Image by Martin Deutsch

A couple of weeks ago I came across a very helpful article about 50 SEO tips for online retailers, which acted as the inspiration behind this article - those 50 SEO tips will help you get the visitors, with these 50 conversion tips helping you to convert those visitors into customers:

First Impressions

1. Overall design. Does your site have a decent look and feel? It doesn’t have to be one-of-a-kind but ensure it doesn’t have an amateurish look.

2. Show things are up-to-date. Feature recent testimonials, new gifts, links to articles highlighting recent improvements, or your blog. Anything that shows new visitors that your e-commerce store is up-to-date and functioning.

3. Security labels. Labels such as PayPal verified, HackerSafe, and Verisign SSL Certificate are proven to increase customer confidence

4. Returns policy. What happens if the goods are faulty? Or if the clothes don’t fit? Be as generous as possible here.

5. Be available over the phone. Include a telephone number, and not a premium rate one. Most people will never use it but it gives people confidence as they feel there’s help at hand should they encounter problems.

6. What’s your USP? The only supplier? Free Delivery? Lowest Prices? The best returns policy? Whatever it is shout about it by featuring it on every page of your site.

Product Pages

7. Product features. List them all - people want to know exactly what they’re buying.

8. Clear images, including a zoom option. If customers can’t see what they’re buying then they probably won’t buy it.

9. Include more than one image. Sometimes it’s difficult to know how large a product is or what it looks like from the side. Take the doubt out of your visitors’ minds by including more than one image.

10. ‘In Stock’ text. This adds to the ‘up-to-date’ feel of your site.

11. Don’t be clever when it comes to buttons. ‘Add to Basket’ / ‘Add to Shopping Basket’ are the recognized standards - be very careful if you choose anything that differs from this.

12. Include a product description. Add text describing the product - ecommerce sites that simply have an image of the product and a ‘Buy Now’ button look like they’re missing something.

13. List similar products. If the user doesn’t want the product on the page where do they go next? Give them a list of similar products to check out.

14. Is this the best deal? Offer a price-match promise. Most people will simply believe that you offer the most competitive price and those that don’t will do your competitor research for you.

15. A product’s out of stock? Why not add a sign-up box where users can subscribe to receive a text or email alert the minute it becomes available again.

Checkout Process

16. Offer a variety of checkout options. As standard always include PayPal as an option and Google Checkout is a good second payment option.

17. Don’t ask for registration prior to purchase. If you feel users have to regiser then ask for a password during the payment process.

18. Avoid unnecessary information. Do you really need to ask security questions and their birth date?

19. Avoid using a CAPTCHA. People do have problems with these. In fact, when Mixx first switched over to using one I was unable to submit stories to their site for the following month as it didn’t work on my browser.

20. Don’t ‘trick’ people. Hitting people with delivery fees and taxes just before they’re about to buy is sneaky and doesn’t inspire confidence. What other unwelcome surprises will you have in store for them?

21. A user clicks ‘next’ before entering all their information? Preserve the information they have already entered when they click the ‘back’ button.

22. Enclose the checkout process. It’s best practice to remove unnecessary navigation and instead focus on providing reassurance - security labels, testimonials and your returns policy.

Reviews

23. Customer reviews. These increase conversion rates. It’s the safety in crowds concept - people like to know they aren’t alone.

24. Include all customer reviews, even if some are negative. This can be a difficult thing to get your head around initially but including negative comments does give more credibility to the positive ones.

25. Sorting Reviews. If you have a lot of reviews allow users to sort them. It made Amazon $2.7 billion.

Credibility

26. Testimonials on each and every page. Every time a user loads a new page feature a new testimonial on the side bar.

27. Comprehensive ‘About Us’ page. New customers usually take a look at this page. Make sure it includes as much information as possible - photos also always help.

28. Social proof. Have you received mentions from the press or high profile bloggers? Or even launched a TV advertising campaign? Highlight these things.

29. Forum. If you have a vibrant site consider adding a forum, especially if your site’s based around healthcare.

30. Write a Blog. Sometimes it’s tricky depending on what you’re selling but even if you’re blog is simply there to highlight new products and discount codes it’s worth including one.

Delivery

31. Free Delivery. If possible always offer free delivery. It’s a winner with customers.

32. Rapid Delivery. Even better if you can offer this for free but charging extra is also fine. Just make sure that rapid delivery is available.

33. Be clear on Delivery time. ‘Dispatched within 10 days‘ does not inspire confidence. If you’ve ever tried promoting Amazon products via PPC you’ll know that those ‘dispatched within 1-2 weeks’ or longer just don’t sell.

34. Additional Delivery options. Can your customers deliver direct to their office? Tell them they can before they enter the checkout process.

Usability

35. Page Load time. If you’re store is slow then people will think twice before visiting it or clicking on the next link. Check your website’s speed.

36. Individual landing pages. Often ecommerce stores do all the basics right but simply lose customers at the very start through having poorly laid out landing pages. If you’re running PPC campaigns design landing pages around your popular keywords.

37. Web Page layout. What does your site look like on different browsers? And don’t forget older versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer.

38. Remember that people are mobile. What does your site look like on the iphone?

39. URL format domainname.com/extension. Use this format for all your site’s links instead of subdomain.sitename.com. It’s shown via PPC that fewer people click through on the subdomain option, probably because they trust it less.

40. Use internet-friendly fonts. Never, ever use Times New Roman - it doesn’t look professional when used online. And make sure your font isn’t too small.

41. Internal search option. It’ll help your customers find what they’re looking for before they get frustrated and leave and it’s also great for seeing what your customers are thinking, allowing you to make improvements to improve conversion further.

42. No search results? Don’t just display this. Instead also put your bestsellers on display.

43. 404 error pages. Don’t just include a link to your home page. Potential customers are viewing these pages so show-off your bestsellers.

Product / Service Options

44. Different price bands. This works best for services - offer a trial or a lower priced service option to get customers ‘hooked’.

45. Remove barriers. If you offer a trial don’t ask for an email address before letting customers view the demo.

46. Gift Wrapping. This is extremely popular with customers. And you can always be inventive. Why not offer a crap wrap service.

After Ordering

47. Order Tracking. Customer service continues after the purchase. Offer all the extras and you’ll be more likely to get repeat orders.

48. Offer a Discount. Discount codes are extremely popular - include one when each order is shipped to encourage your customers to come back before they forget all about you.

Avoid At All Costs

49. Pop-up Surveys. Have you ever filled out one of these? If you haven’t then the chances are that your customers haven’t (and don’t want to) either.

50. Speaking website characters and/or music. These features are the quickest way to increase your bounce rate. No one wants to be bombarded with sound when they visit a website, especially when they’re in the office.

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