An improved product page design for your eCommerce shop can drastically improve how many visitors use the add to cart button.
But that’s not the biggest obstacle for people shopping at your online store.
The first big obstacle is to get people to your product page. That means you need to get people to click on your product page from wherever they find you.
That could mean you need to make your product look desirable from
- Search results
- Social media posts
- Pinterest pins
and more.
How your product page looks is important but even more important is how it’s structured. You know, the technical part.
If your product page doesn’t have the right structure then nobody will make it to the add to cart button.
This article is all about the importance of invisible part of your page, how your product pages are structured from a technical standpoint.
Don’t worry, this article isn’t too technical for you. Its goal is to help you understand what’s important for making your product stand out.
You need to know what to look for so someone else doesn't see that you're not looking. Share on XWhen you’re knowledgeable about how your product should stand out then you know what to look for when working with a designer or developer on your eCommerce store.
Equipped with the right knowledge, it’s much less likely you’ll get taken advantage of.
Structured data is a great way to take advantage of how other websites show products on their websites.
Google and Pinterest are two of these websites and they use structured data to enhance how eCommerce products look when you make the data available to them.
What exactly is structured data for your product pages?
What Structured Data Is
Structured data can mean a lot of things but for product pages, it means two things in the case of eCommerce product pages:
- Rich product search results
- OpenGraph data
Rich Product Search Results
Google will show enhanced (rich) product results if your eCommerce store is equipped with the extra code to make information available to Google.
Take a look at the following two product page results in Google search:
Which result would you be more likely to click on?
Probably the 1st one with the extra details. This extra information makes a search result stand out in the list of Google search results.
There can be even more info for people searching if you include it. Product pricing can be embedded right in search results.
Not only do search results look better with rich product listings but image results look better too.
Take a look at Google mobile search results and image results:
This search result shows product ratings, the number of ratings, price, and if it’s in stock. All that will show in regular Google search results and image search results.
Rich product search results should be something that’s implemented in every online store.
A professional and powerful eCommerce setup such as WordPress with WooCommerce will automatically have the structure in place to enable rich product search results. You won’t have to do anything but ask your customers to review products (in some cases, not even that!).
Open Graph Data
Facebook introduced Open Graph data but almost all social networks have adopted it in some way. Pinterest is no exception.
Open Graph data may sound complex and difficult to understand but it’s really not.
All you need to know is that it’s a way for websites to include invisible data for social networks.
Here’s an example (look for the plain English parts of it):
<head>
<meta property="og:type" content="product" />
<meta property="og:title" content="Technology Will Save Us Gamer DIY Kit" />
<meta property="og:description" content="One of the permanent installations in the collection of Humble Masterpieces at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, this DIY gamer kit from London-based company Technology Will Save Us is equal parts gadget and design classic. " />
<meta property="og:url" content="http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=37075900"/>
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Urban Outfitters" />
<meta property="og:price:amount" content="98.00" />
<meta property="og:price:currency" content="USD" />
<meta property="og:availability" content="instock" />
</head>That code in your product page HTML is invisible to visitors but will tell Pinterest it’s a product and what the title, description, URL, website name, price, and currency type is and whether there’s stock available.
Nobody sees that information unless they dig into your page but it’s extremely useful to a social media network like Pinterest.
When your product is pinned and it has the Open Graph information, it looks like this:
More information will show up on a pinned product page if the right info is available on Pinterest.
Rich product pins will show the price of a product and if a product is in stock.
Structured data is an extremely important part of your eCommerce store because it tells other websites about your store.With a good system in
With a good system in place, all of this information should be automated from the data already contained in your store.
Why Structured Data Is Important
One of the most important parts of your eCommerce store that will improve your product page design is the part that’s not seen on your page.
It’s the part that that’s hidden on your page but used by websites that link to your product pages.
The structured data helps sites like Google and Pinterest get the info they need to make your product listings look great.
Standing out in search results and on social media networks is essential to getting people to click on your products.
Whatever you can do to stand out from the competition will help your online store.
Reviews Improve Customer Experience
There are additional benefits to having enhanced product information too.
Reviews of your products give your customers a more invested experience in your store.
You’re essentially giving your customers a way to have a voice and show their love.
You’re emotionally investing them in your product and company.
Customers who have a connection with your store are more likely to return. Share on XHow much more likely are you to share a product with your social networks if you love the product and left a review?
There are some side benefits to reviews in addition to the added visibility with structured data.
Feedback is essential to you giving your customers the best customer experience.
Product reviews will provide feedback for you to understand what people like and what they don’t like.
Bad products reflect on your entire business. Product reviews provide you with the feedback needed to decide to keep a product or remove it.
If a product is hovering around 2 stars or less then you know it’s time to phase it out.
Achieving improved product page design isn’t as difficult as you might think.
Improve Product Pages Easily In WordPress
Improving your product pages is easy if you have the right structure in place.
If you already have your store up and running on a different system than I’m about to mention, it may be costlier to improve your product page design but it’s not impossible.
Your online store deserves the best system to run on.
Because an eCommerce store isn’t an isolated platform but rather part of a larger website, there’s only one system that capable or providing it all and scaling to both large and small stores.
WordPress is the best platform out there for running a website. That’s only part of the formula though, you also need a powerful eCommerce platform.
By adding WooCommerce onto WordPress you’ll end up with a powerful eCommerce platform on a powerful website platform. That’s how I create a robust eCommerce store for my clients.
WooCommerce will enable rich product pages in Google search results as long as you have a product review. There’s nothing more you need to do. Automated emails can also be sent to past customers to ask them to review a product they’ve purchased.
Adding the Open Graph data for rich Pinterest product pins is also easy with Yoast SEO and Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin.
There’s more to a product page than what you see which is why you need to make them work in more than a visual way.
Make Product Pages Work
Product pages on your eCommerce store are the most important both technically and visually.
By enhancing your product pages you’ll get more people clicking on your products in search results and social media.
With more clicks, there are more people to convert and click the coveted add to cart button. Of course, you have to be sure you have the order process covered and are preventing cart abandonment too.
You can get a free personalized Online Presence Report for your small business which includes a section on eCommerce. This will help you see where improvements can be made so you’re making the best impression with website visitors.