Are your eCommerce product descriptions hurting your traffic & sales?

Without further ado, let’s get straight into it with a quick quiz. Take a look at the picture below and tell me if this men’s skincare product is:

a) a sunscreen,

b) a moisturiser, or

c) a combined product that does both?

The answer is…..

C, this product is both a sunscreen and a moisturiser.

But you wouldn’t know it from reading the product page, would you? Nope, there’s not a peep anywhere on the product page that says it is a moisturiser too. You can’t find mention of it in the short description, or in the long description. Not even in the FAQs (and P.S. if your eCommerce store doesn’t have a FAQs section for each product page, add one immediately). It’s moisturising benefits are not even mentioned on the product packing. Isn’t that crazy?

You might think I am crazy, because if it doesn’t say it is a moisturiser then surely it isn’t… right?

Wrong. Just going by the ingredients it definitely is (yes I’m a beauty guru too, lol), however to make sure I wasn’t going mad, I had to go onto their live chat and ask a human.

Their answer confirmed it. Yes it was indeed a light moisturiser. So given that, why was this major product benefit not even mentioned?

I love the Paula’s Choice range, so I don’t want to rain on their parade too much. Either it’s because they know men need moisturiser but they won’t actually buy something with the word moisturiser on it. However I don’t think this is the reason. I suggest it’s just a case of being too close to your products and not thinking it through before you go to market. We’re all guilty of that from time to time.

However, what a shame for Paula’s Choice. It is a lost opportunity for gaining more organic traffic. There are hundreds of people in Australia searching for mens moisturiser with sunscreen every month.

I know SEO isn’t always top of mind when you’re a busy eCommerce manager, but it’s a pretty big boo-boo nonetheless.

And when it comes to conversions, surely knowing whether a skincare product is a moisturiser is an important factor in the product selection process. So adding in this information might have persuaded more browsers to become buyers – if only they had known.

1/ add the keyword  ‘moisturiser’ to their product name to increase organic traffic on this keyword

2/ add the word ‘moisturiser’ to their short and long description (this helps customers and Google).

3/ make sure this keyword is also in the meta description to increase the likelihood customers will click your SERPS listing and not a competitors

Am I the only person who wondered about this product? I doubt it. My rule of thumb is that for every customer who bothers to ask a question there are 100 more who wondered but didn’t bother (asking or buying).

If the Paula’s Choice marketing team regularly reviews what questions are being asked in live chat -and this is what a savvy eCommerce marketer would do – perhaps they will add my question to their product description to help guide their customer’s product selection. I’m sure it would improve the conversion rate of this page.

It’s a quick way to gain a new source of organic traffic by expanding the relevant keywords Google will rank you for. It’s also helpful for your customers and being extra helpful is how you win the eCommerce game.

Your packaging name or product name could be missing an important keyword that helps identify what it is – this means you’re losing organic traffic and sales revenue so reexamine your product pages with fresh eyes – and if you feel too close to your own products, get someone new review your website for you. You’d be surprised what hidden nuggets can be uncovered.