Text Placement?

[DoRM]

We have an eCommerce site.  We have noticed several of our competitors are moving their text to the top of the page.  How much of a difference to you think it makes in googles eyes to have the text at the top above the products vs bellow them?  Here is an example of how one of them moved the text to the top http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/119/MNGR/Motorcycle-Jackets.aspx

[askshopper]

Having your keyword phrase at the top of the page, first paragraph, title is important, also at the end of the page.

[Jungles]

This is very interesting! If you will change the placement of your text ,please, share with the results with us.

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My 2c:

According to Google's placement rank (if I'm not mistaken the change of this Google's algo launched in the middle of the 2011) definitely there is benefits to present text like this :

There is no need to scroll down for it - Google favors that,

Lower bounce rate (users will most likely read at least beginning of the text before leave or hit back button)

More engaging - you have a chance to educate,grab attention etc.

best,

Jungles

[DoRM]

However, by having the text higher up we move our products down and that could lower the conversion rate, right? And isn't having products good quality content too?

[SanketPatel]

Hi Dorm

I agree with Jungles & askshopper. As you know Content is the King in SEO..

If the Unique Content (incl KW's with bold/strong tag) is above the product then google will 1st see that part and then your products. Products are most likely a duplicate content (Product Title, Product Desc, etc). Google loves unique content so if Google see unique content 1st which are helpful to users then google loves it..

If i am not wrong google see the page in this way : Title, Description, H1, H2 and then starts with the 1st paragraph(very imp) of the page. If you target the keyword in 1st para of the page then it will really helps. Also, if the content is below product then google will see that lastly which might not get more priority in google's eye logically. Normally google works as an user, if we are an end user then 1st we start with the 1st para and if we like 1st para then we continuously go ahead otherwise we stop there. Same with google, if 1st para is unique & very helpful to end user then google loves it....

Please let me know your views.

[DoRM]

What is your opinion on something like http://www.bikebandit.com/motorcycle-tires/n1348 where they have the text at the top but it only takes a couple lines before it has the option to expand with the "more" option.

[SanketPatel]

Google will see the whole content because its opening in the same page(Ajax) & if you see the source code then you will find the whole content in the html code.. Google reads the html file so google can read it. For google its perfect so if you are using the content for google then its fine but if you are using the content for end users then i dont think so its good because 1st 2 lines are not so attractive but if you give helpful info in 1st para with 4 - 5 lines and then you give "more" option then i think its good as per end user's view...

[DoRM]

We are using it for both.  We want the first two - three lines to be quality content, however my boss does not want to push the products down to much cause he thinks it could hurt conversions.  So by adding the "more" option it is a way we can agree to move the content to the top without having to push the products down to far.  With a new content writer in the house we are now having good quality content around 2-3 paragraphs a page and he thinks that will push the products down to far.

thoughts?

[Jungles]

Yes and no! There should be golden middle way. Google will rank you better if you will put your text higher but you will have lower conversions because of this. Try to implement various designs and run split/multivariate testing. You will see exactly which version will be performing better!

Please, let us know outcome of this experiment!

regards,

Jungles

[DoRM]

What is your opinion on something like http://www.bikebandit.com/motorcycle-tires/n1348 where they have the text at the top but it only takes a couple lines before it has the option to expand with the "more" option.

We are using it for both.  We want the first two - three lines to be quality content, however my boss does not want to push the products down to much cause he thinks it could hurt conversions.  So by adding the "more" option it is a way we can agree to move the content to the top without having to push the products down to far.  With a new content writer in the house we are now having good quality content around 2-3 paragraphs a page and he thinks that will push the products down to far.

thoughts?

[SanketPatel]

Yeah Dorm i agree with you and your boss.. Yes you can move ahead with 3 - 4 lines(helpful for users) of unique content so that they can click on "more" for more valuable info..

[Jungles]

If you have logic behind it, If you can create this 'more' button that it does not reload page(Ajaxed) and it still indexes all text on the same page and if this is not something that will disturb visitors visually - definitely go for it!

Just remember the date when you will implement that and closely watch your conversions!

regards,

Jungles