Search engines use the content on any webpage to determine what search terms that page should rank for. The search engines use what are called “crawlers” to read the content of a webpage and then use a very sophisticated algorithm to determine the rank of the page based on that content. If you have generic product descriptions that have been copied from different manufacture or supplier’s sites, problems will occur, which will affect your ranking in the search engines.
Duplicate Content is a BIG no-no
eCommerce sites that do not have unique content will cause a conflict for the search engines when they try to rank the pages of the website. The problem happens as the search engine crawlers discover several pages that are very similar, with the only difference being the type of products on the page. The images and brief, generic descriptions simply do not offer enough information to let the crawlers know what the pages are about. In the end, the similar pages of the site cause the website to never get high rankings for any of its relevant keywords/phrases.
Become a non-conformist (of writing content)
The best way to end the conflict of low search engine rankings is to add unique content to the pages of your website. If you have catalog pages with several products on them, adding a couple of paragraphs of unique content will be the only thing that will let the search engines know it is different from the other catalog pages on your site.
Do not be afraid to push the products down to allow enough space for a couple hundred words of text. Pushing these products down will have no negative effect on the conversion of your website. Without the content, the page will not be able to rank high in the search engines and there will be no visitors to convert.
If you have “feature products” towards the top of the page and do not want to push them down, then break up your content. Include a couple of sentences at the top and place the rest of the content below the products.
Final thought
It is usually very easy to use manufacture or suppliers product descriptions and paste them on to the product pages of your site. However, if you take the time to write your own product descriptions, the end result is well worth it. Copying product descriptions is quick and easy, but the search engines know which website had the content first. If your competitors write their own descriptions, and you copy the manufacture’s descriptions, you’ll never rank better than your competitors for the best converting keywords.