5 Big eCommerce Design Mistakes
Designing eCommerce web sites for over eight years has taught me quite a few things. One of those things is that good design is judged on an emotional response from its user... it 'feels' right when it's right. Here is a list of 5 eCommerce design mistakes I see committed on a regular basis by designers and/or merchants. If you can avoid these pitfalls, you and your customers will be happier.
1. Cramming Too Much Stuff on the Home Page
The home page of your store is your first impression and you have less than eight-seconds to make it a good one. This pressure can cause people to freak out and jam everything on the home page. You must fight this urge. Imagine your store's home page represents the 4 large display windows at your store on Main & Broadway. Space is limited and very important. Use your home page to show your shoppers exactly what they want and you win.
2. Paying Too Little Attention to the Product Catalog
It's easy to think of your product catalog as merely a database of information that needs constant updating — your digital warehouse. That's exactly what it is... to you. But to your shopper, it's something completely different. Remember to describe your products with a carefully written, thoughtful description. It must answer all the questions a shopper may have about a product without going on and on and on. Spend the time and write well - keep the language simple, clear and easy to understand. You're designing an online catalog... quality descriptions, good photos and informative names are a key part of that design.
3. Deciding to Wait and "Do SEO Later"
Search Engine Optimization is not a step of your store design — it's not a marketing afterthought — it's not "phase 2". It's weaved in and out of every page you publish. Do yourself a favor and consider the quality of your sites pages and code from day one. Familiarize yourself with what makes a quality HTML document. For example, unique TITLE tags, well written paragraphs grouped by informative headings. Stick with the basics and build good SEO into your design as you go.
4. Challenging Conventions
"But I want to call it a shopping bag" — forget it — bag's no good. When it comes to eCommerce design, web conventions tell designers what works for people. Follow conventions. Give shoppers the tools they expect or you will lose. Shopping carts are carts - label them as such. Tabs should look like tabs. Links should look like links. Buttons should look like buttons. This stuff is easy folks, they're called conventions for a reason.
5. Bad Typography
Fight the urge to make important phrases in your design bigger, bolder or redder — just to make a point. It doesn't work. Thoughtfully placed, logical blocks of text will get your message across to your shoppers quicker and easier. People scan pages looking for what they want. An easily scanned page must have at least three things:
- A consistent font face
- Plenty of line-height spacing for readability
- Paragraphs of text should be short and concise — never spanning an entire page width
Consider your catalog as being "printed" on the screen — look at a print catalog or a magazine for good examples of typography schemes and line spacing. Seek out information on usability and typography on the Google... you'll find plenty of outstanding information.
Steering clear of these mistakes when planning or updating your eCommerce design will not only ensure the usability of the store, but also make it easier for Google to index — it's the best of both worlds. Its like tying the room together with a great rug. By focusing on quality information, good layout, and concise navigation, you're nailing the SEO and building a usable store at the same time. It's what all online merchants want — a site people like using and search engines like slurping.
This post is filed under Developers' Corner and has the following keyword tags: SEO, search engine optimization, design, mistakes, ecommerce, typography, conventions, home page, product catalog.
6 Comments
shelly says:
I agree, great article. A company that designs sites that are seo friendly with brillant art work is the Intersoft Company. Check out their work at www.goxsellit.com. Happy Holidays!
Tanya Stesen says:
As a web developer I see a lot of businesses attempting to go the DIY route. They tend to suffer from bad typography. My favorite is those individuals that want to center everything. It drives me nuts! Great article, very insightful.
Richard Kuipers says:
Great article, thanks, Eric! I assisted in launching a new site for a Dutch freight forwarding company called usa2you.nl (to be found, where else, at http:usa2you.nl). While I thought I was pretty up to speed in how to this stuff, I did -as Tanya says above- take the DIY route.
I've got the SEO part down (after 8 weeks we're occupying 5 out of 10 link on Google's first page for our key words), and Rules #4 and #5 are taken care of as well. However, I did violate your Rule #1: too much stuff on the home page. Back to the drawing board on that one!
Richard Kuipers
www.windmilltrading.com
usa2you.nl
Eric Anderson says:
Tanya - glad you liked it, thank you for your comment.
Richard - Rule #1 is the easiest to break - don't be too hard on yourself. Visit your home page and be the ruthless editor - if it doesn't solidify your purpose or sell products, get rid of it.
Ron Robinson says:
Excellent thoughts and worth developing a little further! Our cart, 800Cart.com gives you advanced SEO from the very first product you add. But it not only makes your catalog available for deep SEO cataloging, it also enhances the authority of YOUR web site by providing thousands of honest links to your web site from pages that are already highly authoritative (crucial to your own web sites page rank).
Cramming Too Much Stuff on the Home Page Put a couple of your leading products on your front page and keep verbiage to a minimum - let this dovetail with #3 below! If you are doing SEO from the beginning (as 800Cart does with every product in your inventory) then the shopper search will lead them right to the relevant page on your site and they won't have to scan an overfull home page.
Paying Too Little Attention to the Product Catalog Of course, if your intent is to let your products/prices attract your shoppers, this can't wait! Provide complete, artful descriptions and allow a properly designed catalog/shopping cart to present your products to the searhc engines skillfully - the shoppers will do the rest!
Deciding to Wait and "Do SEO Later" This you must 'do' from day one, but nobody says you can't 'delegate' it - as a matter of fact it's better if you do delegate it. What could beat 5 different shopping cart domains providing links to your web site and giving you essential page authority and page rank? Without lifting a finger (other then uploading your product file) you have placed your complete inventory online, searchable, and purchasable, and you can work on detailing your web site at your leisure - fully confident that each product is already searchable and purchasable.
Challenging Conventions Indeed. Think carefully before eschewing constructs that are useful and widely understood. But don't get stuck in the pedestrian either. Be willing to challenge convention artfully if it actually sells your product for you: example: you may prefer to sell your products from your own web pages on your own web site. But if an SEO cart generated web page can actually sell your product better (because it comes up on the search more often) do you want to turn your back on those sales?
Bad Typography Resist the temptation to draw attention to it by making it bigger, instead, surround the important message with white space - that makes it much more prominent. Observe your own behavior when you visit other web sites: what makes you lean forward and take note? Many times, it's the whitespace surrounding the message, not a bigger headline.
izapharry says:
i think you're right with all kinds of designing issues.
