SEO Promotion for Marketplaces: Optimization of Product Cards

July 29th 2022

Popular marketplaces are ready-made online stores where you can register and start trading right away. There is a lot of competition on marketplaces, and in order for the buyer to notice your product and not go to another seller, ad texts need to be optimized for key queries. How to do it correctly and how SEO-optimization of a marketplace differs from a regular site, experts from the Ingenious Guru agency will tell. The seller must use keywords in the description of product cards: in the title and characteristics. And you also need to add high-quality photos.

@nicolebotello
Nicole Botello

Nicole Botello, I have been working in the field of web design since 2005.

Marketplaces are very popular with entrepreneurs today. The advantage of these sites is that a business can immediately start selling goods, and for this, you do not need to create your own website or develop social networks. Popular marketplaces are ready-made online stores where you can register and start trading right away.

But just adding photos of goods, their descriptions t, and then sitting and doing nothing will not work. There is a lot of competition on marketplaces, and in order for the buyer to notice your product and not go to another seller, ad texts need to be optimized for key queries - this way your product will be found faster when searching. How to do it correctly and how SEO-optimization of a marketplace differs from a regular site, experts from the Ingenious Guru agency will tell.

Search Optimization of The Marketplace: Product Cards and Metadata

Search optimization of the product card is necessary for the marketplace search algorithms to see the seller’s offer and show it to potential buyers. SEO for the marketplace works on the same principle as in Google or Bing search engine optimization: the buyer enters a search query and the system offers him products. To get into the TOP of offers, the seller must use keywords in the description of product cards: in the title and characteristics. And you also need to add high-quality photos.

What does good marketplace SEO look like to the seller?

Product cards rank highly in the internal search results of the marketplace. Potential buyers go to the product card and buy.
Customers become loyal, leave positive feedback and come back for repeat purchases.
The product card receives additional traffic from Bing and Google search engines.

On the other hand, not only does the seller needs optimized product cards, but it is also beneficial for the marketplace. After all, if the seller is engaged in improvement and SEO optimization, then the marketplace as a whole becomes more convenient for customers. And as such, more sellers; all the better for the site.

How SEO on the Marketplace differs from Website Promotion

When a business is engaged in SEO promotion of its website or online store, it is always a combination of internal and external factors:

technical and page optimization;
creation and distribution content;
link building;
crowd marketing;
work on awareness and brand reputation;
and so on.

As a result, we get a huge scope of work.

There is also a lot of work in SEO promotion on marketplaces, but the focus is always on one main tool: you need to constantly expand the semantic core. The larger it is, the higher the chance for the seller to get to the TOP of organic search results.

A large semantic core is available to sellers with a wide range of products. For example, you sell sports goods in Moscow and you have many different categories: goods for boxing, football, basketball, gymnastics, ballet, dance, martial arts, and so on. For each category, you can have hundreds of products and for all of them, you need to choose keywords and phrases. You select 5-10 keywords for each and add them to the descriptions on the landing pages. If everything is done correctly, the search engine will rank your store highly on the marketplace and display pages in the first positions in the search results.

Say your competitor also sells sporting goods on the same marketplace, but he focuses on only two areas: sports uniforms for football and soccer. You can make a large semantic core here, and, most likely, it will be more difficult for him to get into the TOP than you.

How to Carry Out Search Optimization of Product Cards on The Marketplace and Reach the top

Here are our recommendations to the seller that will help you get to the TOP of the search and which you can do yourself:

Use keywords from semantic core in titles to product descriptions. The title should be no longer than 100 characters and it can fit up to six keywords.
Make product descriptions detailed to cover all the semantics so that the user does not have any questions.
Specifications should be easy to read. At the same time, you also need to add keywords and phrases to them: this helps to bring products to the TOP of the search.
Product descriptions should not consist of keywords alone. Because marketplace algorithms can consider such a card as spam or even impose sanctions on the seller.
Description text must be unique and not repeated.
Specify headings and subcategories in the product cards. And then your products will be shown to users from neighboring categories.
Add more quality photos to product cards. From different angles and in good light. The better the photo quality, the more attractive your product looks, the higher the chance that it will be bought faster than that of the competition.
Shoot short video reviews of products. This will increase the confidence of potential customers: they will be able to see in advance what their purchase will look like. And they will make a decision in your favor faster.
Entrust SEO-optimization of the marketplace to specialists who know all the nuances. Ingenious Guru Agency provides such a service and guarantees a leading position in the marketplace no later than three months of active work.

Bonus: What else Affects The Position of a Product on The Marketplace - The Secrets of SEO for The Marketplace

We conducted an experiment and found out what else affects the positions of the TOP products in the search for marketplaces:

The marketplace displays in the TOP of the results those products that are most often bought and that users of the site are most interested in.
The same applies to products that are in stock: the marketplace also displays them in the TOP. Therefore, it is important to monitor the availability and be sure to indicate this in the product card.
The better the rating of the seller and the product, the more often it will be shown to users - take care of the reputation and good ratings of the goods and your profile as a seller.
It is also affected by the percentage of redemption of the goods: the more often the goods are taken away after being put in the basket, the higher the rating of the seller. Help here buyback - when goods are ordered and turnover increases.
More than 80% of buyers on marketplaces are guided by reviews, and if they see at least one negative one, they leave to study similar products from other sellers - it will help in writing positive reviews.
Insufficiently complete or errors in the description of goods reduce the likelihood that the seller will get to the TOP of the issue. Therefore, you need to check the text for grammatical and spelling errors before you publish it.
The faster the seller answers the buyer's question, the higher the likelihood that the transaction will take place and the goods will be bought. The buyer is ready to wait for an answer for no more than a day.

Marketplace SEO Step by Step

Various businesses apply to our agency for promotion on marketplaces. We work with sites like Wildberries, OZON, Lamoda, Aliexpress, and others. Our work consists of the following steps that you can take into service:

STAGE 1. We Formulate the Problem

We do it together with the client. We answer the question “How many sales from the marketplace do you need to get?”.

STAGE 2. We Study the Competitive Advantage of the Client's Products

It is important to understand what can be emphasized in the description in order to catch the attention of users.

STAGE 3. Analyze Everything

If the client has already placed his products on the marketplace, we look at the available product cards: what are their characteristics, photos, and whether everything is correct from the point of view of SEO. We compare with the cards of competitors' products in ours, how they are better or worse?

STAGE 4. We Create a Promotion Strategy

We form the same semantic core, which was discussed above. According to the keywords that we collect, we will promote products. We also include the buyback volume and the number of reviews that need to be placed in the strategy.

STAGE 5. Optimizing Product Cards

We correct titles and descriptions, order all the texts on the product pages. We develop, if necessary, card designs and infographics for product presentations.

STAGE 6. Working on the Seller's Reputation on The Marketplace

This is also a very important stage of search engine optimization for the marketplace. And it is based on creating positive reviews about the goods and the seller and posting them on the marketplace, review sites, and social networks. Reviews can be in the format of texts and videos. The more reviews, the higher the seller's rating.

STAGE 7. We Launch Advertising

We promote product cards on Bing and Google marketplaces using SEO methods. Additionally, on the pages of marketplaces, we provide contextual advertising in Google. Direct, targeted advertising in social networks, and so on. This allows you to increase sales and card conversion.