My BrightonSEO Experience

So off I popped on the train to Brighton SEO this April, it was my first time attending and I really loved it. It is always nice to mingle with like-minded individuals that work in similar environments and actually share ideas, tips and of course brush up on my networking skills.

So one of the first talks I went to was “8 Ways to Increase your Ecommerce Conversion Rate” I have a long list of clients who our team constantly talk to about ways to improve their conversion rates & thought this would be a useful session.

At the end of the day it doesn’t matter how amazing our SEO team is or how much traffic our clients website gets… if that traffic doesn’t convert into sales then we and our clients are wasting time and money.

Our team could go through so many ways that you could increase your ecommerce conversion rate, but I wanted to focus on a few from the session that I feel are fundamental to even having a shot at increasing conversions.

Personalise your homepage BUT not too personalised

For example, display products related to a user’s previous purchase history or/and displaying the users “Current Cart Contents”

Promote alternative and compatible products on the product pages = Cross Selling

So for example if a user is looking for a pink dress it is best practice that it is visible on the page alternative pink dresses or dresses of a similar style. If I am being honest the amount of times I shop online and end up buying something from the “You May Also Like” options is countless…

My credit card statements are proof!

Using good quality and multiple product images

If I could sing this from the rooftops I would! It goes without saying a good visual is one of the biggest selling factors.

“56% of users interact with product images before any other element on the page”

Ecommerce sites ideally need an image that shows the product in scale so that users can gauge how big the product is without having to search for its sizing and potentially leaving your site and purchasing off a competitors.

Also an image that showcases the products’ features to help sell, if possible a “lifestyle” image and one of any accessories included.

Display user reviews

“95% of users rely on reviews to evaluate a product, so reviews are clearly an extremely important aspect of the buyer journey.”

The problem here is consumers love reading reviews but if it’s too much hassle to leave a review they won’t even if the service/product is the best thing since sliced bread.

Which means you need to make it as easy as possible for a user to leave a review.

• Don’t make users set up an account in order to leave a review. Use emails to authenticate purchases.
• Don’t make users provide unnecessary personal info, again you only need their email and they should be able to leave a review anonymously.
• Finally, don’t forget to remind users to leave a review, send a follow up email and incentives to encourage users, BUT don’t spam it.

Display shipping costs on product and cart pages

“Users hate paying for delivery and 55% of users will abandon checkout due to high delivery costs.”

If you can’t offer free delivery, then you should be as transparent as possible and display the delivery cost at every stage. There is nothing worse than shopping online, adding everything to the cart…going through adding all your personal information, delivery/billing addresses and then right at the final hurdle…getting a postage fee…your put off and then abandon the checkout.

Always offer a guest checkout & simplify your checkout process as much as possible

Things like, minimise forms & automatically applying the shopping address as the billing address…these quick wins all push the user to hit the “PAY NOW” button that little bit faster.

Promote trust using icons, badges and text

“17% of users will abandon their cart because they don’t trust the website with their credit card details.”

So we all should know now…and our SEO team constantly reminds clients the need for an SSL on websites, number 1 rule!

Some other ideas to promote trust would be adding security icons to your checkout pages, such as a padlock icon and using reassuring copy, such as ‘secure card payment’ or ‘checkout securely’.

Get in touch if you’d like to know more about our services and how we can increase your conversion rates and drive more sales for your business.