E-commerce sites are becoming more and more important for businesses all the time. They allow companies to sell their products or services directly to consumers without having to go through a middleman. This means they don’t have to pay commissions or fees to retailers or payment processors. Everything is in their entire realm of control.
There are several ways to improve your e-commerce site’s visibility in search engines. One key is to focus on the user experience and ensure that your site is optimized for mobile devices. Another key is to ensure that you include the required CTAs (calls to action) and that you create a well-optimized site.
You may want to read our other post on e-commerce SEO when you have a free moment.
The following includes more e-commerce site optimization tips you should know, and how to make sure that you’re optimizing for customers first!
Decrease the Likelihood of Cart Abandonment
Cart abandonment happens when shoppers abandon carts without completing checkout. This is one of the most important things to keep in mind because it impacts conversion rates and sales.
There is a significant percentage of consumers who abandon their shopping carts without buying anything. This is something that frustrates e-commerce website owners on a regular basis.
Even if you accept this as natural, every business wants to make more money, right? That’s why this is a crucial e-commerce optimization strategy to implement. You want to reduce cart abandonment as much as possible.
Here are a few tips for doing just that:
Use an automatic email system that tracks cart abandonment and sends emails reminding customers they left something in their cart. This is a technique used by many successful businesses.
When a potential customer leaves a site, he/she has already expressed interest in what you’re selling. If you can capture this information and use it to guide future marketing efforts, you’ll increase conversions.
For example, let’s say you sell shoes. Your exit-intent could be “Buy Shoes.” Instead of sending people to your homepage, send them directly to the product page where they can buy the shoe they were looking for.
The goal here is to help customers find exactly what they’re looking for while keeping them on your site longer.
Run Split Tests on Your Email Opt-ins and Campaigns
Split testing is one of the most effective ways to improve conversion rates and increase profits. .
To start, you’ll need to decide what type of product or service you’re selling. Then, choose whether you’d like to focus on email opt-ins or landing pages.
Next, determine how much traffic you have access to.
Finally, pick a variation of your ad copy, design, and offer. Once you’ve done those things, it’s time to test.
Add Some Automation to Your Email Marketing
Automation is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal when it comes to driving more leads and making more sales.
There are many different types of automation, including some that don’t involve sending out hundreds of emails. You might be surprised by what works well for certain kinds of businesses. Here are three examples of automated emails that work really well for specific industries.
1. Shopping Cart Abandonment Emails
A common type of email automation is designed to help you capture abandoned carts. These emails can range from simple popups to full-blown e-commerce campaigns. They’re great because they give you an opportunity to connect with potential buyers and turn them into paying customers.
2. Popup Offers
Popups are another effective form of automation. When someone visits your site, you want to show them something interesting. A popup is just such a thing. It offers up a deal or a freebie to entice people to visit your site.
3. Lead Nurturing Emails
Lead nurturing is another way to automate your email marketing. The idea behind lead nurturing is to nurture new leads until they become paying customers. For example, you may offer a discount to new subscribers who sign up for your newsletter. Or, you may ask questions to get to know your audience better.
Reduce Ridiculous Distractions on Your Site
E-commerce sites are often cluttered with unnecessary elements like sidebars, ads, and navigation bars. These things can make your store look unprofessional and slow down conversions. But how much clutter is too much? And where do you draw the line?
1. Sidebar
The sidebar is one of the most common areas where people add unnecessary elements. If you don’t use it properly, it could actually hurt your sales. You can use it to display products, recent blog posts, social media feeds, etc., but try to keep it under control.
2. Ads
You’re probably familiar with the ad format that appears on the left side of every page. This is called the “skyscraper ad.” While skyscraper ads are effective, they aren’t always appropriate. They tend to attract attention away from the main focus of your site, making visitors less likely to convert. Instead, consider placing ads inside the body copy. This way, your customers won’t lose interest halfway through reading the page. When done correctly, however, instead of losing interest your customers might click on the actual ad.
3. Navigation Bar
Navigation bars are also a big distraction. They take up valuable real estate on your pages, which makes it harder for readers to find their way around the site. Plus, they usually have links to other parts of your site, which means they’ll distract your customers even further. Try removing all of these distractions so you can improve your conversion rate.
4. Social Media Feeds
Social media feeds are another popular place to put distractions. People love checking in on Facebook and Twitter, so why not let them? However, if you post too frequently, you risk annoying your followers. Also, if you post about irrelevant topics, you’ll annoy your customers. So, how do you strike the right balance between posting enough content and keeping it relevant?
5. Unnecessary Links
Links are important. They allow users to navigate easily throughout your site. But, there’s no need to include links to every single page on your website. Make sure to only link to pages that are essential to your business. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing traffic.
6. Too Many Images
Images are great. They provide visual appeal and can be used to highlight certain features on your site. But, you shouldn’t overdo it. A good rule of thumb is to limit images to 10% or less of your total page load time.
7. Flash Content
Flash content is an outdated technology that has been replaced by HTML5. It’s best to avoid using flash altogether because it slows down your site.
8. Slow Loading Times
If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load, then it will definitely deter potential customers. Users expect websites to load quickly, so if yours doesn’t, you might want to rethink your design.
9. Poorly Designed Pages
If your site looks messy or disorganized, it will turn off potential customers. Your goal should be to create a clean, professional appearance that attracts new customers.
Utilize Tracking Tools to Their Fullest
Analytics tools are great because they give you insight into how visitors interact with your site, allowing you to make better decisions about your conversion funnel.
They’re also useful for getting feedback on your design choices, since you can see where people drop off.
The most popular analytics tool is probably Google Analytics. It allows you to set up goals for each step in your sales funnel, and it gives you insights into how many people reached those steps and what actions they took.
You should use tracking tools like Hotjar and Crazy Egg to understand why certain parts of your site aren’t converting well. These tools let you see what happens during the customer journey, including what pages they view, what products they add to cart, and what action they take next.
If you’re building a mobile app, you can also use the App Store Optimization (ASO) tools to find out whether your keywords are being searched for, or if there’s room for improvement.
Ensure that Your Messaging is Aligned with Your Target Audience
When writing the copy for your web pages, it’s crucial that you identify your target audience and align your messaging with them. What do they want? How can you provide value?
And, most importantly, why should they buy from you?
If you don’t know exactly who you’re trying to sell to, you won’t be able to write the copy accordingly. So, decide who you’re trying to reach, and make sure that your messaging is aligned with them.
If you write your copy haphazardly without this consideration, you may still get sales. But then, you might not get the most sales you possibly can. Why not maximize your opportunities from the get-go, instead of needing to correct things after the fact?
Make Sure That You Include Accurate and Up-To-Date Contact Information
You would be amazed at how many sites we come across who do not have up-to-date contact information. One company asked us about their 800 number and why they weren’t getting any phone calls, despite putting in tremendous effort into their SEO campaign.
After some digging, we found out that the previous person in charge of the web site made a typo in their phone number – they were one digit off.
While it may seem like an innocuous mistake, in reality, careless errors such as this can cost a business thousands of dollars. This is especially true if somebody who needs their services cannot contact them through their website in an efficient way.
First, it’s clear that consumers want to connect with brands, and they’re willing to give companies a chance that provides them with the tools needed to do so.
Second, it’s critical to provide multiple forms of contact information, because different types of customers prefer different methods. For example, millennials like texting, while baby boomers prefer calling.
Third, it’s important to keep things simple, because the more steps required to access customer support, the lower the chances that anyone will actually use it.
Fourth, it’s worth noting that there’s a difference between “contact us” buttons versus “call now” buttons.
While both are good, the former implies that you’ll take action once the visitor reaches you, whereas the latter indicates that you’ll immediately respond to the request.
Skyrocket Urgency Using Flash Sales
In 2021, holiday sales alone totaled around $1.221 trillion. This makes it one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year. But how do you get shoppers to buy now?
Flash sales are a great way to offer limited quantities of products at very low prices. They’re often used by online retailers like Amazon and Zappos.com to sell out-of-stock items during a flash sale.
But what about brick-and-mortar stores? Can they use flash sales to boost profits too? Of course! They do this all the time with Black Friday sales, and midnight sales.
While there are many ways to implement a flash sale, here are three things to keep in mind:
- Make sure your product selection is relevant. If your store sells shoes, don’t run a flash sale focused around dresses.
- Offer an incentive. A free gift or coupon code is a great way to entice people into buying.
- Keep the promotion short. You don’t want to confuse visitors with long terms and conditions.
Get User Feedback Using A/B Testing
A/B testing is a powerful tool that allows marketers to find out exactly how people interact with their site. This method of testing could help you improve your services and sites to deliver better experiences to your customers. You can run A/B testing on your website to see which design performs best.
There are many ways to conduct A/B testing. Some of the most common include:
- Split testing – In split testing, you compare two different versions of a page or feature. You send traffic to each variation and measure the performance metrics for each.
- Multivariate testing – In multivariate testing, you combine multiple variations together and track the performance of those combined variations.
- Control vs. treatment – In control vs. treatment testing, you send traffic to a single variation while measuring the performance of that variant against another.
- Multiple treatments – In multiple treatments, you vary the type of traffic sent to each variation.
- You can do this to make sure that your variation isn’t being affected by something else.
- Treatments vs. controls – In treatments vs. controls, you send traffic to two variants and compare the performance of both.
Make Sure Your Page Has Primary Calls to Action
Believe it or not, when it comes to the web, people like to be told what to think and do. In fact, laying out the steps for your customer to perform the action you want them to could lead to more conversions than if you didn’t lay out these steps.
This is why you should use calls to actions (CTAs). These words or phrases tell users exactly what to do next. They are often used within headlines, subheadings, buttons, forms, images and text blocks.
Effective CTAs can help users understand how to navigate your site easier, thereby increasing conversions. For example, if you sell shoes online, you might have a form asking users to enter their shoe size. You could add a headline saying something like “Enter Your Size” or “Find Your Perfect Fit” to guide users toward completing the form.
What types of CTAs are appropriate for your target audience? If you sell high-end products, you might want to avoid using terms such as “buy now” or “free trial” because those words are associated with lesser-quality products. Instead, consider “schedule a demo” or “learn more about our product.”
Make Sure That You Feature Your Best Products
Even though most of your products live on internal product pages – where they are much easier to find – you can still feature your best products right on your homepage. This way, customers see your best sellers immediately. They don’t even have to scroll down to discover them.
Over time, you can also test which products do best in the homepage position. If you notice that certain products perform better there, compared to the rest of the site, you can use those as examples for future homepages.
You can also display seasonal items, new products, or bestsellers on the homepage. When you prioritize your products this way, you can target customers with those prioritized products. This helps you make things easier to find, and thus, easier to sell.
E-Commerce SEO Is the Wave Of The Future
When you’re thinking about e-commerce, you’re probably thinking about Amazon and other large retailers. But, e-commerce SEO applies to many smaller retailers as well.
If you’re selling a product online, odds are you are engaged in e-commerce.
This means that you have to adhere to certain SEO principles in order to ensure that your site continues to follow best practices and does not become stale.
Through consistent website audits, updates, and changes to your strategy, your e-commerce site can continue to ride the waves of SEO from now and far into the future.
When do you plan on making sure your e-commerce site is retrofitted with the right stuff?
