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A part of PR management that is often overlooked is media relations but this shouldn’t be so as crafting a positive relationship with media outlets like news sites and journalists can do wonders for your image and brand reputation.
In this article, I take a look at how these relationships work, why they are beneficial, and simple steps you can take to improve your media relations management.
To build a watertight PR strategy you have to build relationships with multiple groups of people within and outside your industry. This includes customers, the general public, suppliers, and even competitors to a degree.
Media relationship simply means creating bonds with people and businesses within the media industry which can include:
Any service or individual that broadcasts news and feature articles to the general public. By building and managing your media relationships the hope is to build a positive reputation and benefit from improved exposure and media opportunities.
You now have a clear understanding of the term, but why should you care and how can it benefit your business? Surprisingly, media relations offers an incredible array of benefits, many of which you probably haven’t thought of, including:
By building relationships with individuals and companies in the media you have incredible flexibility and it allows you to be reactive to different situations such as capitalising on new trends, minimising the negative impact of a crisis, and integrating world news into your strategies.
Your brand reputation and authority should also increase as people see you mingling and interacting with trusted journalists and influencers. They will see that you have friends in high places and are a company that can be trusted.
As you can see, the benefits are real and having the media on your side works wonders for PR and exposure. But how do you achieve this?
The first part is to research the available media sources and look at who you could forge relationships with within your industry. After that, check out these media relations tactics which can give you a further boost.
It’s surprising how many people make this mistake but ideally, the media outlets you contact should be relevant to your business or industry! Sure, you can contact generic news websites or journalists, but you will have far more success with industry-specific media outlets.
Media professionals can give you insight into popular trends and world events and you can capitalize on these to boost your PR and SEO. Always act sincerely though and have a complete understanding of the trends or world events to not offend anyone or appear shallow.
The worst thing you can do for your media relations management is be pushy and over-zealous. Don’t continually chase journalists, influencers, or news outlets as this is the quickest way to sour relationships. It may take more time but you have to be accommodating and patient.
People in the media are especially busy and they usually have a tough workload. They deal with multiple news stories and businesses daily so you have to make their job easier. When approaching them for exposure or content, make sure that you have everything they need and give as much detail as possible so they can do less work!
A media kit is a detailed list of your online particulars and stats that aims to show the media your worth and business potential. Typically, a media kit contains basic contact information but also key metrics such as website traffic, social media followers, and revenue. It can also include a range of press media that journalists could use when creating content relating to your business like high-res photos and video.
Today, social media in PR has become one of the primary platforms for journalism and news and your business should aim to utilize this as part of your media relations strategy. Forge relations with popular influencers in your industry and use their built-in customer base to boost your reputation and exposure.
News outlets love multimedia content as it is far more interesting than walls of text so you should always have a range of different content available to share. This can include video content, podcasts, and blog articles for example. Using multimedia also helps your content marketing strategies and an online PR agency can help with this.
Don’t overlook the importance of media relations management as it can be a vital part of your PR strategy. With the media on your side, you can benefit from improved exposure, promotional opportunities, exclusive interviews, and favourable business reviews.
This will organically work towards boosting your website traffic, SEO, and content marketing strategies too so it has the potential to be a multi-faceted marketing tool.
You may have heard the term “influencer” thrown around online and not really understand what it means or how it can help your business. I’m here to give you the low down, explain the power influencers have, and how they can boost your PR strategy through PR & influencer marketing.
Let’s start by looking at what an influencer is. It’s still a relatively new term and many people haven’t a clue what these people do but it is certainly one of the most popular PR trends in recent years.
If we look at the basic dictionary definition then an influencer is “a person or thing that influences another” – this doesn’t really help.
In terms of marketing, an influencer is someone who promotes products and services on various platforms such as social media to their audience. They form reciprocal relationships with brands known as brand deals or sponsorships and people follow them on social media because they might enjoy the lifestyle they promote or what they do.
We now have a definition, but how can influencers help your PR strategy and marketing? The following are a few of the main benefits:
You have to realize that the most popular influencers have millions of followers on social media. Their audience is immense and their followers are usually fully invested in what they do and really are influenced by the content the influencer shows.
You can tap into that huge audience and loyalty to boost your own brand awareness and image. This then results in improved website traffic, more sales, and less tangible benefits like an improved social media following.
It’s essentially marketing and PR but with a pre-built audience (i.e. the influencer’s followers) which is incredibly cost-effective too compared to traditional marketing methods where you have to work to build an audience.
With the benefits clear, how do you make a PR influencer strategy? It’s actually easier than you think and the hardest part of your PR & influencer marketing campaign is selecting the right person(s) to work with. Below, I have created a simple 5-step guide to create your first PR strategy with influencers.
As I mentioned, you need to pick the RIGHT people to work with. Ideally, you should pick influencers who have some type of relationship with your industry or the types of products/services you sell. This means the audience is more likely to interact with your business.
Start by researching the different influencers and make a list of potential people who you could work with. Make sure you check their socials and look for things like followers, other brands they work with, and their reputation.
Next, you need to create a budget for your PR influencer strategy. This involves deciding how many people you want to work with, and how much you are willing to spend. With influencers, there are generally two “payment” methods:
The second method is preferable as this results in a purer relationship and seems less like you are buying their endorsement. It helps greatly if they actually love your products too and have a genuine interest in using them. Either way, set a budget, and create an outline of potential payment methods that you can show to the influencer when you make contact.
You then have to consider how the relationship will work. Perhaps it’s a one-off endorsement where you give an influencer a free product in return for them using it in their social media content X number of times.
Alternatively, perhaps you want to work with them on a recurring basis (results dependant) and create something like an ambassador program. You can put forward both options to the influencer when you reach out to them.
Now comes the crucial part – reaching out to the influencer. There is obviously no guarantee that they will want to work with you so be prepared to reach out to multiple people and allow for some failure.
When you reach out, make sure that you are as detailed as possible in your expectations and what they will receive in return. Don’t leave any room for misinterpretation.
If you are successful, the work begins and you can start creating a positive relationship with the influencer(s) for mutual benefit.
It’s ideal to monitor the progress of your PR & influencer marketing strategy and make sure it’s having a positive impact. Also, monitor the content they produce to make sure they are representing your brand in the way you intended. If this sounds like a lot to take in, you may find online PR agency services useful as this often includes influencer marketing strategies.
While some remain skeptical, I am an ardent believer in the power of influencers for PR and marketing. This is mainly driven by the popularity of social media and the sheer volume of people influencers can reach.
By forging relationships with influencers you essentially gain access to a ready-made audience and can use that for mutual benefit to promote your products and services, and to bolster your public image.
Have you ever purchased an item without reading the product description beforehand? I doubt it unless you had already done extensive research and knew exactly what you wanted! Even then, you will still read the product description to make sure it matches your research.
My point – product descriptions are hugely important for Shopify ecommerce stores. To make a successful online store you need to master the art of crafting a Shopify product description and I aim to give some essential tips below.
You may think I’m making a big deal about Shopify product descriptions and I am… because they are crucial to your ecommerce store! Creating the perfect product description offers the following benefits:
A product description informs the customer, nudges them in the right direction, and lets them see why they HAVE to buy your product – it’s a persuasive tool that also has SEO benefits.
You won’t craft the perfect Shopify product description immediately and your copy could take a little refining. However, if you use the below seven tips, you will get an excellent head start!
I hate long-winded product descriptions that seemingly ramble on forever or use especially difficult language. This is a surefire way to make your customers switch off and go elsewhere!
Your product descriptions should be easy to read from a grammatical point of view and not contain an excessive amount of jargon or difficult words.
You are not writing an essay but instead, a short, snappy product description that should draw the customer in – not bore them to death or make them feel grammatically challenged!
Hyperbole is undoubtedly the best thing in the entire universe and it’s the only way to get conversions. See what I did there? This hyperbolic statement is ridiculous and just makes my writing look stupid!
Hyperbole (using exaggerated statements) can work in Shopify product descriptions but it should be used sparingly and with consideration. The potential backlash is that hyperboles can make your products appear false and it can appear like you are trying to deceive your customers with exaggerated information.
I have seen way too many product descriptions that simply outline a product’s list of features. Sure, this gets the job done and answers any questions a customer may have, but it’s flat and doesn’t register any connection.
To do this, you have to also concentrate on the benefits. How does your product enhance the customer’s life? What can it do for them and what are the positive ramifications of them buying it? Benefits, not just features!
Being able to invoke an emotional response is an excellent way to boost the effectiveness of your Shopify product descriptions. People are far more likely to make a purchase if they have an emotional connection with a product – whether that’s a positive or negative emotion.
You can do this easily by using power words such as words of encouragement, fear words, greed words, safety power words, and lust power words.
A great way to formulate your Shopify product description is to think about what questions your customers ask. Indeed, many businesses include a short FAQ section to directly answer these questions. Either way, make sure your product description answers any common questions customers may have about your products to remove any doubts.
Ideally, your initial market research should have involved creating a customer persona or delving into what your ideal customer wants.
It’s important to match your product descriptions to this persona which includes using appropriate language and thinking about their demographic such as age, profession, and gender.
By matching descriptions to your buyer persona, you can create a more personal connection and build a bond of trust and understanding. This ultimately means your customers are more likely to buy your products and get invested in the descriptions!
The written content of your description should primarily engage your customers and sway their minds, but you can’t neglect the SEO benefits either.
SEO is one of the most important marketing strategies for a Shopify store and bespoke Shopify SEO services are something many agencies offer. This includes creating Shopify SEO product descriptions.
Tools like YOAST SEO can help keep your product description SEO on track but there are basic things you can do like including keywords and Shopify schema and writing them to the correct length.
With these seven simple tips, you should be well on your way to crafting the ultimate Shopify product description. I urge you to take time to craft your descriptions and not overlook this part of your product pages.
By improving your descriptions, you can engage with customers better, remove any doubts they have, and answer their questions which ultimately leads to a greater conversion chance.
One of the most hotly debated topics in the world of SEO is SEO word count. Experts have spent countless hours trying to come up with complex formulas to determine the ideal number of words for things like blog articles, product pages, and landing pages.
In this guide, I take a look at SEO word count to see if there even is a perfect number of words to strive for, or if other factors like quality are more important (Hint – quality IS more important but there are approximate word count guidelines!).
Let’s first look at whether word count is important or not. I like to think of word count as a guideline, not a strict rule. It is true that there are ideal word counts for different types of content and this can factor into SEO rankings, but content quality is also incredibly important and can take precedence over word count.
The best way to look at this conundrum is to take a joint view. You accept that your website and ecommerce content should adhere to approximate word count guidelines, but that achieving quality means that these word counts are not set in stone and can be over/under.
I can’t give you a set minimum word count for SEO – although people have done studies, it doesn’t exist. Specialist SEO consultants would never do this, so instead, I have listed different content types below with their expected word count ranges.
Product pages should NOT include walls of text. The main emphasis is on the product, its price, and its description. The description should be short, to the point, and leave the customer in no doubt about what it does and what it’s for. Ideally, product pages should be around 300 words.
There is more variance in the length of blog posts and they can range from 300-1500 words. Typically, you will find that most blogs are between 750-1000 words, but this is dependent on the subject and the aim of the blog.
Educational content is typically much longer because of what it wants to achieve. You want to educate someone and give them knowledge so the content has to be detailed. Usually, I would expect educational pieces to be no shorter than 2000 words as Google may question their educational value.
News articles are usually shorter than blog posts and range from 300-500 words depending on the news topic covered. This is because people want their news fast and to be able to digest it quickly – they may even skim-read to pick out the important points.
White papers are another type of long-form content and I would expect these to be no shorter than 2000 words like educational content. Oftentimes white papers will go far beyond this depending on what you are presenting.
Because landing pages aim to make conversions, there usually isn’t a heap of text but instead links and other media. As a result, typically an appropriate length is around 500 words.
The above is a rough guideline on SEO word count but I want to give some tips too relating to how you write your content.
As SEO progresses, it appears that Google is placing more and more emphasis on quality and providing real value to the reader. Therefore, your attention shouldn’t be on hitting the minimum word count for SEO but on giving value. Quality emphasis is something we are seeing in multiple digital marketing areas too such as finding SEO consultants and PR marketing.
For example, your blog articles should always clearly discuss and answer the problem, question, or issue stated in the title. Don’t waste half the article talking about something else just to bump up your word count. Always make sure your content is valuable even if this means a slightly shorter or longer word count than the perceived ideal range.
Fluff is a huge no-no. These are words and sentences that add nothing to the content except to bump up the word count. Words for words sake is not a good idea and this can actually harm your SEO as Google will rate the quality of your content negatively.
If you can answer the topic of your blog article in 500 words, then do so – don’t add another 300 words of fluff because you think it helps SEO – it probably won’t.
Google doesn’t like huge blocks of text without any headings either (and your readers won’t appreciate it either!). Before writing your content, think about how you can break it up into logical sub-sections with a variety of headings. Aside from Google liking this, you can use the headings to insert keywords too!
There is no true best word count for SEO but you can adhere to guidelines and expected averages such as between 500 and 1000 words for blog articles. The main emphasis should always be on the quality of your content as opposed to trying to reach some arbitrary word count.
Make your content engaging, cut out any fluff, use keywords where appropriate, fulfill the purpose of the content, and the word count should be met naturally.
SEO often works in trends and can change as search engines like Google alter their algorithms. Some trends persist, while others phase out of popularity as how people search changes. One current trend that I predict will stick around is video marketing for SEO.
Video content is HUGE right now on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. You will also commonly see video content promoted on Google search results and on company websites. This popularity has led to the development of SEO video marketing and I aim to uncover its secrets below.
You may not see how videos can help your SEO campaign as traditionally, SEO deals with text and written content. However, this type of multimedia content can help in the following ways:
Firstly, if you have a content marketing strategy, videos fit naturally into this and if you publish consistently, they can really boost your content generation.
Google also loves quality content that gives something useful to the end user and this is where videos shine. If you make entertaining and educational videos, your site will have a better quality score which can only help search engine rankings.
Depending on where you publish your videos (YouTube, on your website, on social media), they can also pump up your backlink catalog. Lastly, as you will see below, it’s possible to insert keywords into parts of videos which will help your overall keyword strategies.
Video marketing for SEO is still developing and even the most reliable SEO consultant cannot give you a cast-iron strategy. However, there are some simple things you can do to increase the effectiveness of your video SEO and I have listed them below:
The first thing you should do for video marketing for SEO is to make your content relevant to your ideal customer. Hopefully, as part of your wider SEO research, you should have already done customer research and know who your products are aimed at.
You must use this research when creating your video content too as search engines are more and more looking to promote relevant content that has real use to customers.
Google likes websites and content that are accessible for everyone so when you publish your videos on your website or social media, include a transcript.
A transcript is essentially a written log of what is said in your video. This can either be inserted beneath where your video is published, or as a downloadable file. Transcripts are fantastic for accessibility and great for search engine optimization.
Keywords aren’t only used in website content and PPC ads – they can also be used in video content! These aren’t used within the actual content of your videos, i.e. the script, but instead the written content surrounding your video.
For example, if you create your video content on YouTube, you have numerous text areas to optimize including the chapter descriptions, video cards, video tags, description, and title. The title and description are the most important ones and these are prime areas where you can add keywords.
You can also take this one step further and optimize your YouTube channel with keywords too. This includes the channel name, channel keywords (different tags that represent what your channel does), and description.
Social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook have paid advertisements and these could be included as part of your SEO strategy. By using paid video ads, you can make sure that your content is seen by the right people which should result in more conversions.
Creating high-quality, technically sound videos helps SEO by making them searchable and more likely to be promoted by platforms like YouTube.
Technical aspects to tailor include video tags, the video description, and title, the thumbnail, video length, subtitles or captions, and time stamps.
I’ve seen many businesses make the mistake of simply embedding a video onto a blank page with no surrounding context. This is a sure-fire way to harm your SEO and whenever you publish a video, it must be surrounded by relevant content that explains what it is or refers to it.
This includes linking videos on social media and publishing them on your website. Don’t make the video the sole focus of the content, but instead, use it to enhance what is already there.
Video content is currently trending and it’s never been as popular so it makes sense that it can be instrumental in your SEO strategies too.
If you want to diversify your SEO and tap into video content platforms like TikTok and YouTube make sure primarily that the videos are high quality and relevant to your audience. After that, you can take care of SEO video marketing including adding keywords to the content, creating a transcript, and using the published content to produce backlinks.
We’ve all had that experience where we open a website with great anticipation only to devolve into a blind rage as 10 minutes have passed and only the header has loaded! It’s one of my pet peeves and I usually close the website after 1 minute max!
Did you know that Google feels the same way? It’s true! The debate on how important is page speed for SEO has been raging for years and in the article below I aim to give you the facts.
People who say that page speed loading times don’t matter are wrong. Period. They do and Google employees have stated this multiple times. It’s true for other search engines like Bing too, but Google is usually the one we want to rank on.
As you will see below, there are many benefits to fast page loading speeds including improved user experience, better crawling speeds, and fewer negative consequences.
If you are looking for a starting point in your SEO campaign, page loading speeds are a great choice as they can be fixed relatively easily and will yield great results.
So, how important is page speed for SEO? VERY. To demonstrate, I have listed the main benefits of fast-loading pages below.
As I mentioned earlier, people working at Google who have insider knowledge and understand how their algorithms work for determining rankings have stated that page speed is very important. When the company you are trying to impress gives you advice like this, it’s best not to ignore it.
During any SEO consultation, you will be told the importance of page loading speeds and it’s a huge benefit that Google looks for this as a ranking factor. Obviously, we don’t know the weighting and how important it is overall, but we know it’s a factor that is reason enough to make your site load fast.
I gave you a scenario in the opening paragraph and while I obviously exaggerated somewhat (come on, surely there can’t be pages that take 10 minutes to load!?!), the underlying point is true. Slow page loading speeds contribute to a poor user experience.
Users will get frustrated quickly when they are simply sitting there waiting for your pages to load. Also, even if some elements of the page load quickly such as the header and footer, if the important content doesn’t load quickly like product info then it still results in a poor user experience.
Building on the above benefit, slow loading speeds result in negative reactions too such as:
Slow loading speeds directly affect your website traffic (which is another SEO factor), and ultimately your bottom line as you will be losing out on sales.
This could be from people simply getting bored and closing your site halfway through the checkout process, or even an increase in competition because customers are closing your slow-loading pages and checking out alternative companies.
While Google has stated that it favors fast-loading pages, this isn’t just from a ranking perspective. Its also beneficial for them from an operational and productive standpoint.
Inefficient websites cause Google to use more bandwidth and resources to crawl and index pages. With the millions of pages and data they work with, it’s easy to see how slow page loading can be detrimental to their business.
Search engines like Google typically give each website a crawl budget. This is a specific amount of time and resources that the crawler bots have to index your pages. If your website is poorly optimized and page speeds are slow, the crawlers will waste valuable resources and could potentially miss out on sections of your website.
You now know that page speed and SEO go hand in hand and you must make an effort to improve your page loading speeds. But how exactly do you do this? Below, I have listed some simple ways you can boost your page speeds:
It starts with your hosting service and I advise doing a little comparison work and checking customer reviews to see which hosting companies offer the fastest servers.
Next, look at your website theme if you are using an ecommerce platform like Shopify. It’s important to have a lightweight theme that uses perfectly written code. Image and video optimization is also imperative and you should disable any plugins or widgets that aren’t being used as they may still be part of the page loading request.
A question I get relating to this is how long does SEO take to show the results and in the case of page loading speeds the effect is quicker compared to keyword optimization for example.
Even with fiber optic internet speeds and the development in computer and smartphone technology, page loading speeds are still an issue. Everyone would love it if websites loaded instantly, but we aren’t there yet, so it’s up to you to optimize your pages for speed to make Google and your customers happy.
The next time you check out an ecommerce store, I guarantee that 99% of the time you will notice they have a blog. Is that a coincidence or does it point towards the fact that blogs are a must-have feature when running an online store?
This is what I aim to uncover in the below article – The power of the blog – Is it real, or is it merely a myth? (Short answer – blogs are incredibly important for ecommerce and can benefit your business in numerous ways such as SEO and website traffic).
For anyone who says that blogs aren’t important for ecommerce, I challenge them to do what I said in the intro and check out a range of online stores. Most of them have a blog or some type of news page where they post regular content.
They don’t do this for fun! Creating blogs takes time and effort so for most ecommerce stores to do this, there must be some benefit, and there is. It’s just a proven fact that blogging is important – maybe not as important as technical SEO for ecommerce websites, but right up there.
Blogging and ecommerce go hand-in-hand as a blog can enhance your products, drive customers to your site, make them stay longer, and give them valuable information that may help sway their decision.
As you can see, I am a firm believer in the power of the blog, but I haven’t really given any firm benefits yet. Below, I show clearly why blogs matter, and why you should incorporate one into your online store.
Blogs are especially beneficial for ecommerce SEO and are often the pillar of SEO strategies for businesses along with things like category pages and product pages. A blog can help with the following SEO aspects:
If you do it right, blogs tick many boxes and can help take your SEO strategies to the next level. For example, in one blog article alone you could utilize one primary keyword, and several secondary keywords, and create 4 internal links, and 2 external links to high-authority pages. Where else can you do that?
While SEO is hugely important in today’s online-driven world, businesses still need a brand voice, and to show they are an authoritative voice in their industry – someone that customers can trust and who knows what they are talking about.
Blogs help achieve this. If you write professional blogs that give advice on various subjects in your industry, or on new developing technologies, for example, it shows you are knowledgeable. You can also convey your personality and brand through the language you use in your articles.
More blogs = more traffic. This is a simple fact and it shows the potential power of blogs because oftentimes people may not even be searching for your website or products directly, but a help article relating to your industry.
For example, let’s say you have a garden tools ecommerce store and you’ve written various how-to blogs such as how to care for your lawn properly. A customer might search on Google for guides on lawn care and visit your blog. From there, they could then shop at your online store.
It helps capture a wider audience and ultimately bring more traffic to your site.
In today’s world of SEO and marketing, there is more emphasis on quality and giving real value to the customer. For example, Google is placing more emphasis on value and authority and this is why high-quality blogs are so valuable to ecommerce.
If you write about subjects relating to your products or services such as guides, tips, and life hacks, for example, these are all things that customers can actually benefit from. They will get a positive interaction from your store and as a result, are more likely to use your company. Google will also love this so it’s a win-win situation.
If you could create marketing that contributes to several business processes at once, you’d jump at the chance right? Well, this is exactly what blogs do! A quality blog with regular posts and consistent content can contribute to the following:
I’ve already mentioned how it is fantastic for your SEO strategies, but blogs are an integral part of any content marketing strategy too. Not only that, but blogs can be a great PR tool and help promote the voice you want and show your business in a positive light.
You really are getting great value for money and you won’t find many other marketing processes that can achieve so much for relatively little effort and cost.
I hope I have shown you the importance of blogs and how they can contribute greatly to your ecommerce business. Considering the cost involved, they are also one of the most cost-effective types of marketing for your ecommerce store.
For example, if you choose to write the articles yourself, the only real cost is time in writing and researching the blogs. The other aspects such as keyword research and SEO implementation are already accounted for in your SEO budget.
When browsing products on an ecommerce store you will probably have noticed a range of strange numbers – long strings of digits that seemingly have no use. These numbers do indeed have a use and are most likely the product GTIN or SKU number.
In this guide, I take a look at the purpose of product identifier numbers, what they mean, the different types, and how they are essential to your ecommerce SEO.
Think about this, your company has hundreds of products – some of which are simply minor variations of main items. How do you distinguish easily between the products and how can customers hope to find what they are looking for with so much variance?
Enter the product identifier. The purpose of product identifier values is to give each product a unique number so it can be irrefutably distinguished from other products. There is no confusion – X product has Y product identifier, so it’s different from product Z.
The universal product identifier is the GTIN which stands for Global Trade Item Number. This is a global standard developed by the international organisation GS1. Within the GTIN range, there are several formats and regional variances but the underlying point is that it assigns a product a unique code typically between 8-14 numbers.
Regional GTINs include:
Other types of product identifiers are used internally, the most common of which is the SKU which I discuss in more detail below.
So, we can see that the GTIN is a generic unique reference number to identify a product and this differs depending on your geographical location. With that out of the way, why should you care and how can they benefit your eCommerce store and SEO?
From a customer perspective, the purpose of product identifier numbers allow specificity and help them find exactly what they want.
I’ve done this plenty of times. For example, I might see a product in a store but not want to buy it immediately. Instead, I make a note of the product identifier such as the SKU and then search for it online to see if I can find a better deal!
An SKU or GTIN makes sure customers have the exact product they want.
Google essentially recommends the use of product identifiers and we all know that if Google recommends something then we should do it!
SKUs and GTINs help Google better decipher your products, categorise them, and set them apart from your other offerings. This is especially important for companies that have huge product libraries – it just makes the information easier to digest.
If you submit your product to Google Shopping and it doesn’t have a GTIN you will typically get a warning and this is something you want to avoid.
There is a much greater possibility that your product won’t appear in Google Shopping feeds and gets penalised because of the lack of a GTIN and this is why it is an important part of product page SEO.
However, this is also situational and not every product indeed requires a GTIN. Typically, products sold on a global scale, or those that will be used with barcode scanning require a GTIN.
In contrast, bespoke products such as handmade items or single-production items may not require a GTIN. An SEO agency for ecommerce websites can help understand if you need a GTIN or not and how to obtain one.
So far I’ve been concentrating on the GTIN identifier but there is also the SKU to consider. SKU – Stock Keeping Unit and it’s a unique product identifier that’s meant to be used in-house so companies can easily distinguish between their products and keep track of inventory.
GTINs such as UPCs remain the same globally. For example, two companies may sell the same product and they would have the same UPC. However, they would have a different SKU as this is a number that is used internally.
We can take a look at the Lego store for a better understanding of this (I’m doing this really because Lego was my favourite childhood toy!). Each Lego building set has an SKU or item number. This is an internal product identifier.
For example, the Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle and Grounds is SKU #76419. It also has a GTIN of 5702017413228 which remains the same regardless of the store. In contrast, if you looked at the product on two different toy retailers such as Smyths or Argos they would probably have their SKU as well as the GTIN and official Lego SKU!
As you can see, product identifiers are incredibly important not just for SEO, but to make your products easier to search for and to distinguish from one another. If your products have GTINs then you must make use of them so that they appear in Google Shopping results.
Similarly, internal SKU numbers help keep track of inventory and allow customers to search for specific products without getting confused.
Ecommerce SEO is all-encompassing and it covers every aspect of your store including blog articles, landing pages, and most importantly, product pages.
Product page SEO should be a top priority for any online store owner as these pages are where you make sales. The theory is simple – you create a watertight SEO strategy for your product pages, their rankings get boosted on Google, more people click on them, and this hopefully gets you more sales – perfect!
But how do you achieve this? What is the key to success? Using my experience, I delve into the ecommerce category page best practices below so you can take the first step to optimized content.
Although product page SEO varies from business to business, I have listed a simple process including seven things that any ecommerce store owner can do to improve their SEO for ecommerce product pages.
Any SEO strategy must be based on sound keyword research. Without the right keywords for your products, even if your pages are optimized perfectly you won’t get the results you want.
Use free tools at your disposal such as Google Keyword Planner, together with sales and marketing research to find the best keywords for each product. You have to try and get in the mindset of the customer and think how they would search for your products and the words they are likely to use.
Something I’ve seen surprisingly often is companies simply copying and pasting one product’s meta title tag and description for all of their products! It’s insane! Don’t do it! Even if you have 100 product pages, each one should have a unique meta-description and meta-title tag.
This is SEO basics and it’s one of the main ways you insert keywords into your content. It may take time initially for larger product catalogs, but the effort is worth it.
Possibly the biggest SEO issue that most ecommerce stores have is unoptimized product images. Yes, I completely understand that you need high-quality images to showcase your products in the best light. However, if they take 10 minutes to load, customers will simply switch off from your site!
Google also hates this so it’s pretty high up on the priority list for product page SEO. This also applies when you optimize category pages as they usually include multiple images and thumbnails. You can find tools online for image optimization but you essentially want to get them as small as possible without sacrificing too much quality.
You should regularly perform a technical SEO audit of your ecommerce store including your product pages. This helps show any potential errors that could be dragging your rankings down such as slow loading speeds, 404 errors, broken links, and duplicate content.
There is a range of tools available specifically for technical SEO audits, but it’s something usually provided in ecommerce SEO management services from an SEO company too if you don’t have the time to do it yourself. Either way, find any errors, fix them ASAP, and run the check again to make sure they aren’t still appearing.
All modern SEO strategies include structured data and this is a must-have feature for product pages too. Structured data makes your products stand out to customers, but it also helps with search engine crawling.
The best example is product scheme markup which helps generate rich snippets on search engine results for your product pages. For example, a search result might show the product’s star rating, stock availability, a small thumbnail image, and discounted price. Rich snippets like this have a better CTR and stand out compared to generic text and link listings.
In today’s world, consumers are smarter and make more informed decisions due to the sheer volume of choices. I do this all the time – if I’m shopping on Amazon I will always check the star rating and look at customer reviews.
Therefore, adding customer reviews and ratings to your product pages will help their shopping experience. They are also excellent for product page SEO though as Google loves them as it shows real customer engagement with your brand. Also, take the time to reply to reviews to show your gratitude and address any negative comments.
FAQs are another dual-purpose feature for product pages and they are primarily helpful to customers who may have questions before making a purchase.
FAQs also contribute to your SEO and a simple way to optimize your pages further is to type on Google the product name or keyword you are using and see what common questions are asked. Google usually has a specific section of FAQs and you should aim to replicate these questions on your product pages providing they have relevance and are useful.
The above strategies can be implemented relatively easily and if you incorporate them into your SEO plan you should see a boost in the rankings and visibility of your product pages. Ultimately, that’s what you want right? Your products are what bring in the revenue for your business and what keeps the lights on so it makes sense to make product page SEO a priority.
Oftentimes businesses concentrate their efforts on optimizing individual product pages for SEO, but what about category pages? For ecommerce stores with a large range of products, category pages help with organization and allow customers to easily find what they are looking for.
Aside from that, they also have excellent SEO potential… if you know how to optimize them. I find this is often an area that companies fail to capitalize on so I have created a simple guide on SEO for ecommerce category pages for your benefit – enjoy.
Let’s take a look at the category page first before we jump into the SEO. There are two common types of category pages on ecommerce stores:
CLPs are category pages that predominantly list categories. For example, a clothing store might have a men’s category that then lists the individual categories of men’s clothing like jeans, t-shirts, and jumpers.
In this scenario, the PLPs would be jeans, t-shirts, and jumpers as these are category pages that show mainly groups of individual products. It’s important to understand the difference as you can approach the category page SEO a little differently.
Customers will have trouble finding the products they want without well-organized category pages but they are also great for SEO similar to how robots.txt optimisation for ecommerce websites can help SEO too. To get you started, I have listed seven simple ways to improve your category page SEO today.
Category pages are a prime place to have multiple internal links to other pages or categories on your online store that you want to promote or boost the SEO for. For example, you can have a suggestions section that has links to other similar categories.
For these internal links, make sure the link text is relevant and not just a CTA like “click here”. Generic terms like this for linking words don’t contribute to SEO much whereas using the category name for example, would be more beneficial.
Some businesses make the mistake of having no body text on their category pages and only featuring a list of products and/or other categories. While you don’t want huge masses of text on your category pages, it is ideal to have at least a few paragraphs.
The text can be something as simple as describing the category and what you can expect from the different sections it contains. Of course, this body text can then be used to add keywords and bolster your SEO.
As with any website page, the heading tags are just as important for ecommerce category page SEO. This is just a great general tip and if you want to make one quick adjustment to your site, go and check your headings!
The heading tags should be optimized in terms of length, grammar, and usefulness, but ideally, they should also contain your primary and secondary keywords where possible. The headings should always read naturally though and be relevant to the category page content.
Part of ecommerce SEO management is creating optimized metadata for your product pages and this extends to category pages too. The META title and description tags are imperative and should be optimized to be the correct length and contain your targeted keyword for that category at the start.
You still have to make the metadata useful too though and it should always describe the page content properly in a way that customers can easily understand.
Oftentimes category pages have filters to help customers find what they are looking for easier. You should make these filters and category navigation as easy to find as possible. Make it visible, and make it obvious.
Also, make it logical and easy to use! It really irritates me when it feels like I need a degree just to figure out how the filters work!
Category pages are a great place to add specialized links in the site header and footer. Oftentimes, footers have a set of links (usually links to the main pages of the website). Why not alter these for your category pages and add additional ones such as season links, links to promotions, or links to unique categories? This helps boost the page’s link profile and also works as a promotional tool.
Lastly, if you have things like sales, special deals, limited edition product runs, or a loyalty scheme, promote them in your category pages! In terms of SEO, you can create more links and insert keywords, but it’s also a great marketing ploy.
I understand that it’s easy to overlook category page SEO but it’s important that you make an effort to optimize all your ecommerce web content. As you can see from the above, category pages offer a trove of SEO potential and you can target a wider range of keywords, plus make your actual products easier to find which is always a bonus!
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