, but also boring,
– use simple, user-friendly words and expressions,
e.g. also instead of also, it reduces instead of eliminating, soothes instead
of soothing,
– avoid the industry jargon,
– put on the language of benefits,
– give up terms that overly value products,
exaggerate their advantages,
– translate more difficult terms to avoid the
so-called “Knowledge traps” – a situation in which you think that a
given concept is so obvious that you do not need to explain it to anyone.
From General to specific
The amount of information contained in the description depends on the industry. However, it is a good practice to present the most important data in the main description (briefly and concisely presenting the most important information and including the basic keywords). The details should be transferred to the additional description (extensive, presenting the advantages of the product and benefits resulting from the purchase, examples of applications, including elements such as: technical parameters, product specification, pattern and other keywords). Additional description should be presented in the form of legible tabs.
Bet on a hard hit
First, indicate those features that distinguish the product from the competition. Focus on its strongest points and then move on to the less significant ones. End the description with information about add-ons. Take a clothing store as an example to see what a valuable description should contain.
– First, provide basic information: cut, size, color, cut, price.
– Below is information about the
size worn by the model in the photo, so that the customer has the right point
of reference.
– Include product care instructions
– customers often want to know how many degrees they can wash the product or
whether it can be tumble-dried before buying.
– Describe the history of the
manufacturer.
– List the materials from which the
product was made.
– Put customer reviews and opinions.
– Also find a place for additional
benefits: free delivery and return.
Make friends with a blogger
A great way to enrich your product description is to use reviews or tests in the description. Many bloggers and YouTubers work with producers and create materials about specific products. This type of content is also created at the request of specific online stores.
SEO product descriptions
Creating product descriptions for SEO is a relatively easy task. However, here too, one can overdo it. Still, most sellers focus too much on positioning and forget about users. The high position of the store in the search engine is of course very important, but don’t write just to fill the description with keywords. If you take care of the customer with substantive content on the website, Google will repay you. See what to keep in mind.
Take care of unique content
Descriptions and titles must be unique. Copying descriptions from the manufacturer’s website will not help
your SEO efforts. We realize that creating original
descriptions for up to several thousand products can be troublesome. If you do not have the appropriate resources, it is worth outsourcing
this type of task to a company that will prepare descriptions in a professional
manner.
Choose quality, not quantity
It is a mistake to saturate the
text with keywords. Focus on covering the topic and
providing clients with the most accurate information. Usually
the key phrase appears up to 3 times in the product description with a length
of 1000 – 1500 characters including spaces. You can use
synonyms and synonyms that sound more natural.
Search for relevant key
phrases
Thanks to them you will find out
what queries are directed by users looking for solutions you offer. Tools are also helpful that will provide you with information about
the most popular phrases, their position, number of searches and competition,
as well as how to write to arrange a given text for a given phrase as
effectively as possible.
Use materials from your blog
This is a very good practice that
provides customers with valuable content and additional linking within your
website. You can place an article fragment on the product
card and link it directly to your blog.
Relevant Product Names
(Heading H1)
The name should contain popular keywords. Each product must have an individual name taking into account the
manufacturer, model, distinguishing feature, etc.
Use subheadings (in headings
H2-H4)
The subheadings are an important
element that improves the readability of the text. At the
same time, it increases the potential in search results – especially if you
include relevant keywords.
Remember about ALT
attributes in graphics
Thanks to ATL
attributes, the search engine will know what is in the photo. This way, you can also smuggle a keyword.
Duplicate content
There was a bit of this on the occasion of SEO, but let’s repeat it again – don’t be tempted to copy the manufacturer’s description (the exception is the product specification). But what if the products described differ only in color? Repeated assortment is a problem for many stores. How to create original descriptions for this type of product? Of course, the optimal solution would be to prepare a unique description for each of them, but with large volumes it turns out to be practically impossible. In such a situation, it is worth preparing one universal description and 1-2 sentences characterizing the changing element.
Order or write it yourself?
As always: it depends. Take several factors into account. If you run a small online store, you have time and skills – you can create professional descriptions yourself, why not. Now you know what features a sales product description should have. You are aware of what mistakes not to make. However, if you are the owner of a large e-commerce with thousands of products, and your employees have hundreds of other tasks on their minds, it is better to outsource writing to a specialized company. The price for product descriptions is relatively low compared to the losses you may incur by giving them up.
