Write titles and descriptions for the shopping comparison engines as if you were writing for Google and Yahoo!. Use keyword phrases that you think consumers search for. Do a little research (through Adwords or Overture’s Keyword Selector Tool).
Most ecommerce stores submitting to the shopping comparison engines do a simple pull from their database which returns less than optimal titles and descriptions. Be very aware of what you’re pulling. The page the product is on might be perfectly optimized for Google and Yahoo! through the use of headers and alt tags and links and keyword phrases scattered throughout the page, but pulling two fields from your database might not return the optimal result for the shopping comparison engines.
For example, if you sell christmas trees, here’s an acceptable, but completely useless and un-optimized title and description:
Title: Chesapeake Tree
Description: 6.5′, Diameter: 36″ at center, free stand
Assuming the main keyword phrase should be ‘christmas tree’ (that’s what the company is trying to sell), here’s an optimized title and description:
Title: Chesapeake Christmas Tree
Description: This Christmas tree will warm your hearts for the holiday season. Chesapeake Christmas tree is 6.5′ tall with a diameter of 36″ so you can fit all your Christmas gifts right underneath. The Christmas tree comes with a free stand.
What did I do? I used the phrase ‘christmas tree’ a number of times. I put the phrase at in the title as well as the description. I put the phrase at the beginning of the description. I worked the phrase ‘christmas gifts’ into the description as I know it’s a popular term that I also want to show up for.
In the end, I’m not saying this is the perfect title and description for the keyword phrase ‘christmas tree’, but the point is that you should test a customized and optimized title and description against your current format. If you sell 10 christmas trees, change 5 titles and descriptions to incorporate keywords/keyword phrases and then track the clicks/conversions.
Disclaimer: All optimization strategies are suggestions and do not guarantee success. These are data feed optimization tactics I have used or others have suggested which I think everyone should at least think about, if not test.
