Great job! You’ve convinced a potential customer to land on your eCommerce product page.
This URL, also known as an eCommerce landing page, is designed to make your website visitors purchase a specific product.
The only problem? Your conversion rate is dwindling. Potential customers land on your product pages and exit as quickly as they land there. No sales are coming your way despite the large volumes of traffic.
That’s likely happening because you’re not following these product page best practices.
1. Writing SEO-optimized metadata
You can have the best-designed product page in the world, but if nobody sees it from your search result, you won’t get any sales from it.
One of the easiest product page SEO best practices is to drive potential customers there through a search engine.
And, it’s usually the most effective because the people you’re targeting through search engines are actively looking for your product. They’re not random people who’ve seen your site through their Facebook feed, clicked through to be nosey, and exit again. They have genuine intent to buy a product—depending on the keywords they’re searching for.
You can do some SEO detective work to find which keywords your ideal customers are searching for. To do this, think of the basic term that describes your product, such as “USB adaptor for MacBooks.”
Type your basic term into Google and comb through their suggestions:
Pick any keywords you didn’t previously think of, or suit your product better than the basic term. (You can even plug those into a tool like Ahrefs or Ubersuggest to find those with the highest search volume.)
But to rank for these keywords, you need to include them in your meta tags. This is a two-pronged approach:
- Meta tags: The blue snippet of text used to describe your eCommerce product page
- Meta description: A longer, 160-word snippet of text to convince searchers to click-through and visit your page
You edit both of these tags in your CMS. Tools like Yoast and Rank Math make it easier for you to do so on a page-by-page level.
Here’s what that looks like for The Range:
Both of these meta tags help you rank for the product’s keyword because it proves to Google that your URL suits the searcher’s query.
Plus, you’re in with a shot of convincing people to click through when they see your result because it contains the same phrases they typed in. This improves your organic click-through rate, and tells Google your site is relevant—and therefore, should rank it higher.
Those higher rankings should result in more page visits, especially if you make the top five. That’s where 67% of all clicks go.
2. Posting big and clear 360-images
Did you know that three-quarters of shoppers consider product photographs while purchasing online?
That’s right: once you get a potential customer to your product page, you’ll need to have a product image of what you are selling. Otherwise, you won’t meet the expectations of your target customer —and they’ll head to a competitor who does.
But it’s not just any type of product image you should be using. Follow along for the best product photography tips.
You want photos to be:
- Clear
- Large
- On a white background
That makes it easier for a potential customer to see what the product looks like in real life. (In turn, this can have an impact on your returns: some 22% of returns occur because the product looks different in person.)
You can take this a step further by adding videos on your site, like this product page example from ASOS:
Jamie Anderson explains: “A well made explainer, instructional, demonstration or even just display video on a product page can give your conversion rate a massive boost.”
“Regardless of the product, there are so many different ways you can add value to the shopping experience and help the customer make their decision and buy from you by using video on the product pages. Especially when there is so much competition nowadays, this can really make you stand out from the crowd.”
3. Writing convincing product descriptions
You’ve got awesome product photography and a few videos on your product pages. Great job! But 76% of shoppers want to see product specifications, and you can’t always see the intricate product detail through photos.
Sadia Ahmed of Frontier Blades explains: “Each product page should include details pertaining to shipping fees and delivery times.”
“Incorporating this information establishes integrity by ensuring transparency with customers. This approach is further emphasized if your business offers free shipping, as this strategy directly correlates with increased revenue generation.”
Alongside this information, add other bullet points your customer would be interested in, such as:
- The product’s size, height, or weight
- How to use the product for the first time
- Any additional equipment they’ll need (i.e. batteries)
But remember: you want to sound human. Nobody wants to buy from a robot.
The easiest way to do this is by writing like your audience talk. Reference your buyer persona for this, and pull language from previous customer feedback. What words, sentences, or puns do they use? Copy them and add them to your product description.
Here’s a great product description example from Method Home. Take special notice of how they make a conscious effort to write in a way their customers understand:
Christine Glossop of Looka explains how you can do this for your product pages: “It’s easy to get caught up in the specs that set your product apart from competitors, but exhaustive feature lists don’t convert.”
“If you want conversions, make sure your product page includes the one central benefit that sets your product page apart, and make sure you phrase this benefit in terms of the customer. There’s a big difference between saying the fastest XYZ on the market and saying cuts your XYZ time to zero.”
“This sounds simple, but product pages often have many contributors and stakeholders, including product, development, marketing, leadership, and even customer success,” Glossop continues.
“Is the copy accurate to the product’s capabilities? Is it search engine optimized? Is it sufficiently different from competitors? All these questions come into play. As such, you need to step back once in a while to ensure your product page communicates why your product matters—not just what it does.”
4. Showing the breadcrumb for easy navigation
The goal of any eCommerce website is a sale.
But to convince people to stick around and find a product they want to purchase, you need to make it easy for them to navigate your eCommerce website. Failure to do so might mean you lose 21% of shoppers. That’s how many people hate unattractive or hard-to-navigate eCommerce sites.
A breadcrumb shows the navigation people took to reach an eCommerce product page. It usually goes something like this:
Home > Category > Sub-category > Product
Shoppers can use the breadcrumb if the product page they’re currently on doesn’t fit what they need. They can go back to browse the category and find something better, using the hierarchy to find category pages easily.
Here’s what that looks like for Wayfair:
The best part about this feature? It’s perfect for the people you’ve driven to your website through SEO.
The product page might be the first thing they see on your eCommerce website. But while they might like the product, they might want to hop around and see if there’s anything they like better. They can easily do that with the breadcrumb.
5. Giving customers different pricing options
With eCommerce booming, it’ll come as no surprise to see that alternative payment methods are soaring.
Apple Pay, PayPal, and Visa Checkout are quickly becoming the norm for millions of shoppers. But you might be alienating them if you’re not showing you accept those payment methods on your website. A simple logo can solve that problem.
While working on this part of your product page, think about any pricing models you could include on the page. For example, you might have:
- Repeat purchase deals: Do customers tend to order your product multiple times? Consider adding a repeat purchase deal that works similarly to a subscription, like Amazon’s “subscribe and save” shown below. You can automatically bill their account each month, and ship the product to the customer—without them needing to do it manually. No more relying on them to remember.
- Payment plans for high-cost items: Customers might not be able to purchase a high-ticket item in one go. Don’t let that obstacle stop you from making the sale. Do something similar to Apple’s iPhone payment plans and allow customers to pay in installments.
- Product bundling: If you have a group of products that people tend to buy together, show them as a recommendation on your product page. For example: if you’re selling photos, bundle it with a frame and show the price for both. (This product bundling strategy is estimated to be responsible for 35% of all Amazon sales and 74% of Netflix watches, according to McKinsey.)
6. Using A/B tested calls to action
A call to action is a simple button that tells your audience to do something. On a product page, that’s usually to buy—but it can be other things, depending on the product itself. For example, you might have:
- Add to wishlist if it’s a high-ticket item they can’t buy on the spot
- Ask a question using a Messenger bot if the product requires a long-term commitment
- Sign-up if the product is out of stock and the customer wants to know when it’s next available
Did you notice those calls to action sound boring? The words “buy now” aren’t really that convincing unless you’ve already decided you want it. The same applies to “add to wishlist” and “sign-up.”
Take some time to make sure your product page’s calls to action are more convincing. Remember: you want someone to actually do what you’re asking of them. How can you persuade them?
A simple trick is to include exactly what a customer is going to pay. You don’t want them to reach the checkout and find there’s an extra cost on top of the price they saw on the product page.
Some of the best eCommerce product pages, including Outdoor Voices, do that well:
You’ll also want to play around with your call to action’s size, color, and position. Unfortunately, there are no “best practices” for this. The most effective call to action depends on a brand’s individual target audience, interests, and habits.
You can find your perfect call to action combination by split-testing your product page call to actions with tools like Hotjar, ConvertFlow, or CrazyEgg.
Go forward with the one generating the most actions (or sales) for each page.
7. Showing social proof and testimonials
The average consumer reads 10 customer reviews before making a purchase decision.
If you don’t have them on your page, they’ll head to third-party review sites. The only problem? When they’re off your website and in a directory, there’s a risk of them getting distracted by competitors. Or forget to come back to your site entirely.
Include customer reviews on the product page itself so they don’t have to go looking. You can add them alongside other trust-building elements like:
- 5-star ratings
- Awards you’ve won
- Influencer endorsements
- Number of people who’ve bought the product
- Media coverage of the product (i.e. “featured in Forbes”)
Take a look at how Basecamp shows social proof on their product page:
“It’s the physical proof of someone else holding the product in their hands, describing the features and the quality is what makes new customers buy from you,” Marco Baatjes of Bottom Line Cents explains.
“Social proofing your product page is a great way to reduce your customers’ worries and a really effective way of improving the conversion rates of your product.”
Add these elements to your product pages today
Learning how to build an ecommerce website that’s made to convert takes trial and error. Start with getting on the best ecommerce platform for your business (like Shopify or WooCommerce) and then, make sure every product page on your eCommerce site contains these seven things.
The SEO-optimized meta tags will help you drive people to the page. High-quality images will show them what you have to offer. Product descriptions, pricing options, social proof, and calls to action will convince them to buy your product.
Check over your previous product pages. Do they contain each of these elements? If not, go back and edit them. It’s bound to make an impact on your sales.
