Growing a region/country into a major international brand has many questions about product description page (PDP) optimization.
How much can be automated?
Does it matter if some of them have duplicates?
How do we handle variable products that exist on a single URL?
Can I use the product instructions provided by the manufacturer?
Larger product catalogs and more complex tech stacks can exacerbate product description problems.
However, with an enterprise e-commerce stack, you can also find opportunities to automate and quickly resolve many product description issues.
This is where PIM (Product Information Management System) can be an SEO and UX dream.
Beyond product descriptions, PIM can help stakeholders influence user experience and bridge the gap between users searching for and researching products to complete a purchase.
For many, PIM is just another part of the technology stack.
But it can also improve the user experience and enrich the PDP (Product Detail Page) with important information from an SEO perspective.
In this article, I will lean towards a combination of the two, as businesses in the e-commerce industry like Bain & Company claim that companies that use tools to improve the customer experience can increase revenue by as much as 25%.
Given Google’s efforts to improve user experience on the web with Core Web Vitals, Speed, Mobile Friendliness, EAT, and more, using PIM to improve user experience is more than just adding keywords to pages.
Often, PIM is also responsible for product images.
sometimes this can be digital asset management systems work, but for this article I assume PIM handles them.
Automate product title tags and meta descriptions
Typically, a PIM will contain several fields related to a product, including but not limited to:
- product name.
- Product technical specifications (color, size, material).
- product description.
- Product identifier (SKU, ISBN).
This information can be used for Improve title tags and meta description.
While Google is actively covering these two elements, they are still processed and cached by Google.
While only the title tag is factored into “ranking,” the meta description is still important from a CTR standpoint.
Leveraging PIM can also help alleviate the problem of duplication of title tags and provide Google with a better document information architecture.
You can do this by having the front-end platform (storefront) dynamically populate the product description page template with the same information from PIM.
This information can also help Google serve content for hyper-specific queries and return URLs from your site that are not otherwise in the Instant Service index.
Including more information in your title tags and meta descriptions can also help guide Google to rewrite your title tags and meta descriptions more accurately.
This can help you avoid accidentally giving users misleading information and a negative search experience.
Automation Product PDP Description
Many product pages contain generic product descriptions that the manufacturer may provide.
Duplicate product descriptions are usually not a problem because the content of a PDP is more than just written words. This is the value proposition of the entire page.
The intention is to make the repeated description a supporting element of the page, not the focal point.
Google’s John Mueller confirmed This doesn’t lead to a penalty situation, and it’s only a problem if they don’t want to show multiple results by just listing the same thing.
The solution to this problem is to use PIM to add value.
For most “generic” product-related queries, Google expands search results to include a mix of local and online results.
This means that Google has to decide to rank local or “best” sources with a repeating value proposition.
Most PIMs contain inventory data, and most businesses operating both online and offline will integrate, allowing you to include the following information and elements in a PDP:
- Availability in local stores (You can further personalize if you log in to show the availability of stores close to their defined location preferences).
- delivery time Delivery.
- delivery time In-store pickup.
This serves another useful purpose for the page, and is why Google has chosen to rank your PDP higher than others.
Define taxonomies and relationships
In most PIMs, you can define classifications and relationships to other products in the database.
This information, along with personalization elements, can then be used to create additional content blocks (and additional value propositions) on the PDP page, giving it additional user value.
You can also use these elements to encourage cross-selling and up-selling, increase average order value (AOV), and help select the right complementary products.
For example, buying a light bulb as a related product from a page that shows the correct light bulb can save users time and effort in identifying (and searching for) the correct light bulb.
Taxonomies and tags can also be integrated with most internal site searches, so ensuring key products and variants are properly tagged and having an accurate taxonomy can help users discover products on your site.
key takeaways
PIM is an underutilized asset in the ecommerce SEO arsenal that can be overlooked or seen as the “no” part of your marketing toolkit.
Bringing PIM stakeholders to a marketing meeting with those responsible for pulling PIM information into your e-commerce storefront can help you identify opportunities to further improve the SEO value of your product description pages.
It can also provide additional opportunities to improve user experience, conversion rates and AOV.
The more specific and descriptive your product pages are, the better Google and other search engines can determine their relevance to the queries of highly motivated searchers looking for your products.
Use the tips above to maximize the value of your organization’s PIM by using it for your SEO goals.
If you’re just getting started with ecommerce SEO or looking for a checklist of best practices to make sure you’re making the most of all opportunities, you’ll want to check out Ecommerce Product Page SEO: 20 Dos and Don’ts.
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