A Guide to Writing Product Description Copy for a Website – the view with Google in mind

Writing copy for a website is not hard, but you have to write it differently to the way that you would if you were writing for a paper publication. In this article I discuss the essential things you need to consider when writing a product description for a retail website. The article covers the elements that optimise the copy for search engines, and Google in particular. See our other article on the elements you need to consider to make it readable for the human, as well “A Guide to Writing Product Description Copy for a Website – the view with the customer in mind”.

There are two aims for writing a product description:

1. To get a customer to buy the product
2. To get Google to realise that the page is “relevant” for that product

In this article we discuss the elements necessary to write the product description to maximise the impact it has with Google.

The relevance for Google:

If you read an article in a magazine about a new type of kettle the headline might read:

“The New Tefal QuickCup”

And the body text might read something like this:

“The Tefal QuickCup is a revolutionary new way to boil water. It heats 22 oz of water to 90 degrees and holds it there ready for you to use for a cost of only 4p per day. At only 1.5kg and a footprint of 1ft by 1ft it will take up very little space in your kitchen. The metal finish gives a quality look so you will never want to be without it.”

As you read the article you are remembering the headline and realise that the description relates to this product. Google doesn’t work like that. In order for the product to appear in the first page of results when you search for Tefal QuickCup, Google needs to realise that the page is relevant for that search term (there are many other factors that determine search result position but this is one we can influence).

So we need to consider what a customer might search for. Perhaps:

“Tefal QuickCup”

“Kettle”

“Boil water”

These terms need to appear in the text. The more often they appear, the more relevant Google will think the text is to that term. If you overuse the phrase Google will see that and penalise (allegedly). The challenge is to write the text so that a human reader will not think it poor writing, or off putting. The re-written text might be along the lines of:

“The Tefal QuickCup is the new way to boil water. Like other kettles it heats up water, but unlike other kettles the Tefal Quick Cup keeps the water hot and ready to use all day long. The price for this convenience? The Tefal Quick Cup costs just 4p per day. Your kitchen will be enhanced by the look of this new appliance – it takes up no more space than the kettle you use at the moment to boil water, but the Tefal Quick cup weighs only 1.5kg….”

More Google factors:

There are other factors that need to be considered when creating a product description, that also relate to Google:

• Google likes headings. Use the H2 html mark-up for headings, at appropriate places in your copy. The content of an H1 heading is given higher relevance by Google than that of H2, H3 and body text and so on. Use headings to tell Google (and humans) what the following text is about, and wherever possible try to use key phrases that the customer might use to search with.
• Most relevant text first. The first paragraph of text on a page is given most relevance by Google. The last paragraph is scanned and added to its database but is considered least relevant. This is because Google considers the page in the same way that a human does (to try to make its search results better for the human). Most people only read the first few lines of a page before moving on. The best way to construct the page is the way that the BBC does a new story on the Internet. Look at any BBC News story on its News website. In the page the whole story is summarised in the first sentence. There then follows the story in more detail, along with an image. By the time you get down to the second or third heading the article has moved on to background information. By the end, the article is giving supporting material not directly related to the story but adding colour. This layout works well for a human, and is ideally constructed for Search Engine purposes.
• Use tables and bullet lists. Google likes tabulated tables and bullet point lists. It sees the structure as information that is more useful than free text.
• Bold text. Use bold text to highlight relevant words and phrases. It might be seen as SHOUTING in ordinary writing, but Google looks for indications such as this to tell it what the relevance of the text is.

An example of a product description that includes all (or at least most) of these requirements is here:

http://www.mygreenerhome.co.uk/water-savers-5/watergreen-syphon-pump-from-droughtbuster-80.html

In summary, it is important that you include all the necessary information that a customer needs to make the purchasing decision, but lay it out in a way that Google appreciates. Learn from your competitors, but do not copy.