The phrase “Content is king” has for long been a slogan for emphasizing the importance of the right quality of content for websites. It was a phrase coined by the great Bill Gates himself with an aim to emphasize the importance of content back in 1996, and over twenty years later in 2021, it still remains relevant. However, content differs in type and quality, therefore, content writing for online shopping websites cannot fly as an ordinary blog post or page copy. Just like how a formal letter is restricted to the office, product reviews or content should have a certain feel to it, which is what we would talk about in this article.
Although content writing for online shopping websites seems like a difficult task, it actually isn’t, as long as you know the right format to follow. Basically, you can’t write like an ordinary blog post, neither can you simply list product specifications and be done with it. The right approach would be to take a bit of the two sides and blend it into one king content. However, the ecommerce writing should also include a blend of copy, with easy on persuasive words, that doesn’t look apparent. Essentially, you speak to your readers conscious to educate them, and their subconscious to get them to click that purchase button.
The importance of content writing for online shopping websites
Certainly, if you visited a website and saw their rundown of products on a simple list without descriptions or any other content attached, it certainly wouldn’t look appealing. Why do you think ecommerce websites like Amazon and Aliexpress still include a little write-up along with product descriptions, although they are big enough to do without it? The fact is that these contents are important, and they increase your chances of converting a reader to a customer and also benefit from SEO to rank among organic search results.
On the other hand, content writing for online shopping websites is not so much like writing a blog post or landing pages, as more focus has to be given to the description of your products. It is easy to get caught up trying to make your ecommerce writing look like a blog post to educate your customers and also benefit from SEO.
What you should know before beginning content writing for online shopping websites
There are a few things you should learn or keep in mind before going ahead to create content for your ecommerce website. They are:
Product description is the content
Anyone that ends up on your site has either of two purposes, which is to purchase or to find information. Therefore, it is your responsibility to create content to satisfy both curiosities, irrespective of which the customer places above the other. Placing the picture of a fan, for example, isn’t enough, instead you have to take a step further to speak about its dimensions, available colors, material quality, and so on. This helps you keep the customer informed and also rank for that product organically on Google. Your content should start, revolve around, and end with a description of what the product is about.
Keywords matter much
Keywords are one of the most important aspects of SEO. It affords customers the comfort of searching your site for specific products without going through everything on your site. It also helps your content pop on SERP when those keywords are inputted. However, while doing this, ensure you do not repeat the same keywords unnecessarily, as it would lead to being penalized by google. The google search engine bot sees such as spam.
Clearly communicate with your users
Stating your point at the beginning is the way to go, instead of making them read the whole content first. Before you write, ensure you keep this in mind and convey your message within the first two lines, or at maximum, the first paragraph. Using a lot of “big grammar” and technical jargon doesn’t help, as it is a big turnoff for readers. No one wants to go through your content and refer to a dictionary every other minute. Your content should be super simple and easy to understand or you may lose your audience. Without proper and clear communication, your content writing for online shopping websites wouldn’t make the desired impact.
Visual content enhances your writing
Today, writing alone is no longer enough. A good addition would be to back it up with HD pictures and videos of the product, showing different angles and how to use it. If it’s a cloth, showing several styles to rock it would be the way forward. Research in psychology has shown that viewing videos are more relaxing and easier to understand than reading words.
Use keyword friendly URLs
For optimal SEO benefits, it is important that you make use of a URL in line with your product line. Your readers should be able to tell what you sell by simply viewing your URL. This enhances their understanding, and also makes your URL friendly enough for google search engine. Therefore, by doing this, you’d win on two sides.
Write in the active voice
Writing in the active voice is one of the best pillars in content writing or online shopping websites. It helps make the sentence comprehensible in a shorter duration, therefore making the reader follow easily. On the flip side, passive words do otherwise and delay their comprehension. It dishes out boring content, basically preparing your readers to fall asleep. The writing tone sets the reader’s perspective, do well to remember that.
Section your article with the appropriate headlines
Everyone likes content they can scan through instead of reading every last paragraph to extract its information. Make use of subheadings that are descriptive in nature, and also throw in a few adjectives that make your words more attractive. In ecommerce writing, the statement “check out our bags” and “checkout our amazing bling bags” could make a lot of difference. Using the latter would not only draw the attention of bag lovers but also cause them to pay more attention to the rest of the content. Subheadings also section your content, helping those that want to find something quickly go exactly where they want.
What are the key elements of content writing for online shopping websites?
We have established the fact that ecommerce writing does not take your traditional blog content or sales copy approach. Instead, it takes a bit of the two, and there are certain elements that you should focus on when you write. They are:
Place your audience and customers above google
The idea here is that your audience and potential customers should always come first and then google second. Your audience is your primary target, and you should write for them, before considering other factors like google. This does not mean you should neglect healthy SEO practices or other things that would help your site rank better, instead, it’s saying you should not get completely caught up in it. Your audience is the most important in content writing for online shopping websites.
Write each product description clearly and simple enough for your customers to understand. It should also contain enough information for them to get a grasp of what the product does, as well as be able to make an educated purchasing decision. Words are the craft by which you paint the product’s usefulness in the minds of your readers, if you get it wrong here, or focus solely on rankings and keywords, chances are high they’d move on to your competitor.
Good ecommerce writing also contributes to building your brands’ trust online, asides from helping the customers understand the product. Trust is important, as customers don’t have the luxury to inspect or try out the product in real life before purchase, therefore, your words are all they can bank on, and it has to sound trustworthy. After building trust over time, your brand becomes an authority in that line of ecommerce product, therefore, establishing an ecosystem and increasing the possibility of sales.
Customer reviews are just as important
A criminally underrated part of ecommerce writing is the aspect of customer testimonials. Today because anybody can pretty much whip up content and upload it on the internet, people are a little cautious about believing so easily. This is why you tend to see brands and professionals emphasizing their expertise, putting it out accomplishments and customer satisfaction testimonies. It’s all in a bid to earn trust on the internet, after which people start to take their words for what they truly are.
As an ecommerce website, the fastest way to achieve this is to include customer reviews on your page. Your audience would trust the words of other people who have used that product more than yours, especially since they are not exactly trying to sell a product, and therefore, have nothing to lose. Always leave a section for your previous customers to talk about your product, that way they validate it for the subsequent audience.
Watch your word count
Beyond customer reviews, you should also take into consideration the number of words of your ecommerce writing. Yes, it should adequately inform the reader and show google you care about them, however, a short content or simple list doesn’t speak well enough of your site. We are making emphasis on this because there might come a time when you would have so many products that their respective word count starts to suffer. Keep in mind that Google’s algorithm does not favor very low word count content, but instead picks decent to high volume every time.
However, on the flip side, you should ensure that the words are not too much, as you may lose the reader somewhere along the way. For starters, a 300-word count is great and would provide enough to include product descriptions as well as customer reviews. However, when you go over 450 on a single product, the audience may simply get bored or lose interest. The average concentration span on the internet is now about 8 seconds according to Microsoft Corps.
Duplicate content is a turnoff
In all you do, avoid duplicate content. This should be your second pillar of obedience after obviously abstaining from low-quality contents laced with errors. Copying content from another source for your product affects your standing with Google and your writers. Plagiarism is a very serious offense, and you can be banned forever from SERP for engaging in it.
When you copy content from another site, Google simply checks which was published first, and assumes it to be the original. It ranks that for the relevant keywords, and sends the rest to a bottomless pit, rendering your effort useless, as well as causing your site to drop in rank.
Another thing to take note of is avoiding your company’s introductory text, snippet, or moto appearing on each of your pages. This tends to happen with ecommerce websites because there are so many products to write on. Instead, evenly distribute them across pages, so it does not appear to be thrown at the customer’s face. You can also decide to leave it on your homepage alone.
Throw in a blend of copy
Asides from informing the customers, and helping your page rank, ecommerce writing should also sell your product. This is where most ecommerce startups miss it, as they simply put out content without it containing the undertone and persuasive ability of a copy. If you have to, employ proper eCommerce content writing services to handle your content in order to include all the right key elements.
Product descriptions may only be the true way to persuade your visitors to buy. Therefore, you should tell them why your product is better than competitors, as well as feed them a good amount of information to back it up, which could lead to a sale. This way, you can pull in more customers, improve your SEO organic ranking, and also make sales at the same time.
Bottom line
Basically, following these principles gives you a win on all sides, though it might be overwhelming. A good amount of research thought process and overall quality has to go into your content writing for online shopping websites. If you do not have the time, you can better still, hire an eCommerce content writing service provider to do all the work while you focus on other things. If you need excellent eCommerce content writing services, Iconic Digital World is vastly experienced in handling such and would provide you with the very best. Simply visit our page to check out our offers.
Content writing is very important for the success of your online shopping websites. It should contain the right elements to cater to the needs of your customers and google, but ultimately, focus on making sales. We have covered all the major areas in this article, now it’s left to you to put in the work. Above all, your content writing for online shopping websites should focus on being quality.
