Overview
The Search Engine Title and Search Engine Description fields can be defined for every Department and Category in your site. These fields can have a significant impact on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) initiatives and provide a better shopping experience for your customers.
Store Manager
The Search Engine Title and Search Engine Description fields are available whenever you add or edit a Department or Category in Store Manager.
- Search Engine Title should be less than 60 characters, describe the Department or Category and include the name of your store.
- Search Engine Description is a paragraph describing the particular Department or Category. However, you want to make the first 150 characters of this paragraph the most meaningful because this is usually all that shows up in the search engines results. This is not to say that you couldn't make this description 500 characters, only that the first 150 characters are the most important.
Shopping Pages
The Department and Category Search Engine Title and Search Engine Description fields are used on your web site. The Search Engine Title appears as the title in the browser window. While many consumers miss or ignore this title, it is very important for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The Search Engine Description cannot be seen by the shopper on your website, but instead is embedded in the HTML Code as the Meta Tag Description. This Meta Tag Description is also useful to the search engines as you'll see below.
Search Engines
Google and other search engines also use these two fields. You'll notice the Search Engine Title is the top-most link in the search results and the Search Engine Description is directly below it describing that link. You'll also notice that Google truncated this description and put three dots (...). This is precisely why you want to "front-load" the first 150 characters of your Search Engine Description with your most meaningful text. Finally, notice how what the consumer searched on, Amanda Uprichard, is highlighted in Google's title and description. This is why it is so important to have the key terms in both the Title and Description, and as shown here, usually list it first in both the Search Engine Title and Search Engine Description.
Product Page
Unlike your Department and Category Shopping Pages, you do not need to write Search Engine Titles and Search Engine Descriptions for the Product Pages on your website. Instead, these fields are automatically filled out for you using what you've typed in for your Product Name and Short Description in Store Manager. The Search Engine Title is set to the product's name plus your store's name, while the Search Engine Description is set to the short description. Therefore, there is nothing you need to do to optimize your Product Pages for SEO.
Considerations
Here are some things to consider when entering this SEO information:
- Entering SEO Titles and Descriptions for your brands and designers is far more beneficial than those for your Departments. Therefore, you should always start by entering these fields for your Categories (brands and designers) before your Departments.
- The SEO Title can be longer than 60 characters. However, as shown above Google and other search engines will cut you off around 60 characters.
- The Search Engine Description can be longer than 150 characters but again you'll be cut off around 150 characters. This is not to say you shouldn't write Descriptions that are 500 characters or more. You absolutely can and should because the search engines will "use" this information for SEO purposes.
- It is generally accepted that SEO Keywords provide little value and therefore cannot be entered on your shopping pages.
- You should never repeat SEO Titles and Descriptions. Every page in your website should have an unique Title and Description.