How do you optimize your product sheets for organic referencing?

Organic referencing (also known as SEO, Search Engine Optimization) is a strategy implemented on your site in order to be listed on search engines. Product data sheets are a core content area for retailers, enabling them to easily move up the SERPs. 

In this article, we're going to introduce you to the main concepts of organic SEO, while giving you the keys to developing your product sheets so that they help you to be visible on the SERPs.

Reminder: what is SEO?

SEO is a webmarketing strategy that consists of optimizing the various content published on your site by adopting auser-centric logic. The aim is to enrich your site's lexical field by identifying the most relevant keywords, chosen according to : 

• Competition
• User search intent
• The products you sell
• The market and industry in which you operate

This free SEO strategy can quickly become time-consuming if you don't adopt the right reflexes quickly. This includes identifying the keywords best suited to your audience and your site, and optimizing your product descriptions.

Why optimize your product pages?

In addition to boosting your conversion and loyalty rates, working on a product sheet from an SEO perspective enables you to enrich the content of your e-commerce site.

Indeed, not all retailers have a blog to enhance their site with new keywords. Product data sheets and the many content items that can be published there serve as the basis for SEO.

The product data sheet is full of elements that can be optimized, enabling you to quickly gain a significant competitive edge.

How do I optimize a product page?

To explain exactly how you can use your product sheets for your SEO, let's start with a list of elements you can optimize: 

The titles

Titles, as with your entire site, are of vital importance to your organic referencing. They are read first by the search engines and by the user. They enable these two categories of visitor to understand the purpose of the page.

It's best to place the keyword you're targeting at the beginning of this title, to further clarify navigation. Warning: don't be satisfied with a single word for your title, it's better to take advantage of "long tail" keywords. 

What does this mean? Generic keywords are already heavily exploited by well-established sites. That's why it's more "profitable" for you to rank for key phrases rather than keywords. Take this example: it's easier for you to position yourself on "Nike Sneakers - Air Force Noires" than on "Chaussures Nike".

Also, adding information to the title helps optimize the click-through rate on search results.

The images

Images are a very important element for e-tailers seeking to turn their visitors into consumers, and their consumers into loyal customers. These images show the product from every angle, encouraging visitors to go ahead with the purchase, while avoiding disappointment for those who have bought with a clear idea of the product they are about to receive. 

Images are also used for SEO purposes. They are taken into account by search engines. If they're of high quality and well optimized, you'll have a better chance of ranking in search results, whether in "web" or "image" results.

Here are some things to consider when optimizing the images you publish: 

• The image name: prefer titles like "sneakers-nike-air-force.webp" rather than "89439874.webp";
• Image weight: despite their high quality, images need to be compressed in order to ensure fast loading of the product data sheet and a fluid user experience; 
• Image format: search engines, especially Google, tend to prefer new-generation formats such as ".webp". These formats make it possible to reduce image size while maintaining image quality;
• The image alt attribute: this attribute allows you to display text in place of the image if the latter is not displayed. This element is read by search engines and, once again, enables you to be listed higher in the results. So, still using the same example, you can indicate "Black Nike Air Force Sneakers" on your image.

The descriptions

Descriptions can be used to enhance the content of your product sheets to enrich SEO.

This written content enables you to expand the lexical field of the product sheet and include words related to your products and your company. The aim is to clarify the information about your product and provide the visitor with more information.

It is therefore possible to include new written content such as your product's materials, detailed volume or size, different use cases, its advantages, the experience of using it, ...

How can PIM help you with the SEO of your product pages?

A PIM such as Quable enables you to centralize all product information and publish it across all your distribution channels. The aim is to ensure consistency across all points of contact with your target consumers, and to display the same information regardless of the platform on which they preview your products.

Combining a PIM with a DAM allows you to synchronize the various media associated with your product sheets and optimize them directly in your back-office.

Taken together, these information enrichment actions will enable you to optimize the SEO of your product sheets, without wasting time and avoiding potential human errors.