The Grit Guide to
Product Detail Pages

As a marketer, I spend a lot of time thinking about the “funnel”, the journey from awareness to consideration to conversion resulting in a positive ROI. At Grit, we like to think that the buying lifecycle starts at impression. It starts with ranking for keywords that are relevant to your business, then moving up the rankings to turn those impressions into clicks, taking up space on the SERP to increase your chances of getting a click, and culminating in valuable organic traffic arriving in your store. This traffic is the lifeblood of any ecommerce business, allowing you to acquire high quality customers at a low cost.

With organic and other types of site traffic, all paths to purchase lead to a product page. For practical and technical reasons, all of these pages — on your site and across the internet — are going to be very similar, creating a universally accepted way of shopping that makes users comfortable. This creates a unique opportunity and an interesting tension on your website. How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors without deviating too far from the norm? How do you make sure you’re supporting your organic traffic strategy while still focusing on connecting the user to your brand and story? According to Shiprocket, 98% of shoppers won’t complete their purchase if information on the PDP is incomplete or incorrect.

You’ve invested time, energy, and money to move your traffic this far through the funnel. Let’s avoid any unforced errors at the finish line!

What is a Product Detail Page (PDP)?

A product detail page, or PDP, is a type of page found on ecommerce sites that contains all the information about a single specific product. Typically, you would navigate to a PDP page from a collection page.

PDPs follow a pretty standard formula and will almost always have these sections:

1. Creative elements - photos, videos, graphics that illustrate the product
2. Conversion elements - add to cart buttons, payment options, discounts and special offers
3. Validation elements - reviews, comparisons, badges and other trust signals
4. Operational elements - how the product will get to you and what to do if there’s a problem

Why is a Product Detail Page Important?

For those of us old enough to remember the dawn of the Internet, shopping online was fraught with danger. If I can’t touch the product or see it in person, if I’m not taking it home as soon as I hand over payment, will I ever receive this product? Online purchasing was a huge leap of faith. In a few short decades, it’s become increasingly commonplace; over 75% of people are shopping at least once a month online. However, that doesn’t mean that sellers have been let off the hook. The burden of proof still lies with them to convince us that their product is the product we would have chosen if their store was in our local strip mall.

Enter the hottest piece of real estate on an ecommerce site, the PDP page. Having a fully optimized PDP page can result in increased traffic and increased sales. The majority, 87% of consumers, say that product content influences their decision to purchase. In addition to being mission critical real estate on your site to succeed, PDP pages also appear in mission critical SERPs that brands must win to excel in SEO. And while there are many ways to drive people to your product pages, at Grit, we believe that organic traffic is the key to driving cost effective conversion and strong lifetime value.

But if the PDP page is so important, why is it often neglected? You may have a deep product catalog, and be intimidated by the time you’d need to devote to optimizing hundreds of pages. It can feel daunting and difficult to know where to start.

5 Must-Have PDP Components to Drive Performance

All ecommerce platform templates, including those found on Shopify, are going to set you up with the basics of a PDP page—you and every other store on the web. Users—and Google—expect more if you’re going to generate traffic and sales. So, how do you deliver?

I could definitely wax poetic about the brand experience, that intangible magic that sparks a connection with a product, connects it to a larger “why” in your life, and drives you to get off the couch and find your credit card. That’s another article. Let’s get into five must-haves to set your page apart from the pack.

1. Captivating Creative

Your PDP page is the last stop for a user before they add a product to the cart. Connecting them to a product they can’t touch or interact with takes a creative approach. Start with your primary image. The image should be clear, descriptive, well cropped, and provide a compelling demonstration of why your product is the right choice. Include 3-5 additional images that show additional features, angles, and details. You earn bonus points if you’re utilizing a zoom feature and/or have video content. Lastly, don’t neglect your alt text—include descriptive and unique alt text for each image. You’ve most likely considered ADA compliance for contrast ratios and alt text is another place to ensure you’re constructing your site in the most inclusive way possible.

Still on the fence about investing in video content? Consider these statistics:

• You can increase your chances of showing up on the first page by up to 53x
• It's easier to explain concepts and connect emotionally through video, resulting in a 41% higher click-through rate than plain text
• Video viewers are 64-85% more likely to purchase after viewing a video.

2. Compelling Call to Action

Anyone in sales will tell you creating a sense of urgency and catching the buyer at the peak of their interest improves your chances of closing the sale. Showing products that are in stock but with limited availability encourages buyers to get it now, rather than waiting. Include a clear call out on the cost of shipping—if it isn’t FREE—as well as anticipated delivery dates to reinforce that they won’t be waiting long to receive their product. Other value call-outs can also be useful in answering subconscious questions the user has and reinforcing why this is the right product for them. Consider bulleted phrases like: Guaranteed, Eco-Friendly, Vegan, Made in the USA, or FDA Approved/Cleared. Don’t make the user leave the page to confirm these details, as they may not find their way back.

3. Well Integrated Reviews + Q&A

Third party reviews are the holy grail of online shopping. You should prominently include your stars, number of reviews, and links to full reviews near the top of the page. The actual reviews section can be placed further down the page and should include a summary table with a break out of reviews by tier. Review content should be time stamped, and including UGC (user generated content), like photos of the product in use, is definitely encouraged.

The Q&A section is a partner section that helps support review content. Specifically, the Q&A section focuses on answering questions from users. It’s one more way to signal that all the information a customer needs to make a buying decision is on this page. Including multiple questions shows that you’re engaging with the end user and prioritizing customer service. It also allows you to provide SEO-rich answers that include targeted keywords.

4. Behind the Scenes Technical Elements

SEO optimizations and schema markup are the unsung heroes of the PDP page, working behind the scenes to communicate key elements to Google and improve your rankings. Ensure your title tags and meta descriptions are well-structured and succinct. Keep your title tags under 60 characters and include the brand name, product title, and SEO keyword. For metas, ~150-160 characters is an appropriate length. Include a branded description of the product/store with SEO keyword targets, and add in “Claims” such as “in stock,” “vegan,” note the free shipping threshold, and use transactional language.

There’s a whole universe of schema markup to explore. We recommend the Rich Results Test to see what competitor pages are using and to discover options that are a good fit for your content. For PDP pages specifically, we recommend:

• Product - note the title, brand, variant, description, etc.
• Variant Selection - use appropriate schema markup to clearly communicate all the variations available
• Image - replicate this markup for each image
• Brand name - flag this for brand searches on Google
• Aggregate rating - pull in star rating into SERP
• Reviewer - pull in a specific review from a known reviewer and include their star rating

5. Build the Rest of the Page

Don’t sleep on these other PDP page sections. Finish strong with additions like breadcrumbs, comparison tables, and recommendations. Most ecommerce templates will come standard with breadcrumbs, so the optimization you’re looking for is in naming your tiers in a way that balances UX with SEO signals. We recommend “Top Product Level | Product Parent Category | Product Sub Category.” Including a comparison table saves users a lot of clicking around and keeps them focused on choosing a product to purchase. Common points of comparison are ratings, price, ingredients, dimensions, weight, and other relevant variants. Finish out your page with the perennial favorite, “Also Recommended” products. Pair this with a “$XX away from free shipping” to drive a higher AOV.

PDP (Unusual) Best Practices

If you’ve implemented all of the recommendations above and you’re still hungry for more, we’ve collected some additional hints and tips to really set your PDP page apart.

• Use schema markup for offers to send info to Google. This data will pull in your special offer into the area below the meta description in the SERP.
• You can also utilize schema markup to send signals to Google on availability (in stock) and quantity available. Win the click by showing you have inventory available.
• Especially for marketplaces or other instances when you’re using a manufacturer’s product photography, create custom imagery of your product that is annotated to include bulleted lists, ingredients, call outs on features, or brand graphics. This results in a custom image that no one else is using and will be specifically indexed by Google as unique.
• For breadcrumbs, make sure they’re appropriately spaced on mobile to avoid a “clickable element too close” penalty. Avoid the unforced error!
• Install the Lighthouse plugin for Chrome to monitor site speed and other performance KPIs for mobile and desktop users.

Writing Product Descriptions that Sell

Keep it short and sweet. This isn’t a recipe blog where your life story is required before you get to the ingredients for chicken soup. Users want to know how you’re going to solve their problem or make their life easier, and that the product fits in a box that will show up on their doorstep in 3 to 5 days. Google wants to know the same thing—is this page the best solution for the user’s search?

This isn’t a recipe blog where your life story is required before you get to the ingredients for chicken soup.

Structure your description with 2-3 sentences that follow this pattern: Describe the product accurately and in a neutral tone, no exaggerated claims. Reinforce the problem this product solves or how it improves quality of life. Close by describing the “after” that the user will experience once they are benefiting from the product. Don’t forget to incorporate your primary and secondary target keywords!

3 Client PDP Examples We Love

Feeling like this is a lot to undertake on your PDP pages? We assure you it is possible and drives real results. Let’s take a closer look at a few client examples to see what this type of optimization looks like when it’s deployed.

DryFins

Leveraging some of our favorite schema markup, men’s swimwear retailer DryFins is able to pull star ratings, number of reviews, price, and availability into the SERP. They’re also getting an indented listing to show a product review with UGC (user generated content). Getting a second related result is a great result, creating more visibility overall on the page.

Getting into their actual PDP, you’ll notice they’ve included several product silhouettes as well as a customer photo to show the product. There is also a video that shows a model walking through the frame and illustrating the unique features of the product, like the chafe-free liner.

And as we go a little further down the page, there are suggested products and a robust reviews section. The reviews section includes an aggregation of reviews, shows other user photos, and integrates a Q&A section.

Gump’s

Lots of things going right on this PDP page for Gump’s, a luxury gifting retailer. In addition to breadcrumbs, there’s a separate link for the product designer, to dive deeper into related products. For a retailer that rarely offers discounts, they clearly identify that this item is part of their summer sale and show the previous price.

Schema markup has been correctly implemented to pull in the product photo, price and sale price, and availability.

Then, further down the page, they really lean into their customer service value proposition by detailing all of the shipping options and further explaining the gift wrapping option. In the Return & Exchanges section, they outline the Gump’s Guarantee and connect users to Customer Care for personalized support.

Kendra Scott

The review section from popular jewelry retailer Kendra Scott provides the user with even more functionality, including the ability to filter reviews by suggested keywords. They also leverage their army of Instagram influencers to include a style gallery.

The combination of optimization on the page and internal linking around this marquee product nets Kendra Scott a substantial amount of SERP real estate on the Elisa.

Closing Thoughts (Warning - Includes Math)

Knowing what to do and actually doing it are two separate things. If you have a large product catalog or are challenged for development resources, optimizing your PDP experience can seem like a daunting task. There’s a reason why 82% of PDP pages have poor to mediocre performance. Therein lies the opportunity. We started this guide talking about the funnel and ROI. Making a business case for improving your PDP plans is no different than any other marketing strategy you’d pitch internally. If your ecomm CVR is 2.5% and improving your PDP pages gets you to 3%, the math looks something like this:

Step 1 - Calculate the revenue a change of 0.05% in CVR would drive

10,000 visits * 2.5% CVR * $100 AOV = $25,000

10,000 visits * 3% CVR * $100 AOV = $30,000

(conservative approach assumes no lift in traffic)

Step 2 - Compare the incremental revenue to the cost of the project

Incremental revenue - $5,000

PDP optimization project - $10,000, 2-month payback period

Step 3 - Profit

But in all seriousness, if you’re focused on getting more out of the bottom of your funnel, PDP optimization is an incredibly valuable place to put your efforts. If you’re looking for a partner to act as an extension of your team, for a short term project or to provide ongoing, we’d love to hear more about your challenges.