Shoppers love to compare options. Whether they’re browsing directly on your website or on a third-party channel like Google Shopping or Amazon (where 36% of all product searches start), you have mere seconds to stand out to customers. This makes your product listings crucial.
Luckily, with product listing optimization, you can shape how your products appear in these critical moments. Learn to improve your product listings to reap the benefits for your business.
Table of contents
What is a product listing?
A product listing is a card or tile showcasing an ecommerce product and its key features. They most often appear alongside other comparable products. They can live on your website, such as on your collection pages, on third-party sites like the Amazon marketplace, or in search results like theGoogle Shopping ads at the top of the search engine results page for products.
These listings aim to help people decide which product is right for them by showcasing key product details like:
- Name
- Image
- Price
- Promotional offers
- Brand
As a marketer, when creating your product listings, it’s helpful to include as much information as you can to help online shoppers make informed decisions. For example, feature positive ratings, whether you offer free delivery, and any unique features or specifications that can help you stand out.
What is product listing optimization?
Product listing optimization is the process of improving your product listings to increase their visibility and attractiveness to shoppers. When you optimize your product listings, they help increase click-through rates and drive more sales.
Product listings draw information from product pages via feeds. To optimize your product listings, regularly update your product detail pages and the information stored on those pages.
There are two main objectives to keep in mind. First, provide buyers with information that helps them understand which product best suits their needs. Second, consider the needs of search engines and third-party platform algorithms to ensure inclusion in search results. This means identifying the right keywords, incorporating high-quality images, and updating all relevant back-end fields. Once you’ve hit the right chord, continue to iterate and adapt over time.
8 ways to optimize your ecommerce product listing
- Tailor your listing to the channel
- Use high-impact product images
- Find the most relevant keywords
- Write a descriptive and accurate product title
- Aim for positive reviews
- Test your listing elements
- Highlight promotions and discounts
- Use structured data
Product listing optimization requires creativity and technical knowledge. Here are seven tactics to punch up your product listings to drive sales and increase visibility.
1. Tailor your listing to the channel
Product listings can appear on first-party channels, like a collection page on your website, or alongside your competition on third-party channels, like Amazon’s marketplace.
Each third-party channel has its own nuances and specifications for structuring product listings and data. Tailor your content to each channel’s guidelines to ensure your products rank among their search results. For example, the requirements for Google Merchant Center are distinct from those of an Amazon Seller Central account. Configure feeds that meet each channel’s needs.
Similarly, each channel will have specific requirements for listing details. Be mindful of character count limits on titles and resize your product images to display properly on each channel.
2. Use high-impact product images
Use professional product imagery to highlight your product’s differentiators. White backgrounds make comparison particularly easy for online shoppers. Alternatively, consider using lifestyle images that showcase your product in a real-life setting to give potential customers a better understanding of how they might use the product in their daily lives. Either product-only or lifestyle/model shots can perform better, depending on the location of the product listing and the brand.
Whichever format you choose, ensure your product images meet technical requirements. Follow the sizing and format requirements of each channel. Add alt text to your images and make sure the file names include the product name so they can rank in search results.
3. Find the most relevant keywords
Make sure your product details incorporate the search terms people are using to find products like yours. These target keywords should accurately describe your product and be used within product names and descriptions. Your SEO focus may differ depending on what you’re targeting: Amazon search engine optimization may be more specific, while Google SEO might be more broad.
The first step is to perform keyword research. Use keyword research tools to identify which keywords have the greatest search volume and examine how it correlates with your web analytics data to understand which search terms bring more paying customers to your website than others. Amazon sellers should also utilize back-end keywords—phrases users won’t see but that will appeal to the algorithm on the back end.
Add these primary keywords to your product titles to help search engines and aggregators understand what you’re selling. Include long-tail keywords in your product descriptions to make it more likely for them to appear in the search results. Be careful not to overdo it by adding keywords where they don’t make sense—this sort of “keyword stuffing” can negatively impact your presence in search results.
4. Write a descriptive and accurate product title
After product images, the title is one of the first things customers see on your product listing. In addition to improving discoverability for search engines and marketplaces, effective product titles reassure customers that your product aligns with their search intent. For example, if a customer searches for “women’s taupe cashmere socks,” the title should call out those key features.
It’s also helpful to ensure your titles and descriptions are distinct from your competitors. Highlight any differentiators in your copy to stand out from the crowd. If you are the only brand that offers a one-size-fits-all option, that should be front and center in the title. But if that’s standard for your product, like with a scarf, you may not need to include it.
Including brand names in your product title is particularly important for third-party sites and search engines. This is an opportunity to generate brand recognition. This will also help capture the attention of people familiar with your brand name.
5. Aim for positive reviews
Product listings often highlight aggregated rating scores. Inspire trust by ensuring your product has enough positive reviews and social proof to appear reputable at a glance. Send follow-up emails to customers asking them to review their past purchases to help gather more positive reviews and ratings.
6. Test your listing elements
Listing optimization benefits from iteration. Test different elements like your titles and pricing to identify ways to improve your click-through rate. You may find that product images convert better than lifestyle photos, but you’ll never know what resonates best with buyers until you test. Tweak one variable at a time and evaluate your listing’s performance two weeks later to see what converts more.
7. Highlight promotions and discounts
Particularly on comparison sites like Amazon or Walmart, pricing is a major decision factor for customers. Optimize your product listing with a discount or promotional offer to ensure you stand out. Keep your pricing competitive, but don’t devalue your brand or product.
8. Use structured data
Don’t forget to optimize the back end of your listings for search engines and aggregators. Structured data and schema markup are tags and snippets of code that help boost the discoverability of your product listings by communicating relevant product features like color or size variants.
One way to optimize listings with structured data is to implement Google’s Product structured data. Product schema highlights product details like name, price, availability, and reviews. Other schemas share information about discounts and promotions. The more information the better.
Product schema is built into most Shopify store themes, such as the popular free theme Dawn. You can also add other structured data to a Shopify site yourself or use schema markup applications to automate the process.
Product listing optimization FAQ
How do I optimize my product listing page?
Optimize your product listing pages by ensuring you have accurate, descriptive titles, high-quality product images, and reviews.
What is a product listing example?
A product listing is a tile or card that showcases a product’s image and details like name, brand, and price. Each product information card in the Google Shopping results at the top of a search engine results page is an example of a product listing. Similarly, the product tiles collection pages on ecommerce sites and Amazon Marketplace pages are also examples of product listings.
Why is it important to optimize your ecommerce product listings?
A vast amount of online sales start with product discovery and comparison on search engines and third-party ecommerce platforms like Amazon. Without optimized listings, your brand won’t appear in search rankings and will miss out on potential customers.
