Boost Your E-commerce SERP CTR: Unleash the Power of Chat-GPT

Are you an e-commerce owner or SEO consultant grappling with countless unoptimized URLs due to time constraints? Or perhaps you’re exploring intriguing applications for AI? Let’s dive into the world of SERP optimization and discover how Chat-GPT can empower your SEO efforts with a simple process.

Image created by Midjourney (see if you can count the fingers! 😊)

Today, we’ll focus on the meta descriptions of thousands of pages. As an e-commerce owner or SEO specialist managing an online store with tens of thousands of items, you know it’s virtually impossible to optimize each product individually. Of course, you should devote time to your top sellers and best-performing products in the SERP, optimizing them manually. But why neglect the rest?

3 Compelling Reasons to Leverage AI for Crafting Meta Descriptions

1. Google already rewrites 70% of your meta descriptions. To boost the chances of your unique description being displayed, make sure it’s concise, fits within search results snippets, and aligns with user intent.
2. Google has no issues generating meta descriptions and since they aren’t a direct ranking factor (only indirectly influencing CTR), you won’t risk by leveraging AI for meta description creation.
3. If you’re using templates with variables for meta descriptions, you might be missing out on addressing real search queries related to specific landing pages. This is where chat-GPT and our e-commerce SEO hack come into play!

Are you ready to revolutionize your SEO game with Chat-GPT AI? Don’t miss the opportunity to join our exclusive Facebook group: Boost SEO with Chat-GPT AI 🚀.

Come On, Let’s Get to It!

In a nutshell (with the detailed process explained below), we’ll extract URLs and search queries from Google Search Console. For each URL, we’ll automatically choose the top 3 performing keywords. Then, AI will craft tailored meta descriptions with those specific words for each URL, boosting the likelihood of the description being displayed in the SERP and enticing users to click, as those keywords will be emphasized!

How to Download More Than Just 1000 Rows in Search Console

To accomplish this, we’ll need to gather all the relevant data, which for e-commerce projects will likely consist of tens of thousands of lines. However, Google Search Console limits us to downloading only 1,000 lines directly through the interface. To overcome this limitation, we’ll make use of one of the following plugins:

• Search Analytics for Sheets (free plugin)
• Supermetrics (paid plugin)

I’ll outline the process using the first free plugin, as the output with Supermetrics is similar (though it offers additional capabilities). Start by opening a Google Sheet and installing the Search Analytics for Sheets add-on.

After installation, grant the plugin access to your account for initial setup, then proceed to download data from Search Console. This plugin enables you to download up to 25,000 lines for free.

Next, navigate to Extensions => Search Analytics for Sheets => Open Sidebar

Choose your desired domain in Search Console and select the longest possible time range (default). Group the output by Page and Query, then request data.

Make sure to export data in the range from column A (Page) to F (position), as the subsequent scripts are designed for this range.

With the data in hand, let’s explore how to select the top 3 search queries for each URL.

Selecting the Top 3 High-Impact Keywords

First, let’s isolate unique URLs. To do this, apply the following simple formula in cell H2:

=UNIQUE(A2:A51)

Replace ‘51’ with the actual number of rows from your Search Console output.

Next, for each URL, we’ll identify the top 3 keywords with the highest click count and separate them with commas. Paste the formula below into cell I2 and expand it to include all rows with unique URLs. Again, update “C$51” and “A$51” to reflect the actual number of rows in your Search Console output.

=TEXTJOIN(", ", TRUE, IFERROR(INDEX(SORT(FILTER(B$2:C$51, A$2:A$51=H2), 2, FALSE), 1, 1), ""), IFERROR(INDEX(SORT(FILTER(B$2:C$51, A$2:A$51=H2), 2, FALSE), 2, 1), ""), IFERROR(INDEX(SORT(FILTER(B$2:C$51, A$2:A$51=H2), 2, FALSE), 3, 1), ""))

Your output should look like this:

(generated dummy data with ChatGPT :) )

ChatGPT Google Sheets Setup

To perform bulk operations with ChatGPT in Google Sheets, you’ll need to install the GPT for Sheets™ and Docs™ plugin.

This plugin requires access to the OpenAI API (GPT). Sign up here and receive free access after verifying your email and phone number.

Next, visit this page https://platform.openai.com/account/api-keys and create a new secret key.

It will be a long string of characters and numbers. Copy it and return to Google Sheets. Click on Extension => GPT for Sheets™ and Docs™ => Set API key.

OpenAI grants you a free $5 credit for API testing, which is sufficient for generating thousands of meta descriptions. You can monitor your current usage on this page. If you exhaust your credit, simply add your card, set usage limits, and continue testing and optimizing meta descriptions.

I apologize for these necessary steps, but rest assured, they’re worth it. Now, let’s dive into the most exciting part!

Now the ChatGPT Magic Happens

In Google Sheets, now we can use the =GPT() function. With just one final step remaining, we’ll craft an order or input (known as a prompt) for ChatGPT.

In this example, we’ll use the following prompt to generate the meta description:

=gpt("Create an appealing meta description with a maximum character count of 160 for an online store selling shoes using these words: "&I2&". Include the special character ✅ in the description. Do not repeat the same words. Provide only the meta description without additional information.", "gpt-3.5-turbo")

Put this function in cell J2 and extend to all rows.

Tips and Tricks

1. Feel free to use other variables in the prompt by inserting “&A1&” (replace A1 with the desired cell).
2. Modify the prompt to choose from multiple special characters, not just one.
3. Combine the meta description with generated text from your backend. For instance, you might want to add delivery time at the end of the description. In this case, edit the prompt, limit the character count (e.g., to 130), and fill in the rest of the description from your CMS/e-commerce system.
4. Adjust the tone of voice — creative, formal, friendly, humorous, simple, explanatory, academic, etc.
5. You can craft a prompt in one language and request the output in another. However, keep in mind that you may occasionally need to repeat the request twice. This issue occurred when I wrote a prompt in the Czech language and had to reiterate the maximum description length and desired output language twice (which isn’t efficient for conserving API tokens).
6. When generating meta descriptions for thousands of pages, I recommend periodically (e.g., every few minutes) copying the filled values and using the “paste as values” function. This is important because Google Sheets functions automatically refresh, potentially using up your Open API tokens unnecessarily.
7. You may encounter some lines with a #error result. In this case, I suggest filtering out these values, deleting the function, and re-inserting it.

Your Feedback Matters: Tell Me What You Think

I hope this tutorial proves helpful in boosting your CTR in SERP. If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas, please feel free to share them in the comments section. I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d follow my profile here on medium.com. Stay tuned for more intriguing articles on automation and the utilization of AI in SEO.