Pointless copy on product list pages makes me feel compromised...

[QubaSEO]

When working on ecommerce websites we insist that product list pages need at least 250 words of copy that is optimised for our keyword phrase ... lets say "17 inch bike frames". So we have some crappy copy written that goes something like this....

"We have a great 17 inch bike frame for you whatever your requirement. Take a look at the frames below .... blah blah blah totally pointless text blah blah blah........."

This text is of no use to the user as the page is merely a means of  them getting to a suitable product page. However, the copy is pretty essential if we want to rank well for "17 inch bike frames" and not having copy on product list pages could land us in hot water with Panda ...especially if we have lots of them on a site using the same page template and with no copy on them.

Does anyone else feel uneasy with adding this crappy text to pages? It's only there for search engines and that is something that Google say's we shouldn't do but I know for sure they're not going to rank me as well if I don't have it.

I'd be interested to hear other people's opinion on this. It's always annoyed me. Does anyone have any good tips for making this type of copy on product list pages less forced and crappy?

[JMacSupply]

I would consider making a 90 second video on the product, and including a transcript of the video for the text/content SEO needs.

Hope that helps

[QubaSEO]

Hey Miki,

Great suggestion for product pages themselves but do you see it working for product list pages (product category pages) ?

Suppose we could have the shop owner running through and giving a brief intro to the different types/brands that have 17 inch bike frames and then produce a transcript of that.

[irvingw]

That might not have enough variation if the only variables changing in the transcript are the size of the wheels.

If the traffic justifies writing unique content for those pages and you have the bandwidth, then go for it. Maybe put it in a jquery show/hide or low down on the page so it's not in the users face if it's a bit rambling.

[PhilNottingham]

Yes. I completely agree. Think kind of text is crappy, pointless and I don't even think it'll do much to help your rankings (Google can sniff out "SEO optimised" copy from a mile-off).

The approach I take for this kind of things is to get an actually decent writer to craft the copy, without considering keyword optimisation whatsoever and just trying to make it as useful as possible for the user.

Assuming the writer doesn't use obscure language for the sake of it, this text will show enough relevancy for appropriate keywords and topics that the text will be better "optimised" than anything created for "SEO".