SEO For Product Listings - 4 Important Steps To Get Your Products Found On Google

4 important steps to get your products found on Google

Getting your products to show up on Google is the easiest way to grow your reach organically. You don’t have to pay to show up in search results but you do have to optimize your product listings for SEO so they are search engine friendly.

There are four key areas you want to make sure you optimize on your product listings for SEO to ensure they show up in search results.

1- Including keywords in your product titles.

Creating a product title that is very clear and descriptive effectively lets search engines know what the product is. If you name your products with words that don’t describe your products you won’t show up on search results.

A great example: I was recently trying to find a cheaper version of those plastic cups from Starbucks. They are made of thin plastic with a lid that just pops right on. I saw someone mention they bought the cheap version, but I didn’t know where to find them.

A screenshot for product listing SEO to include the title and description.

I was searching for these cups on Google and Amazon and the whole time all I kept finding were the double-walled hard plastic tumblers, which was not what I wanted. I already have those and they are all cracked, I want the lightweight kind.

Eventually, I found them because I used the term “3 pack.” The more specific, the better!

This is such a great example of using the right words to really describe your product so the people who are looking can find it.

2- Use those same keywords and phrases in your product description to elaborate on your product.

The product description serves two purposes. One, to really give the shopper all the detail of the product. Second, to confirm to search engines that the product and the description match. Google likes accurate information. They want people to find the thing they are looking for, which they do by matching words and phrases.

You want to write a unique description for every product that includes keywords and all the product details people need to know when they buy your product. This is where you have the opportunity to really sell the thing!

You want people to feel confident when they order online. Nothing sucks more for buyers than when they feel like a product was misrepresented online.

Try to imagine your product is on the shelves at Target and your buyer is holding it in their hand. What does it smell like? How does it feel? How tall is it? How heavy it? All those details are necessary for shoppers to feel confident about ordering new products, especially from small businesses.

3- Add alt text information to your product photos.

Search engines can’t see pictures, they only read text or HTML. The alt text or alt attribute is the text that is applied to images that describe them in a way that search engines understand. This is especially important for product photos.

An example of Google Images search results for optimizing your product listings for SEO.

This is also what makes product images show up in the image search tab on Google. This makes shopping easier and faster for potential clients because they are seeing several options from different vendors all at once.

Alt-text also helps make your products more accessible for visually impaired customers and voice search options.

This Hubspot article breaks down everything you need to know about alt-text.

Include an accurate and detailed description of your product photo using your keywords. Here's a tutorial for adding alt-text to your images.

4- Optimize your product URL

The product URL is another place you make sure to include your keywords. By default, on nearly every platform, the URL will be determined by the product title. However, that might not always be the best option.

An example of an optimized URL for product listing SEO.

Your product URL should include your keywords that match your title, but you can take out filler words like “the, and, or, etc.” You also want to shorten your URL to avoid any shortening by Google or Facebook when the link it shared. Keep your URL to the important keywords without losing the meaning.

Optimize your product URLs to include your product title and try to keep them short and concise.

PRO-TIP: If you change your URL be sure to create a redirect for the old URL so that links living out on the web will redirect to the new URL.

Ready to completely overhaul your shop SEO? It's not hard to optimize your product listings for SEO. We've created a course just for you, we've simplified everything you need to know about SEO for your product-based business.

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