Your Secret to Selling More on Walmart: The Power of SEO

SEO for eCommerce is an efficient marketing practice used by all top marketplaces to decide the product ranking in the search results. As one of the league leaders of eCommerce, Walmart is also following this marketing trend. SEO for Walmart’s search results is somewhat similar to other marketplaces and is generally based on the most searched keywords by customers.

But, is it easy to climb to the top of the Walmart product ranking? Easy is really not an appropriate word while describing the competition to rank on the top of Walmart search result bar. Walmart Sellers fight tooth and nail to achieve this spot and the majority of successful sellers have achieved this by listing their products through Walmart SEO.

Is ranking on the top of SERPs an easy task using Walmart SEO?

In the hopes of providing the best user experience, Walmart has kept the search result algorithms secret. This causes Walmart sellers to walk an extra mile in order to reach their destination - The Buy Box.

But, don’t lose hope - there is always more than one way to do things.

Keeping in mind the experiences shared by Walmart sellers over the years, our Walmart digital marketing experts team have handpicked the best Walmart SEO strategies. These Walmart listing optimization strategies have been concluded considering Walmart seller experiences and the insights provided by digital marketing experts.

But, before diving into the details about Walmart product rankings, we must once have a quick look at the basics.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Have you ever wondered why you don’t see curtains when you search for a coffee mug on a search engine? SEO (Search engine optimization) is a set of algorithms that ensures you see the best-suited result for what you have searched for. In other words, SEO is a set of algorithms that decides whether a website or content ranks on the search engine result page or not.

The Power of SEO in eCommerce

From the perspective of an eCommerce seller, SEO is an efficient tool to increase the number of visitors to their products. We’re aware of the competition for the buy box, so eCommerce SEO can be a key to rank above other sellers and drive more sales towards your products.

By optimizing your listings according to SEO ranking, you can make the search engines aware of your products. Once acknowledged and indexed, it will not only drive genuine traffic to your products, but also enhance product ranking.

So, instead of working hard, you can switch to a smart and efficient way.

What is Walmart SEO?

Listing a product on Walmart is just a preliminary stage - the main task at hand begins afterward in making these products visible to the desired audience.

Being such a huge platform with an enormous amount of merchandise listed, it becomes really challenging to outrank competitors on Walmart search engine results page.

Walmart SEO is a bunch of product listing optimization techniques that enables sellers to present their product in a manner that improves their visibility on the search results page. So, without further ado, let’s discuss how to optimize product listings on Walmart using eCommerce SEO techniques.

How to Improve Product Listings on Walmart

Plan Small Goals

Since this is a long term process, taking baby steps in the initial phases is the best approach. You know your products better than anyone else. Create a survey and make a list of the best-selling products that have actual potential to claim the buy box. Starting out small will give you much better insight, whether or not you are headed in the right direction.

Pointers:

• Start with 2 or 3 products.
• Select the products with potential.
• Try A/B testing.

Make the Most of Your Product Title

The product title is considered the most significant factor for Walmart product listing optimization. While planning for Walmart SEO, you have to get this right! Ensure that you keep your product name unique with a hint of creativity involved. Do some market research to analyze the most searched keywords. Also, have a glance at the product titles of your competitors, which will give you an idea of what to begin with.

Pointers:

• Keep the product title length between 50 to 75 characters.
• Try keeping it precise.
• Refrain from using special characters (like !@#$%*).
• Include your brand name which improves brand development.

Work on Product Descriptions

Since product title has a character limit, it’s often not possible to insert keywords there. To make up for that, there is the ‘Walmart product description’ where you have a much larger word limit. Use this space to describe your products on a broader aspect while maintaining a natural tone. You can easily play with most searched and relevant keywords to enhance the Walmart SEO perspective and optimize your product listings.

Source: Walmart

In the above image, you can notice how the seller has explained every feature of the Xbox console by defining the functionality, the texture, and the features of the product. This is the best way to optimize your product listings on Walmart.

Pointers:

• Try including all the relevant keywords
• Keep the language simple and readable.
• Don’t sound promotional.
• Avoid repetition of the same information.
• Avoid keyword stuffing.
• Eliminate grammatical errors (if any).

Here is an example of a perfect product listing on Walmart - ‘Sofia Jeans’ by Sofia Vergara.

Source: Walmart

You can observe how clearly they have defined all the necessary features. I have specially marked red all the highlighted parts of the product description. These are usually related keywords that can be easily taken out by using LSI graphs.

The seller used a very special branding technique by using American-Columbian actress Sofía Vergara, as marked in blue. Through this product listing, the seller is trying to cover the fan-base of the American-Columbian actress. This is a perfect example to target an audience that is most likely to convert.

The seller took an additional step by also including the native language in the product description (as marked in green). This is a brilliant strategy to attract the visitor hence enhancing the product listing.

A pro-tip while working on Walmart Listing Optimization is to split your product description into two parts:

• The Detailed Description (written in a paragraph)
• The Short Description (written in bullets)

Source: Walmart

Now to provide you with a much better insight on Walmart SEO and product listings, I’ll explain how to optimize your ‘detailed’ and ‘short’ product description on Walmart: 

The Detailed Paragraph Product Description

This is the part of the product description that highlights the specialty of your products. Use fancy words to describe these and explain how the product is going to benefit the customer. Try and relate to your customers by keeping an influential tone, rather than boasting about the products.

Pointers:

• Write 6 to 8 sentences.
• The ideal length must range between 600-800 characters.
• Keep the content well-crafted and easy to digest.
• Talk to your customers rather than educate them.
• Use relevant keywords that buyers are more likely to search.
• Add relevant facts and figures (if possible).

The Short Product Description

Speaking from the perspective of Walmart product listing optimization, the short product description needs to be written in bullets. It is usually written in a straightforward tone, only highlighting the key points. Usage of a few keywords is advised while molding the content. The word limit is 300 words.

Pointers:

• Mention the facts in bullets.
• Keep a straightforward tone.
• Word limit must not exceed 250 words (as per Walmart SEO perspective).
• Mention your brand name at least once in this.

High-Quality Product Images

A customer might skip the product description or the title, but the image is something that can’t be overlooked. Or in other words, your product images create the first impression on your customers.

The product listing images on Walmart are the best way customers can relate to what they are investing in. Since a buyer can not touch and analyze your image, it becomes the responsibility of the seller to showcase it in the best possible manner. Post multiple clear pictures of the products because the customer’s buying decision relies on it.

Pointers:

• Post at least 6 to 8 pictures from different angles.
• Use high definition photos only.
• Use Image Alt Text as keywords.
• Pictures should have a clear white background with only the product you are selling.
• Put one image that defines the scaling so that customers can get an exact idea of the image size.

Be Specific in Defining the Product Attributes and Categories

The probability of a successful conversion on Walmart depends upon the precision of the details you provide. A very important key to attaining Walmart listing optimization is by placing the products in the best-suited attributes. The best way of doing so is by mentioning the products at the leaf node.

By categorizing your products in an appropriate category, you provide customers with directions to navigate in the right direction. Also, from the perspective of eCommerce SEO, your products can easily appear in the search result if someone searches for the specific category.

An ideal Walmart Product Listing Attribute is shown in the image below:

Source: Walmart

Pointers:

• Place the product at the leaf node of the product attribute and category.
• Never use ‘other’ as the product category as it decreases the product visibility on Walmart’s SERP.

Keep Your Pricing Competitive

Your product pricing on Walmart is the trump card in deciding the product ranking in the Walmart result page. All your efforts can end up in vain if the pricing of your products is not competitive with the leading customers. Walmart expects sellers to provide the best quality products at the best price possible.

A customer can overlook every minute details if there’s a better price available.

Also, speaking from the SEO perspective, usually in the search results page the product with the lowest price ranks on the top.

Source: Walmart

As you can see in the image above, competitive pricing influences Walmart SEO ranking and SERP placement. Both merchants are selling the same iPhone and even have the same product reviews. The difference of $0.10 is the reason why the first seller ranked on the top of the Walmart SERP.

Work on Getting 5-Star Reviews

Product reviews are sometimes a deciding factor for customers to compare two similar products on Walmart. The better reviews you have on your Walmart product listing page, the better your chances are for getting a successful purchase. 5-star reviews not only impact the product’s SEO ranking, but also contributes towards the overall sell rating on Walmart. This, in turn, will help you improve your overall sales on Walmart.

So, don’t hesitate in asking customers for reviews. These reviews are proof from other customers which acts as a third opinion.

For more information, CedCommerce has developed many efficient tools & strategies on how to efficiently sell on Walmart's online marketplace while being an eCommerce facilitator for over 9 years.

Eliminate the Shipping Charges & Enable 2-Day Shipping

No matter how much the product cost is, customers always feels robbed when asked for shipping charges. So, the best way to overcome such a scenario is by bringing the shipping charges down to the lowest possible amount.

You can opt for the Walmart 2-day shipping & delivery program, which can be a great boost to attract customers looking for fast delivery. Looking at the bigger picture, this improves your seller performance and services, thus forging better product visibility on the Walmart SERP.

Order Defect Rate and Cancellation Rate Must Be Below 1%

For Walmart listing optimization, a Walmart seller must ensure that the order defect rate and cancellation rate on their products must NEVER be higher than 1%. If it is, then this impacts your whole seller reputation on Walmart’s marketplace.

In major cases, the sellers suffer from a disastrous situation as all the buy boxes they are claiming are lost. Moreover, their Walmart product ranking is lost and, in critical cases, the seller account is deactivated.

Remember: In order to achieve Walmart listing optimization, try and maintain the cancellation and order defect rate below 1%.

Final Words

Selling on Walmart is not enough!

Along with sales, an ideal Walmart seller must also aim to provide precise and concise product description which is both user-friendly and search engine optimized. Sellers must use the power of SEO in highlighting the key features and presenting them in bullet points to make it affable for Walmart customers worldwide.

It all boils down to the fact that a seller can easily claim the buy box on Walmart by using repricing and selling the best quality product. Not to forget, that staying on the buy box is the greatest challenge, and only the power of SEO can retain this.