to Two Minute Tuesdays, where we give two minutes of ecommerce advice to bolster your

online success. When it comes to merchandising your products, SEO is the name of the game,

and more often than not, we use our product descriptions as an afterthought instead of

tools in our SEO arsenal. Well, forget that bad habit, because today I've got five SEO

mistakes that you're making in your product descriptions.

First on our list: Never use manufacturer's descriptions. This is probably the biggest

SEO no-no when it comes to your product descriptions. Why? Because everyone else is using the exact

same copy that you are. This is not good because it doesn't allow for your site and your product

descriptions to stand out from the crowd, and Google doesn't like seeing too much of

the same thing.

Secondly, and this usually happens with good intentions, make sure you're not inadvertently

using duplicate content. For example, if your product descriptions have similar bits of

content throughout each of them, like "money back guaranteed" or "we offer only the finest

ingredients," that still counts as duplicate content. So go through and make sure that

you're not repeating yourself whenever you're trying to upsell yourself.

Mistake number three is not writing like your customers think. It's really easy for you,

as the owner of your business, to get swept up in industry jargon and think of products

as you and other people in the industry would think of them. The only problem with that

is that people in your industry typically aren't buying from you. So think like your

customer, and as a bonus tip, look out on other websites and look at customer reviews

for the same products that you're selling. This might give you some keyword research

ideas that you can incorporate into your product descriptions.

Number four, and this is just an overall rule for anything when it comes to SEO, don't keyword

stuff. Your website is not a Thanksgiving turkey. In other words, if your keywords are

being used four to five times throughout your product description, it's not helpful for

your users, and Google's going to catch you, and knock your website down a couple pegs.

Last on our list, beyond keyword stuffing, you want to make sure that your keywords are

not too generic. This is especially true if you're in an industry where there are lots

of competitors, since several of them are probably using the exact same keywords in

their product descriptions. Get yourself ahead and go a little bit beyond. Add brand names

in there if they apply. Add high quality qualifiers to your keywords. That way you can get more

out of the "long tail" keywords and show up in search results.

Keep these five SEO no-nos in mind when you're creating your product descriptions. Have any

questions? Just leave me a comment in the box below. I'll get right back to you.

From me to you, happy selling.