Content Types to Boost SEO for Ecommerce Sites

[wickerparadise]

We are looking to improve our content strategy.

Our goal is to produce lots of valuable content on a regular basis helpful to potential customers and boost SEO on our site.

Does anyone have or could make a list of the different types of content google likes to see on your site to boost seo. (Ecommerce Store with ability to write articles and non product posts.)

Thank you!

[AndieF]

Hey there.

Here's the biggest tip I can give you: stop thinking about what will please Google and start thinking about what will please your users. Make them happy, and Google will follow.

A useful exercise is to have a whiteboard next to you, and every time somebody asks you a question about a product, category, brand or similar add a tally mark next to that. Whenever you get a chance to write some new content start with the one with the most tally marks. It's the one your customers want to find content for the most!

Often this content is best placed in the product description themselves (I've written about the frustrations I have where shops ignore this kind of detail at) but could also be static pages or blog posts.

Be in touch with your customers - best trick in the book.

• Andrew

[wickerparadise]

Thank you Andrew!

Specifically what kinds of content are going to work best with getting customers to like, share and value this content.

For example: (Off the top of my head I think of these)

-Good Old Fashioned Blog Posts: Picture and Words.

-Infographics.

-Video Demonstrations

-Look Books, Visual Inspiration.

[Everett]

I think a variety of content types will work best because different content lends itself to different formats. For example, most of the customer-service style FAQ stuff (like what AndieF mentioned above) would go well in a tabbed product description area on the product page. Something a little more link-baity (like "hottest Halloween costume ideas of 2013 for a costume store) would do well on a blog post. Video demonstrations of the products would definitely work well on a product page, but if you did enough of them you could have a whole section for video demos. I'm not a big fan of infographics these days since 9 times out of 10 there is a better way to present the content. In cases where an infographic really does distill a complicated message into an easy-to-understand visual aid, then yes those would work well and should probably be put on the blog.

But to re-iterate what AndieF said, the best type of content for your site is the content that will help your visitors make a purchasing decision. Which widget should they buy? What is the best one for their needs and budget? How do they fix the widget? What have other people done with their widgets (user generated content and visual inspiration) to customize them or use them in unique ways? How do I fix this common issue with my widget? And so-on.

[Instabill]

I think one of the most important aspects the above answers provided is sharing your helpful content. You can create news items, video tutorials, and slideshows and share them all on your website, but it will also help your SEO if you create different social media profiles and share the content in different areas of the Internet.

Whether you use a sub-domain of your existing site or purchase a new blog website, share news items and blog posts through Twitter and Facebook. You can create a YouTube account and share video tutorials on your channel as well as on Facebook. Create an account on SlideShare.net and upload slideshows to your account. Create a LinkedIn account for your business and use it for more professional purposes, such as connecting with your suppliers or merchant account provider.

One thing I have heard (and have been trying to implement myself) is that sharing content on Google+ has a significant impact, which makes sense since it is the social media network for the largest search engine site in the world.

Another thing to keep in mind is linking all of your social networking profiles to your website and/or blog. Websites like Twitter and Facebook provide you with great tools to reach out to your audience, provide them with opportunities to market your business to their friends and followers, and reach out to customers who may have been unhappy with a purchase (there is nothing like publicly fixing a problem for all to see how wonderful your company is!).

I hope this has given you a new perspective on your question at hand.

Regards,
Meghan