This article uses a Magento product page as an example to try and make the perfect product page but a lot of the information can be translated to a product page of any e-commerce platform.

General

When writing a product page

• The closer words are to the beginning, the more valuable they are
• The first 7 words are the most valuable
• We must have some keywords in mind to focus on
• The copy must be clearly and naturally written
• Spaces count as 1 character
• google recommends less 75 links on a page, ecommerces have a lot. Guideline only. excessive links deplete your page rank
• set the max category depth to 1 for the main menu to reduce links, because we will have on the left an internal nav box (layered navigtion)
• do not use manufacturer imported data for product descriptions as this will be seen as duplicate content

Keywords

When writing a product page we have to consider the product. Keywords help/show google what the page is about and whether it is a real page and not spam content created by a computer, Google can now tell. Most dodgy techniques no longer work.

We have to write article naturally but there are still methods we can consider when writing content that help SEO. There is no harm in helping google to see your product though and through the correct placement of keywords we can do that

The following should be used at minimum for its keywords

• Product Title
• SKU
• Brand

Locations for Keywords

SEOmoz identified the following keyword factors as having most influence on Google's ranking algorithm (the method by which the search engine orders results), for example:Keyword Use in title tag

• Keyword use in body text
• Relationship of body text content to keywords (topic analysis)
• Keyword use in H1 Tag
• Keyword use in domain name
• Keyword use in page URL
• Keyword use in H2, H3, H(x) Tags
• Keyword use in ALT Tags and Image Titles
• Keyword use in Bold/Strong tags
• Keyword use in Meta tag description.

Magento Product Page SEO

I will now go over the different sections of the magento product page. I will try to explain what the different bits are and then at the end of each section I will just bullet point what the aims for that section should be. There are some rules that might not be able to be implemented so do not worry if you cannot do everything.

To get an idea of what you should be doing, watch this video:
On Page Optimisation with Magento 1.4 - YouTube
It uses a Firefox plugin called SearchStatus

Name / Page Title

This will be the products name and by proxy the main keyword for the page. This is slightly different to a normal page where this can be put in artificially. Because you are using this on an ecommerce site the products name is usually enough

• This sets the Page Title
• Use Product name
• Changing the product name will change the products URL (i.e. http://www.pmtuning.co.uk/bundle-pm59 )
• Product/Title/URL is very important
• Title cannot be the SKU code, this is really bad
• Order of the words in the title can be important
• Title Length should not be excessive (recommend 60 – 64 characters). This is not always possible with product titles because they are what they are

Product Description

The descriptions should be written to be easily read by humans and if they are google will like them. But there are a few things we can do to help google rankings

• Always use the WYSIWYG
• to edit descriptions
• Use of benefit statements - Web SEO copy tips - How to write a killer product page

Short Product Description

Short description is specific to this design package. This description will display at the top of the product page, and in category listings in List view. Magento User Guide, this is used in the local site search and sometimes can be picked up by google (probably if the meta description is not filled in)

• Should be 1 or 2 paragraph(s) or so selling the item
• why does someone want to buy this? (Benefit Statement)
• what areas is main features i.e. comes in many colour
• ie this exhaust will increase your bikes performance in the mid-range
• ie This will make you bike stand out in the crowd
• don’t use <h1> – <h6> tags in the short description

Long Product Description

The product‘s description. It will display in the main section of the product page. This section is where you would put in a full description of the product in detail. Magento User Guide

• 300+ words , the product description needs to be at least this long for google ideally. If the product is something like a clip this is not possibly.
• Paragraphs – try add use paragraphs
• Bullet points / Lists – try and use bullet points
• Use H1 – H2 tags (h1 is already used for the product title) – these are heading levels
• Try to use keywords throughout the description. Ie. Use the product name once or twice (no more).

URL Key

This is the last part of the URL

• http://quantumwarp.com/akr0001
• http://quantumwarp.com/pm-tuning-gilera-runner-italjet-dragster-125cc-180cc-center-exit-x-tech-chrome-expansion-chamber

the first one is using the sku code for the title, this needs to be the actual name of the product so google know what the page is about.

So delete the SKU code out of the URL key and paste the items title in. Magento should then create a correct ‘URL Key’ upon saving.

Meta Information

Meta Description

Meta description is most likely to be used by google for its snippets in the search results. You can have a max of 255 characters including spaces but SEO recommends 140 – 160 so the results look nice on a google search result.

• 156 characters max
• This should be a full description of the product; you will rehash some of the point’s mentions in the short description. This is because when moving to prestashop you will not see the short description on the product page. the short description is used in OS for search results and probably google
• Use of bullet points, bolding and italics are useful. Does not keyword stuff?
• don’t forget branding, start the paragraph with your main key word (perhaps in this case the product name)

Meta Keywords

Although keywords are not used for search results by the search engines they can be used heavily for search results from the sites own search and sometimes for categorising and filtering products. Normally you would not use these as they would give your competition your keyword research however in the context of ecommerce and the extra functionality you should use them

Meta keywords is a list of keywords for this page or product:

• Max 20 keywords
• Keywords can be phrases as well not just single words ie ‘Racing Crank’
• Keywords/keyphrases should be separated with a comma
  ie. ‘Racing Crank, Scooters, Mopeds
• The keywords at the beginning are the most important (assuming they are used)

Images

The images have labels that google reads. Images cannot be read by google so we need to add simple labels

Examples are when you have more than one colour of a product; put the colour at the end

• PM59 Muffler – Blue
• PM59 Muffler – Red
• PM Muffler – Green

These are bad examples

• Blue Muffler
• Blue Muffler – PM59
• Muffler

Summary

• Name – make sure is a decent name and not a SKU
• Short Product Description – this is a short bit of text selling the product, why is it good for the customer (benefit statement)
• Long Product Description – This is where we give a full read out of the product using nice formatting and paragraphs
• URL Key – make sure this is the product title and not the SKU
• Meta Description – short description for google (maybe can be the same as short description)
• Meta Keywords – 20 max that relate to the product
• Images – they need some basic labelling

Check List

Aspects of a product that need checking

General Tab

• Name
• Description
• Short Description
• URL Key
• Volumetric Data (not for SEO)

Meta Information Tab

• Meta Title
• Meta Keywords (not used)
• Meta Description

Images Tab

• Label (for all images)