Content Writing/Optimization Checklist

UPDATE 08/20/2024 (next update February 2025).

You don’t just sell a product. You sell a lifestyle, problem-solving, status, a vision, etc. How? With multifaceted content that impacts everything from to the bottom line. Content that goes beyond product or service information.

Brands that successfully create and communicate a compelling narrative as a part of not only differentiate themselves but also build lasting emotional connections with their consumers.

This deep dive explores the integral role that content plays in driving traffic, engaging customers, and boosting conversions in eCommerce and introduces a comprehensive content writing checklist designed to maximize these outcomes.

Before we get to the checklist, let’s quickly go over the role of content in eCommerce.

High-quality content is a cornerstone of effective SEO and crucial for driving organic (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGoGO, etc.) traffic. It helps businesses rank higher in search engine results for keywords and queries that matter in the industry (besides those focusing on products or services), making it easier for potential customers to find them.

Moreover, effective content attracts new visitors by addressing their pain points, needs, and interests. If it resonates with audiences, it is often shared across social media platforms, further amplifying its reach.

Engaging product videos, customer testimonials, and informative articles not only draws traffic directly from social media but also contributes to the overall SEO strategy by generating backlinks and increasing site authority. This makes the business a trusted source of information in the industry, increasing its chances of ranking better for even more keywords.

For example, a fashion brand or online store might drive significant organic traffic by publishing seasonal style guides that customers find useful and share within their networks, effectively helping the brand rank for other keywords as well.

Good content does wonders for brand awareness, increases traffic and reach, enhances user experience, and ultimately increases sales.

Seriously. Each checklist is crafted from a blend of our hands-on experience and insights gained from working closely with our clients, ensuring it’s tailored to address your unique challenges👇

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⚙️The Basic
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📝Content Writing/Optimization Checklist
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By following these checklists, you'll benefit from proven strategies that enhance performance, boost conversions, and optimize content, setting you up for sustainable success.

The checklist you see before you covers everything from keyword research and content structuring to meta-tag optimization and post-publishing promotion, regardless of content type. 

In other words, it works when you write product/service descriptions, posts, and articles, as well as video scripts, FAQs, or social blurbs.

This checklist should help you maintain a consistent tone, style, and quality across all content, which is crucial for brand identity. It also provides a well-defined process for content creation to reduce the time spent on revisions and ensures that content is ready to publish more quickly. Adhering to SEO best practices ensures that search engines discover your content. Finally, by focusing on user intent and providing clear, actionable information, your content drives conversions.

OK, let’s start.

• Use data from analytics tools and customer profiles to segment your audience based on factors like age, gender, location, and purchasing behavior.
• This segmentation helps tailor content that speaks directly to different segments, increasing relevance and engagement.
• Develop buyer personas by incorporating data on shopping habits, pain points, and preferences gathered from surveys, CRM data, and customer feedback.
• Personas guide the creation of content that resonates with defined customer groups, leading to more effective product descriptions and marketing messages.
• Analyzing audience needs and preferences with tools like Google Analytics to identify which content types and topics are most popular with your audience.
• Regularly review customer feedback and product reviews to refine your content strategy and address common questions or concerns.

• Conduct before you start. Using tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Google Keyword Planner, identify high-converting keywords, focusing on terms potential customers are actively searching for.
• Prioritize product-specific and long-tail keywords that match user intent, as well as seasonal terms that can boost visibility during peak shopping periods.
• Study search results to understand the competitors and the type and intent of the content/pages showing in them. It will show you what type of content (video, article, FA!, etc) you need to have to rank for a certain keyword.
• Analyze competitors' content strategies by reviewing their product pages, blog posts, and SEO practices to identify what’s working for them.
• Look for content gaps or weaknesses in your competitors' approaches that your business can exploit, such as underserved topics or missing product information.
• Align your content creation efforts with key e-commerce goals such as increasing conversion rates, average order value, and customer retention.
• Define the purpose of each piece of content, whether it's to educate (buying guides), persuade (product descriptions), or inform (blog posts), ensuring it supports the overall sales funnel.

• A combination of keyword and title will determine the type of content you’ll have to make. Select the most appropriate format based on the content’s purpose—use detailed descriptions for product pages, comparison charts for category pages, and video content for complex products or tutorials.
• Create titles that naturally incorporate target keywords while clearly conveying the value proposition of the content.
• Use examples like Top 10 Summer Dresses for 2024 for product lists or How to Choose the Best Running Shoes for guides to attract both search engines and readers and to broaden your reach in organic search results.
• Make a content outline before you start writing. Use proper tags like H1, H2, and H3 to create well-structured content.
• Organize content logically, ensuring easy navigation with clear sections for product benefits, features, FAQs, and customer reviews. Add links to articles and videos as well. This structure helps users quickly find relevant information, improving their shopping experience and increasing the likelihood of a purchase.
• Do the same on video and article pages, i.e., have a clear link to the products mentioned.

• Start with an attention-grabbing statement or question that addresses a common customer problem or desire, immediately engaging the reader.
• To keep the reader interested, briefly explain the product's relevance or the topic's importance to set the context.
• Use an active voice, short paragraphs, and bullet points to improve readability and ensure important information stands out. For example, when writing product descriptions, use sensory language to highlight key features and benefits, making the product more tangible to the reader.
• Enhance your content with high-resolution images, infographics, and videos that complement the text and provide additional context or detail.
• Implement by strategically placing keywords in headings, meta tags, and throughout the body content while avoiding keyword stuffing.
• Ensure each page has a unique meta description and title tag, and utilize schema markup for structured data to improve search engine visibility.
• Always include alt text for all images to improve SEO and ensure content accessibility for visually impaired users.

• Review content for accuracy, particularly in product details, pricing, and shipping information, to maintain trust and credibility.
• Proofread to eliminate grammatical errors and ensure the content is polished and professional. Having an editor-in-chief on your content team helps a tone.
• Use tools like Hemingway or Grammarly to assess readability and simplify overly complex sentences or jargon.
• Adjust the complexity of the language based on your target audience, ensuring technical details are clear for niche products and simpler language is used for general audiences.
• Write a unique piece. Avoid duplicate content to prevent penalties from search engines and to stand out from competitors.
• Use plagiarism detection tools like Copyscape to ensure all content is original.
• Position CTAs strategically within the content to maximize visibility and conversion potential.
• Think through internal and external links, i.e., link only to sources connected with the topic (preferably yours). This means you should not link to the 16GB USB you have on sale in your Top 10 Summer Dresses for 2024 article.

• Ensure new content is showing in your sitemap and crawled.
• Leverage content through your existing channels, like social media and email/newsletter.
• Add internal links to your new content from your older content.
• Set up tracking for key performance indicators (KPIs) like bounce rate, time on page, and conversion rate to evaluate the effectiveness of your content.
• You can also conduct A/B testing on headlines, product descriptions, and CTAs to identify what resonates most with your audience and refine your approach accordingly.

AI is a tool that can help you be better at writing, not replace the writing process completely. The web is already brimming with lackluster content, and while AI can streamline content creation, it might just add more noise to the chaos. 

So, how should you use AI in content writing? Think of it as a junior helper who can research the topic you are covering, suggest an outline, and even critique your argumentation once you finish writing. Crafting the most impactful copy, on the other hand, requires a human touch.

Let's not confuse quantity with quality—AI should enhance creativity, not drown it in a sea of mediocrity.

This checklist underscores the pivotal role of content in e-commerce, stressing the need for a structured content creation strategy to achieve business objectives. By integrating SEO, customer engagement, and conversion optimization into the content strategy, businesses can better differentiate themselves in a competitive digital landscape.

The main thing you should always keep in mind is to write for humans, not search engines.