Word Count - Content site vs ecommerce site

[Bee159]

Hi there, what are your thoughts on word count for a content site vs. an ecommerce site.

A lot of content sites have no problem pushing out 500+ words per page, which for me is a decent amount to help you get traction. However on ecommerce sites, a lot of the time the product description only needs to be sub-100 words and the total word count on the page comes in at under 300 words, a lot of that could be considered duplicate.

So what are your views? Do ecommerce sites still need to have a high word count on the product description page to rank better?

[EGOL]

Writing very generous product descriptions can answer questions for the buyer.  They can facilitate the buying decision or prevent purchase of items that are poor fits for the shopper - and thereby reduce returns.

[donsilvernail]

Hi Bee159,

With Ecommerce, it is all about the user experience. Detail the products so the consumer knows exactly what they are buying. Even the simplest of products can benefit from a detailed description. I do not know how many times I am shopping for a product and there are many brands of the same item. What it is going to set it apart? A good description.

So its not word count... it is more like "Words Have Meaning" give value to your descriptions and more people will choose your products over the competitors.

[RayflexGroup]

I don't think that total word count is TOO much of an issue for e-commerce, however, it is key to have enough detail as possible in the description. We have products that we can't really go too much into detail as there isn't much to say, we can only write enough to ensure the pages are unique and descriptive enough to explain to the customer exactly what the product is, but often the word count is between 100-150. A key part of ranking for e-commerce is ensuring headers, page length, meta descriptions etc all up to par and make sure the page is as user-friendly and easy to navigate as possible.

We like to refer to this as a checklist when checking our product pages are as good as they can be. 
https://magento.com/blog/best-practices/seo-best-practices-ecommerce-product-pages