All too often, eCommerce sites focus on products. Unique descriptions are a must, but other pages on your site offer the opportunity to connect with customers and promote your products, too. These pages require special attention.
“Contact Us” Page
Your contact page is important for a variety of reasons. Your contact us page should include multiple ways to contact you. Generally, a contact form and a telephone number are provided. You might offer numbers and emails to different departments or people within your company or include a subject/department selection choice in your form.
ECommerce Web design must also take into consideration mobile users because more people are using their phones and tablets to make purchases every day. If you’ve ever filled out a form on your smart phone, you know how frustrating it can be. Here are a few tips to make it easier for your visitors:
- Use large form fields.
- Do not use radio fields; try drop-down or check boxes, instead.
- Specify the phone number field as number type to bring up the correct keyboard.
- Use “email” type for the email field instead of “text.”
Make email address on the contact page into a link, so that people can launch the appropriate app right away on their devices. In fact, you can use the following format to make your phone number into a click-able link for smart phone users, too: <a href="tel:1-512-555-5555">1-847-555-5555</a>
Landing Pages
Landing pages are important when you pay for advertising. Your visitor should literally land on a page relevant to his search query. The page should highlight a specific product or service or category with few interruptions. Landing pages are typically free of clutter and highlight the features of one product to encourage purchase. Furthermore, your landing page needs a call to action such as “Buy Now.” It’s often a good idea to make this look and act like a button with larger text and colors that grab attention. Red, for instance, is commonly used for this call to action because it grabs attention.
404 Pages
Your error pages are important when it comes to eCommerce Web design. If someone follows a broken link and sees a generic 404 page, they could quickly leave your website. However, if you redirect them to the appropriate category, suggest similar products or show your best sellers, you’re using it as an opportunity to keep that customer. Plus, deep linking to your other content is a smart SEO strategy.
How to Start a Truly Groundbreaking eCommerce Website Redesign
Revamping a website is a difficult task that requires an excess amount of motivation and determination. It isn’t easy. You get attached to the design. You may not understand the coding required. You may be nervous that the final result is not good enough. Those who outsource their web design may be facing other issues, such as budget constraints or the loss of the original designer.
The below strategies highlight what you need to do, as a business owner, to get started in redesigning your website for the best.
Isolate the Major Issue
What is wrong with your current website? Is it broken? Do people have a hard time finding content? Does it just have a dated design? All these questions help you wrap your head around the major concerns of the website. When I first considered redesigning my website, I thought long and hard about what was bothering me the most about it. The major issue did not pop up, and I asked readers and customers what they thought about it. A few comments here and there and no core pattern made me realize that my website did not need a redesign at the time. It was largely my boredom of seeing the same layout.
Isolate what the practical and logical issue is with the website. If the major issue is not there, it may not require a redesign at the time.
What Do You Hope to Gain?
Once you asked yourself what the major problem is, you must take the next step. Ask yourself the big question : what do you want to gain? The answer may seem obvious: you want to rid of the major problem. This could be a glitchy system, poor color balance, or an ugly interface. But do you want to get rid of it and do nothing else, or do you want to gain a larger audience? A basic redesign of that major problem may not earn you a lot more followers or sales. People do not just care about your website because it is you and you deserve it. But if you really redesign everything the right way, you may find a lot more success. After all is said and done, what do you want to gain? it should hopefully be a lot more than just wanting to change the look or fix a single issue.
Follow Formulas: Find a Website Design You Love
Millions of exquisitely designed websites are only a few clicks away. if you want to redesign your website, find a website you already adore. There is little sense in replicating it with every detail. But it is wise to follow the formula of the site in various ways.
This also helps if you are outsourcing the redesign work. The designer will have a very competent idea of what you are trying to accomplish. Decipher what it is about the site redesign that works. Also make sure you are following the steps of a website with a similar industry as yours. For example, an informative blog is very different from a fashion clothing website design. A website with a dark and sullen style would not benefit from an archaic design of a massive online wholesale shop.
The above tips highlight the overarching strategies between starting a website redesign. After you ask these many questions and explore these areas, you will find that you have the right basis for moving forward (or not) with a new design.
The web professionals at Austin SEO Geeks can help you identify and add your specific content needs to your website, so call today.