E-commerce site Content guidelines
-
Hi Everyone.
Im the owner of a mens underwear company start up I have heard so many things about content on e-commerce sites that I'm at a point where I have no idea what to believe people tell me do a blog, but honestly on a start up who has time for that? plus we are not shedding money to hire a full time employee to take care of that.
I have inserted text related to the category i try to keep my ratio below 7% and under 120 words. but is that enough? I have seen sites ranking #1 under mens underwear with way less content or almost non existent.
Any comments would help me a lot.
Thanks
R
-
Magento Community Edition 1.6.02
-
This site is built in DreamWeaver.
I don't use CMS for my most important pages - because I want them to be finely craft arrows... also building LONG content pages with lots of images in Dreamweaver is much easier for me than building them in the tiny window of a CMS.
-
Great! Glad to hear that you have the fever!
-
EGOL,
Are you doing this on a CMS like Magento or Open Cart, or something else? I'd definitely be interested in trying to implement something like this on Magento.
-
I dont quite understand.
Im using Magento so I'm not quite sure I can add content to the prodcuts displayed.
I was planning on adding content to the category header and also add content to the Meta description since according to google webmastertools videos the SE uses as a sniped in the serach results.
I have attached a printscreen of a page with no content and wehre I paln to palce content but the idea of inserting content to each prodcut is very interesting. Would you be able to elaborate on it? if you can and have time.
Thanks
-
By the way EGOL. Thanks for the though love and right now I do belive that this is the most important job of my life. I have a lot at stake and that's why I was motivated to post in this forum looking for some expert opinions.
Raul
-
My category pages show a thumbnail of each item and a unique block of text for that item. This text block is usually 50 to 100 words per item.
So, if I have category pages with 20 items, they are going to have 1000 to 2000 words. These seem to rank really well and they pull in lots of long tail queries.
-
Hi Bashseo.
I want to place content on our categories, the main goal is to rank well in each category, we dont have that many probably 10 - 12.
Thanks
Raul
-
Hi EGOL.
Our site was founded in 2003 and we had a good run as online retailer, however 2 years ago we decided to focus only on our brand and since then we have done it. we started selling our brand just 2 years ago and focusing on our site probably 8 months ago.
Thanks you for your comments and I will make sure to write along those suggested lines. However lets say a customer lands in one of my category pages (Mens Boxers) please have in mind that I do know the content has to be interesting but how big should that block be? IS it the same if I write 60 words as if I write 300? I could probably say the same in both versions.
Thanks
Raul
-
Raul,
If you wouldnt mind, could you shed a bit more detail as to what you meant by the following question:
"I have heard so many things about content on e-commerce sites that I'm at a point where I have no idea what to believe people tell me do a blog"
As a fellow ecommerce store owner, I can definitely relate to your unique situation. Content for ecommerce sites can sometimes be a bit different than other non-ecommerce sites, and things can definitely get very confusing. As EGOL mentioned, you have to have the mentality that your going to make your site the best damn site on the planet. Unfortunately, sometimes that can be EXTREMELY difficult to do, but EXTREMELY simple to say (especially when a person doesnt work in the ecommerce field). Where exactly are you looking to get your content? Product Pages or Category Pages? Some content on category pages can be very helpful for UX depending on the brand, and if there is anything to say that wont distract your customers. Product Pages are the pages where your going to have more flexibility as far as content is concerned.
In regards to the blog, you dont have to blog 10x per week, and there are plenty of websites out there that are geared towards helping people who have absolutely no clue about blogging. Here are a couple links that should help you out:
1. Darren Rowse - 31 Days To Build A better Blog : [http://www.problogger.net/31dbbb-workbook/
2. ](http://www.problogger.net/31dbbb-workbook/)http://skyrocketseo.co.uk/blogging-for-your-business-guide/ (This was written by forum member James Agate, a very generous contributor here)
There is more out there, but that should be plenty to get you started.
Hope that helps
-
Im the owner of a mens underwear company start up...... but honestly on a start up who has time for that?
Sir,
There are many underwear sellers out there. I can name at least a dozen and I can't even tell you what kind I am wearing right now.
If you hope to compete with these other companies you will challenge them by using your voice to clearly explain why their product is half ass and yours is not. If you don't have anything to say about that then why are you in this business?
If you can make your case and present your products clearly with enthusiasm, verve, humor and common sense then you have a chance to succeed on the web and I will bet my money on you. If you can't then I am willing to bet a month's pay that you will fail.
I have inserted text related to the category i try to keep my ratio below 7% and under 120 words. but is that enough?
People buying underwear don't give a damn about this. Google doesn't care either. Forget the numbers and do a fantastic job describing your product. If you don't care enough about it then let the underwear selling to somebody else. Why should anybody anywhere buy from you?
Show people that you know your stuff. Explain why your product is the one that they should buy.
I have seen sites ranking #1 under mens underwear with way less content or almost non existent.
Success on the web does not fall to the lazy man or to the sloppy. it goes to the person who does a fantastic job. Since these guys are doing such a crappy job that should motivate you to show them up. When I see crap like that above me it gets my blood pumping to outdo them.
You arrived at this battle about ten years too late. They have a huge head start on you and you must play catch-up if you want to unseat them. They grabbed the high ground when the time was right. Its just like getting the best location on Main Street or at the Mall. You must fight uphill to make up for being tardy. They are not going to step aside for you.
.. plus we are not shedding money to hire a full time employee to take care of that.
II think that this is a job that you should trust to nobody but yourself. Certainly you should know an awful lot more about underwear than they ever did or ever will. Why would you hire a cheap noob to explain your valuable product and try to sell your hard work on your most important marketing place?
Tomorrow get out of bed and decide to make your website the best place on this planet to purchase underwear. Write articles that help people learn to judge quality. Write articles to help them select the right style, the right fabric and the proper fit. Certainly you must know a lot about these things. You probably don't see that type of information on the cheap ass underwear sites. Yours can be different if you get it into your head that building a great website is one of your most important jobs. Make yours the best-on-the-web where people can learn and buy with confidence.
That's how you win on the web.
-
Regarding 170 words, are you referring to the meta data description or the actual content in a product page? If you are referring to the latter, you can (and should ) have much more content than 170 words.
Best,
Christopher
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Improving SEO for an e-commerce page with 1 product page
I'm trying to improve the SEO for an e-commerce store that I'm working for that sells custom car air fresheners where you select the shape of the item and then upload the photo. The site has been around for almost 10 years so has authority in the field and ranks number one for custom car air fresheners and other related high-traffic keywords. However, there is no blog, no social media and has 8 total pages: landing page, FAQ, contact, guidelines, shape/product (page that starts the ordering process with little text), scents, terms, and samples.
Keyword Research | | campionn
I'm struggling with how we rank higher for specific keywords that we are not number 1 with ok traffic (such as dog air freshener, custom air freshener for car with picture, custom photo car air freshener) and not affect the current keywords that we are ranking number one for. In addition, how do we rank higher for other keywords, if we don't have that many pages like a blog to create content? I was thinking of creating a blog to target more keywords, but I don't think there is enough relevant content to make. And I feel Google would find a blog about "top gifts for dad" or "top gifts for the holidays" not relevant. I was also thinking of adding more text to the shapes/product page which could be tailored towards a keyword. Maybe I could create another product page that goes into more detail about the air freshener with images, descriptions, and other use cases. On MOZ, the Domain Authority is 18 (really low), so I am thinking about working on getting backlinks from relevant sources with authority to improve our SEO. Or do we not mess with the text on the website since it works and not worry about the other keywords and focus on technical SEO items and backlinks to help with SEO? TLDR: How do you improve SEO for new keywords for an e-commerce business that doesn't have a lot of pages for content without affecting its number 1 ranking on other keywords?0 -
Keyword Planning and Site Architecture
Hi all, I'd like to know your thoughts on keyword planning and site architecture. I thought it was best practice to structure your website so specific pages target certain keywords. The titles, meta desc. and content on these pages should be unique to that page. I've had good success ranking pages this way. But! How come so often you'll see a website that has no keyword planning ranking so well? Let's take the example: "Bamboo Sheets". A top ranking website in my country sells all kinds of bamboo bedding, including sheets, towels, pillow cases, etc. They have "Bamboo Sheets" in the title & meta description for the main category page (www.store.com/bamboo-sheets) - which is where it should be. But then I see it again on the homepage title & meta (www.store.com) and other pages of the website. So why aren't they cannibalizing their own pages? And why do they blog about Bamboo Sheets and not cannibalize the keyword from there? Is landing page optimization just a myth? It seems entire websites built around a keyword rank just as well, and in most cases, much better than sites with keyword specific landing pages. If you only sell one product this isn't a problem, but for websites that offer multiple products or services, it's incredibly frustrating when trying to compete. It's like Google still gives a lot of authority to keyword rich domain names and business names. Thoughts?
Keyword Research | | Onlineorders0 -
Same content but written for different audiences
Hi Mozers, The site that I work on has two pages with very similar content but written with a different sophistication of language. One page is written in a simple, easy-to-understand voice and the second is written at a high level for researchers. My question is: does the Google algorithm really understand the difference in sophistication and then pivot results such that the more sophisticated page shows up for researchers and the simplistic page shows up for non-researchers (thereby eliminating or greatly reducing competition between these two pages)? Thank you!
Keyword Research | | yaelslater0 -
Should ALL of my blogposts be focussed on my main target keywords for my site?
Hi everyone. I am an interior designer and I'm looking to boost my rankings locally for my target keywords (eg: Interior designer in Cheltenham) and I'm wondering about whether my blog posts should all be planned out with this (and other similar, location based) keywords in mind. For example, should I always make my target keyword for each blog post something related to 'interior design in xxx' or should I look for other keywords just related to my field? Eg: interior design tips, furniture guides, paint colour advice etc, just because it is related? As an example, I am planning a blog post to go on my website which will be about a trip I'm taking to Copenhagen. Could my keyword therefore just be something like 'interior design', and this would be okay? Thanks for reading! Lauren
Keyword Research | | laurenelizabeth19860 -
Duplicate content across domains
I have a client with 2 websites - one is a trucking and rigging company that specializes in installation / moving / removal of safes (site #1), the other offers a product line of safes (site #2). I originally designed / implemented site #1 and was able to get "safe installation New York", "safe moving New York", and "safe removal New York" in the top 3 search results in. A little over a year ago, client was approached by another marketing company to create the site #2, who also provided commercial services that I don't. It was a business decision, and we remained in good relations. As a result Site #1 went to the new marketing company and they built Site #2. Fast forward to about 3 months ago - Site #1 was infected with malware, client wasn't happy with new service, and asked me to take back the Site #1 ( and remove malware), and take Site #2, and re-work the SEO. SEO had dramatically fallen off for Site #1, so I've been working the SEO once I was able to get the malware completely removed and reviewed by Google. Site #1 had been redesigned by the other marketing company, essentially retaining the content that I created. Site #2 has mostly new content, but under "Services", it references the same services that Site #1provides, but the content is exactly the same, except that references to the company for Site #1 also link to Site #1. So there is duplicate content for 5 pages on both sites. As it happens, Site #2 that SELLS safes, is ranking #2 for "safe installation new york" for exactly the same content as Site #1 that provides the services. Site #1 ranks >50 for the same keyphrase. Why would this be? Has Site #2 taken the lead on this keyphrase because of the malware situation and now Site #1 is being penalized for duplicate content? One other major change on Site #1 is that the web technician used Wordpress's built in page nesting (page is set as child to parent page - nested 3 deep in some cases). What are the consequences (if there are any) of having a page listed as (for example) oztruckingandrigging.com/services/safe/safe-installation vs. oztruckingandrigging.com/safe-installation? The reason I ask this is that when I Moz page optimize for the first one for "safe installation" I get a lower grade then when I Moz page optimize for the second one.
Keyword Research | | chill9861 -
What to do with mismatched blog content?
I've maintained a blog on my website https://www.reich-consulting.net/ for quite a few years for my side business, which recently became my full-time gig. Since 2003 I worked as at IT Specialist at a technical school and I blogged about everything from tech support and IT issues to web design and development. Now I'm a full-time web developer. I get a lots of traffic from some of these blog posts, but it doesn't seem to be useful traffic. For example someone whose searching for a solution to a super-specific windows error (one of my most popular posts) isn't going to be interested in hiring me for web development. Furthermore I have a concern that these pages might be doing a disservice to the primary message of the website, which is small business website design and web marketing. When I look at my top search terms in Google Search Console, these random terms from old blog entries are the top 30 terms... website design-related content doesn't even rate. Any thoughts? Should I keep that content? Remove and 301 redirect it? Figure out a creative way to use it to my advantage?
Keyword Research | | reichconsulting0 -
Content creation
I don't mind putting in the work to do it I just want it to be worth it. How do i find the best content to write about I do lawn care yeah super exciting I know, but there has to be a way I can find out what people are searching for and create the content before they search. So my question is how do you find out what content will go viral im not saying like spin out and land on CNN but I mean there's got to be a way I can figure this out. Anything would be helpful. Thanks guys and girls.
Keyword Research | | gslc0 -
Finding/Building Content Strategy
I'm looking for two things: 1. Some top notch articles on building out a content strategy for a blog (coupon blog is more relevant). 2. Tools that can help to determine target keywords to focus on (Most I've seen are where the keywords start with me, are their any that will help to predict which keywords are relevant for our blog & that would be great to target). Any feedback/discussion on either is greatly appreciated!
Keyword Research | | seointern0