Plug That Leak: 10 Elements You Are Messing Up On Your Product Page

Running your own online retail store is no walk in the park—just like any other business, it takes a lot of trial-and-error, starting from creating your website to generating the conversions that you want.

One of the most important touchpoints in an e-commerce store is your product page. This is where your customers would be spending most of their time and where you can generate sales. It’s also the part of your site that gets the most amount of traffic, allowing you to rank better in the SERPs.

So the question now is, are you optimizing it well enough to hit your sales goals?

Here’s a list of product page elements you need to consider to make sure that your web visitors make a purchase and come back for more:

1. Product Descriptions

Your product images may attract potential buyers, but it’s the product descriptions that will give it a compelling story. Most online entrepreneurs would take for granted the significance of an impactful copy, but it would be difficult to sell a product without it.

The problems:

• Your product description may either be too wordy or too short for the customer. Remember that the longer your content, the more you risk boring your customers; the shorter the content, the more they will have questions clouding in their heads.
• Erratum such as grammar and punctuation mistakes are a major turn-off to customers.

The solutions:

• Create catchy content that tells a story. Always remember that brevity is key when developing high-quality product descriptions.
• Make sure that your product descriptions are long enough to elaborate important facts (e.g length, width, color), but short enough to keep them reading.
• Hire a professional writer to do the job for you.

2. Seasonal Pages

Every season opens new opportunities for online retailers to sell limited edition items. But what happens when the peak of the season is over?

The problem:

• You may think that removing your seasonal pages is a logical idea because it will only serve its purpose for a short period of time. However, removing these pages could actually hurt your SEO strategies.

The solution:

• Keep these pages as it is. Sure, these pages may not get more visits when it’s off-season, but longevity is very important in gaining authority and ranking in the SERPs. Brands like Amazon, for instance, still have dedicated pages that exist for more than 12 months, which they would then update once the season rolls around again.

• Have a dedicated URL for seasonal items that gain authority over time. Then, post content early (way before the season comes). This increases customer engagement, while at the same time, prolonging the function of the seasonal page.

3. Product Reviews and Rating

Today’s winning websites highlight testimonials in their product pages to establish credibility and show why customers rely on their current product roster—and for good reason.

A 2017 study by Bright Local shows that 85% of consumers trust online reviews, with customers needing seven reviews on average before trusting a business.

The problems:

• Not being able to highlight the product reviews and rating section
• Not being able to seek feedback from customers who have actually used your product or service

The solutions:

• Take the road less traveled: instead of paying celebrities or costly social media influencers, you can use real people (e.g. previous customers) in your testimonials section to build up brand and product credibility. Encourage them to leave reviews on your site.
• Dedicate a portion of your product page that highlights your loyal customers’ reviews as well as the product rating.

4. ‘Add to Cart’ Button

Part of creating the best user experience to customers is to help them go through your website with convenience in mind—this includes the ‘add to cart’ button.

Websites are usually designed for desktops, but with mobile growing at an exponential rate, there is a need to optimize websites for the best mobile shopping experience. This is vital, especially when you’re considering customers who are most likely to buy your products right then and there.

The problem:

• Your ‘add to cart’ button is hard to find in your website, making it difficult for the customer to check their purchases and proceed to checkout

The solution:

• Make the buy or add to cart button stand out. Remember that simple design mistakes can fend off customers without making a purchase, so make sure that your buttons appear where your customers will most likely see or find them.
• Design a website that can be accessed easily using multiple devices. Remember that your customers may be doing their online shopping using different gadgets, so make sure that your website is flexible enough to accommodate their needs.

5. Optimize your product page based on keyword search

Think about your demographics and psychographics: what are your customers talking about? What topics are they most interested in sharing with their friends?

Digging deep into this information will help you identify the best keywords in your website, therefore attracting the right customers.

The problem:

• Using keywords that matter to your product and brand more than it is to your customers and their needs

The solution:

• Understand your customers better to know the best SEO strategy. Being able to do so will help you create the right content on your product page.
• Remember that whatever you sell, there is a corresponding market to it. What this means is that there’s not one SEO strategy that fits all products, so make sure that you carefully plan this out.

6. Automated Description Generators

Let’s admit it: description generators that create content for you can save tons of work and time. But while you’re enjoying its convenience, you might be compromising organic search rankings.

The problem:

• Using automated description generators to create content will lower your chances of attracting your desired market and increasing user engagement rates.

The solutions:

• It may be time-consuming, but writing the content on your own will allow you to craft product descriptions that attract intended customers more. Nobody knows your customers more than you do, so make sure that you got this one covered.
• If you don’t have the luxury of time to do the job, you can hire a professional writer to do it for you.

7. Duplicate content

Duplicate content issues often resonate throughout the website, not just in one area. The thing is, if search engines cannot identify which of your product pages should be prioritized, then it would most likely not rank any of them.

The problems:

• Multiple landing pages for a product type
• Same product content between you and your manufacturer

The solutions:

• Clean up existing pages and create one category page for each product type. What you need to is to start with a crawl and look for similar H1s.
• Manually check all live categories in the website to make sure that you don’t miss any duplicate content.
• Most people make the common mistake of using the same content created by their manufacturers. The problem with that is, you’re going to have a huge problem differentiating your site in the SERPs. Chances are, your manufacturer is also sending the same content to other online retailers, so imagine having multiple duplicate contents across different sites. To solve this, you have to rewrite the product description and take ownership of its branding.

8. Product photography

Customers are always looking for a unique shopping experience—one that makes them feel like they are in a brick-and-mortar store. They want to see the item in its actuality—and what better way to show them your products than via strategic product photography.

The problem:

• No clear idea of the product’s special features
• Wrong camera settings
• Out-of-focus shot

The solutions:

• Take note of your product’s most important features and highlight them in your photos.
• Make sure that your camera settings are all set before taking the photos. Pay close attention to color, warmth, brightness, and white balance to make sure that you bring out the best out of the item you are featuring.

9. Customer inquiry

Your customer’s inquiries and concerns are your gateways to identifying your next winning strategy. Handling customer complaints are so important in maintaining close-knit relationships with people who have actually used your products. They also tell you how good or bad your product or service is, so it’s best if you listen to their concerns and address them immediately before they blow up.

The problem:

• Not replying to customer woes immediately

The solutions:

• Your relationship with your customers is important in driving sales. Understand where your customers are coming from, politely tell them that you are attending to it immediately, and rectify any mistake.
• Take note of any recurring customer complaints and strategize how you will fix it.

10. Call to Action

The right call-to-actions (CTAs) will increase conversion and engagement rates. CTAs tell your customers what to do next after reading your blog post or after browsing through a specific product page. If you get it right, you can keep your customers hooked within your website and continue exploring it for something else to buy.

The problem:

• Lack of call to actions at the end of the product page
• Unnoticeable call to actions, leading to little or no engagement
• Wrong call to action

The solution:

• Make your CTAs stand out by applying the right placement, font, style, shape, and graphics. It’s also generally a good idea to use contrasting colors as opposed to your background.
• Always invoke a sense of urgency in your CTAs, or else your customer will not feel the need to click through it. Use power words such as “Now,” “Hurry,” Limited Edition,” or “Exclusive” to entice customers to click through the CTA.

These elements are meant to help grow online retailers like you in this ever-increasing digital market. If you find these steps effective, do let us know in the comments section below.

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