As an eCommerce website owner, landing page optimization is an aspect that you should closely pay attention to if you’re looking to improve your conversion rates. You’ve probably heard this statement before, and wondered what exactly does page optimization entail? Unfortunately, page optimization is not an exact science, there are no hard and fast rules on how to make clicks convert.
Given that each eCommerce sector is different and each target audience reacts differently, page optimization is a field in which you have to experiment to see what works for you and what doesn’t. Even though there are no exact rules on how to achieve higher conversion rates, there are some guidelines that can point you in the right direction, and which you can use to come up with your own strategy as to how you can optimize your product landing pages. There are even some tried and tested methods that seem to work in every domain (e.g. page speed optimization).
Improve loading time
The idea is to put as few hurdles as possible between your customers and their decision to purchase your product. A product page that loads very slow is a hurdle that must be removed, otherwise you risk losing customers before they even take a good look at your products.
How can you improve the speed of your website? Is your online store hosted on a shared hosting? If so, make sure to invest more in a dedicated hosting, which will not only give you more control over your resources, but it will also ensure that you won’t have to share an IP with many other sites, and that their actions will have no bearing on your website’s reputation. Does your online store feature a lot of content? Look into integrating a content delivery network with your site. A CDN will unburden your server from delivering static content, and deliver it to your users from one of the CDN’s many globally distributed servers that are located closest to your visitors. If you use a content management system, implementing a CDN can be done without much hassle.
If you’re using a CMS, you may want to look into specific ways that each type of CMS can be speeded up. There are image optimization and specific website caching tools that can each go a long way in improving the performance of your website.
Evident call to action
Crafting a good call to action is a crucial element of your product landing page that will contribute to higher conversion rates. If you’re paying to promote your website, you should particularly be more invested in creating evident calls to action. A call to action on your product landing page is usually a button or other element that invites visitors to take a further step in the buying process.
There are several elements that you can tweak to make your call to action more enticing for your visitors. In this domain, A/B testing is your best chance to discover which are the changes that turn your visitors into buyers. Here are some things that you should try out:
- Use motivational language that involves a sense of urgency, and if your CTAs permit, phrase them to contain words that trigger action (e.g. “Secure my seat today”);
- Use contrastive colors to make your buttons or clickable CTAs stand out, and place them in a place that is visible without your visitors having to scroll down on the page;
- Incorporate “wish list” or “favorite” buttons to help your customers save products that they like, but cannot buy right then and there (if they save them, they are more likely to return to them later);
- You can use a similar strategy as the “wish list” button with out of stock products by providing the option to get notified when the product becomes available again. Also, make sure to show your customers similar products that they may consider buying instead;
- Communicate product prices as clearly as possible to avoid any confusion. If products have free shipping or extra shipping rates apply, make sure to communicate that from the start. If you don’t show shipping costs upfront, your consumers may abandon the shopping process if they later find out that shipping is either not included in the price or costs too much. If you can’t include shipping rates into your pricing, try offering flat shipping rates.
You can experiment a lot with the language, design, placement, color and any other aspect of your CTAs. This is a field where consistent A/B testing can help you find out what your buyers respond to best.
Use high quality images and product videos
Product description alone will not suffice; you need to show your customers how your products really look like. Because there is no way to hold or feel your products online, people have to rely on visual perception to make purchasing decisions. Feature high-quality, large images of your products. Include images from multiple angles and implement a product zoom feature, which allows users to zoom in on different details of the product.
Like images, product videos also help users make decisions more easily. Obviously, this is not the case with every type of product, but if you’re in the business of selling phones and laptops for example, unboxing videos are likely to land you more sales. Test this theory by creating a few videos and see if they convert.
Good product description
Writing good product descriptions that boost conversions is another challenge that businesses face. Here are some tips on how to jazz up your product descriptions:
- Don’t go overboard with superlatives: Sure, everyone says their product is “excellent”, ‘’innovative’’, ‘’advanced’’. You’ll never find product descriptions that say the product is ‘’average’’, ‘’just about right’’, or ‘’plain’’. Be specific, otherwise you risk sounding unconvincing. Why is your product excellent? Is it hand-made, organic, fair trade? Include those in the description, and if you absolutely must use superlatives, always justify them.
- Fill in information gaps. Are there questions that consumers ask about your products frequently? Include that information in the product description.
- Don’t use only functional and ordinary words, appeal to consumers’ visual and emotional side. You’re selling coffee? Don’t write “delicious taste”, go for something like “savor the tenacious aroma of freshly ground beans”.
- Product details and specs are important, but don’t make your product description only a list of data, find ways to describe how these product features are beneficial to your users.
- Experiment until you find the right length. Long product descriptions usually work better if your product is expensive, complex, part of a specialized field, while short product descriptions work best for inexpensive and simple products. A/B test this theory as well to see it in action.
User feedback / review
Whether people are making reservations at a restaurant or they are buying a laptop, they rely heavily on other user reviews. User reviews have such a big impact that people give them the same value as they give personal recommendations. On-page reviews allow users to stay on your page and get the information they need right away without leaving your page to go search for reviews elsewhere. Add a rating and review system to your products to see if your conversion rates improve.
The work on your eCommerce website doesn’t stop when you upload all your products and launch your store. If you want to efficiently turn your leads into buyers, you’ll have to allocate time for product page optimization and A/B testing over A/B testing until you manage to come up with the optimization structure that lands you the most sales. Remember: the fewer the hoops your consumers have to jump through to make up their minds and purchase your products, the better!
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