5 Tactics to Write Better SEO Product Descriptions

Your business has a top-notch website, high speed pages, professional images, and quality information. Plus, you use inbound marketing to turn leads into loyal customers. You rock!

However, have you taken a look at your product descriptions recently? Even if they are optimized to sell, that may not be enough. Because no one can buy your stuff if they can’t find it! 

SEO product descriptions aren’t a simple beast to tackle. 

• Which keywords do I target?
• How many words or characters are optimal?
• Do I write for people or bots?
• How can I strategically place and use keywords?

These 5 tactics will resolve those questions and help you write the best SEO product descriptions.

Tactic #1: Don’t write for bots, write for buyers.

Buyers don’t want to feel like a project, they want to be delighted by your product. That’s why the number one tactic for good product description SEO is to write for people first, not search engine web crawlers.

Besides, what works for your audience is also good for search engines. They are searching for a specific product, and if you’re descriptions align with their search, Google will be happy and rank you well.

How can you write for buyers and not bots? Inform, enlighten, and share helpful details that will encourage your online buyer make the purchase. Which is what tactic #2 is all about.

Tactic #2: Focus on the product benefits and features

You can’t write an informative and accurate description of your product unless you actually know the product! Have you used it, touched it, tested it, developed it, or think it’s worth buying? Shoppers and search engines will be able to recognize if you actually know what you’re talking about.

In particular, write your product description to include both the benefits and the features. For example, anyone could write about a rain boot:

“Excellent rain boots. Combination of style and comfort that will last through the rainy season. You can trust our standards for footwear.”

Unfortunately, that blurb could describe any generic pair of rain boots. It lightly touches on features (style, comfort, rain boot) but completely lacks to discuss any benefits.

Features are impersonal. It’s a simple description of what the product does (keep your feet dry in the rain), how it works, or what it looks like. While this is helpful to know, why should the buyer care about these features?

“These rain boots have a plastic body and a rubber sole, which are connected with a strip of waterproof rubber. The bottoms have extra grip for increased traction.”

Now the reader understands what the boots are made of...but there is still a missing element: benefits. Why will these boots improve the buyer’s life?

Writing about benefits in a product description will inform the buyer and boost your SEO. Benefits explain why those features will help the buyer, and elaborates on how this product will improve their life.

“This waterproof rubber boot and reinforced sole will keep your feet dry and stable as you walk through puddles. The soft fabric lining will let you splash in comfort, and the extra boot liner ensures that your toes stay toasty and warm during the snowy season, too.”

That’s the magic combination for a product description - features and benefits - that will attract buyers and let them linger on your page (which will naturally encourage Google to boost your ranking).

Tactic #3: Target the right keywords

A well-written product description is useless unless it includes the right keywords, which will allow search engines to understand your page and let searchers find the product you’re selling.

How can you discover the best keywords? With a keyword tool. Try the Moz Keyword Explorer or KWfinder. You can research specific keywords and learn about:

• Keyword difficulty: how tough it will be to rank highly for that keyword
• Related terms, also called longtail keywords: words that are linked with that keyword, which could be helpful to include in your content
• Search volume: how many people are searching for that keyword

In particular, pay attention to longtail keywords. If a buyer knows what they’re looking for, they’re more likely to search with more words. Using our rain boot example, a potential buyer could use words like “PVC rubber,” “traction,” and “waterproof.” 

Instead of fighting for the top rankings for “rain boot” (hey - it’s possible!), aim for a longer keyword like “PVC rubber women’s rain boots.” 

Once you have your keyword, strategically place it ONCE each in the following spots:

• The page’s URL
• The title of the product description
• The alt image tag
• In the body copy (maybe twice here)

Tactic #4: Determine your description length based on buyer awareness

Let’s clear the air: there is no determined length that will work for every product description. Best practices suggest that your description length is based on your buyer’s needs and level of awareness.

If your buyers have never heard of your product before, they have low buyer awareness. That means your product description will need more details like what your product is and what it’s used for. Consider even adding a helpful video to further explain if needed.

In contrast, those with high buyer awareness are already familiar with your product, and probably know why they need it, too. A shorter product description is appropriate here because you don’t need to review the basics. Following the rain boot example, you don’t need to explain the necessity of shoes because people already wear shoes.

First consider the level of your buyer awareness, then determine your description length. 

Tactic #5: Make each description unique

The last tactic is important for businesses that sell multiple products within the same genre. Avoid duplicating content and aim to make each product description completely unique. 

If your content is too similar across pages, search engines get confused. And when they’re confused, they lower the ranking on all of your pages.

Select independent titles and write similar yet distinct descriptions. Can’t write a unique product description yet? Add the “no index” meta tag on the duplicate pages so that search engines skip that page. (It’s better to be skipped by Google than to confuse it and penalize your website.)

Following the tactics will boost your SEO ranking

SEO can be complicated. But implementing these 5 tactics can boost your SEO rankings. Remember to write for a buyer and not a bot. Consider your buyer’s level of awareness, and emphasize your product’s features and benefits.

Once your write those winning product descriptions, you’ll snag more buyers thanks to SEO.

Need help updating your existing product descriptions to boost SEO? We can help! Fill out the form below to tell us a where you're at, and then we can work together to edit your product descriptions and increase your SEO rank!