E-commerce website owners often focus so much of their time and effort on search engine optimisation that they often forget that websites are primarily built for people, not just web-crawlers. And while SEO may get your website in the right place on the search engine results page, so it can actually be seen, the rest of the conversion depends on your offering, and an intelligent website design.
When people arrive on your site, they need to know what it can offer them as soon as possible. If visitors have a hard time navigating the pages or can’t really tell what kinds of products are available, they will simply continue surfing.
Increasing your click through rate and reducing the bounce rate can often just be a matter of making your site clearer, and offering interesting content to users.
Metadata
Meta keywords are no longer a ranking factor but h-tags are still very important. These are the titles which appear on your pages. They have the dual function of giving web-crawlers a strong idea of the page’s theme, and structuring content so visitors know where they can find information quickly.
Meta-descriptions, on the other hand, aren’t a ranking factor at all but are vitally important for clickthroughs. These snippets, which appear below results, are essentially that page’s sales pitch. If you want to be picked over the other results on the SERP, write a description that’s compelling, concise and distinct.
Product Descriptions
When people look to make a purchase online, they like to know as much as possible about the product. This is because consumers are used to seeing a tangible product when they buy, so they are more wary of web purchases.
Try to include as many product specifications as you can, in addition to price and model name, such as: size, colours, warranty details, product materials, etc.
Multimedia Content
While it is true that search engines can’t really index multimedia content (other than the associated alt tag) very well, these pieces of content are valuable to visitors who probably want something richer than a good product description when reviewing your products.
Adding pictures or instructional videos showing the various dimensions and features relating to a product and how it works is visually interesting, and can really help give your potential customers a better idea of your offering.
Reviews
Your marketing message is an incredibly important function for securing conversions, but it will only go so far in convincing potential customers of the honesty of your claims.
They often want to see reviews, testimonials or public endorsements which support it, as these have a perceived objective credibility.
Adding a review section may be considered risky, as it opens your website up to both positive and negative feedback, but you can choose which ones appear at the top or front of your webpage. Choose ones which add SEO, as well as endorsement, value.
Buying Channel
If a visitor decides to purchase, it should be as simple as possible and mustn’t require too many steps to complete the purchase. Don’t ask for a subscription or endless pages of details. Make the ‘buy’ or ‘shopping cart’ button as visually obvious as possible.