PIMs, Product Guides, and SEO

As marketing teams are tasked to do more with less, working smarter, not harder, should be the goal. 

Marketers are being tasked with churning out marketing resources constantly, like product guides, to drive results for their business and captivate a larger audience. 

Luckily, with the help of SEO, marketers can increase ROI for their businesses and continue to reap its benefits in the long term. 

A Crash Course to SEO

Thirty-five percent of product searches start on Google. When customers search for questions like, “What is the best dishwasher”, they’re not advancing to the second page of the search results. The searches that appear on the first page are likely going to be the only ones the customer clicks on to view. If your brand isn’t on the first page of Google, customers aren’t seeing it. 

That’s why SEO is so crucial to manufacturers. 

DemandJump defines SEO as “the process of increasing search engine traffic to a website or web page.”

There are two types of SEO, including

• Content Marketing - Creating content using popular keywords in your articles, embedding videos and images in your content, and ensuring the content is original. 

• Technical SEO - This is what goes into the backend of a piece of content, like load speed, domain authority, backlinks, etc. 

Want more information on SEO? Check out this guide from Backlinko to see the full list of the ranking factors Google takes into account. 

SEO Benefits when Creating Digital Product Guides 

Optimizing for SEO can hold many long-term benefits for your company, including: 

• Increase Brand Awareness

• Increase Customer Experience

• Increase Revenue 

But these benefits are seen when you create a digital product guide, not a printed or PDF product guide. According to Ahrefs, PDFs are not often crawled, are not mobile-friendly, are more disorganized, and more. Stop creating printed or PDF copies of your product guide and switch to digital in order to see increased ROI for your content.

Ways Your PIM and Digital Product Guides Can Boost Your SEO 

Let’s explore how leveraging PIMs for creating informative and user-friendly product guides can lead to higher search rankings, increased organic traffic, and enhanced overall online visibility.

Highly Searched Keywords 

When you align your content with popular search terms, it increases the likelihood of your product guide appearing in relevant search results. By ranking higher for these high-searched keywords, you gain greater visibility from customers searching for products your business offers. 

Another reason to include keywords in your product guide is to help provide evidence to Google that your product guide has relevant information. If your product guide is on home appliances but you don’t use certain keywords that Google thinks are relevant to that content, Google is going to think users won’t find that content helpful and therefore not rank it as high in search results.

By including keywords in your Product Information Management (PIM) solution, you can ensure that any digital experience (like a product guide), is using consistent keywords that help prove your brand’s authority on the topic.  

Internal Linking

Think of internal linking like creating a spider’s web. The bigger the web, the stronger the bond. By linking related pages within your guide, you create an interconnected structure that helps Google understand the content hierarchy on your website. 

Plus, internal links encourage customers to explore more of your product guide and other pieces of linked content which leads to an increase in time spent on the resource and user satisfaction. For your product guide, we recommend linking to product detail pages and related parts and accessories pages. 

Headings and Subheadings

Formatting is important in SEO. Google prioritizes well-structured content, and headings make it easier for search engine bots to crawl and index your content accurately. 

Not only do you make it easier for Google to crawl your website, but you’re also improving the readability of your content. 

Headings break down the information into bite-sized pieces and allow your customers to easily find the information they’re interested in. If not, you risk a higher bounce rate on a piece of content your team worked hard on. 

When using Lumavate to create your digital Product Guide, you can easily designate headers and subheaders within your product guide to make it digestible for readers. 

Digital Assets and Alt Text

Product guides almost always use product images to help customers better understand the product and create an engaging experience to break up the text. 

But did you know including images and other digital assets does more than just contribute to an enhanced customer experience? 

The digital asset you store in a PIM solution and use in your product guide helps boost SEO and makes it a richer customer experience. Plus, including Alt text to all digital media ensures your product guides align with accessibility and inclusivity standards and helps increase visibility on the product guide too. 

Customer Reviews 

Customer reviews usually contain natural language that aligns with how potential customers search for products or services. By incorporating these keywords into your product guide, you increase the likelihood of ranking higher in search results. 

Including customer reviews within your product guide not only boosts your website's SEO but also instills confidence in potential customers, ultimately driving more sales for your business.

Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions serve as quick summaries that appear in search engine results that give customers more context about the article they’re clicking on. Meta descriptions also provide Google with a synopsis of what the product guide is about. In order to entice users further to click on your content, make sure you include a concise, yet compelling summary of what users can find in your product guide as well as some keywords to appeal to each of these “audiences.”

The more compelling the meta description, the more clicks your product guide will receive. 

Start Creating a Product Guide

Lumavate provides manufacturers with everything they need to create and launch a digital product guide fast, from our PIM solution to our Digital Asset Management  (DAM) and Content Management System (CMS) capabilities to our functionality that allows marketers to quickly launch a product guide. 

Schedule a demo today and our product experts will walk you step-by-step on how you can accomplish tremendous SEO benefits while creating a product guide on Lumavate.