10 Simple Ecommerce Website Updates to Implement Now

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Alvinl

There are hundreds of ecommerce website updates you could make. Anyone who’s managed an ecommerce company has a list of things to change on the site.

The biggest issue as a manager is determining the priority list. It’s hard to know what can be done easily and what really should be done.

We’ve got some help. The updates listed below are ones you can make right now on your website. Together they’ll make a difference in terms of user experience and conversion.

Let’s begin.

1. Make All Calls To Action A Consistent Color

Amazon uses consistent colors for its calls to action for the most part.

One of the most confusing things for website visitors is the color of the calls to action. It’s not all about being contrasting. While that’s important, it is actually more important to have a consistent call to action color.

If you look at the Amazon example above, you’ll notice that the color orange is used on nearly every call to action. When you hover over text links in the left navigation area you’ll see that they even change to orange.

Creating consistent coloring for your calls to action gets visitors programmed. When people go to Amazon and they see the color orange they automatically know that it’s something they should click.

Amazon still has a few exceptions. The Add to Cart button is yellow and the search button at the top is black. The search button could easily be changed to orange, but overall Amazon does a great job of keeping things consistent.

2. Have One Main Action For Each Page

The Overstock website is very focused with prioritized calls to action on each page.

A good way to go into design discussions for your website is to have one main action for each page. This keeps things easy for the visitor, which leads to more conversions. It also gives you more control over the pathways people take on the site.

The tendency on ecommerce sites is to put as many calls to action as possible on every page. We naturally want to give people all the possible options they can think of when they’re browsing the site. The problem with that is too many options is too confusing. It’s better to limit those choices to just a few things.

Look at the Overstock example above. There is one main action on the page that stands out – Shop The Sale. The action is in bright yellow and it’s probably the first thing you noticed on the page. Yes, there are other actions on the page, but they are secondary and in the background. Keep the focus to a single action. Make all other necessary actions secondary.

3. Add Search Suggestions

Zappos helps visitors by providing search suggestions.

Search is likely in the top three actions visitors take from your homepage. That surprises some people. Sure, visitors may look at your feature image, but they’re more likely to start searching right away. This usually means they have something in mind already, but even those people need some help refining their search.

You can see in the Zappos example above that there are search suggestions. These are subtle hints to get the visitor started. You want the search experience on your site to be as fuss-free as possible. By offering suggestions you’ll help people find the right words. They’ll be able to find what they want easier and that makes them happy.

A happy shopper is one that likely converts.

4. Add Reinforcement Messages on Product Pages

Newegg reinforces their offer with “Free Shipping”

You probably offer free shipping on occasion. Maybe you even offer 20% off or 25% off from time to time. These are great offers. Yet when a visitor gets to the product page they still have that final moment just before they hit the “Add To Cart” button when they wonder if they really need this item.

Reinforce your offer at this point. You can see in the Newegg example above that Free Shipping is reinforced. Now the shopper can see the free shipping notice and make the final commitment to make the purchase. It’s the last little push they need to make a purchase and become a happy customer.

5. Consider Adding Lightbox Forms to Interior Pages

Don’t be afraid to use lightbox forms.

More companies are using lightbox or popup forms for different reasons.

Even LL Bean, a traditionally conservative company, is using the lightbox form. You can see above that LL Bean is reinforcing their free shipping offer.

What is interesting about the LL Bean example is they have this popup occur on an interior page. A new visitor is not shown the item on the homepage, but once they get to an internal page like the Men’s Shirts page they are reminded.

You can use a lightbox on internal pages to reinforce a message like LL Bean or you could use it to get more subscribers to your email address. It’s a great way to get a little more aggressive without scaring off every new visitor that comes to your homepage.

6. Use Branding To Your Advantage

Edwin Watts knows that golf is about brands. They put a brand drop down in their top navigation.

Further down the page Edwin Watts includes logos of the brands they sell. Branding matters.

Brands are usually important in ecommerce. It depends what industry you’re in, but chances are good that people recognize the brands you sell.

Take for example the Edwin Watts site from the examples above. At the top of the page you’ll see the drop down option to shop by brand. At the bottom the site includes the actual logos of the brands.

The company realizes that brands are important in the golf industry. Amateurs see their favorite golfing pros on TV with logos plastered on their shirts and hats. They want to golf like those players so they buy the same brands.

From Edwin Watts’ perspective they know they need to show the brand logos right away so a new visitors can immediately find what they’re looking for on the site.

If your industry is influenced by brands be sure to make it evident on your site.

7. Images Trump Text

Ebay has huge images on its website.

People notice images before text when they visit a site. Just look at the Ebay example above. You looked at the image of the red mixer first. From there you noticed the blue call to action buttons (see: Call To Action Colors above).

Images trump text when it comes to shopping. People are visual and they want to be able to see every aspect of the item they’re considering for their purchase. You can include large images to make this easier for your visitors. You could also add videos to the site. More companies are doing this and finding it increases conversion.

Just because images are important, however, does not mean you should limit text. The content on the page is still very important. After someone examines the images on the page and become interested, they will dig deeper. They’ll read the content in detail. You want to make sure there is enough content on the page to satisfy any question a shopper might have. Text is also good for SEO purposes.

8. Use Reviews Everywhere

JCP takes reviews and puts them on multiple pages.

When customers visit a site they’re looking for validation. They might see something they like on your thumbnail page, but they want a little more than just something that’s interesting. People want confirmation that an item has potential.

Reviews are a great way to prove that items on the page are great. Check out the JCP example above. You can see that product reviews are pulled in and used on the thumbnail page. Not only do the reviews make the product stand out, but they also validate that these items are popular and well-liked.

Use reviews throughout your site. Add them to thumbnail pages. Add them to the feature image on your homepage. Also use them in emails and in social media.

Reviews are one of your biggest assets. They convert visitors.

9. Add a Top Line Banner

A top line banner is becoming popular.

This is an interesting trend in ecommerce. The trend dates back maybe a year or two, but it must be working because it’s everywhere.

The trend is the top line banner. Notice where it says, “Clearance 70% off top designers” at the top of the Target example. A few of the other examples above also include something similar.

This is a new trend and it’s really a good way to share a message with your visitors. The top bar really stands out from the rest of the page. If you have something interesting you want to promote, this is a great way to accomplish it with every visitor.

It will be interesting to see how long this will remain effective. For now, it seems to still be working really well, and will probably be around for a while.

10. Focus on the Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Walmart knows they are all about low prices and they show that to every visitor.

When you think of Walmart, you think about low prices. The company has spent years beating customers over the head with this USP. The reason people shop at Walmart is because they know they can get just about any product at the lowest price possible. What you need to do is figure out what your USP is, and then feature it on your website.

You can easily see the prices in red on the Walmart website. Maybe the USP is nothing about your company, but something about your product. Showcase that feature or benefit next to the product image when your promote it on the homepage, or in an email campaign.

It’s a simple concept, but it’s overlooked way too often on many sites.

Conclusion

None of these items are extremely difficult to implement! Put them high on your website revamp priority list. They’ll improve conversion and ultimately they should improve sales, which is really what matters.

Do you think anything missing from the list?

Share your ideas in the comments below!

6 Youtube Videos to Inspire Your Team to Success

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Alvinl

You may have realised this by now but there are many crucial things we can learn from watching Youtube videos — like how to get a girlfriend, create a successful ecommerce site, pretend to understand quantum mechanics, and do the party rock shuffle. You name it, there’s a video out there telling you how to do it (someone should host a competition to find something you can’t learn from Youtube).

We think that Youtube is also a great way to inspire you and your team to dare the impossible and live the dream, through a particular genre of inspirational videos – sometimes profound, sometimes funny, often both.

Continue reading →

SEO for eCommerce Product Pages

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Michael Gray

Previously, we looked at SEO for the eCommerce Category Page. In this article we’re going to be drilling down one step further and looking at SEO for product pages.

The URL

As with all aspects of SEO, getting the URL right is one of the key steps in the process and should not be overlooked or downplayed in importance. URLs should be as short as possible contain no more than 3-5 keywords, use standard word delimiters (such as hyphens), and standard file extensions (although using no extension is even better). Avoid using parameters if at all possible, if you need them for marketing/tracking purposes use the hashtag instead.

Bad URL Example: example.com/prod1234Bad URL Example: example.com/prod.php?id=1234 Bad URL Example: example.com/darkbluewidget Bad URL Example: example.com/darkbluewidget.go Bad URL Example: example.com/buy-cheap-dark-blue-widget-cheap-online-now Bad URL Example: example.com/dark-blue-widget/?utm_source=camp1234

Good URL Example example.com/dark-blue-widget/ Good URL Example example.com/dark-blue-widget/#src=camp1234

Putting products in a sub-directory or sub-folder, is tricky. If the sub-directory or sub-folder changes or gets renamed you have a lot of 301 redirects to deal with, and that can easily turn into a headache. However if you have thousands, tens of thousands or more of products without a sub-directory things can get messy if you’re not diligent. It can be done, it just requires a lot of discipline or things can go wrong very quickly.

Product Titles

Products should have good unique descriptive titles that describe the item, contain good keywords and are keywords customers are likely to be searching for. The more unique your titles are, the better. However, if your products are very similar, for example “3×4 Bath Mat – White”, “3×4 Bath Mat – Navy”, this can sometimes be a challenge. In all but very few cases, the product title should be first followed by a dash, hyphen, colon or other common delimiter and then the store name.

Good Title: Navy 3x4 Bath Mat - Ultimate Bathroom Store

Bad Title: Ultimate Bathroom Store – 3×4 Bath Mat Navy

Generally speaking, search engines weigh the words at the front of the title higher than words at the end. If you notice in the good example, I even moved the color in front of the name of the product. In the bad example, you can see that the color “navy” is the seventh word and will be given very little weight. In most cases the on H1 tag for the product will be the same as the title but not always. In the example above it would actually be optimal to have them be slightly different. HTML Title: Navy 3x4 Bath Mat - Ultimate Bathroom Store H1 3x4 Bath Mat, Navy. While then HTML title will be seen in the search engine listings for the product, it’s primarily for the search engines. The H1 tag which will appear on the page is more for the user and any internal search functionality.

Product Descrptions

Each product should have a unique description. The description, should be unique and different from every other product in your store, but different from every other store selling the same product as well (see preventing duplicate content on your website). Sometimes this can be a challenge if you have a large inventory, or don’t have staff/budget to rewrite product descriptions you get from the vendor/manufacturer. However, keeping the exact same description as hundreds of other merchants is a real obstacle to ranking well for products. One strategy to get around this is to make your page more unique with product reviews. If you go down this route, make sure you use the proper XML Schema Markup for product reviews.

Product Images

Customers like to see big clear pictures of the products they are shopping for. It’s even better if you can get multiple images. However large images contribute to larger file sizes, longer download times, and page speed does have an effect on rankings. So size your images properly, don’t resize a 1000×1000 image down to 250×250 with HTML or CSS. Many sites show smaller images and let you click for a larger view. This gives you the best of both worlds. If you can rename your files to match the product, you will have an advantage over merchants forced to use SKU or inventory based image naming schemes.

Internal Links

Once a customer has entered the sales funnel, you want to keep them on course, and not provide too many links for them to leave. However there are a few ways to add internal links to your benefit. The first is with breadcrumb navigation, this is the tiny text that lets you know where you are in the store hierarchy: Home >; Bath Products >; Bath Mats >; 3x4 Bath Mat, Navy If you make each of the words a link, you help your overall SEO effort by spreading internal keyword link equity. Another strategy is to show related products, add on products, or upsell other products. The best way to do this is to show 2-4 thumbnails for the products towards the bottom part of the page.

Social Media

Social media is a popular topic right now and it definitely is a part of search engine rankings. However, adding half a dozen Facebook like, Tweet this, or other buttons can make your page look busy. Additionally if you use the buttons with active voting counts (ie 17 people liked this on Facebook) you will have a negative effect on your page speed. Each of those active counts will call a different service and add approximately one second per button. If you add six buttons that’s six seconds. Be honest with yourself if your products are that social that you really need that, or can you use plain on site local images.

Takeaways from this post:

Get your URLs right, keep them small, straight forward, uncomplicated, and free from parameters
Use your HTML and H1 product titles wisely, and to your maximum benefit
Make your product descriptions unique not only to yourself but from other merchants
Look at reviews to make your pages unique
Keep images small, while offering consumers the ability to see larger pictures if they want
If possible, use keywords to name your image files
Link internally using breadcrumbs to help your overall SEO effort
Show related or add on products to increase sales, make pages more unique, and add value to the consumer

Image credit: Shutterstock/RA2 Studio

How to Write Content to Boost Sales on Your Ecommerce Site

Posted on February 22, 2012 by ReferralCandy

Whilst strong imagery, straightforward navigation and competitive pricing are all important for any Ecommerce site, written content is still key. If you can’t convince a visitor to become a customer, then all your efforts will be in vain.

The written word is still the most powerful tool available to online businesses. It helps to inform, develop trust and, most importantly, drive sales. Treating it as anything less would be a massive mistake.

There are a few common errors that many sites make when producing their on-page content.

1. Keyword-heavy text

We all know that search engines use your content to determine where and how you should be ranked. In the past, this meant that many websites filled their pages with keywords, often where they shouldn’t be. That made for some pretty awful content.

Search engines aren’t stupid anymore, and keyword “stuffing” is ineffective. Counter-productive, even. Yet some are still determined to employ outdated tactics. You do still need to have your key terms on the page, that much is true, but you don’t need to have them everywhere. A decade ago people would routinely have a keyword density of 10%+, as this got them rankings. Unfortunately, it also ruined the readability of their pages.

Get your keyword in the title, use it at the start and end of your body copy and wherever else that it makes contextual sense. Endlessly repeating the same few words will be enough to make any visitors turn tail and leave.

2. Too Short/Too Long

The way in which you present information is critical. A huge block of text will do little to invite consumers to take a look, whilst a brief snippet is easily ignored. Most visitors won’t read beyond the first paragraph, but that doesn’t mean that your attention should end at the same point.

Provide clear sub-headings and break up the text monotony with bullet points or imagery. Essentially you are looking to convince those with limited attention or time to skim through and still gain all the information they need, whilst also conveying the nuts and bolts in detail to those who need convincing.

3. Avoid basic errors

Whilst copywriters will always talk about the need to create flowing, engaging content, your top priority should always be to ensure that there are no glaring errors. Typos, clunky wording and the occasional grammatical faux pas will always undermine the clarity of your message. They can also cast doubt into the mind of any readers, potentially losing you the sale.

So make sure you get the basics right before worrying about taking your content to the next level.

4. Don’t imitate or duplicate

Originality is essential for any serious ecommerce site. If you’re passionate about your products, take the time to write about each one. If you copy from other pages or sites, your content will be unavoidably generic. Equally, thanks to the recent Panda update from Google, your search engine rankings could suffer as a consequence, making it difficult for you to attract visitors in the first place.

So what should you be doing?

Now we’ve covered the mistakes, let’s take a look at what you can actually do to boost sales:

1. Address customers directly

There’s nothing worse than an ecommerce site that only talks about itself – “we offer exceptional value”, “we are market leaders”, “we offer a huge range…” etc. Your customers should be your primary focus, so make sure you address them.

This is easily done, just flip the focus. Instead of “us” and “we”, use “you” and “your”. This will also eliminate any passive sentences, which can neutralise your content and render it impotent.

2. Remember your call-to-action

A decent piece of sales copy can easily fall flat without a strong call-to-action. This is where passing interest is replaced with an overwhelming desire to buy. Sometimes circumstances will make this much easier. For instance, if you’re having a clearance sale and only have a few products left, this can create a feeling of urgency.

Every page has a purpose; whether you want visitors to buy a product, fill in a contact form or phone your sales team, it’s vital that this is conveyed within the copy. As mentioned earlier, visitors will generally pay more attention to the first and last paragraphs, so your most persuasive argument should be communicated at the beginning or end of your content.

3. Get to the point

Nobody wants to endure trawling through verbose chunks of text that offer little or no clear information. Whilst you should be looking to have upwards of 200 words on each page, endless padding will do your chances of securing a sale no favours at all.

Get the most important details up front and look to avoid repetition. If a reader feels like they are going around in circles, it’s unlikely that they will want to continue. Short, sharp sentences can help to build pace too, so don’t overload every utterance. Sales patter can often seem quite abrupt, but that is simply the nature of the beast.

4. Cater to your audience

When it comes to knowing who your customers are and what they want, you are the expert. So adopt a tone that will resonate with your target audience. For instance, content on an extreme sports ecommerce site should be markedly different from one offering children’s clothing. So always keep your intended readers in mind and avoid adopting a “one size fits all” approach.

How to Remove Old Products From Your eCommerce Website

Posted on December 14, 2011 by ReferralCandy

If you are running an eCommerce business, you’ll eventually have to deal with products that change, go out of stock, or get discontinued.

In this article we will be looking at how to best handle each of those situations from an SEO perspective.

How to Deal With Products That Are Out of Stock

Products go out of stock for various reasons, you sell out of them, encounter supply problems from the manufacturer or vendor, or develop a change in style.

If this is a product you will be getting back in stock and selling in the future, the ideal solution is to keep the page in place so it stays in the search engine index still ranks and brings traffic.

However you do have to consider the end user experience as well. If you can take orders and ship the products when it comes back in stock, keep the page in the search engine index.

If the product is out of stock and is coming back but you can’t take orders, you should show an “out of stock” or similar message on the page. Try to capture an email or other contact information, so you can let the customer know when the item is back in stock.

The ultimate goal in this situation is to keep the products in the search engine index, and driving traffic, so you don’t lose your rankings when the product comes back in stock.

How to Deal With Products that Change

In some cases, products will change or upgrade, such as the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. How you handle these products from a search engine perspective depends on the search volume for the term, and if you have any old stock to sell. If you have old stock to sell, keep the page as it is currently. To improve the user experience you may want to provide a link directly to the new product for people who are looking for that item. If you don’t have any old stock to sell but the page is still bringing traffic from search engines, you will want to keep the page, provide a link to the new product, and tell the customer the product is no longer available. The goal here is to try and transition customers who are looking for the old product into customers for the new product, without losing any search engine traffic. Eventually the search volume will drop off and you will want to remove the product.

How to Remove Old Products from A Search Engine

When you have a product that is no longer available, you can’t take orders for it, and it doesn’t get any search volume, you will want to remove it from the search engines. In a post panda world you don’t want to have a site that is larger than it needs to be, cluttered with products you no longer sell. These extra pages weaken the website as a whole, spreading link equity and trust to pages that dont convert into customers and sales. If there is a replacement product, you’ll want to serve 301 redirect from the old product page to the new product page. If there is no replacement product, you’ll want to serve a 301 redirect to the category or department page. If there is no category or department page, you’ll want to redirect to the home page.

The last thing you want to do is let the page lead you to an error page or a page that serves a 404 error/response code. If the page has any inbound links serving a 404 page, it lets that link value evaporate and that certainly doesn’t help you at all. If you have this condition for a lot of products or even a majority of products, it will be seen as a signal of low quality by the search engines. You can check the response code with a header response checker.

In Summary:

Try to take orders or keep up product pages for products that are coming back in stock.
For old products where the model has updated, keep up the page while there is stock and search volume. Link this page to the new product.
For old products with no back stock and/or no search volume, issue a 301 redirect to the most appropriate new page.
Do not let the expired product pages serve a 404 error code.
Use a header response tool to check that you are issuing the proper response code.
Having site with a lot of products you don’t sell, can’t take orders on, or are discontinued can be seen as a signal of low quality by search engines

Image credit: Shutterstock/Andrea Zabiello

Duplicate Content on eCommerce Websites

Posted on November 1, 2011 by ReferralCandy

Whether due to negligence or corner-cutting, duplicate content hurts your SEO. Let’s talk about the different ways in which it happens, and how to deal with each of them.

There are three kinds of content that need addressing: Editorial content, Product content and Internal content.

1. Duplicate Editorial Content

Blog posts, articles, FAQ pages, customer service content, and even boilerplate content like privacy policy and TOS pages – anything that’s non-product, non-shopping.

It’s important that this content exists only on your website. It’s okay to occasionally reprint and republish content from websites (with proper permission), but this should be a minimum – only when absolutely necessary – and ideally less 10% of all your content.

Google wants to serve search results that link to original unique content, not 10 versions of the same content.

If you have content that you want on your website but it already exists elsewhere, don’t just copy it. Rewrite it, update it, improve it, give it a new editorial view. Add your own value to the mix.

If you absolutely have to reuse content that exists elsewhere, and you can’t change it, block it from the search engines using robots.txt or the noindex meta tag.

2. Duplicate Product Content

If you are getting a product feed from a distributor, getting product specifications from a vendor, or just selling the same products as everyone else, there is a good chance that you have duplicate product pages.

SIMPLE CHECK: Select six to seven words from some of your products (don’t choose a set of words with punctuation or special characters). Put the words in quotes and perform a search on Google. If you get back any results other than your website, this is probably considered duplicate content by the search engines.

If a significant percentage of your content is duplicate, you’re probably not going to rank for those products.

Start with your most important products first, and rewrite the descriptions to be unique. For products where it isn’t cost effective to rewrite the content, use a noindex meta tag, customers will still be able to purchase the item, it just won’t show up in the search engine index.

3. Duplicate Internal Content

Duplicate internal content can be one of the easiest ways site owners shoot themselves in the foot. Maybe it’s the CMS or shopping platform, but having the same product/information on more than one URL is a recipe for trouble. Another big source for this type of problem is the marketing or advertising departments adding tracking parameters to URLs. For example search engines have problems when they see URLs like this:

example.com/prod-name/?utm_source=twittercamp564 example.com/prod-name/?utm_source=facebookmothersday example.com/prod-name/?utm_source=rssfeed

If all three of those URLs return the same product page Google will have to guess which one is correct. You can use the canonical tag or webmaster central to tell Google the correct URL and which parameters to ignore, but really this is a workaround and not recommended.

The less you leave up to a search engine to “figure out” or “guess” the more certain you will be of the end result. If you have to use parameters, try using the hashtag implementation

example.com/prod-name/#utm_source=rssfeed

It’s not perfect, but it reduces the “guessing” that the search engine has to do.

In Summary:

Make sure your site has little to no duplicate editorial content. Rewrite, revise, update or block any existing duplicate content.
Check your product pages and descriptions for duplication, starting with the most important products, rewrite and eliminate duplication.
Be on the lookout for duplicate URLs created by your CMS, shopping cart software, or internal business divisions. If the information is mission critical, use hashtags.

Image credit: Shutterstock/Mast3r

Using Heatmaps to Optimize Your eCommerce Website

Posted on October 3, 2011 by ReferralCandy

My grandfather owned a furniture store and used to sit behind the counter and observe how his customers interacted with his products. When an item in a great location got overlooked he would quickly swap out that item with something that got more eyeballs. Similarly, if he had a very high-margin item that he wanted people to notice, he would typically place that product next to a “hot” product that got a lot of attention.

Fast forward to 2011 – In the world of real-time analytics our goal is to be able to apply the same type of logic to our product pages as my grandfather would so easily do for his retail store.

Aside from actual user testing and tracking – the best (and cheapest) solution you can use for this type of behavior analytics are website heatmaps. There are a few types of heatmaps you can use to optimize your product pages – but in this blog we will highlight three.

1. Click Heatmaps

Click heatmaps show you exactly what visitors are clicking on.

Homepage:

Homepage with click heatmap:

Practical use #1:

Images for specific product types

Click heatmap for specific product types

The above example features three images on a website. Clearly, the picture in the middle is getting the bulk of visitor attention while the picture on the right is hardly noticed. Using real-time click heatmaps allow a site owner to notice the clicks and to swap the picture on the right with a different one to see if clicks and interest are improved.

Practical Use #2:

Click heatmap for element

The above example shows an object on a page that is clearly receiving visitor clicks. If you look closely at the copy in the green circle, it says, “ Call for details”. This object is NOT a button – but visitors mistake it for one. Click heatmaps expose objects that visitors presume are links that often are not. Turning this object into a link would increase conversion and improve user experience.

2. Scroll Heatmaps

We all know that a website has a fold. What we often overlook is that a website has MANY folds. Scroll heatmaps expose how far down a page users are actually scrolling to.

Example:

Practical Use:

The example above shows the submit button to join a mailing list on furnitureesuperstore is placed where only 56% of people actually see it. If that button were moved up 1 inch, you would get 21% more eyeballs on it.

3. Mouse Movement Heatmaps

Tracks the mouse pointer to generate an eye tracking heatmap. This heatmaps shows users what parts of the page users are actually paying attention to.

Example:

Mouse movement heatmap for ecommerce website homepage

Practical Use:

Mouse movement heatmap for ecommerce website homepage zoomed

The example above illustrates a website whose visitor attention is largely focused on the left bar of the screen – the call to action however, is right justified. If the site owner were to justify the text on the left side of the image, closer to the navigation bar, many more people would pay attention to the announcement.

To wrap things up, driving traffic to your site is difficult enough as it is. Heatmaps and analytics allow site owners to professionally optimize their site to convert more leads while cost effectively testing new products or ideas.

This post was written by CEO of SeeVolution, Edo Cohen. SeeVolution’s tool provides heatmaps and simplified analytics that allow site owners to monitor activity and click paths in real-time – leading to increased conversion and optimization.

Essential Content Every eCommerce Website Needs

Posted on September 8, 2011 by ReferralCandy

When you are building a great shopping site, having a functioning, easy-to-use shopping cart is only part of the battle. An essential hurdle you need to overcome is trust. You need to show the customer that you are a reputable company that will deliver what you promise. There are some types of content consumers look for, and content that Google even recommends librarians and other researchers look for, when trying to asses how trustworthy a website is.

About Us

While most consumers rarely read an “About Us” page, it is one of the things they look for. When you are starting out, it should be something simple that conveys a sense of reliability and trust, something that suggests you are knowledgeable and reliable in your area of expertise. A more advanced strategy is to create a remarkable “About Us” page as a link building tool.

Contact Us

Having a “Contact Us” form is another key element of trust. Consumers look for physical real world addresses, telephone numbers, and contact forms. Having a PO Box may work when you are first starting out, but in most cases having a real world address is better. Sometimes you solve this problem with a virtual office that screens and holds mail as a way of getting you a physical address with a suite number. Check with your tax advisor if you are setting up an address in a different county or state. Any time you put up an address, try to use rich markup language for addresses as specified in Schema.org. If you don’t know how to use the proper markup, try the markup generator from Raven Tools.

Privacy Policy

While almost no one ever reads a privacy policy, they do like to see one there. A privacy policy is a legal document. If you aren’t going to have a lawyer review or create one for you, try the privacy policy generator. Make sure you follow what you say you are doing in your privacy policy.

Terms of Service

A “Terms of Service” page is similar to “Privacy Policy”: it’s a legal document that says how you will interact with people who visit your website. If you aren’t going to have a lawyer craft a unique TOS document, try the online terms of service generator.

Frequently Asked Questions or FAQ

Chances are good that your customer service department has 10-20 questions they get asked on a regular basis. You should put these online in an FAQ. Usually I recommend putting one question per page, which allows you to optimize each page for one search term, but sometimes one FAQ page is better. You should update and add to this section on a regular basis.

Buying Guides

Buying some products is more difficult and complicated than other products. Depending on how complex your products are, you may need a buying guide. A buying guide should be easy to read and digest. An effective buying guide takes complicated issues and explains them so they are easily understood. The costumer should feel confident about choosing a product after reading a product guide.

Care Guide

Some products require special care so they perform as expected and have a longer lifespan. Creating care guides to help customers after they have made the purchase is a key step to building loyal customers. Again, care guides should be easy to understand and follow. Adding pictures and videos are often very helpful.

Repair Guides

It would be nice if products lasted forever and didn’t need maintenance, but this isn’t realistic. For example, if you own a dishwasher, it’s almost guaranteed to need service and repair at some point. Simple-to-follow repair guides with pictures and videos are almost always better. If a product does require an experienced technician or repairman, let the user know.

Customer Photos and Videos

Sometimes having pictures/videos of customers using your products or with your products in their homes or offices can be great in garnering consumer attention. As an example, box.net created a series of people using their products, which was very successful in getting a lot of attention. Here’s an example of customer photos on the Roku website.

To wrap things up, these types of pages go a long way towards fleshing out a website and making your website more legitimate and trustworthy. If you link to them within your website, they can answer a customer’s questions and help you make sales. Make sure you allow the search engines to crawl and index them for maximum effectiveness too!

Image credit: PhotoSpin

Is Long Copy Good for Ecommerce Stores?

Posted on August 15, 2011 by ReferralCandy

The short answer: yes. Surprised? Trust me, long copy sells. I know, I know: “shorter is better” and “less text, better design” blahbity blah. Mile-long websites filled to the brim with text might offend your sense of Internet decency, but the fact remains that those kinds of sites convert visitors to paying customers like nobody’s business. If they didn’t, why would they still be online in this day and age?

While it certainly is true that people nowadays have the attention span of a cocker spaniel (I blame you, television and your Super Bowl commercials), making your landing pages and ads short and flashy doesn’t always mean you will get more sales. Sometimes what you need is 1,000 words to sell your product. Or maybe 2,000.

I know what you’re thinking “Who would read something that long? Wouldn’t that just put my customers in a coma?”

It turns out people do still like to read in this age of Twitter and viral videos. We’ve just been lulled into believing that you need something concise and compact to sell and succeed in the web.

Long Copy Has The Numbers Behind It

Let me show you a couple of experiments that prove long copy works. Aptly named site Marketing Experiments found out through a series of tests that long copy outperforms short copy each time. Basecamp also did a similar experiment and found that a long form landing page netted them a 37.5% increase in signups compared to their original, shorter sales copy.

The results might look amazing but it’s actually not surprising at all. Long sales letters have been used by salespeople and advertising powerhouses for the past few decades now, and to great effect. No less than the father of advertising, David Ogilvy, attests to this. He says in his book, Ogilvy On Advertising, “All my experience says that for a great many products, long copy sells more than short.”

How Does Long Copy Work?

To sell to people online, you need them to trust you. It’s not an easy feat, I’ll give you that. You’ve got all sorts of nasty stuff working against you. There’s identity theft, Nigerian scams and online fraud, just to name a few. But you can earn trust online and one way to do that is to present your case and tell everything your customer needs to know about your product.

Explain all the features and functions of your product, its many benefits and lay out all the facts you can give. This way, you lift a big chunk of doubt from your customer’s chest by giving him all the things he needs to know to make an informed decision. If you do your job well, your buyer will convince himself to buy your product right then and there. As Dr. Charles Edwards of the Graduate School of Retailing at New York University puts it, “The more facts you tell, the more you sell.”

What’s more, long copy actually looks less like advertising and more like something worth reading. We’re bombarded by ads each and everyday and we’ve sort of built up a resistance to it. If it looks like an ad, our minds skip it and move on. Again to quote Ogilvy, “Roughly six times as many people read the average article as the average advertisement.”

Long copy also qualifies buyers. Uninterested visitors will be turned off by the lengthy copy but those who are really interested will consume every bit of information you can present about your product. This means that your audience is already at the tipping point of purchasing and that your copy is the final pitch to seal the deal.

When To Use (And Not To Use) Long Copy

Like all sales tools, long copy isn’t for everything. Based on an article by the founder of Copyblogger, long copy works best for the following things:

High-priced items. Long copy works well if you are selling products that require multi-year payment plans like houses, cars and insurance; or luxury goods like jewelry and designer apparel.
Information-based products. These are mainly education products like online self-improvement courses, instructional ebooks and multi-session seminars. The better informed the buyer, the more likely he will enroll.
New, innovative and unusual goods. If you’re selling something new that answers someone’s need in a different way, you need a long form letter to explain every benefit of your invention. So if you’re selling groundbreaking medical treatments or a new gaming console, this is the way to go.

Of course, there are also products that don’t work well with long copy. If what you’re selling isn’t that expensive like soda or detergent, you’re better off with the flashy ads. It also is less effective for convenience products where the effort of writing a long sales pitch might not outweigh the value of the increased sales it will bring in.

How To Start Writing Long Copy

I’ll be honest, writing long copy won’t be quick. Let me help you out by sharing some steps to get your writing juices flowing:

Gather and absorb all the data about your product. If it’s something you can hold, whip out the spec sheet and measurements. If it’s a service, jot down how you go about it from start to end. You also need to compile information like package contents, third-party reviews, testimonials, pricing details, and others. Of course, you also need to consume all this information, since your copy will flow from it.
Find out who you are talking to. A good salesman researches his prospects and you should do that as well. Learn who your ideal customers are and appeal to them directly and answer their needs. Talking about yourself and your product is fine, but write it in a way that the reader knows what’s in it for them.
Create an outline. Long copy looks daunting but if you create an outline, even a rough one, you will have something that will help you move from one part of the copy to the next. Here’s a good guide on how to make a copy outline. One way to go about it is to think about all the questions your customers might ask about your product and craft your outline so that you cover them all.
Start writing! As you write, you’ll be building momentum and you will probably wonder how you got to 1,000 words (or more) once you’re done. So just start writing and think about fixing it up later. Also, don’t put a word limit to your copy. The publisher of Better Homes and Gardens used to mail six-page letters out because they made more sales with longer copy. As long as you have something to say and you talk about it well, you can go on and on and on. Just remember when to stop.
Go over your copy. Once you’re finished, there are some points you need to remember to ensure that your long copy will work well:
- Like any good pitch, your long copy needs to be have an attention-grabbing headline.
- If you haven’t done one yet, add an informative and enticing summary at the top to let people know what they can expect from your article.
- Make sure to state your case in a very engaging and persuasive manner. It needs to capture the attention of the reader, making him read on until the last period of the last sentence.
- To cater to people who like to skim, split your long copy into readable chunks by adding headers, bullets and highlights. This is actually where your outline will help; you’ve already written most of the headers beforehand.
- Add a good call to action, one that will close the deal and make them click that Add To Cart button. Also, don’t forget to add those positive reviews and testimonials.
- Have someone go over it for comments and feedback, if possible.
Add some good design to make it attractive. Writing long copy doesn’t mean you have to stick to just words. Many web designers abhor long copy because of its lack of web aesthetics. Add an attractive background template, some good product pictures and a nicely crafted layout. Make sure the design doesn’t distract from your content though.
Test and test (and test). Probably the most important thing you need to do is to test your copy to make sure it appeals to your audience. You can create shorter versions of your copy and even mix up the content to see what works the best. This is why I urged you to write as long as you can because you can better mix and match (and splice) copy that already has everything in it.

Some Final Words

You can think of long copy as your salesman in a 1,000-word suit. If written in the right way, it will do the job for you by answering all the questions that your customers have, convincing them how good your product is and closing the deal with a firm checkout handshake.

In closing, I leave you with this gem from David Ogilvy himself:

“Long copy sells more than short copy, particularly when you are asking the reader to spend a lot of money. Only amateurs use short copy.”

Sources:

Do long copy ads work?, Reality Marketing Associates
Anatomy of long sales letter, Visual Website Optimizer
The Key to Effective Long Copy, Copyblogger.com
Long Copy vs. Short Copy Tested, Marketing Experiments

ECommerce Websites & Recommendations for Dealing With Google Panda

Posted on August 8, 2011 by ReferralCandy

About Google Panda

As a search engine, Google aims to provide the best quality results in response to its users’ queries. Panda was an update to Google’s search results ranking algorithm.

When the algorithm changed (think of it as having a different “person” doing the ranking, with a different “personality” and different “preferences”), it was inevitable that some sites’ PageRank suffered collateral damage. (Check out the epic hit that HubPages took. Ouch!)

How do you avoid (or repair) that sort of damage? Let’s address the issues you might face, and what you can do to correct them.

1. DUPLICATE CONTENT: Panda hates it, so get rid of it.

Many retailers simply copy and paste data feeds from their suppliers or vendors into their database or CMS, and leave it at that.

Here’s the problem: If Google detects that large portions of your website are duplicated across the web, it will most likely think of your site as a “copycat” site rather than a source of good, original content. This will hurt your rankings.

Ultra high-profile websites might get away with this, but it’s a losing game for the mediuM and little fish.

2. “Let’s Rewrite Everything!” is a tad unrealistic. Use the 80/20 approach.

Ideally, you’d rewrite every single product name and description to make them all unique. That’s the “perfect solution”. It’s also highly impractical. You’d almost certainly have better things to do with your time.

Start by focusing on what you consider to be your best products. (You’re measuring that, aren’t you? Sales volume? Profit?) A fun rule of thumb – if you were only allowed to sell two or three products and you had to ditch everything else, what would you pick? Focus on those. Make those products shine.

3. Hire a professional if you have to.

There are many different copywriting services available even for those on a tight budget, including ODesk, TextBroker, MadContent, ELance, and MTurk. (If you don’t have the budget to create unique content for your “best” products, you may have to get a little existential: Is there something wrong with your business model?)

4. In the meantime, cover up with noindex/follow meta tags.

Even if you can afford to have all your content rewritten, it’s going to take some time. What do you do between now and then?

If something isn’t being rewritten, “hide” it using the noindex/follow meta tags. (Google approves of this, which isn’t the case for unethical practices like cloaking.)

By doing this, you avoid accumulating “negative points” in Google’s eyes – which is ultimately better for your overall SEO. A few highly ranked pages will get you far more mileage than many poorly ranked ones.

5. Make your pages unique by adding customer reviews.

The best reviews are usually those submitted by actual customers. A good time to ask for it is a few days after you know the product has been delivered. Otherwise, simply reach out to your customers through email or social media, whichever they’re most receptive to.

How do you get a good response rate? Use incentives! (Free shipping, discount on future orders, a chance to win a gift certificate… be creative. You know your target audience best.) This small outlay will be outweighed by the additional legitimacy it adds to your business. If you have a large email database of existing customers, fans on Facebook, or followers on Twitter, you can use these methods to get customer reviews as well.

It’s worth taking the trouble to use Schema.org review markup in your formatting, so that search engines give you rich snippet listings.

6. Add reviews directly to product pages, NOT on separate pages.

If you use separate pages for your reviews, you won’t for “<product name>”- instead, you’ll rank for “<product name> reviews”.

If you only have a few reviews, put them on your product page.

If you have lots of reviews, you can have your cake and eat it too. Display the 5 -10 most recent or most helpful reviews on the product page, and create a separate page with all of the archived reviews. That way, you’ll rank for both the product name and the review searches.

Each situation is different, so you’ll have to decide which works best for you depending on how many reviews you have.

7. Kill disused and discontinued pages.

Some retailers grow rather attached to their discontinued products, and “bury” them deep on the website. Some might even think that it benefits them – a larger site with more pages can seem “more impressive”.

Here’s the problem: Each website has a finite number of links, and those links each pass along a little strength to the website they link to. If you take a finite amount of link equity or “link juice” and divide it up among an “infinite” number of pages, you’ll end up with a bunch of pages that aren’t “strong” enough to rank for anything.

So when you have products that you don’t carry anymore and aren’t coming back, remove them. In the meantime, you could set up a 301 redirect to a similar product or category. In the long run, cull them completely. Keep your site elegant, not bloated.

In Summary:

Kill The Clones. You want your product titles and descriptions to be unique. If they’re duplicated, start rewriting them, with your best products receiving top priority.
Use noindex/follow meta tags to avoid being unnecessarily punished by search engines while you’re cleaning house.
Use customer & expert reviews to make your product pages unique. If you’re overwhelmed with reviews (a happy problem), keep the best on the product page and archive the rest on a separate “reviews” page.
Remove discontinued or under-sold products. They dilute the value of your site, and consequently, your SEO. Both customers and search engines prefer lean, elegant sites.

If you’re looking for more information about Panda, we recommend reading this post from Google or this Interview with Vanessa Fox.

Image credit: Photospin