Great Tips for Writing Quality Content for your E-Commerce Site and for Google’s Penguin

In a post-Penguin Google world, there is nothing more important than writing your content naturally like a conversation. Normally you think of your web content as pages of your site, but from a user perspective, great content should be pervasive in all your communications materials. That includes web pages, instruction manuals, press releases, sales materials, FAQs and for E-Commerce sites, category page descriptions and product descriptions.

In this post, I have a few simple tips that will help you create the type of rich content that consumers will eat up and Googl’e Penguin won’t spit out like chum. At the end of the day, its all about getting people to buy your product or sign up for your newsletter, or download your software or complete the lead form. So speak to them like you would if they came in your place of business.

Tip #1: When it comes to writing product descriptions on E-Commerce websites, our first reactions are usually to yawn and skip down to the product reviews. That is because most times the product description is written by the manufacturer, not a marketing person. So what can you do to flip this into something people will want to read and it will positively affect their buying decision?

Appeal to the consumer’s sense of sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste. Help them feel the product like they were holding it in their hands in the store. What does it feel like? How does it smell? is it heavy? Are the edges smooth or sharp? With some creative product descriptions you can help create the experience for your users. As an example, this product description awakens the visitor’s sense of taste and sight:

A dozen bite-sized pieces of delicious chocolate covered strawberries smothered in creamy dark chocolate is a temptation your loved ones can’t resist no matter what the occasion. Not to be confused with the store bought varieties at Kroger, these morsels are topped with dark chocolate from Switzerland and the strawberries are so fresh that the juice will run down your face. Share a few with family and friends during a holiday dinner and you’ll be invited back year after year!

Tip #2: Many E-Commerce sites have products that are carried by many other vendors. How do you make your widget stand out from all the other widgets that are identical to yours?

The answer is by evoking emotions within your customer. Positive emotions like happiness, love and pride are great ways to spark a consumer’s interest. Add to that feelings of frustration they are encountering or even peek their curiosity to add some zing to your product descriptions. Remember that people engage more when their emotional about the topic.

This is best done by adding verbs and adjectives to your bland descriptions. Verbs are actions and they invoke your visitors to take action. They motivate the user to do something. Think of how different this sounds compared to your existing bla bla product descriptions on your site.

Another example… If describing a collection of women’s dresses, here are three product descriptions that  promote the same sku but use different emotions to get the point across:

1. The slimming lines of this slinky dress will make you the envy of the party.
2. Look and feel ten pounds lighter with our slimming line of dresses.
3. Slip on one of our new slimming dresses and see for yourself.

If your product copy reads like these descriptions above, congratulations! You’re in the top 1/2 of 1%. For more information on how content writing affects your SEO efforts check out our site or contact us now.