Online Store Content
Online Store Content Brief Summary
Online store content refers to all forms of online content that are directly associated with an online store or e-commerce website. This may include, for example, landing page content, written content for category pages, short and long-form product descriptions and other forms of content that users may encounter on the online store pages. However, beyond this, it can also include blog posts, articles, white papers, research papers and much more.
Different types of online store content may serve different purposes, but the basic objectives behind most of this content are usually to generate sales, increase conversion rates, and provide valuable information to store users. Furthermore, through the use of search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques, content on an online store can be crucial for boosting rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) and enhancing visibility in the process.
Online Store Content: Detailed Summary
Since the creation of the world wide web, the entire field of e-commerce has grown rapidly and the vast majority of people living in developed countries now carry out out some form of online shopping. This does, however, mean that there are a huge number of online stores available and, inevitably, this means that most online stores face significant competition. Moreover, in many cases, this competition now exists on a global basis, rather than a regional basis.
With this in mind, the owners of online shops need to find different ways to stand out from their rivals and attract customers. One of the most effective ways to do this is through the creation of high-quality online store content. When this content is created strategically, it can have a significant bearing on people’s purchasing decisions.
Product descriptions are perhaps the most obvious pieces of online content associated with e-commerce sites. In many cases, manufacturers will actually provide their own product descriptions, which are available for online stores to use, but actually doing so is not always advantageous.
Crucially, search engines like Google penalise duplicate content, resulting in lower placement on search engine results pages and lower overall visibility. Therefore, two online stores using the same product description – provided to them by the manufacturer – will actually harm each other’s placement on SERPs. For this reason, many online stores insist on re-writing product descriptions, using different wording to present the same information.
Landing page content can also be considered a type of online store content. Many e-commerce websites have been designed so that users can access them through one of many different landing pages, which are often accessed through search engines. Landing page content is typically promotional and informative in nature and is intended to generate conversions. As a result, it should be persuasive, make a compelling case and provide easy access to the main store.
In some instances, online store content may also include articles and blog posts, and these will typically serve multiple functions. For example, content of this type can form part of a content marketing and SEO strategy and it can also be used to convince readers to purchase particular products. Similarly, content like research papers, white papers and infographics may be useful for delivering more technical information, in order to increase sales.
Finally, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) pages are among the most useful online store content types. When this content is carefully crafted, it will swiftly answer the most common questions website visitors have, drastically reducing the need for users to contact customer service reps to ask questions. These pages are also ideal for SEO strategies, because the questions will often resemble the search strings entered on search engines like Google.
Creating Quality Product Descriptions
As previously stated, product descriptions are a major example of online store content and if you are creating your own product descriptions, there are a number of best practices to try to keep in mind. The first is to try to make sure your content is as unique as possible. This will mean re-writing any product descriptions that have been sent to you by manufacturers. You can use services like Copyscape, Quetext and Grammarly to check how unique your content is.
The basic format for most product descriptions is a heading, which will typically be the name of the product, the main body of text, which describes the product in detail, and a product information section, which will often take the form of a table, providing snippets of information on things like the size and weight of a product and the materials used. Some product descriptions will also include safety warnings, customer reviews and a call to action.
A good product description should clearly explain precisely what the product is, what it does, who might use it, and how it can actually be beneficial to those people. It should try to answer as many of a potential buyer’s questions in advance as possible and it should make clear what the unique qualities or properties of the product are.
SEO principles can also be applied to product descriptions, to boost visibility on search engine results pages. This means carrying out research on the best keywords to target and making sure they appear not only in the main product description, but in headings and other on-page elements. Product description content should also be mobile optimised, because a failure to do this can result in a high bounce rate, especially if content is hard to read on smaller screens.
Tips for Other Online Store Content
Blog posts and articles can play a key role in a marketing strategy, helping to attract visitors to an e-commerce website in the first place, and the focus should be on ensuring content is valuable. This means creating content that is genuinely useful, informative and engaging. Where possible, online store content should aim to solve problems for users, or provide something of real worth. Content can also be optimised for search engines, based on keyword research.
The main thing to focus on with a Frequently Asked Questions page is answering genuine questions that customers or potential customers may have. The wording of questions can be optimised based on things like keyword research, but the page needs to be worthwhile and geared towards convincing people to make a purchase.
White papers, research papers, ebooks and similar types of content can be used to go into much more detail about the benefits of products or services. These content types are aimed at convincing the most sceptical of potential customers and so there needs to be a strong emphasis on providing tangible evidence for any claims made. This evidence could take many forms, from surveys and market research, to laboratory test results, depending on what is being sold.
Conclusion
Online store content can take a number of different forms, but it is usually intended to improve the user experience, while also encouraging visitors to make a purchase. Some of the best practices to adopt when creating content for an online store are to prioritise original content and make strategic use of keywords. However, the single most important thing is to make sure content is useful, interesting, informative and has actual value for those reading it.