Let me guess: you’ve uploaded your products, written descriptions, added photos—basically done everything “right”—and yet when you Google your products, crickets. Meanwhile, your competitors are sitting pretty on page one.
I’ve seen this happen to countless WooCommerce store owners. You’re doing the work, but Google just isn’t showing up for you. And honestly? It’s frustrating as hell.
The thing is, getting product pages to rank is different from regular SEO. There are specific pitfalls that trip up ecommerce sites, and once you know what they are, they’re actually pretty straightforward to fix.
So let’s talk about why your products are invisible right now, and more importantly, what you can actually do about it.
The Real Reason Your Products Are Stuck
Here’s what most people don’t realize: product page SEO is playing on hard mode. You’re competing against Amazon, big-box retailers, and thousands of other stores selling similar stuff. Plus, WooCommerce itself can create technical headaches if you don’t know what to watch for.
But the biggest issue I see? People target the wrong keywords. They go after whatever has the highest search volume without thinking about whether they can actually rank for it—or whether those searchers are even ready to buy.
Alright, let’s get into the fixes.
1. Stop Chasing Impossible Keywords
Look, I get it. “Running shoes” gets searched 100,000 times a month. Sounds great, right? Except Nike, Adidas, and Amazon already own that term. You’re not going to outrank them with a product page.
What works instead? Long-tail keywords. Think “women’s trail running shoes for wide feet” or “lightweight running shoes for plantar fasciitis.” Sure, maybe only 500 people search for that each month, but those 500 people know exactly what they want. They’re ready to buy.
Do some actual keyword research for ecommerce—not just throwing darts at high numbers. Look at what your competitors are ranking for. Use Google’s autocomplete suggestions. Pay attention to the “People Also Ask” section. These are gold mines for buyer intent keywords that aren’t impossibly competitive.
2. Your Product Titles Are Probably Too Vague
I see this all the time: “Blue Running Shoe – Premium Quality.”
Cool, but… what does that tell Google? What does it tell your customer?
Your product title needs to be specific and include your main keyword naturally. Something like “Women’s Blue Trail Running Shoes – Waterproof Hiking Sneakers” works way better. It tells both search engines and shoppers exactly what this is.
Same goes for your meta descriptions. Don’t waste that space on fluff like “Check out our amazing products!” Instead, treat it like a mini-ad that also happens to include relevant keywords: “Waterproof women’s trail running shoes with ankle support. Lightweight, durable, perfect for hiking. Free returns.”
That’s what gets clicks.
3. You’re Using the Same Description as Everyone Else
If you copied the manufacturer’s product description and called it a day, that’s your problem right there. So did 200 other stores. Google sees duplicate content and basically shrugs—why would they rank you over everyone else using the same text?
Write your own descriptions. Yeah, it takes time, but it’s non-negotiable if you want to rank. Aim for at least 300-500 words for your main products. Talk about what it’s actually like to use the product. Who’s it for? What problems does it solve?
And work in your keywords naturally—don’t just stuff them in there. If you’re selling a coffee maker, you might mention “programmable brewing,” “thermal carafe to keep coffee hot,” or “built-in bean grinder.” These related terms (what SEO people call LSI keywords) help Google understand your page better.
4. Technical Stuff That’s Killing Your Rankings
This is where WooCommerce can bite you if you’re not careful.
Product variations are the biggest culprit. If you offer a shirt in five colors and three sizes, you might be creating 15 different URLs. Google sees that as duplicate content. The fix? Make sure you’re using canonical tags to point everything back to the main product page.
Other technical issues to check:
Schema markup – This is code that tells Google “hey, this is a product, here’s the price, here’s the rating.” It can get you those fancy rich results with stars and pricing.
Page speed – If your product pages take forever to load, Google notices. And so do your potential customers (who’ll just bounce). Compress your images, get decent hosting, enable caching. Core Web Vitals matter now.
Broken links and redirects – If you discontinued a product, don’t just delete the page. Set up a 301 redirect to something similar. Otherwise, you’re wasting any link equity that page built up.
5. Your Images Aren’t Doing Any SEO Work
Product photos are obviously crucial for sales, but they can also help you rank—if you optimize them properly.
First, rename your files before uploading. “IMG_8472.jpg” tells Google nothing. “womens-blue-trail-running-shoes.jpg” actually describes what it is.
Then write actual alt text for each image. Not just for accessibility (though that matters too), but because it’s another signal to search engines. Something like “women’s waterproof blue trail running shoes on hiking path” works great.
And please, compress those images. A 5MB photo is going to tank your page speed, which hurts your rankings and your conversions.
6. Your Internal Links Are a Mess (Or Non-Existent)
Internal linking is weirdly overlooked, but it matters. A lot.
Link your products to related items. Link from category pages. If you’ve got blog posts, link to relevant products from there. This helps Google understand how everything connects and spreads ranking power around your site.
Use good anchor text too—not “click here” but something descriptive like “check out our organic cotton t-shirts” or “browse waterproof hiking boots.”
And set up breadcrumbs. They look like: Home > Women’s Shoes > Trail Running Shoes. It helps both users and search engines understand your site structure.
7. Nobody’s Linking to Your Products
Here’s the hard truth: backlinks still matter. A lot. But getting people to link to product pages? That’s tough. Most sites would rather link to helpful content, not something you’re trying to sell.
So you’ve got to get creative:
- Write buying guides or comparison posts that naturally link to your products
- Reach out to bloggers and offer to send them products to review
- Look for “best of” roundups in your industry and pitch your products
- Partner with complementary businesses (if you sell yoga mats, maybe team up with someone selling yoga apparel)
One solid link from a relevant, authoritative site is worth way more than 50 links from random directories.
What to Do Right Now
You don’t have to fix everything at once. That’s overwhelming and honestly, unnecessary.
Start here: pick your top 10 products and rewrite their descriptions. Make them unique, make them detailed, work in relevant keywords naturally. Then check your product titles and meta descriptions—are they specific enough? Do they include keywords real people actually search for?
Those two things alone will make a noticeable difference.
The technical stuff—schema markup, page speed, fixing duplicate content—that might require some help if you’re not comfortable with it. But it’s worth doing because it’s often what’s holding stores back even when everything else is dialed in.
SEO takes time. You’re not going to wake up tomorrow ranking for everything. But if you consistently work through these seven areas, you’ll start seeing your products show up where they should be: in front of people who are actually searching for them.
And if this all feels like too much to tackle yourself? That’s literally what we do. We help WooCommerce stores fix exactly these problems and get their products ranking. Shoot us a message and we’ll take a look at what’s going on with your store—no charge for the audit.