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Monday 9 June 2014

15 e-commerce best practices you CAN'T ignore

The purpose of this blog article is to showcase some best practices when it comes to e-commerce websites in terms of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), User Experience (UX) and Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO).

So here are just a few examples of how to make your e-commerce website not only user friendly but Google friendly too.

1. Product reviews using rich snippets


Rich snippets are any additional pieces of information included in a search result. Here's an example of a product review rich snippets as displayed on a search engine results page.



2. Advertiser and business reviews using rich snippets


Here's how advertiser and store reviews using rich snippets are displayed on a search engine results page.



Other examples of how rich snippets can be used include:


  • Reviews
  • People
  • Products
  • Businesses
  • Recipes
  • Events
  • Music

3. Display delivery information prominently


It’s important to clearly display delivery costs, free delivery and free delivery threshold options.







4. Homepage advertising / marketing


Give your visitors (and Google) something new to look at each time they visit your website. Keep it fresh. This can include displaying special offers, sale items, what’s new and more.





5. Star ratings


Displaying product star ratings in the category view of your website will help your visitors to decide which are the best products based on customer reviews.





6. Customer product reviews


Here's an example of the use of summary scores for different aspects of a product.



And here's an example of how customer reviews can be displayed a product page.



7. Reviews of your business


Prominent placing of reviews of your business from external review engines such as Trust Pilot can help your customers to trust you more.


8. Google+ reviews


Positive Google+ reviews reassure customers searching for your brand in Google of your quality. Google+ has so many other features to take advantage of too so it shouldn't be ignored.



9. Give your customers confidence


Tell them why they should buy from you.



10. Stand out from the crowd


Tell your visitors how and why you are different from your competitors. This should be displayed prominently on your website. (And it shouldn't be that you're simply cheaper than your competitors). Your brand agency can help you with this one.



11. Compare products


The functionality to have an easy to view product comparison table is advantageous in certain retail markets such as electronics, household appliances, automotives etc.



12. Tabbed product pages


Great to keep your product pages informative yet non-cluttered.



13. How secure is your website?


Let your customers know that it’s safe to buy from your website. This must be clearly displayed for any visitor (repeat customer or new prospect) to see.





14. Validation error


Don’t make your customers re-enter information twice if they make a mistake first time round filling in a form.



15. Thank you page optimisation


Here's an example of social sharing, related items / customers also bought etc. on a thank you page after checkout is complete.



These are just some examples of what you can be doing to help make your e-commerce website as usable as possible for your prospects / customers. There are so many other things to consider including customer retention and the optimisation of your checkout process but these are for another article.

Thank you for reading and if you'd like to chat to us at angelfysh about how we can help you get the best out of your e-commerce website then please get in touch.

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