A well-optimized product catalog is essential for a successful e‑commerce business – it helps your website show in shopping search engines. You may miss out on many sales if your products do not appear in search results due to unoptimized content.
So, how to optimize it efficiently?
This blog post will discuss tips for optimizing your product catalog to maximize your search engine visibility and boost your sales.
Before we begin, let’s discuss the reasons and benefits behind this idea.
Why should you optimize your product catalog for maximum search efficiency?
Search engine optimization is essential for promoting your products to potential customers. When visitors look for products you sell, you want your business to come up as one of the top results.
Also, with an optimized product description, you simply help your customers to find what they’re looking for. In addition, the description allows shoppers to see all the relevant information and may be less likely to choose other websites to search for the products. So, it can also help with improving your conversion rates, website traffic, and customer experience!
Apart from that, keeping your product data well-organized makes it easier for you to manage your inventory and keep track of sales trends.
You can achieve the above by optimizing your product titles, descriptions, images, and other things. We’ve provided a few tips to get you started.
Best practices for optimizing your product catalog for maximum search efficiency
Let’s check them straight away.
#1 Implement a search bar for easy navigation
Implementing a search bar is essential if you want your customer to find products quickly. Make sure you choose the right tools for that. If you don’t have any that have caught your eye – check Luigi’s Box Search.
How does Luigi’s Box search work?
Thanks to AI, your customers can find anything they need in seconds. In addition, the intelligent search is excellent assistance that helps prioritize the relevant products to the actual search term.
Moreover, an autocomplete makes searching for products effortless. Users don’t need to type the full title of the product in a search box. Instead, when a customer starts typing, an autocomplete shows the search results as they type. This feature makes the search process faster, and getting to the product is like a breeze.
For example, if you have thousands of products, it would be hard to find the one someone’s looking for. Scrolling through the whole list of products is tiring and discouraging. And in these moments, an autocomplete comes to the rescue.
Luigi’s Box search bar prevents “no results” e‑commerce search. Unfortunately, sometimes these results occur due to an incorrect title or common misspellings. The good news here – is our search bar deals with misspellings and typos – even when a user makes a typo, the phrase search will be autocorrected. Again, it’s quicker to access the product this way.
#2 Use keyword-rich titles and descriptions for your products
Prioritizing optimized titles and descriptions makes a difference to users searching for products. When you use keywords, there’s a higher chance that your online business will appear on the first page of Google search results.So, do your best to include the keywords in your descriptions and product titles – you can use tools for monitoring what words buyers look for the most frequently and then use them in your content.
Google and other search engines use various methods to rank web pages in their search results. One of the most important aspects is that the content on a page needs to be relevant to the user’s query. Other factors are:
- how often a page is updated
- how many other websites link to it
- the authority of those websites
Just to name a few. However, understanding how product search engines work will help you better understand why you should use keywords and pay attention to your website’s quality.
#3 Use clear and concise titles for your product pages
Keywords included in titles and descriptions are essential for online retailers. However, how you formulate your titles with keywords is another thing altogether. It’s necessary to create clear and concise descriptions for your products and pages, making it easier for customers to find relevant information about the product or service.
If you’re unsure whether your text is clear, check if you can scan the page. By doing so, your customers should be able to catch critical details such as product price or delivery details.
#4 Group products together by category to make them easier to find
Categories make shoppers easier to find what they need efficiently. For example, put all the mountain trip essentials together in one section, all the bike facilities in another product category, and so on.
Grouping products by category also has another advantage – you can group related items. So if a user clicks on a mountain bike category, they will be able to find all the useful gadgets for a mountain trip they may need.
However, another accessible way to display the related items to the website visitors is by using Luigi’s Box recommender. Implementing the recommender box is straightforward and does not require much technical expertise.
#5 High-quality images of your products make a difference
Customers need to see the product before they buy it via your website. Thanks to high-quality images or photos, they can become convinced and decide to make a purchase. In addition, it is easier to get a quick overview of a product by looking at a clear picture or photo – it can be treated as a confirmation of the description because customers can verify whether it is accurate to what they see in the image.
Also, a high-quality image on your website or social media page shows that you value your product and are committed to providing your customers with the best experience.
Professional images help attract new customers who are looking for quality products. So make sure to invest in good photography and use it to showcase your products in the best light possible!
#6 Use customer reviews to improve SEO rankings
Maybe you have never thought about reviews as the source of keywords or search terms, but they work like that! That is why it’s a good move to include some positive reviews in the product description.
The reviews work well for SEO ranking, so feel free to provide happy customers’ feedback, encouraging the potential ones to make a purchase.
What’s more, customer reviews decreases bounce rates. Bounce rate is a percentage of users who enter your website and leave it right away (bounce), very often by clicking the back button. The higher the bounce rate, the poorer the content is for the Google search engine (as well as for an e‑commerce search engine and other search tools), so it’s more likely to be displayed lower in the search results.
Reviews make your website and products more reliable, so shoppers might stay at your website and browse for the goods they’re interested in.
#7 Include a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section on your website
Thanks to the FAQ section, users can find all the relevant information gathered in one place. Most frequently asked questions very often occur on Google as rich snippets. Those are the answers that you can see without entering the website. Using the FAQ section, you can attract new visitors to your website via organic search and direct them to related content – most typically blog pages or product pages related to the questions you are answering.
Tips on how to make an effective FAQ
If you’re planning to make the FAQ section on your website, keep these tips in mind to deliver the best content possible to your website visitors.
- Consider the customer’s perspective when writing the questions. For example: How many questions should I include in my FAQ section?
- Provide easy access to the FAQ section.
- Write short answers. The best length is about 270-350 characters.
- Use the language your customers use.
- When you write a yes/no question, start your answer with a “yes” or a “no”.
Consider adding a FAQ section to your website to improve search efficiency. It’s a relatively low-effort step that might have a significant impact.
#8 Keep your catalog updated with the latest products and promotions
Keeping your catalog updated with the latest products and promotions is essential for any business. It lets customers stay informed about what you offer and encourages them to visit your store or website more often.
One way to keep your catalog up-to-date is by regularly adding new items, whether seasonal products or new arrivals. You can also highlight current promotions in your catalog, regardless of discounts on specific items or sales on entire categories of merchandise.
Another way to keep your catalog updated is by regularly improving the images and descriptions of existing products. It gives customers a better idea of what each item looks like and its features and benefits. It also helps prevent outdated information from appearing in your catalog.
By keeping your catalog fresh, you can ensure that it always reflects the latest trends in your industry and provides valuable information for both current and potential customers.
#9 Add relevant tags to each product
An essential part of the shopping experience in e‑commerce is product tags. Again, they help customers quickly and easily find the products they’re looking for on a website. Tags also provide information about the product, such as size, color, and style.
For customers, well-tagged items make the shopping experience a breeze – they can quickly find what they’re looking for and make informed decisions about what to buy. For business owners, good tagging practices mean that products are easy to find and sell quickly. As a result, tags might help you increase online sales and help businesses grow their online presence.
There are a few key things to keep in mind when tagging products.
- Use accurate keywords for the product.
- Use different keywords for each product to show up in relevant search results.
- Keep your tag naming consistent so customers know what to expect.
Adding relevant tags to your products may enhance your e‑commerce experience and increase search efficiency.
#10 Use filters to help customers find the right product more quickly
There are many search filters. Depending on the range of products you provide, and the size of your store, you can use filters like:
- price range
- the most popular products
- seasonal items
- the material the product is made of
- category of products
- sales
- new collection
or whatever you find pertinent and helpful. For example, the filters are great for product categorization and may help customers get to the relevant product in the blink of an eye.
#11 Use full-text search technology
Online shopping is more straightforward when using a full-text search. It lets shoppers find keywords and phrases in the product descriptions, titles, and other areas of an e‑commerce site. So customers can easily find what they’re looking for, whether they need a specific item or just browsing around.
You can also improve your site’s SEO ranking with full-text search. By making it effortless for shoppers to find what they need on your site, they’re more likely to stick around and make a purchase. As a result, a full-text search can also increase sales and improve your site’s online visibility.
If you want to improve your search efficiency, consider using full-text search technology. You can use it to help customers find the products they need and boost traffic and sales.
Here’s another search efficiency tip for you – use Luigi’s Box!
How Luigi’s Box can help you to optimize your product catalog?
Along with the smart search bar mentioned above, Luigi’s Box provides other tools for e‑commerce websites: product recommender and analytics. Both are great for enhancing search results.
Box recommender
Based on previous shoppers’ search queries and preferences, the tool automatically selects the suitable items the user may like. For instance, if someone looks for a bike, the box recommender will show similar bikes and gadgets useful for bike trips, like bike lights or helmets.
This way, the user spends less time searching for relevant products and is more likely to continue shopping on your website because of the excellent e‑commerce search UX and the suitable recommendation.
Analytics tools
If you want to analyze your customer search, Luigi’s Box analytics tools make it easy to do this. You can see:
- the number of “no results” searches
- how many searches led to conversions
- what products are most frequently searched for
and more!
Also, users sometimes are driven to the wrong landing page, so they cannot find the product they were looking for. With Luigi’s Box analysis tools, it is easy to find a bug that redirects users to the wrong page and fix it immediately.
Finally, you can plan your campaign more efficiently with analytics tools because you see how your customers behave. So, use this knowledge and adjust the strategy or advertisements to your buyers’ preferences and attract potential ones!
Luigi’s Box pricing
Each entrepreneur has different needs. That’s why we treat our customers individually when it comes to pricing (but not only!). You can get a custom plan tailored to your specifications.
The price is based on:
- how many products do you have in your catalog
- monthly views
- Add-on services
Reach out to our sales team if you have any questions.
Luigi’s Box benefits in a nutshell
Among many other benefits, here are the most prominent ones:
- easy in implementation
- visual data reports
- intuitive interface
- voice search support (see how voice search works in e‑commerce business)
- analysis across many platforms
Luigi’s Box is a set of essential tools that work well for maximizing search efficiency. It’s worth implementing them into your everyday strategy for increasing sales, regardless of the product type you’re selling.
For the best e‑commerce strategy, check how to avoid mistakes and bad practices in online business.
Optimize your product catalog with ease with our tips!
Thanks to our tips, you can easily manage and optimize your product catalog without any trouble. By following these simple steps, you’ll be able to improve the quality of your products and increase sales.
To make it even more efficient, use Luigi’s Box! Thanks to the available tools, you bring the shopping experience to a higher level and make customers stay for longer! So don’t wait any longer – sign up for a free trial and start optimizing today!
Barbora does magic with words in Luigi's Box as a product marketing specialist. She got into writing while studying at university as a volunteer for various civic associations. Besides being part of Luigi's Box marketing team, she co-organizes the TEDxBratislava conference, where she cares about marketing and PR.
More blog posts from this author