As part of my e-commerce ranting series, the last of which saw me attack the subject of landing pages with some quite considerable venom, I have decided to turn my attentions to e-commerce product page descriptions. A simple subject I am sure you will agree, but sadly something that so many people needlessly get wrong. So, for the next few moments of your life I am going to take you through a fool proof approach to writing product page copy that will leave you with no excuses, but first I feel it is necessary to hammer home the need for actually spending time on this, just in case that is the reason so many e-commerce business owners do not bother at the moment.
Why Write Good Product Descriptions?
The first reason for taking the time to write good, original product descriptions is one that is close to my heart; search engine optimisation. This all comes down to Google and Bing's current efforts to ensure that only 'quality content' reaches their search engine pages, without going into too much detail, if you do not have any quality information on your product pages then you can be sure that Google and Bing are working on ways of finding you out and they will happily punish you, if you don't believe me then just have a quick read online about Google's Panda update and all of the horror stories. Panda 2.3 has just been launched as well so the Panda is getting stronger!
Aside from furry black eyed animals looking out for you, there is also the intolerable habit that many e-commerce stores have gotten into which involves simply copying and then pasting the product manufacturer's copy onto their own website. The problem with this is that every other website owner worth their weight in iPads has had the same idea and so chances are your website will share copy with 20 other websites. This causes all sorts of issues, not least the elephant in the room that is duplicate content, one of Google's deadly sins and a one way ticket to the 5th page of the search results.
My final reason for taking the time to write your own copy takes the stance of morality. You, as an e-commerce site owner, expect people to visit your site and spend money on it. How can you expect people to do business with you if you haven’t even taken the time to write them a useful description on what they are buying. Feel bad now do you? Good, you should.
How to Write Good Product Copy
So by now I am sure you are pulling at the chain, waiting to get going on your copy writing quest. Taking a little time to plan things out is always wise and I have developed a system that allows me to write high quality copy with speed, accuracy and originality. It need not take hours, or require any extra research, all you need is some knowledge on what you are selling and follow the rules I outline below. It is great for website usability and even better for SEO.
Start With a Heading
The H1 (header 1) tag is thing of wonder. It is the Internet’s way of highlighting where a piece of information begins and allows you to show the internet that this piece of information is the most important on the page. Don’t abuse the H1 tag, use it only once in your product description. Try and use the product name, or a keyword you are looking to target, this will tell people looking for your product that they are in the right place and it will tell the search engines what the information below is about.
The Product Paragraphs
Next up is the actual meat of the product description. A system that I use on a regular basis when writing product descriptions is the features and benefits approach. A feature is a characteristic that your product has; in a car this could be power steering. The benefit is what a feature means to the person reading the product description; the car is easier to park. With this in mind, I proceed to write the product description with a feature followed by a benefit and as long as you know your stuff about the product this system will provide you with all of the copy that you need.
A great thing to do before you start writing is to lay out a two-column table and simply write down all of the features in the left hand column and then go down the list and write in the benefits on the right hand column. Then all you need to do is write this information into some nice paragraphs!
The Second Header
At this point I usually like to add in another header tag (either a H2 or H3); again this good for both usability and SEO. Use the H2/3 to introduce the product features.
Product Features
No matter what you are selling, chances are it has a few key features or characteristics that can be summed up in a few words each. Use this opportunity to literally list all of the features of your product. This is great for users who do not like to read paragraphs of text, here they can scan the feature list to see if the product has what they are looking for.
That is it!
That is all you need to do. Quick and easy, you now have original content on your site. There is also science behind the copy I have described above, centered around the customer buying cycle. With the features and benefits paragraphs you are able to target customers who are in the browsing stage of the buying cycle. These are people who know what they want but they need convincing. Use the opportunity to woo them and try to give your copy a little bit of your own personality and flavour.
The list on the other hand is great fodder for customers in the buying stage. These are people who know about the products in some detail and are interested only in the specific features that your particular product offers, chances are that these people are weighing your website up against others. With this in mind an easy to read list is refreshing to someone in this stage of the buying cycle.
The most important thing is to spend some time thinking about all of this. The guide above is a great starting point but you can never provide your customers with too much useful information. Videos are great to add to pages and some believe they have a direct impact on SEO. Taking your own website into consideration is important also, making sure that all of your copy is in line with your overall style. Happy copy writing!
