5 Tips To Win The Battle For a Sale

Structuring and presenting your products correctly for both search engines and humans is absolutely vital when it comes to ranking well and converting browsers into buyers.

Listed below are some simple, yet hugely effective ways to optimize product pages to increase sales, and rank higher in the search engines.

1. Upgrade Your Image

It's not rocket science - larger, better quality images help sell more products. In fact, a recent study shown that larger images can increase ecommerce sales by up to 9%.

Along with image size and quality, you should also consider quantity. Having multiple images for one product, showing different features and angles will only ever benefit your shoppers when it comes to making a decision on whether or not to buy.

Another nice touch you can add to your product images, is consistency throughout your store. Using similar backgrounds, angles and picture sizes will create a more harmonious browsing experience for shoppers.

Of course, it's equally important to remember search engines when it comes to your images.

Relevant, keyword rich alt text needs to be added to each image, which tells the search engine robots exactly what the picture is all about. Using alt text correctly can result in a pleasant boost in traffic from image search engines.

2. Play the Word Game

Much like the rest of your website, the wording of your product pages is hugely important in terms of search engine optimization.

Keywords relevant to your product should be included in both the page's title tags and META description. It's also hugely beneficial to include these keywords in the URL string of your product.

On top of impressing the search engines, informative product titles and informative descriptions will do wonders for the humans who browse your online catalogue. Titles and descriptions which are frank yet informative create far less confusion, leading to customers feeling more assured about the product they're viewing.

But what do you do if you want to use creative and catchy product names that don't say anything about what the product actually is? You can still do this but you will want to make sure you include descriptive keywords in your product page title tags.

As a rule of thumb, a good product title should make humans want to buy and give search engines the information they need to help people find your stuff. Whereas a good product description elaborates on the details, uses relevant keywords and engages the shopper, without babbling.

3. Keep it Real

Customers browsing through your online catalogue often take product descriptions with a pinch of salt. After all, they were written by you the salesperson.

So, to get your shoppers to appreciate how good your products truly are, you should consider adding real reviews and testimonials from existing customers.

4. Show Your Wares, But Keep It Uncluttered

The core aim of a product page is to sell. However, many online stores actually end up losing customers via their product pages after cramping them with numerous additional offers and links to related products.

There is certainly nothing wrong with cross-selling, as it can boost sales and lower bounce rates, but moderation and organization, is paramount. Going over board with related products and banners can scream unprofessional, create analysis paralysis and distract the user from checking out.

To keep buyers focused on the product they are already viewing whilst offering more options, display a healthy amount of additional products, without over-crowding the space that you have.

The key is to remember that a product page should be built to sell the product it primarily hosts. Cross-selling should be an important aspect of the page, but never at the expense of the main product in question.

5. Go the Extra Mile

Getting the basics right when it comes to product page optimization can work wonders for your conversion rates. But there's always room for improvement.

By incorporating additional features like product videos, 360 degree interactive images and stock notification features, you'll be going that extra mile to convince shoppers that your product is up to scratch, and that your store is willing to make the extra effort to add a personal touch to their merchandise.

Such additional features go beyond basic product descriptions and allow you to demonstrate how your products work, let you tell the story behind them and persuade your visitors to buy. The more unique and useful you can make these extras, the higher your conversion rate is likely to be.