Now you have the results of the key phrase research for your e-commerce site, how do you get the best from it?
How do you develop the most effective content from it?
Types of content
There are several types of content you either already have on your online shop, or should be planning to use:
- Product descriptions
- Product type descriptions
- How to use your products/case histories
- News
- Blog posts
4 & 5 may be the same on your site, but they can be different. It’s up to you.
Get the e-book Free!
I’ve gathered together my posts about Selling More From Your Online Store into a convenient e-book.
Content you must write
You’re going to have to develop content for your product pages. They’re the pages you must have. And they must have unique content, not copy from manufacturers’ sites and data sheets.
But you’ll also need to provide content for your Product Category descriptions, because it’s a very bad idea to bury your content several clicks away from your Home page.
As I’ve said before, the typical cookie-cutter e-commerce site with grids of identically formatted rectangles of product shot, price and link to the product page, doesn’t serve you or your customers. You need to break the mould.
There’s little to engage the search engines. And not much help for the human visitors, either.
And, perhaps the most important reason to put some copy on these pages. If you don’t provide any other dimension, any other value for your prospective customers, the only reason to buy from you is low price.
Don’t forget to get some real content on your Home page, either.
Look at your key phrases from different angles
Look at your list of key phrases. Imagine the kind of copy you could write around them.
I think about two broad divisions in key phrases. Ones that contain:
- Products and Brand Names – use them for product or product type pages; also news pages; blog posts about products and brands
- A Question – how to use, blog posts, case histories
You can see the ones that fit with product-related content. Assign them to your product pages and product category pages.
Look at the rest of your key phrases. They’re clues to what your prospective customers are interested in. They’re the core of questions they’re asking.
Create content to answer your customers’ questions
Now comes the clever bit. Where you can exert real leverage over your competitors.
Imagine the content you can write to answer your customers’ questions. You’ll be going that extra mile when compared to your competitors that have a site full of pack shots, descriptions cut and pasted from manufacturers’ sites and prices.
You do have a blog, don’t you?
If you don’t, this is where I urge you strongly to have one and post to it regularly. Don’t sit there and sigh! Yes, I know you’ve heard it all before, but here’s a reason you a may not have thought of.
You can press all those key phrases you’ve not been able to find a use for into service in your blog posts.
You see, not only do you get the maximum value from the key phrase research you’ve had done, but it also solves the problem that so many have with blogs – what the heck do they write about?
Create content and measure, measure, measure!
Now start putting as much clear water between you and your competitors as you can. Write that great content they can’t be bothered with.
Post unique, fresh stuff regularly, and measure the results.
Are you getting traffic to the pages that matter to you? Are you getting the sales you want? Which landing pages are converting best for you?
How do you decide which content to develop for your site? How do you judge success?
Get the e-book Free!
I’ve gathered together my posts about Selling More From Your Online Store into a convenient e-book.
Thanks to Crystal Campbell for making the main image on this post available via Creative Commons.