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How to Write Creative Product Descriptions that Encourage Online Sales

Monday 17 February 2020

10 minute read

By Sarah Burns

If you’re the owner of an all-singing, all-dancing e-commerce website you're probably swimming in sales, right?

Maybe not. These things don't work miracles overnight. 

Then again, maybe you are, in which case we raise a glass to you… I bet you still wouldn’t sniff at more sales though, right? 

In which case, one of our best recommendations for boosting the performance and impact of your online retail store has to be working on your product descriptions. The reasons are three-fold: 

  • Google can rank you higher for relevant terms because you’ve included more keywords and phrases in your individual product descriptions. 
  • Readers are more likely to purchase because they are enticed and persuaded by your content - this product is exactly what they were after and the in-depth descriptions help to portray the benefits that your photography can’t showcase.
  • By carefully formatting these detailed descriptions you give Google what it likes, research-conscious readers what they need to read, and also you can make it scannable so those that just want to ensure it’s right for them, can also skim through and confirm it’s the product of their dreams!

Writing creative, persuasive, scannable product descriptions isn’t easy and can take a lot of time editing and rewriting, but it is a rewarding task - particularly if your site is otherwise performing well.  

Creative Product Descriptions in Action

For instance, if you are selling some “womens brown strappy wedges”, Google reads this but if you only give the below description it doesn’t have a lot more to go on and can’t rank you against content-heavy, big-name shops if your user’s search is quite generic, i.e.:

Women’s Brown Strappy Wedges

  • Womens strappy wedges
  • Mid-heel
  • Strappy fastening with leather sole

Alternatively, you can showcase your product with the below description: 

Women’s Brown Strappy Wedges

Grab our brown strappy wedges perfect for a night out, casual wear, or for your next holiday abroad. These summer shoes are comfortable for all, with a wedge mid-heel and secure buckle strap. Team these summer heels with a sundress from our holiday shop range for a cute day-to-night look!

01. Optimised for search

The first obvious benefit is that the more relevant, engaging content you have on your individual product pages, the more content there is for Google to digest and use towards ranking your website higher for relevant search terms in the search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Ecommerce websites require a site-wide SEO strategy to ensure the whole website is geared towards your target keywords and search phrases. You should ensure that long-tail keywords are focused on for your products as they allow you to be descriptive, appear natural in your phrasing for readers and these are more likely to be the terms that users are targeting. Remember, with the rise of voice search, it’s important to secure your position for long-term, conversational search terms.

“According to recent research by WordStream, the top 10% of landing pages convert at 11.45%. The average conversion rate for long-tail keywords is 36%!” 

Source: Wordstream via Neil Patel 

02. Highlight specific benefits for customers 

Paint a picture for the reader within your description that highlights the product’s specific capabilities and benefits. This will help to persuade and entice the reader to purchase the product. 

Focus on their pain points and challenges - what pain or need is this purchase solving? Examples of this in action completely vary, but the whole point of your products is that they solve a challenge - whether it’s the women’s strappy shoes that will finish their outfit or a protein supplement that supports their workout regime, or a fixture/fitting that will repair or improve a product they already have. 

Consider your buyer personas’ key demographics when creating these visual, creative descriptions as this will help you to engage with them and appear relatable - supporting your brand voice, of course.

03. Make it scannable with the format you choose

Six paragraphs may be the perfect in-depth level of details for some readers, but for some, that certainly isn’t the case. Google needs the details. Some readers just want the highlights, so format your product descriptions with line breaks, spacing and bold or italic fonts, to ensure those that want to skim read, can do just that.

Taking our original example you may highlight particular features with bold text, such as: 

Women’s Brown Strappy Wedges

Grab our brown strappy wedges perfect for a night out, casual wear, or for your next holiday abroad. These summer shoes are comfortable for all, with a wedge mid-heel and secure buckle strap. Team these summer heels with a sundress from our holiday shop range for a cute day-to-night look!

Remember the below stat from Chartbeat (via TIME):

“A stunning 55% spent fewer than 15 seconds actively on a page. The stats get a little better if you filter purely for article pages, but even then one in every three visitors spend less than 15 seconds reading articles they land on.” 

Get started… 

Above all, you need to review your overall SEO and search performance, seeking insights and reports from any current SEO activities. Then, you should discover if your product descriptions are really working towards the 3 aims listed above. If not, reconsider where you’re focusing your SEO activities as they may not be earning the best rewards.

Speak to Thrive about your SEO and search performance if you have any queries, by calling 01325 778 786 or emailing our team at hello@thriveability.co.uk

If you're looking to embark on a website build project, whether it's completely from scratch or a site refresh, our ebook will give you the knowledge to make your project as stress-free as possible.

The Website Design Handbook for Businesses

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