
How AI-Powered Content Helps eCommerce Content Teams Avoid Common SEO Pitfalls
There are more than 30 million eCommerce sites on the internet, spread across all verticals. And the number is perpetually increasing day by day.
Safe to say, as an eCommerce business, it’s not easy to stand out in today’s day and age, and the competition is only going to get tougher.
Things get even more difficult when we find that almost 3 in 4 customers are not going on the second page of search engines like Google and Bing, and at least one of them will click on the very first search result.
This means you need to stand out from the competition and preferably be in first place while you’re at it. This is also why you cannot afford to make any SEO mistakes.
However, that’s easier said than done. In fact, it might turn out to be a monstrous task because if there’s one thing we all know, it’s that eCommerce content teams are severely pressed for time and resources — and that can cause even the best of us to make some SEO mistakes.
But worry not — we’re here with solutions, not problems. In this piece, we’re sharing some common SEO mistakes to avoid, as well as some actionable insights on how eCommerce teams can leverage AI into this process to enhance brand discovery.
On that note, let’s dig in!
Common SEO Mistakes Made by eCommerce Teams
This section will help improve SEO strategies for eCommerce websites by shedding light on some of the common eCommerce SEO mistakes!
1. Using Placeholder Text in Product Descriptions
Oftentimes, when we’re in a hurry to launch a website or a product catalog, we end up publishing content that is missing pieces.
To meet tight deadlines, some product listings may have an image missing, or there might be a placeholder text where the product description is supposed to be.
For example, your website might end up with something written along the lines of “Lorem Ipsum” or have a copy-paste template like this:
This poses a serious SEO problem because you not only risk damage to your brand reputation by publishing low-effort content like this, but also because it:
- Leads to poor user experience
- Increases bounce rates
- Lowers organic ranking
- Reduces conversion rate due to lack of product info
- Signals to search engines that the content is incomplete
On the positive side, there’s a solution to this problem: You can use AI to generate content quickly and in bulk, eliminating placeholder text and ensuring all listings are launch-ready.
Basic Generative AI tools like ChatGPT might do the trick if you’re only dealing with a few products. However, if you have hundreds or thousands of products in your catalog, we’d recommend using an eCommerce-focused solution like Describely that can import your products and create descriptions in bulk at the click of a button.
2. Duplicate Content for Product Variants
Another mistake most of us have been guilty of is using the same descriptions for different product variants.
That’s to say, eCommerce stores may have multiple variants in a collection — but, to avoid SEO penalties, they only use one variant’s copy as the canonical to be indexed by Google. This means only one version of a product is shown in search results, limiting product discoverability and search engine ranking regardless.
While this isn’t an eCommerce SEO mistake per se, it does create missed opportunities for keyword coverage and ranking individual variants.
In fact, companies like Zapier have used the inverse strategy to rank for keywords — they’ve created different URLs for each app integration, along with different pages for specific app combinations. They then support this strategy by publishing ebooks, blogs, and other content to cover each keyword exhaustively.
You can do the same by creating different URLs and product content for each variant of your product.
By creating unique product descriptions for each variant, you can ensure all your product pages can be indexed to improve discoverability and SEO. (Besides, unique content will eliminate any possibilities of penalties, too.)
Once again, if you have a large catalog of products (with different variants), you can get AI to do the job of creating unique descriptions that still align in tone and structure.
To make things easier, AI solutions like Describely have the option to extract product details directly from images, so there’s no need for you to manually provide any details.
And if you’re looking for unique descriptions for each variant, Describely can help you there, too. All you’ll need to do is fill out some details on the Content Ruleset (this acts like your style guide in Describely), and it’ll use those details to create on-brand and unique product descriptions for each variant.
3. Lack of Non-Localized Descriptions
Did you know that 20% of online searches are in local languages?
This data is from an older study — but, the boom in voice search in the past few years has quite possibly resulted in an increase in localized search queries, too, as people prefer to communicate with their smart devices in their native languages.
For reference, Google now provides voice search speech recognition in 119 languages!
But that’s not all — there are other, more local studies that prove this theory. For example, a study found that India, a country with the second-largest English-speaking population, still prefers to consume internet content in local languages (with almost 90% of Indians agreeing with this).
For an eCommerce business that’s conducting business/offering shipping to multiple markets across the globe, creating product descriptions in local languages can be both an SEO benefit and a strategic move.
From an SEO perspective, the advantages of creating content in local languages include:
- Being found through local SEO
- Increase engagement rates (as customers would understand your product benefits in their own language)
- Search engines think your content is suitable (due to regional relevance)
It can be a heavy investment to find and hire writers to translate your content into multiple languages (not to mention the time and effort it’ll take). However, you can quickly create unique content in multiple languages with the help of AI.
In Describely, for example, all you’ll need to do is specify your output language, and it’ll create product descriptions in bulk in a matter of seconds at a fraction of the cost.
4. Outdated or Incorrect Information
If you’ve been in the eComm business for years, it’s quite possible that some of your older product descriptions might have outdated or incorrect information. For example, you could’ve changed your warranty and shipment policy in the past few years. Or, it could also happen that some of your writers may have gotten the wrong information in the descriptions in the first place.
Alternatively, platforms like Google or Amazon constantly change their policies, which might lead your products to rank lower or get penalized.
For example, using certain restricted keywords on Amazon can now result in lowered rankings, legal issues, and a possible ban on the platform. What’s more, this list of keywords is constantly being updated, so you might have already used certain restricted keywords in your older descriptions without realizing it.
Combined, these instances can result in a culmination of “eCommerce SEO mistakes.” But don’t fret — you can use AI tools to audit your product content in bulk. In Describely, you can do this by using our Content Audit feature. This feature will help you:
- Fact check your product claims
- Find inconsistencies in your content
- Proofread your content
- Identify if your product content stays on-brand
P.S.: Describely also has a built-in Amazon restricted keyword list to help your content stay in the clear (but you can add your own restricted keywords, too)!
5. Lack of Keyword Integration
Everyone knows that well-integrated keywords (both long-tail and short-tail) are the foundational pillars of SEO. If you can identify and integrate keywords correctly, you’ve almost won half the SEO game.
However, doing keyword research for every individual product (and considering seasonal themes and campaign requirements) every time you update your product copy can be a daunting task.
We understand this — which is why, we’re happy to report you can now use AI to do the task for you; no need to spend hours on keyword research for every individual product yourself. Specifically, you can use Describely’s SEO Tools to:
- Find relevant keywords (and integrate them within your copy)
- Avoid restricted keywords
- Create content that aligns with search intent and answers users’ queries
- Be consistent with your style guide requirements
P.S.: Aside from using Describely’s suggested keywords, you can add your own additional keywords to the list. Our editor will consider all the selected and restricted keywords and integrate them seamlessly within your product copy.
6. Using Same Product Descriptions Sent by Your Suppliers
Sometimes, eCommerce businesses end up using the same product descriptions sent by their suppliers or distributors (especially if running a race against the clock!).
Duplicate content copied from other sites can impact your search engine rankings, cause penalties, result in less organic traffic, and hurt your site reputation.
Instead, here’s what you can do: Use the keywords and product bullet points sent by your suppliers, and ask AI to create brand-new descriptions based on that information.
Here’s how you can do this in Describely: Go to your product catalog > Select a product > Add bullet points in the “Product Details” tab.
And as mentioned before, Describely will consider your customized content rules and style guide requirements to create publish-ready product descriptions for you!
7. Missing Metadata Optimization
Last but not least, another common eCommerce website mistake is skimping out on meta descriptions, SEO titles and tags for your product pages.
While your product page copy might look prim and proper, metadata is the first piece of information your audience sees when your product page shows up in search results.
More importantly, research has found that web pages with well-written meta descriptions have a CTR 5.8% higher than those that don’t. Other sources report that a good meta description can increase your CTR by as much as 10-15%!
If you’re not sure how to best optimize your metadata, AI can help you create keyword-focused and campaign-relevant meta descriptions, titles, and tags efficiently.
In Describely specifically, you can set instructions in your content ruleset on how you’d like to structure your metadata, and it’ll consider all the requirements before creating optimized metadata (aka, metadata that’s within X character limit, focuses on CTAs, has your target keyword, etc.).
Implementing AI Into Your eCommerce Strategy
Next up, let’s look at how to integrate AI within your eCommerce content strategy.
Step 1: Select the Right Tools
First up — you’ll need to select the right AI tools to help you in your content creation journey. For example, you can use certain AI tools to manage your content calendar (e.g., Easy-Peasy.Ai), generate images with the help of prompts (e.g., Dall-E), and create SEO-optimized product content (e.g., Describely).
As far as content creation AI tools are concerned, we recommend choosing a tool that:
- Is eCommerce-focused
- Has been trusted by other eCommerce companies
- Can manage the volume and scale of your business
For example, a tool like Describely is specifically created for eCommerce companies, and has been trusted by giants like Target, HOM Furniture, UGG, and more. Moreover, it can manage project scope of all sizes and capacities.
To learn how Describely helped our customers in the past, read our case studies.
Step 2: Train the Model
Next up, once you choose an AI tool, you’ll need to train the model with your style guide requirements, SEO guidelines, and product knowledge, so it can create an end-product that’s as close to publish-ready as possible.
For example, in Describely, you can completely customize your brand and content requirements. That’s to say, you can:
- Personalize instructions on how the content should be written and formatted (including instructions on metadata, length, structure, CTAs, output language, etc.).
- Create different rulesets for different campaigns (e.g., the instructions in your Christmas ruleset can be different from your BFCM ruleset).
- Provide instructions about your brand tone (and can even share a sample text so it can detect the tone from there).
- Create different tones for different customers (this might particularly be helpful to agencies with various clients across different verticals).
- Provide a list of restricted keywords that it can refer to whenever creating or editing product descriptions.
Step 3: Measure Success
Last but not least, once everything is said and done, you’ll now need to measure success through key metrics like organic traffic, conversion rates, and search visibility — just to see how well your campaigns (and product descriptions) are faring with AI.
In Describely, you can do this by integrating with Google Search Console and signing into your account. Once that’s done, you can directly view analytics like clicks, impressions, CTR, search position, etc., from your Describely dashboard.
What’s next?
In this piece, we discussed how AI can help you reduce SEO risks by providing high-quality, unique, and up-to-date product content at scale.
Describely, specifically, can help you mitigate SEO mistakes by creating on-brand product descriptions that consider SEO best practices, in the language of your choice, and can even audit your previous work and source the product information directly from images.
But that’s just the tip of what Describely can do.
If you’re ready to leverage an AI tool to improve your processes and are wondering what to do next to make this possible, we’d recommend checking out the top Gen AI tools, and finding which tools align with your brand requirements.
To get you started, here’s a comparison of Describely vs. other Gen AI tools:
- Describely vs. ChatGPT
- Describely vs. Copy.ai
- Describely vs. Jasper
- Describely vs. Shopify Magic
- Describely vs. Gemini
And once you’re done with your research and if you’re interested in Describely’s services, we’d recommend connecting with our in-house eCommerce experts.
They’ll help you understand if Describely is a good fit for your brand, which services to opt for, and how we can help you scale your business, improve search rankings, and drive more sales.