As 2019 starts to wrap up, and 2020 planning is upon us, we’ve compiled our top 10 blog posts of the year (in case you missed ‘em). Check out the posts that our readers couldn’t get enough of this year and let us know what your favorites were in the comments below and on social (@SeerInteractive)!…
The post Seer Interactive’s Top 10 Most-Read Blog Posts of 2019 appeared first on Seer Interactive.
If you’re a larger business, your brand has likely created a YouTube channel at some point in time. You may have inherited this part of marketing or even contributed to the creation of a video, but how do you know if this video content is making an impact?…
The post So Your Business has a YouTube Channel, Whats Next? appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Project management is important because it ensures proper expectations are set around what can be delivered, by when, and for how much.
The key to successful project management comes down to understanding your client as a human. As someone new to a project or meeting a client team for the first time, it is critical to leverage this opportunity as a time to get to know the client.…
The post Why Project Management is Critical for An SEO Project appeared first on Seer Interactive.
An agency should be an extension of the client’s team. Sharing the same goals, talking to the same people, and sometimes even getting drinks together. To start the journey towards that solid agency-client partnership, here are three areas to work on together and some questions agencies can start asking to get there.…
The post 3 Characteristics of a Strong Agency-Client Partnership appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Working in an agency environment, managing internal deadlines alongside client requests can get tricky. Each week, I would come out of my internal meetings on Mondays overwhelmed by the number of things that needed to be accomplished by the end of the day on Wednesday.…
The post How to Manage Internal Deadlines Effectively appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Duplicate content is a major cause for concern for site owners.
Google favors sites with fresh and unique content. The main goal of their search engine is to give the best result for a user’s search query, right? A piece of content found on five other sites probably doesn’t fit that criteria.
Not only that, but Google spiders won’t know which is the original piece if another site copies your content word-for-word. They’ll rank both lower than a completely unique piece of content since they don’t know which deserves the higher spot.
The bad news? Your content is free and easy to access. People can cut and paste your content onto their own site, resulting in duplicate content—which is extremely bad for SEO.
One tool aiming to help site owners combat it is Duplichecker.
We put this tool to the test to find out:
Duplichecker is a plagiarism checker tool that can find instances of duplicate content.
It scans the internet for the same sentences, phrases, or paragraphs you’ve got on your website, and points you to external URLs that have the same content.
Here’s an example of duplicate content copied from our guide to Private Blog Networks:
We know what Duplichecker is supposed to do. But the real question is: Does it do the job?
I spent a few hours playing around with Duplichecker, judging how many instances of plagiarized content it could pick up.
But during that testing, I found some good parts about the tool—along with others that show Duplichecker still needs some improvement:
Arguably the best part about Duplichecker is the fact it’s free.
Unlike other plagiarized content tools like Siteliner and Copyscape, Duplichecker is completely free to use—and you don’t need an account to use it.
Another benefit of Duplichecker is the fact you can upload several file types, including:
Or, you can pull content from a URL. Simply plug the link where your content is published and find a list of duplicate results found elsewhere:
The Duplichecker tool is part of a wider branch of marketing tools.
That’s why the Duplichecker feature can also analyze grammar by hitting one of the two options below:
Both tools are free, and could replace costly tools like Grammarly Pro.
There’s no doubt that Duplichecker has lots of benefits. However, there are also areas that the tool lacks.
One of those is the word count limit. You can only have 1,000 words per search, which could be an issue if you’re checking whether long-form content has been plagiarized.
(You can work around this limit breaking up your text to 1,000-word chunks. However, you won’t find instances where different blocks of content are used because you can’t check the entire piece at the same time.)
Another downfall is that some content gets weirdly formatted when plugged from a URL. Here’s an example:
But unfortunately, the glitches don’t stop there.
I copied a chunk of text directly into the editor, and it ended up adding hundreds of extra lines:
This mistake, combined with the overwhelming wall of ads on the tool’s homepage, give it a “buggy” feeling. It doesn’t feel like a professional tool.
Finally, it’s worth noting that you can’t run a duplicate content check site-wide with Duplichecker. You need to plug the URL in one by one, which can get time consuming (especially if you have a large website.)
Other tools—including Copyscape—can do site-wide searches.
The short answer is not very. Granted, it does pick up some instances of plagiarized content, but the accuracy isn’t spot on.
I had a few issues using the tool, including:
During my testing, I copied a section of a guest post I’d written for Sellbrite into Duplichecker. The original piece was also syndicated to Business2Community, so I knew there was at least one instance of duplicate content.
However, Duplichecker didn’t pick either up. It marked my content as 100% unique:
Similarly, Duplichecker doesn’t seem to be able to handle quotes.
For example, I entered this quote in Duplichecker: “The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.”
The tool found just one instance of plagiarized content:
…But when you type that in Google with quotation marks, you can see hundreds of URLs containing exactly the same content:
We know that Duplichecker can’t find syndicated content or quotes, right?
Those things aren’t consistent.
I tested this post I wrote for ConversionXL, which was also syndicated on Business2Community. One of the quotes included in my article did get picked up as being duplicate, along with the original post:
But yet again, the syndicated version on Business2Community didn’t get flagged.
You can also spot that Duplichecker marked 33% of my content as plagiarized, with the remaining 67% being “unique.”
It wasn’t—the content was lifted directly from the original post, yet Duplichecker only considered three paragraphs as being duplicated elsewhere.
There are tons of plagiarized content tools you can use. One of the most famous is Copyscape. So, how does Duplichecker’s tool compare?
Let’s start by discussing the most obvious differentiator: Cost.
Duplichecker is free and checks up to 1,000 words. You don’t need an account to use it, and there aren’t any limits to how many times you can use the tool (so long as you’re beneath the word count on each search.)
Copyscape also has a free version. However, they also offer a Premium plan, which includes a scan of 10,000 pages, excludes sites you already know about, and helps you follow-up with site owners when you ask them to remove or change the duplicate content.
The price for Premium is 3c per search (up to 200 words), plus 1c per extra 100 words.
I’ve also mentioned that Duplichecker lets you check for duplicate content from uploaded files. You can’t do this on Copyscape, which makes it difficult to compare.
For example: When comparing our post on backlinks, I plugged the URL into Copyscape and got lots more results:
It showed only one on Duplichecker because I had to use a smaller sample of content:
Plus, Copyscape has a Copysentry feature. You get emails when new duplicate content is found without having to manually check for it. This costs $4.95/month, but worth the small expense if it means you don’t need to remember to search for plagiarized content.
The bottom line? Duplichecker is good for smaller businesses, or sites without much content… But it’s not very accurate.
Copyscape is the better option for larger businesses, those with lots of content, or those who pay for content. It’s also better if you use it for long-form content since there isn’t a word count limit on the text you’re searching for.
Ready to start searching for duplicate content taken from your website? While it isn’t totally accurate, it does pick up some instances of plagiarized content.
Here’s how you can use the tool to find it:
Start by adding your content to the Duplichecker tool.
You can do this through any of the file types we shared above. Or, add the URL of the content you want to search for:
Bear in mind that you might need to cut some text if it’s over 1,000 words long.
After entering your text, scroll down and you’ll see a report containing much of your content is plagiarized, unique, or has a related-meaning elsewhere:
You want most—if not all—of your content to be completely unique.
Remember: It’s bad for SEO if you’ve got content on your site that exists elsewhere, too.
Beneath your score report, you’ll see a list of URLs with similar content to yours.
Click “Compare Results” and you’ll see the other site with your duplicate content highlighted:
Check how much of your content is duplicated on this site.
For example: Is it a full blog post or just a few sentences? A full blog post might need more serious action than a few sentences.
It’s also important to check the type of content that has been duplicated. A quote from your blog post that references it as a source might not be a bad thing. But if they’re totally ripped off your content without giving credit, that’s an issue.
We already know that duplicate content is a huge SEO problem. So, we want to find any instances of plagiarized content and change it.
There are two ways you can do this:
Our final word on Duplichecker? It’s a good, free tool to have in your toolstack—especially if you produce content for your website.
However, it does lack in specific areas. It’s unable to pick up quotes, syndicated content, and probably won’t show every instance of where your content has been plagiarized.
The bottom line? I’d recommend Duplichecker to small businesses with limited content production. But if you produce lots of content or invest in content from freelance writers, you’d be better off with a more reliable alternative like Copyscape.
George Bernard Shaw once said “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
We talk about knowing your audience in search, but it goes for just about everything.…
The post Using the MAYA Principle for Effective Communication appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Anyone who’s worked at an agency before is well aware of how fast-paced and volatile these work environments can be. We can have our whole day or week planned out, yet everything can change within a split second. That said, knowing how to manage your time wisely can help you stay on top of everything even when it can get a little chaotic.…
The post 4 Time Management Tips for Working at an Agency appeared first on Seer Interactive.
This is a guest post by Erin Butler, Freelance Writer & Accountant.
Erin Butler is a freelance writer who works in accounting as her day job. Though she loves numbers, she has wanted to be an author since she was 8 years old and will hopefully finish her first novel soon.…
The post Resources to Know that Help Analyze the Market on Amazon appeared first on Seer Interactive.
The State of Google Search Partners:
The post Of 3,785 Google Search Partner Placements Reviewed: 3,785 Were Garbage appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Google’s BERT update, which was released in October 2019, was one of the most significant algorithm updates in recent years. However, traditional SERP tracking tools showed only minor fluctuations after the update, and many webmasters saw no noticeable change in their core keyword rankings.…
The post How to Find BERT Keywords appeared first on Seer Interactive.
We updated a Chrome extension for SEO called SEO Meta in 1-Click. It was already awesome, but now it has 51 more tools to help you do those quick ad hoc checks for technical SEO.
The post How to Use SEO Meta in 1-Click (SEO Chrome Extension) appeared first on Seer Interactive.
When we think about Geo Analysis in search typically we’d be thinking of PPC Geo targeting, but theres a lot of information we can glean regarding our SEO efforts from performing a Geo analysis.…
The post 2 Geo Analysis Visuals You Can Create in Google Data Studio appeared first on Seer Interactive.
I’m a digital marketer. I’ve been at 3 companies prior to this job, from a 10-person startup to Fortune500. Every company has its fair shares of good and bad, but I always found myself asking more of the organization for which I worked.…
The post How I Ended Up at The Perfect Company & Why appeared first on Seer Interactive.
The most famous phrase used in SEO is “it depends”. Everything depends on the type of content, the CMS on which the site is built, the industry you’re in, etc. But when it comes to SEO for healthcare organizations, “it depends” becomes “it matters”.…
The post 3 Things You Need to Consider for Healthcare SEO appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Some call it “Cyber 5”; some call it “Turkey 5”. Here, we have a different name for the weekend after Thanksgiving: “Game time.” At Seer, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are like the Super Bowl for our e-commerce clients, and we take the holiday shopping season VERY seriously.…
The post Seer Clients Saw an Avg. +24% YoY Revenue Increase Over Black Friday Weekend appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Written By: Christina Blake & Kia Street.
Calculated fields allow you to create new or custom metrics or dimensions in Google Data Studio from your existing data. You can perform calculations, create categories, or transform your data with calculated fields.…
The post 10 Ways to Use Calculated Fields in Google Data Studio appeared first on Seer Interactive.
I recently found myself in a situation that required me to find internal linking opportunities for two separate clients. For me, finding internal links typically takes a lot of time and is a very tedious (and boring) task. For that reason, I think internal linking opportunities are often missed.…
The post How to Find Internal Linking Opportunities at Scale appeared first on Seer Interactive.
At Seer, we are here for a good interface “facelift,” and it looks like Facebook’s Creative Hub is the latest and greatest with a new look and all-new features. Present mockups of ads quicker, easier, and more efficiently with all the latest updates.…
The post Build Facebook Ads with Confidence Using the Revamped Creative Hub appeared first on Seer Interactive.
As an agency that delivers monthly SEO reports to each and every one of our clients, we’ve produced a lot of monthly reports in our 17 years in business. I review roughly 15 reports each month, and real talk, I’ve seen things that have kept me up at night.…
The post 7 Tips to Write More Effective SEO Reports appeared first on Seer Interactive.
I recently found myself in an odd situation. My client had launched an eCommerce site that is less than a year old. As I was digging through Google Analytics I noticed that about 56% of organic visitors were NOT viewing product pages!…
The post The Importance of Internal Linking to Boost Site Performance and UX appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Written by: Emmilly Best, Jennifer Hester
Originally Published: September 11, 2019 | Updated: December 4, 2019
By now you’ve heard of the General Data Protection Regulation also know as “GDPR” that passed in the European Union in 2016 and went into effect in 2018.…
The post What is the California Consumer Privacy Act? (& How to Prepare for It) appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Earlier this year, Google released a Beta ad format that enables us to share visual stories with potential customers, in addition to Display, Shopping, and YouTube.
The post Our Client Saw 890 Incremental Conversions with Google Discovery Ads appeared first on Seer Interactive.
This post was written by Kevin Zabel, one of our Fall 2019 Digital Marketing interns.
Looking for an easy-to-use tool that will grant you access to thousands of new keyword ideas for your company?…
The post Google Keyword Planner: A How-To Guide appeared first on Seer Interactive.
For years, digital marketers have served one master: Google (OK, and other search engines). Search engines zigged and we zagged to play by the rules they’ve set. Keywords on the page matter most for rankings? Alright, let’s get to a keyword density of 6% and call it a day.…
The post Optimizing for People: Why User Research Matters for Marketers appeared first on Seer Interactive.
The truth is, they might not. If you want to learn more about crawl strategy then check out our Screaming Frog Post. If you want to learn different tactical steps to keyword research then there are all kinds of Whiteboard Fridays to help with that.…
The post Top 5 Books About Leadership That Every SEO Should Read appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Thank you to everyone who attended our webinar on finding hidden budget and funding new marketing initiatives. Kim Jones and Dan Lauder showed us how to find efficiencies in your account and make data-driven decisions…
Start with questions
Find Public Data
Join with Search Data
USE Audience Insights
Explore Scripts
Try Saving Benjamin Tool
Research Smart Bidding
Here’s the full webinar or you can check out the recap below!…
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Do you use Google Optimize for website testing? If so, you’ve come to the right place – we have the scoop on Google’s most recent updates to the Optimize reporting interface.
Haven’t used Google Optimize yet? Read my Google Optimize guide for proper background context on the platform first!
…The post Google Optimize Rolls Out Updated Reporting appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Google held the first Google Webmaster Conference in Mountain View, CA on November 4, 2019. The Monday was filled with lightning talks from Googlers from various teams, with Danny Sullivan as the MC.
The conference followed Chatham House Rules, meaning that I cannot share the names of anyone who spoke.…
The post 6 Things You Need to Know From the Google Webmaster Conference appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Do you find it hard to keep track of all of your SEO recommendations after they’re implemented? Do you want to show the value of your SEO recommendations to clients? Well, it’s easier than ever now with Data Blending in Google Data Studio.…
The post 5 Steps To Track SEO Recommendations With Blended Data in GDS appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Written By: Erin Jordan, Jonah Ortiz, & Sean Pinto.
BigQuery was introduced by Google as a scalable solution to data warehousing to give enterprises more flexibility with their data. BigQuery is a serverless cloud data warehouse that allows users to query and join various datasets in a user-friendly interface at a low cost.…
The post Google BigQuery FAQs Answered appeared first on Seer Interactive.
In the summer of 2019, I interned at Seer Interactive in the San Diego office. During my internship, I learned a ton about SEO, PPC, and Analytics. Below are five key tips and lessons that I learned throughout my internship that made executing SEO tactics much easier.…
The post 5 Things I Learned About SEO as an Intern appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Updated By: Forrest Schaffer
In May 2017, Google had an exclusive beta kept under wraps for select accounts at Seer. At the time, this beta was a new bidding strategy called Maximize Conversions.
The post What You Need to Know About Google’s New Maximize Conversions Bidding Strategy appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Updated By: Vanessa Rodriguez
Google Shopping has been an integral part of strategy for my eCommerce clients by driving Non-Brand equity and providing opportunity for continued expansion. In fact, I have a client where Google Shopping alone accounted for 58% of total revenue so far this year.…
The post 10 Steps to Set Up Microsoft Advertising (Formerly Bing) Shopping Ads appeared first on Seer Interactive.
So you want to be a Senior SEO Associate (Sr. SU) at Seer? Fantastic! We’re filling roles in our San Diego and Philadelphia offices! The Senior Associate role, however, can be a little elusive if you’re not familiar with our roles and the way we operate.…
The post Senior SEO Associate: More Than Just a Stepping Stone appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords, is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform that runs advertisements, paid for by businesses. These ads appear in the search results on google.com, or other websites through Google’s Search Partners or Display Network.…
The post Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads: What’s the Difference? appeared first on Seer Interactive.
This is a co-authored post by Molly Nash and Grant Edrington.
We’ve all asked or have been asked this question — why isn’t my ad showing up when I search on Google? There are a lot of factors that could be impacting ad delivery and visibility, both inside and outside of your PPC account.…
The post Why Isn’t My Ad Showing Up on Google? appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Oh, featured snippets. Position 0 for the majority of its existence has been mystifying as Google seems to reserve this spot for websites that just happen to get lucky. However, as more featured snippets, especially answer boxes, are appearing in SERPs, we as marketers have the opportunity to obtain these highly coveted positions.…
The post How to Optimize Your Content for Google Answer Boxes appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Looking for actionable information about how to write effective product descriptions?
You’ve come to the right place.
In this 4,000+ word product description guide, we’ll take a look at:
A product description is the most important, high-touch marketing copy that helps your website visitors understand whether a product is for them and will influence the outcome of their purchasing decision. This is the perfect opportunity for you to showcase who the product is for and who it isn’t by not only presenting features but also the benefits, in such a way that it will compel your ideal customers to make a purchase.
Sadly, product descriptions are often overlooked and kept very simple or stuffed with generic blocks of text that just describe a product and not only harm your reputation but also affect your website’s ability to rank for a particular keyword.
The great thing is you can do something about it.
While we can’t promise that this guide will help you write the perfect product description for your eCommerce website every single time or your clients’ eCommerce websites, it certainly the best place to start. The truth is that you’ll only learn by actually putting everything in this guide into practice – so make sure all your reading doesn’t go to waste.
Before we dive into some examples, let’s take a look at what we’ve learned by taking a look at some of the most successful eCommerce stores in the world.
If you would be on the fence, what would you want from a product description?
The best advice that anyone will be able to give you without knowing your situation or saying “it depends”, is to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and ask yourself the following what would I want to know if I’ve never heard of [BRAND] and [PRODUCT]?
Describing your product to your website visitors as if they’re already 100% sold and just want to know more about your product will not result in an effective product description.
Most, if not all, won’t be certain that they need your product once they land on a sales page so you need to make use of the product description as an opportunity to showcase why people need your products, by presenting benefits, not features.
Features:
Benefits:
Notice the difference? Not only does talking about the benefits of a product make it easier for potential customers to see the value, but it’s also far less generic and boring than just listing everything that’s included with your product. Although being fully transparent about what’s included should always be a priority, so sacrificing that is not an option.
If you were about to purchase a product, wouldn’t know that you’re in the good company put you at ease?
Never fake social proof.
Not only is this highly unethical, but it’s also extremely unprofessional. If you don’t have people happily using your products, don’t mislead people into purchasing them by making it look like you do.
If people haven’t given you direct feedback in the form of testimonials there are still alternative ways to improve the credibility of your product pages. One of which is the popular “as seen on” or “already with us” section that is common on a lot of websites.
You’ve seen it before, almost every website has it.
Knowing you’re in good hands makes you comfortable.
The use of social proof on the Rank Math homepage
No surprises here, the lemlist homepage also has it.
The use of social proof on the Lemlist homepage
And so do thousands of other successful, highly-converting websites.
The use of social proof on the Kali Forms pricing page.
And one final example of social proof on the ContentKing pricing page.
Another slightly different approach is case studies. No, I’m not talking about the kind of SEO case studies you’ll find here on Gotch SEO. To support and add to your product descriptions being able to showcase how you’ve been able to help current customers, just like Servebolt does is another great, and perhaps even more effective, way of incorporating social proof on your website.
As for how this ties into product descriptions, I would personally recommend writing a small outtake that includes all of the most important information for each case study. This will allow you to link to the full case study for those who want to learn a lot more about exactly what you did and how it was helpful.
Don’t make it hard for your customers to find what really matters to them and make it easier for them to see what you really want them to.
While the content of your product description is important, on its own, it can’t make a huge impact if your page layout makes information hard to read and hard to find.
Poor product pages that likely can’t be considered helpful will have blocks of text, no images and information that hasn’t been arranged in any logical way. Of course, ensuring that your product description’s content is fairly good, but ensuring that it’s structured and organized well is equally important.
As we’ll look at later on in this post. Amazon makes use of structured data –often referred to as Schema markup – to display additional information in search. This can be extremely effective in some cases because it helps your website stand out among the others – increasing the chances that a searcher will click on your result.
The Rank Math WordPress SEO plugin is the perfect way to do this. The good news is that whether you’re using their full suite of SEO tools for your WordPress websites or not, you can still leverage their WooCommerce SEO functionality in combination with any other SEO plugin.
If your eCommerce website uses WooCommerce, which is a highly flexible platform for creating complex stores and have installed Rank Math, just head to your product page.
And then click edit on the specific product that you’d like to edit and scroll down to the meta box and click Rich Snippet. This will then let you enable the Product Rich Snippet to show searchers additional information without them clicking through to your website.
Disclosure: I do work with Rank Math but am an avid user of their plugin – and recommended their tools – long before doing anything together.
While keyword stuffing used to work well on Google back in 2011, (thankfully) those days are over. Google has gotten a lot better at understanding what users actually want (search intent) and catching out people who are trying to game the system.
Here’s what you should focus on instead.
Nope, it’s not time to go and shave. This is a screenshot of one of the examples that we’re going to be taking a look at later. They use power words to evoke emotions and develop a connection between their potential customers and their product.
This is the time to let your product shine, don’t just paint the picture by telling a descriptive story, use powerful, convincing and specific words so your customers will understand exactly how good your product is.
I’m not going to lie, this isn’t easy to do for physical products especially if you’re on a budget. The good news is that if you’re selling digital products and courses, producing aesthetic and appealing images isn’t actually that difficult. There are so many pieces of photo editing software to choose from and the key is keeping designs simple.
Physical products, on the other hand, are a completely different story. The example of Dollar Shave Club that we’re going to look at later on is a great example.
You want your images to be true to life and realistic but you also want them to look good enough to be on your website.
How difficult producing images like this really depends on what the product actually is. In any case, images should:
One creative example of this for a clothing brand would be to have the model try all various sizes of a t-shirt or hoodie so that the customers can see how the fit varies as this will help them make a better choice for themselves.
Obviously, I must preface the examples below with the fact that they’ve been written for a very general and non-specific course and follow the templates almost exactly. The truth is that you shouldn’t need a template to follow word-for-word, but these are great guidelines when you have no idea where to start and what to include.
Template #1: The “Ideal You” Template
Have you ___________________________? (struggle)
Learn to _______________ (key takeaway to overcome struggle)
without _______________ (pain and/or challenge).
(Product name) ______________
is ______________ (product benefits).
Example:
Have you struggled to grow your SEO agency? Learn how to turn complicated processes into easy, repeatable tasks that you can outsource and scale. Make agency life enjoyable.
Template #2: The “Perfect For” Template
Perfect for ___________________________ (ideal situation),
these _______________ (product name)
can be/will _______________ (tell a quick story).
(Product name) ______________
are ______________ (top features)
to _______________ (product benefits).
No more _____________________ (pain and/or challenge).
Example:
Perfect for stressed-out agency owners, these SOPs will make processes repetitive and easy to outsource. Our in-depth SEO training was built for people just like you with the potential to scale their agency beyond just themselves.
No more selling yourself short or just charging an hourly rate for your expertise.
Template 3: The “I’ve Been In Your Shoes” Template
I created _________________ (your product)
when I was ________________ (describe yourself before you created a solution)
and ______________________ (pain or frustration).
I wanted _____________________ (best case scenario).
That’s why I created _____________________ (product name)
with ___________________ (top features).
Now I _______________________ (product solution)
Example:
I created this in-depth SEO training course for people in the position I was two years ago. Not knowing what to outsource and where to begin. I wanted the ability to take days off without knowing that I’d be falling behind on client work. That’s why I created this set of SOPs to streamline and take the guesswork out of growing your agency. Now you never have to worry about creating your own SOPs for VAs and employees to follow and keeping everyone up-to-date anymore!
AppSumo – originally founded back in March of 2010 by Noah Kagan – is a deals marketplace for digital products and online services. They are extremely well-known for offering lifetime deals on SaaS products or subscription products that you would typically have to pay for every month.
As you might’ve seen if you follow Nathan Gotch on Twitter (@nathangotch) which I highly recommend you do, you’ll know he isn’t a fan of fake scarcity and urgency.
One #onlinemarketing trend I would love to see go away forever is fake scarcity/urgency.
Leveraging scarcity is one of the most powerful weapons of persuasion. But you don't need to do it in an unethical way.
Is an extra 5% conversion rate worth sacrificing your ethics?
— Nathan Gotch (@nathangotch) September 8, 2019
The truth is, however, that AppSumo’s model doesn’t rely on fake scarcity because once a deal disappears, it really is gone unless the company decides that they’d like to resurface the deal for a second time. As you’d expect, this use of scarcity is effective. Just like Snapchat, where messages and images are ephemeral the concept just psychologically encourages action and faster purchases.
Urgency and scarcity are now widely used across marketing campaigns to increase engagement and boost conversions simply because it works. I personally (and I’m sure Nathan himself would agree) don’t like the general concept of overusing it and would carefully consider doing something with a client or on my own site that uses scarcity.
That being said, AppSumo is a different case, their business model of negotiating exclusive deals is successful and their website is also a great place to look for inspiration when writing your own product descriptions.
For the purposes of this breakdown, we’ll be taking a look at Krisp – a noise-canceling application that aims to make calling easier and more productive by removing background noise.
In case this is the first time you’ve stumbled across AppSumo – their deal pages are always very conversational. They make use of creative headlines and tell stories that help customers understand when and why you’d need the product.
AppSumo’s Product Description Model:
Sounds simple enough to replicate, right? Yes, but don’t forget that you still need to give customers all the information that they’re looking for.
So, as you scroll down, the page transitions into an easier-to-digest section that breaks down exactly what you get. This is the section that most people skip to and read.
And towards the end of the page it again reminds people what they’ll get when they purchase the product and how it helps them as well as diving deeper with a demo video and screenshots showcasing the interface.
Apple obviously speaks for itself and needs no introduction.
They can also truly be considered a gold standard when it comes to eCommerce websites. Though keep in mind, Apple’s market share and authority in the industry also means that they don’t really need to go through a lot of the effort that your business and eCommerce website will need when it comes to building trust with potential buyers.
Just keep this in mind as we analyze the way that Apple’s product descriptions work – I really don’t want to say the infamous “it depends”, but I suppose it really does when it comes to looking at situations like Apple’s MacBook Pro line-up. Most people already know that they want to purchase the computer once they make it to the product page so it simply becomes a matter of comparing the different models and specifications with their respective prices to make a decision based on the buyer’s specific requirements.
This also contributes to the logic of having a reverse product description, where instead of being taken to a landing page, a user will see the information that is most important to them – also one of the easier decisions to make – the size of the computer you’d like to buy.
And only then further down on the page are you able to start comparing the base model that you’d like to purchase as is or then customize even further before buying.
This makes sense for Apple, but in most cases won’t for you. Why? Well, easy:
Dollar Shave Club is an American company based in Venice, California that sells razors and a sorted array of personal grooming products.
Simply put, they’ve got everything you need to look, feel and smell your best.
They’ve not only managed to build an incredibly successful business but also a website that now generates over 450,000 monthly visitors from search per month – with their brand keywords having search volumes that are far past the half a million mark.
I’m sure you get it by now – enough with the introduction already, right?
The product pages and their respective descriptions on the Dollar Shave Club eCommerce website also serve as a great example of how to present a large amount of information in a way that is not only easily digestible but is also laid out in a way that is easy-to-remember and read quickly. All while still making the product interesting and not confusing or making information hard to find for website visitors so they stay on the page instead of bouncing elsewhere to find the information they’re looking for.
So, without further ado – let’s break them down.
The images on the Dollar Shave Club do a great job of showcasing their products in an extremely visually appealing way. As I mentioned earlier in the article, this isn’t easy to do if you are on a budget, however for some products you may be able to avoid the need to produce “real” images and can stick to using mockups as long as they are true to life and portray your product in an appropriate way.
Don’t try to hide any crucial information (such as your product’s price) from people. Show this in an area that is above the fold or give them an easy way to jump further down on a page to the section that shows the breakdown of the price.
Price is inevitably going to be one of the main factors in someone’s decision to buy or not to buy your product so removing it or representing it in a way that makes it difficult for the user and results in bad user experience.
Most SEOs writing product descriptions for eCommerce websites aren’t marketers or copywriters which often results in copy that doesn’t do your product justice. Here, I’m referring to the section in the image above labelled with the #3.
Butter up for an effortlessly gentle, delightfully smooth shave.
Now, be honest with yourself – how does this to compare to:
Buy Our Shave Butter Now For A Better Shaving Experience
While the second one certainly isn’t the worst we’ve seen on the internet, it doesn’t actually describe your product, evoke emotion and help paint a picture in the potential customer’s mind.
*This is not an endorsement of Dollar Shave Club, I have not used their products and do not currently work with them so I cannot comment on the quality. However, given that they have formed a large part of this post, that might change soon 
Here, I’m referring to the section in the image above labelled with the #4. Just underneath the introduction to the product that rolls of the tongue and develops an initial connection/interest with the product – people not only see what the product does on its own.
They see what the product can do for them as well as why and how.
Example #1: Helps reduce the occurrence of ingrown hairs
While this isn’t a particularly glamorous thing to talk about in this post, ingrown hairs are an apparent problem. The inclusion of this short bullet point perfectly portrays how the product can benefit people.
Example #2: Helps to fight razor bumps by providing a smoother shave
As for example #1, use your product description as an opportunity to present your product as a solution to your customers’ problem(s).
What is Amazon? If only that question were easy to answer.
Amazon Inc. is considered one of the Big Four technology companies along with, Apple (which we looked at earlier), Facebook and Google. They have multiple business models spanning across eCommerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, artificial intelligence and more.
There are a few things we notice solely from looking at this search result – mainly the fact that they use the review snippet to enhance their search results.
This has been proven to result in higher click-through rates, simply because it is more visually appealing and stands out from regular/standard search results. Since this is something really easy to configure for your product pages, I highly recommend trying it out using a plugin like Rank Math (the option I recommend) or another plugin dedicated to solely adding structured data like WP Schema which is another popular option.
In describing their product, Amazon also takes this opportunity to showcase other similar products. This can be really useful if you have a number of similar products but each may only be suitable for specific use cases or have certain extra benefits.
It can also be one of your best opportunities to upsell people to a more expensive product or even order bump them to other products and extra add-ons that they may be interested in.
Aside from all of the profit-driven decisions, there are also other reasons to do this though which makes the entire experience more enjoyable for your customers. Seeing the product that someone is about to purchase compared to another similar product not only gives them the opportunity to make alternative choices but it also helps them reaffirm their decision.
Are you really leading them to make the best decision possible?
For the sake of your own product descriptions, this doesn’t only need to be in the form of a comparison to other similar products or that you offer, it may also be a great opportunity to show people how you stack up against your competitors. After all, for most companies and their products, the decision won’t always come down to choosing from one of their products. More often than not, people will be taking your competition into consideration so use this opportunity (since you already have the attention) to close the deal.
When doing these comparisons there are a few things to keep in mind:
Although this is no easy feat, the key is to strike the right balance of SEO and UX. This means you shouldn’t making compromises that sacrifice the user’s experience.
For our next example, we’ll be taking a look at Chain Reaction Cycles – an online retailer of cycling goods based in Northern Ireland.
The reason I chose this site is because it is a little bit of a different industry because the products they’re selling are just so different and certain information needs to be presented before cycling enthusiasts or professionals could even consider purchasing from them.
While their website’s design is by no means the most modern out there, they do a great job of presenting technical information in a way that everything is still easy to find.
In the second, smaller box (above) labelled with the number two, you’ll see another easy way of incorporating social proof. While displaying reviews on your own site and adding logos in an “as seen on” section is also popular, it’s also easy to fake. Using the Trustpilot review badge makes their exceptional reputation even clearer to customers.
Beyond this they also make it easy for customers to jump to other information to answer any questions and doubt they may have before purchasing the product right away.
While, the option to get in touch with support to ask questions should always remain in place, making useful information as easy as possible to access to remove as much friction as possible from the buying experience
If you’ve been in the SEO industry long enough, you’ll agree that most SEO questions can be answered by really thinking through what it is that the user actually wants.
That’s exactly why this guide has been written to not only help you write better product descriptions for search engines, but also for potential customers. If you’re about to launch an eCommerce store and feel overwhelmed with the amount of small yet important things you need to remember and keep track of, you should read this eCommerce SEO checklist from ContentKing next.
What tips & advice would you share with someone looking to write more effective product descriptions?
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