ECommerce is the big thing for shopping! Shoppers can purchase almost anything without leaving home and at a lower price. In 2014, people bought 1,201,173 dollars of product every 30 seconds, globally. This impressive statistic persuades businesses to join the online trend and market their product to the very fast growing audience. To be successful at your marketing, there are 6 common SEO ecommerce errors to avoid.
6 Common SEO Ecommerce Errors
Boring Product Descriptions
Nobody shops online thinking… “what is the most cliché item that I can find?”
Consumers want to feel confident with a “chic” jacket, smartphone that was newly released, or most unique product for your sports car. Boring product descriptions can avert consumers from your product. When writing product descriptions, a good starting point is on the physical characteristics, such as material type and color, to the feeling of the fabric and ideal circumstances for use. A great description creates an experience that motivates the consumer to buy.
Whatever you do, don’t use the manufacturer’s product description! Copy and paste is the quicker and easier way to go but the duplicate content will negatively rank your website and your product.
Fun Product Description
“While you won’t be able to do the food-reality-TV favorite rock-and-chop chiffonade trick, this cleaver-like shape is still great for everyday use. It’s a traditional Japanese knife specifically designed for cutting vegetables (Nakiri is the name of the style), but it makes a beautiful all-around chef’s knife.”
Boring Product Description
“White cotton tube socks with 1 ½ inch ankles length”
No Product Reviews
Online shopping is risky but trust deals can make shoppers more comfortable with their purchase. Product reviews create the reassurance that you customers need to make their purchase confidently. Your revenue relies on the trust that you can build between your company and the consumer.
There are many ways to obtain reviews. The simplest method is to ask! Leave a request in the packaging box or in an email marketing campaign. Earning reviews can take time. Motivating your customers with rewards, such as gift cards or store discounts can help you earn more reviews faster.
Nordstrom allows buyers to rate, comment and recommend the product. Nordstrom’s success has led to hundreds of product reviews per product.
Not Fixing Technical Errors
A hat is not a hat. A snowboard is not a snowboard. Most products are designed in different styles, sizes, colors, weights and shapes. You can improve your listing by fixing technical errors, such as keywords, links, URL’s and Meta data. Google loves websites that are not missing information that helps consumers get to websites easier. Many technical errors require a developer. Google Crawl Errors can be found on SEOMoz for free. Enter your site’s URL into the Crawl Test. The Crawl Test will inform users of redirects, missing Meta data, broken links and more. Technical errors can also be found on Screaming Frog SEO Spider.
What Should Be Optimized
- Keywords
- ALT Image SEO Tags
- Accurate Page URL’s
- Detailed Meta Title and Meta Description
- Web page redirects
Not Including Product Photos
Great product pages include photos from various angles and dimensions to reinforce your product descriptions. Great photos can significantly optimize user-experience. Consumers are more likely to trust websites with corresponding photos.
Optimized Product Photos
Nordstrom’s website has hundreds, if not thousands, of products. They do an exceptional job of including multiple photos for every product. Nordstrom’s clothes are modeled in different angles and can be enlarged. The angles showcase how the clothing lays in the corresponding color.
Slow Page Load Time
On average, users leave sites after three seconds of unsuccessful load time. We have short attention spans! A slow page load time can deter people from your website. Google Developer’s Page Insight can determine your page load time and technical errors that could be slowing down your site. Some technical errors can require a developer.
Page Speed Optimization Tips
- Decrease image size
- Shut off plugins that are not being used
- Page caching
- Avoid unnecessary code
- Only keep items that help sell products on pages
- Remove unused images from your library
Lack of Usability
The whole point of excellent ecommerce marketing is usability. A user-friendly website can help maintain and grow a customer network. You do not need to reinvent the wheel to succeed. People are more likely to return to a trustworthy website that runs smoothly and are comfortable using.
Usable Ecommerce Website
- Easy to navigate
- Fast load time
- Mobile response and/or mobile application
- Accurate product description
- Well-formatted content, images and checkout
Great User-Experience
Adidas’ website uses multimedia, simple navigation, interesting product descriptions and more to optimize user-experience.
Creating a great user-experience requires testing! Google Analytics will help record your website’s results. With Google Analytics, businesses can set goals, such as bounce rate, visitor count, conversions and page visits. Build your website right and you have the potential to make a living without a store front!