How To Product The Perfect eCommerce Product Page and Write The Perfect Product Description

There are differing opinions on the internet on what makes up the perfect product description and we are not going to say that we are the only ones that are correct. What we are doing here is offering our opinion on what makes the perfect product description from our own experience and client websites that we have worked on over the years.

Read what we have got to say and they go and do your own research. 

Above The Fold Content

Our product pages are set up in a way where we try and keep as much sales info above the fold as possible like:

• Main sales bullets
• Images
• Prices (actual, RRP and discount)
• Buy Now button
• Brand Logo
• Delivery time
• SKU
• Additional extras

The reason we do this is so that anybody landing on one of our product pages can get an immediate snapshot of the product without having to scroll which will help them with their buying decision. 

We follow suit on Mobile too putting the most important items at the top and then working our way down in order of importance as you cant really escape having to scroll on mobile.

If a user decides to scroll we are of the opinion that they now want to know the details. They are happy with what they have already seen and want more information. This is where a detailed product description can make all of the difference.

Product Description Structure

We advise following a similar structure to all of our ecommerce clients regardless of what niche they are in as there is always something that you can include. Our main prerequisite is that product descriptions need to be unique.

The response we usually receive when we say this to clients is “There is only so many ways you can describe XYZ uniquely” Whilst we sympathise with this we really believe that the extra effort made to ensure that product descriptions are unique will pay dividends in the eyes of the search engines. Time and time again we see the same regurgitated copy with a few minor changes here and there. This doesn’t help anybody so if our clients do it the same way why should a search engine rank their product higher than a competitors?

We are not totally heartless though so suggest the following structure which will allow for a more creative writing process and help ecommerce rankings too. If you follow this when creating your product descriptions you will not only rank for more long tail search terms but you will answer more of the buying objections a customer might have during the sales flow.

Think about who, what, were, when and why and how. This is an old school journalist trick that has been used ever since the journalism came about but fits really nice when writing product descriptions. You don’t have to use those exact heading but you should use variations of these that fit in with your product.

Who are you trying to sell this product to?

Here just try and expand on your customer relating back to your product. Make them feel that they are the ideal candidate to purchase this product. Here you need to stroke the visitor's ego.

What are the product details?

These will be your bullet points at the top of the page which are sales related and inform the customer of the main selling points at a glance and should be expanded on in a flowing story type paragraph or too in the long description area.

In addition to these product specifications are a must for your description and where possible should be laid out in table format with clear headings so that visitors can understand exactly what they are seeing.

When would or should someone use the product?

Touch on when the product should be used by your visitor and describe the experience and why it would be a good choice to choose this particular product over an alternative product.

Why is this product so good?

Why is this product better than the competition, why should they buy this one over another product? 

You can write a single piece of flowing content for your product description using the above points for reference but if you are going to split them up into headed sections be sure to relate them to the above but make them fit with your product types also.

The structure and headings can then be used across all of your products; it's just a case of filling in the blanks and keeping it unique after that.

Product Reviews

After the long description think about product reviews. People like to know what other users think of your products. If you don’t include product reviews on your own product pages the user will inevitably go away and try and find some. The risk here is that they won’t like what they read or find a site that does have reviews and purchase off them.

Reviews are a great way to encourage users to get involved. Put a process in place to get reviews. This doesn’t have to be complicated or automated; it can be done manually and be made into another daily task.

Delivery Information

Have your delivery information right there on every product page. Visitors want to know what they are going to pay for delivery. Having it at the top of a product page is a good idea but making a bigger deal of it further down is also advised.

Not everybody will fit into the delivery bracket you advertise at the top of the page so its worth providing more detail of this further down the page in its own section. This information does not have to be exact. In most ecommerce instances delivery charges are calculated at checkout based on weight vs destination but it doesn’t do any harm giving your potential customer an indication of what they should expect to pay for delivery.

Product Page Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

This is our newest and most exciting tip. Get FAQs on product pages and keep building them out. You will see FAQs a lot on category and sub category pages but not very often on product pages. Amazon is the exception here but generally on an ecommerce site we don’t see FAQs on product pages and we can’t understand why.

Adding FAQs as with the long descriptions allows you to get more relevant content on your product page that will help it be unique. If you don’t cover everything off in your short and long descriptions FAQs are an excellent way to get them in there without having to re-write your beautifully crafted long descriptions.

Your sales team will get asked specific questions all the time. Get them involved and use their product knowledge to expand on your content.

Google also offers FAQ based schema markup for FAQs. If Google offers it, it's a no brainer to utilise it.

Related Products

Despite all your efforts to convince your visitors that this is the product for them not all of them will be convinced. Instead of losing them to a random site search or even worse, leaving the site altogether and looking elsewhere, get some top class related products on the page.

Don’t make the mistake a lot of sites make and just shove a load of similar products at the bottom. Put some thought into them i.e, If they like this product what products do I have that are similar. That might sound like common sense but you would be surprised how many times we see random products dropped into the related products section just to fill them up.

This is a real opportunity to keep your visitor engaged and help them along their sales journey.

Trending Products

You will have products that other people buy a lot of. Buying decisions run in cycles different trends come into play so always include your best trending products for each category on your product pages.

People are interested in what other people are buying. If you have popular products then they are popular for a reason so as in the case of why you would add related products, trending products are there for the same reason.

Conclusion

Is there really a perfect product page and description? We believe the answer to be no. We strive to improve product pages for our clients and will continue to add new elements that will help their visitors make a buying decision and we encourage everybody else to do the same.

One thing never changes though and that is to always provide unique information for every product and don’t miss any of the above out :)

Ecommerce Services

Here at Web Vitality we live and breathe Ecommerce so If you are struggling and want some help with your eCommerce SEO, Web Design or PPC please get in touch.

There is always something we can do to help you improve sales through our Ecommerce knowledge. We've worked with some massive brands and lots of small up and coming brands so don’t be put off as Ecommerce is our passion.

Take a look at our service pages and be sure to get in touch.