{"id":8089,"date":"2015-04-15T12:24:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-15T12:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/?p=8089"},"modified":"2015-04-15T12:24:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-15T12:24:00","slug":"how-to-make-your-ecommerce-site-profitable-part-2-presenting-your-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/how-to-make-your-ecommerce-site-profitable-part-2-presenting-your-products\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make your ecommerce site profitable – Part 2: Presenting your products"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once you\u2019ve made the biggest decisions as per Part 1: Decision-making and implementation<\/a>, add an SSL certificate<\/a>\u00a0for customer security and peace of mind. They\u2019re extremely easy to set up, can improve your search engine rankings, and give customers added protection when they\u2019re browsing your website and entering personal information. You can add your SSL certificate at any point; ideally you want to make it before your website goes live to avoid search engine indexing issues. If you install it after you\u2019ve installed your ecommerce platform, remember to change any instances of https:\/\/ to https:\/\/ as needed in the admin panel\/code.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve done that and spent some time familiarising yourself with the features of your new ecommerce platform, it\u2019s time to get started adding your products.<\/p>\n

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Navigation and categories<\/h3>\n

We\u2019ll look at navigation in more depth later on in the series when we cover SEO and UX, but for now it\u2019s likely that when you create a new product category, it will automatically create a corresponding link in your navigation.<\/p>\n

If you have a lot of categories and products to add or aren\u2019t sure how best to organise everything, it\u2019s best to plan it out either on paper or in a separate document\/spreadsheet first. Ideally you don\u2019t want products more than one or two categories deep to save your visitors clicking. If you\u2019re having trouble getting started, try looking at some established ecommerce websites in the same industry to get some ideas of how you do\/don\u2019t want to organise the products. The general rule of thumb is to keep category numbers low; you don\u2019t want to end up with a lot of categories that only contain a few products each.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve determined everything, create your categories and begin adding products. The first few will take some time as you get used to what information you need to input and the process to go through, but don\u2019t worry \u2013 you\u2019ll soon begin to speed through it! This is the time to make decisions about formatting and presentation so all your products are consistent; for example, are you going to Use Title Case For Titles or just Capitalise the first letter of the first word?<\/p>\n

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Presenting text<\/h3>\n

Your product description is a selling opportunity that should always be fully utilised. Even though it might not be the most exciting part of your business, it\u2019s important to spend time writing and editing your descriptions, formatting them, using style elements such as subtitles, paragraphs and bullet points, and making sure they flow well and include a good amount of information.<\/p>\n

Product descriptions are a balancing act: you need to provide enough information so that the reader is capable of making a buying decision, but you don\u2019t want to include anything irrelevant or display information in a way that\u2019s overwhelming or creates unnecessary obstacles. Make it as easy as possible for the user, e.g. don\u2019t make them open a pop up window to continue reading, or give them a wall of text to read. Using a generous font size and line height helps improve readability too.<\/p>\n

Tip: One of the most common problems for ecommerce websites is the line length of descriptions. If your lines are more than about 15 words long, you\u2019re instantly making them less readable for your visitors. Ideally, for an ecommerce website, you want to aim for 10-12 words per line. Altering the CSS to decrease the default width of the description block and using clever formatting (like bullet point lists) will make your text easier to read straight away.<\/p>\n

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Writing product descriptions<\/h3>\n

Don\u2019t copy and paste any part of your description from somewhere else, even if you have permission. This includes replicating descriptions within your own website. Unique content is hugely important for both search engines and visitors; it prevents repetitiveness (particularly when people are comparing products and search engines are comparing pages), shows you care about your business and have good attention to detail. It\u2019s definitely not the most exciting task, particularly if you\u2019re writing unique descriptions for very similar or identical products, but it\u2019s worth the investment. Alternatively, there are plenty of cheap writing services available on the web if you\u2019re looking to outsource.<\/p>\n

Descriptions should always be written primarily for the user, and give them the key information they need to make a buying decision. Don’t stuff them full of keywords you think the search engines will like, but instead focus on natural writing that outlines all benefits,\u00a0features and necessary information.<\/p>\n

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Sourcing and creating images<\/h3>\n

Your images will typically come from any or all of the following sources:<\/p>\n