SHOPIFY ECOMMERCE SEO MUST-HAVES: PART 1 - COLLECTION DESCRIPTIONS
Is your Shopify or E-commerce store SEO underperforming in search vs your competitors? In this series, we’re going to share three of the top SEO must-haves when it comes to improving the performance of your Shopify or E-Commerce SEO.
The first Shopify SEO must-have is, drumroll please… collection descriptions!
WHAT ARE COLLECTION DESCRIPTIONS?
Collection descriptions are little bits of golden content that provide Google - and customers - with a better understanding of your product range and page. In part 1 of 3 of our Shopify E-Commerce SEO series, we’ll take you through some key elements and tips for researching and writing engaging and optimised collection descriptions. Before we get into the specifics though, let’s touch on why optimised collection descriptions are important.
THE GOAL: OUTPERFORMING THE COMPETITION
When it comes to getting the top spot in Google, your focus should always be on improving user experience. This is done through understanding what your customer wants and enhancing your store to provide a better experience than your competitors.
There’s a lot of confusion around what improving user experience actually means and it’s often skewed too far toward how a user experiences the design or performance of a website. These factors are important, however, ensuring that your store content shapes and supports the user experience, user journey and overall site goals is of equal or more importance, especially in the eyes of Google.
Some of the big-hitters involved in outperforming your competition when it comes to content: topic relevance, interlinking pages, keyword optimisation, engagement and readability. Glazing over? Don’t worry, we’ll go through a few of these below.
THE INGREDIENTS OF A GREAT COLLECTION DESCRIPTION:
Topic relevance refers to the way Google understands content and how the Google Algorithm decides if your content is relevant for a particular search term. By adding optimised collection descriptions to your collection pages, you provide additional information to users about your collections as well as additional information to Google about the context, content and value of the page. Adding more content and value to your collection pages using collection descriptions helps to increase the relevance of the page and the likelihood of the page ranking for keywords related to your products.
Interlinking pages refers to hyperlinks that go to another page on the same site. You can make online shopping easy for your customers by including links to product pages in your collections descriptions. Additionally, interlinking pages allows Google to better understand the relationship and context of the content on your site.
Keyword optimisation is a big gun. We identify keywords that searchers use and sprinkle them throughout the collection description. We know no one likes a Spammy Sammy, so it’s important to use a balanced approach and weave them through organically while providing customers with interesting information about the collection.
Collection descriptions can be a valuable addition to enhancing a brand’s tone of voice. In them, we grant the customers a look behind the curtain into the ideas and influences that guided the design of the products and the vision of the collection. We look at your existing content (like your About Us page) and emulate the tone to reflect the brand’s identity within the Collection Descriptions. This is what generates customer engagement - they’ll feel like they’ve been brought into the process and as a result become devoted and returning patrons.
RESEARCHING AND WRITING COMPELLING SEO COLLECTION DESCRIPTION COPY:
Everyone has their own style of research and the research needed will depend on what kind of e-commerce site you’re working with e.g. a multi-brand product reseller or a store for a singular brand. In this example, here’s what we like to do if we’re writing for an e-commerce store stocking multiple brands:
- Check out the ‘About Us’ page for each brand being sold as well as articles/interviews relating to each of the brands. We find great information about the brand’s journey and values, and discover the people behind the products. It’s this humanity and personality we want to draw out through in the tone of voice.
- Remember engaging and valuable content is key when describing the products we paint a picture where the reader is using the product and their world is better for it. If we’ve also come across some really interesting info about the brand or products e.g. helpful tips, related products, interesting history etc in our research, we’ll include it! This content should be created primarily to bring value to the reader and enhance their shopping journey, focus on this and the rankings will come.
- Weave your keywords into the narrative. People look for people. So, you know how people hate talking to bots? They also hate reading something they think a bot wrote. We avoid spammy strings of keywords, instead, we fold them into organic sentences.
WHAT’S THE IDEAL COLLECTION DESCRIPTION LENGTH?
Technically, the limit does not exist, but the limit on design aesthetic and a reader’s attention span does so we’re sure to be kind to designers and readers alike, aiming for 200-350 words. The collection description is a quick introduction to a group of products. If you feel more information could enhance the buyer journey, brand or improve conversions then we would recommend linking your collection description to a full-blown landing page.
If sticking to a humble 200 - 300 word collection description, for the time being, it can often be a good idea to include more than product information - giving the brand’s ethos, influences or journey a friendly nod can pay off! This can build a connection with the customer, generating an attachment to the brand.
HOW MUCH TIME DO E-COMMERCE COLLECTION DESCRIPTIONS TAKE TO PRODUCE?
This truly depends on the writer. For us, it takes about an hour or two - perhaps a half-hour after a coffee. Our technique involves sitting in research mode for a while and allowing all that information to absorb, then letting it spill out onto the page. Rinse and repeat. However, this method will differ depending on the writer, so the turnaround time can also differ.
Drop a comment or contact us via socials if you have a question or something to add, we’d love to hear it!
We look forward to seeing you in part #2 of the Shopify E-commerce SEO Must-Haves series.