If you have been battling to see any results from your online store, it may be time to look at ecommerce product page optimisation to see how ecommerce marketing can improve your product pages.
Much like a brick and mortar store, online stores need to make the right impression from the moment potential customers arrive. In a real-world store, there are a number of things that could influence a purchase. Products could be arranged in a way that draws attention and attracts views. Lighting can be used along with displays, music, decor, friendly shop assistants, and various other factors that make shoppers want to spend.
In an online store, on the other hand, you have just a few seconds to make an impression. Things that could make or break this impression include the overall layout of your store along with your images, navigation, and – most importantly – your product pages. This is why ecommerce product page optimisation is so essential. It does not just keep shoppers on your pages once they arrive either. It also helps to get them to your store in the first place, if you optimise your pages properly.
In this guide, we take a look at some of the strategies you can use to boost your ecommerce product page optimisation for increased conversion.
Effective Ecommerce Product Page Optimisation Strategies
How do you go about keeping shoppers on your site to drive more sales? For starters, you can invest in ecommerce product page optimisation. Here are some simple but effective strategies to put into place.
Review your current product pages
Before you get started, one of the most useful ways to see exactly what is currently working and what is not is to review your current product pages. This will help you to see where improvements need to be made, which gives you a good starting ground for improving your pages. You could do this manually, analysing various elements from your content to your images, links, calls to action, metadata, keywords, and overall usability.
Another option is to consider a website audit that does a full review of your pages as well as your strategies, SEO, and larger digital profile. This can be extremely useful if you are struggling to see any growth in your store and you are not sure where to begin evaluating your pages. Audits provide detailed reports on your current website, with in-depth suggestions on where to make improvements.
Aim for longtail keywords vs generic terms
The next step is to consider your keyword strategies. If you are using generic keywords such as ‘organic fruit’ for your online fruit and vegetable market, you will likely battle to see any traction. Using deeper, longtail phrases such as ‘organic fruit in cape town’ or ‘buy fresh organic fruit’ would be far more relevant. Consider how searches would be done naturally by customers. If you were shopping for organic products online, what terms would you be using?
Deeper keyword research and the use of modifiers along with keyword variations is the best way to ensure that your products are found more easily online without having to compete with a large number of stores using similar generic terms. Longtail keywords also have a better chance of conversion – especially those that show purchase intent, such as ‘where to buy fruit in cape town’ for example.
Add more content to product pages
If you are using manufacturer descriptions or skipping content altogether, you will need to create unique content, for starters. This is one of the many ecommerce SEO mistakes made by many online stores. Over and beyond unique content, you also need to add enough content so that you can bring in your keywords and also give search engines enough to trawl your online store. Your descriptions need to be relevant and informative so that they add genuine value to people browsing products. If space is limited, use a ‘read more’ plugin that only displays a short chunk of content.
Things that you can include in your descriptions could include an overall description of the product. Using our organic fruit example, you could write about your farm fresh apples that are grown in the heart of the Cape countryside with minimal or zero harmful pesticides. You could include information on the health benefits of apples and how organic farming compares to conventional farming. You could even add in nutritional details such as the vitamins and nutrients in apples. Other useful information would be product dimensions or details that apply such as weight, apple type or anything else that is relevant to the product you are selling.
Use a clear, simple linking system
Another essential factor for ecommerce page optimisation is a clear linking system. If you sell a large variety of fruit, and you have different types of fruit within certain category pages (golden delicious, granny smith, pink lady, and starking apples, for example), each product will need a clear URL that allows for easy navigation. This is essential for SEO as well as usability. Using a generic or automated link such as ‘organicfruit.com/apples/8328392’ would be far less effective than a link such as ‘organicfruit.com/apples/granny-smith’.
On a similar note, make sure that your menus are optimised as well, with a clear navigational structure that includes breadcrumbs. A sitemap is another important element that will help search engines and customers find products more easily. Using features such as similar products within a category is also a good way to improve navigation and usability. The more simple it is to find products without having to search, the easier it will be to convert customers.
Make sure your pages are responsive
Your entire store should be responsive and optimised for web and mobile. That means responsive product pages, too. For effective ecommerce product page optimisation, make sure that your product pages can be viewed on any device. Many customers will browse on mobile devices and then complete purchases on computers. If your pages are easy to view on website but difficult to read or scan easily on mobile, you will lose out on potential sales very quickly.
Mobile responsiveness plays a vital role in SEO, especially as we enter the era of Google’s Mobile-First indexing. Online stores and websites that have not optimised for mobile will be left behind, as Google begins to favour those that have optimised for all devices.
Don’t forget to optimise images (and metadata)
Finally, it is also worth noting that images also play a big role in your overall optimisation. Many online stores add in images without thinking about the size, dimensions or metadata. Large images can very quickly lead to loading issues and other usability problems, which all have an effect on your website’s optimisation. Likewise, images that have not been optimised for SEO will make it harder for your site to be found in the SERPs.
Metadata plays an important role in ranking. Along with ALT tags and proper image optimisation, don’t forget to include other metadata to make your store more visible. That includes correct title tags that help navigation as well as SEO.
Ecommerce Product Page Optimisation
These ecommerce product page optimisation strategies don’t have to be complicated or even too time-consuming. With a bit of planning and thought, you should start to see a difference in your results once you put these ecommerce product page optimisation tips into action.
