Content is Still King for Natural Search

Every business owner that has been on the web for any amount of time knows that content is crucial for SEO and this does not exclude Yahoo Store users. In fact, Yahoo Store owners should take special note of this fact considering you are using the best online business shopping cart software available. Your Yahoo Store is as search engine friendly as they come so take advantage of it and write killer content for your products.

But what do I write about?  That is an age old question for store owners but its not as hard as you might think if you consider why you are doing it.  I am going to use one of my own stores as the example.  I own a sword store that sells, among other things, 300 swords from the blockbuster film "300" by Frank Miller. Now most Yahoo store owners, when adding new products, will simply head over to the manufacturer's website and download an image and copy and paste the description into their caption field. If you are one of these types don't be ashamed, you are not alone. But, you can get a huge leg up on your competition if you change your ways and listen to what I am about to tell you. Lets say I have just 100 other stores competing with me for the keyword "300 Swords" and all of us use the same manufacturer with the same image and description that the manufacturer has listed. 100 stores with the same image and same exact description. Before getting into SEO at all, think to yourself…how does that separate me from my competition? You are right…it doesn't. So the first reason to write your own product descriptions is just to be different than everyone else. 

The second reason for doing so is strictly for search engine optimization (SEO). Its not rocket science folks but its not called the "Information Super Highway" for no reason. Always remember that. The Internet and World Wide Web was created for the sole purpose of sharing information and that has not and will not change anytime soon. This means you have to assume that anyone doing a search for your products or keywords are not looking to buy anything. They are looking for information and its your responsibility, your job, your number one goal, to give it to them. If you never do anything else, if you will apply this philosophy to any new page or product page you create in your store, you will head and shoulders above your competition but don't get lazy. As each year passes, your competition gets smarter and before you know it, they are passing you by.

Anyway, let me get back on track. Lets see how writing content makes a difference, not only for search engine rankings, but also from a customer perpective. Firstly to understand how to write your product descriptions, lets identify who your customers are.

• Competitive: cutting edge, early adopters
• Methodical: research and compare, need all the details
• Humanistic: speak to emotional benefits of the product
• Spontaneous: impulse shoppers

 I know, there are probably more but honestly, this tiny list has worked well for me. Once you know who you are writing for (and it varies depending on your product and market) its really easy to start writing quality content for your Yahoo store. Now, lets look at some examples of how content can make a huge impact on your business.

This is the Manufacturers Original Image and Product Info…as you can see, there is not much here to work with.

 
And here are 3 stores offering the same product. 

Once you are done, ask yourself, who would you buy this item from? "Competitor 3" does the best job by providing a real image of the item, making it easy to add the item to the cart but best of all, the copy meets 2 of the characteristics from above; Humanistic and Spontaneous. The first one is ok but really is just stating the obvious like most manufacturers copy does.  The second gets better but is more on the historically accurate side which really solves no purpose to the buyer…unless the buyer is looking for INFORMATION about the 300 Spartan battle in general. But the problem with that is someone finding that site may not have been looking to purchase anything at all.  Its almost like a history book story and would likely generate a ton of traffic from some high school or college kid looking to write a paper.  Then you have the last image which really gets an interested buyer to actually make the purchase based on their emotional wants and desires. It also provides enough information for the search engines to distinguish it as being informational.  Writing copy is important because you have to meet the needs of what the search engines are looking for while also meeting the needs of your customers to increase conversions.

By the way…the last image is of my store (as if you didn't realize that already) and it works. Head over to Google and do a search for 300 swords and I bet Replica Dungeon is somewhere in the top 3. ;-p

The point I am trying to make is that copy makes a HUGE difference so make it count.