Google Ads for eCommerce: How to Make Your Website Conversion-Ready

So, you’re keen to run Google Ads for your eCommerce enterprise.

You took all of the crucial first-steps to guarantee your online business is about up for Google Ads success—your model id is rock strong, your finances and time expectations are cheap, your promoting proposition is one-of-a-kind.

The subsequent step? Making certain your web site is prepared to convert.

After all, these treasured advert clicks will lead clients to your digital entrance door. And we’d like to make it possible for door is open huge to welcome every customer earlier than we spend money and time on Google Ads campaigns.

Here’s how we’ll make that occur:

1. Website CRO Best Practices
2. Product Preparation
3. Media (Images and Video)
4. Lifestyle Images
5. Robust Titles and Descriptions
6. Live Chat

First Up: Website CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) Best Practices

Building an eCommerce retailer isn’t that tough. 

Building an eCommerce retailer that converts? Whew! That is a special story totally. 

Here are some CRO greatest practices to guarantee your website is prepared to make gross sales:

The Big Three:

  1. Website Issues and Errors
You can’t drive site visitors to a damaged web site. So, it’s essential to make sure you catch any web site points or errors:

• Frequently (no less than as soon as a month) verify your website and ensure every little thing is working correctly and there aren’t any high-risk points and errors.
• Schedule a web site audit no less than as soon as a month.

  2. Website Speed
Website velocity has a large influence in your high quality rating; actually, it’s thought-about barely extra essential than content material(!) in accordance to Google. A number of issues to contemplate:

• Mobile customers are going to be much less tolerant of slower web sites due to the smaller dimension of the machine and infrequently slower connection.

• The largest contributing issue for gradual websites are massive picture sizes. 

 3. Mobile Engagement

• 60-65% of web site visits are performed on cellular units. So guarantee your website is mobile-friendly!

• Look at your conversion path: though many purchases occur on desktop computer systems, analysis is commonly performed on cellular units. In different phrases, contemplate every step of your purchaser’s journey so you can also make it as easy as doable.

Conversion Rate Optimization Checklist
Now let’s put these greatest practices to motion. First up, run by this CRO guidelines to be sure that guests have a easy journey to buy out of your website:

• Everything works correctly
  
• Website is quick (below 2-3 seconds load time)
• Your e mail/cellphone quantity is within the header or footer
  • Customers want to know they’ll belief you (i.e. get in contact with you)
    
• Website design is interesting to your viewers
  • Make certain the design is centered round your product and isn’t a distraction
    
• Website has high-quality pictures
• Products are described clearly with all options displayed
• CTAs are in a distinction shade (daring!) and straightforward to discover
• There are evaluations on product pages
• Verification badges (safe cost, BBB, SSL, ensures, free returns, and so on.)
  • This helps enhance the trustworthiness of your website and model
    
  • Turn something you provide to a badge (free delivery? Make it a badge! Free returns? Badge! Much extra thrilling than textual content)

Website Speed Optimization Checklist

• Choose a “light” theme
  • A great developer can enhance your website velocity quite a bit—however be sure you don’t rely too closely on customization 

• Scale your pictures correctly 
• Decrease the weight of your pictures with out shedding high quality
• Limit the quantity of plugins/apps

• Limit the quantity of displayed merchandise on class pages

• Check in in your web page velocity

Quality Assurance (QA) Checklist:
Include high quality assurance checkups in your month-to-month customary working procedures to be sure that your website is in tip-top form. You can do that by inner QA and exterior QA: 

Internal QA: Pretend to be your personal buyer

• Try to break the location 
  • Navigate by your website the best way a buyer would
  • Gauge how straightforward it’s for a distracted buyer to use your website. 
  • Ask your self, “If I weren’t paying full attention, could I still do this?”
  • Make an precise buy

*You can rent somebody to undergo your website on fiverr. 

External QA: Have another person faux to be a buyer

• Just inform them the place you need them to go—however not how to get there 

Analyze Top Competitors:

• What is totally different between their web site and yours? 

Pro-Tip! Diagnosing Issues: Screen Recording Software
You can set up display screen recording software program in your website that tracks customers’ navigation by way of warmth mapping (word: it can seemingly gradual the velocity of your website). This works on desktop and cellular—so for eCommerce websites that aren’t changing, you need to use this software program to determine what’s going unsuitable alongside the best way.

Here are just a few notable choices:

Keep in thoughts: You don’t want to use these apps endlessly. Diagnostic instruments are an effective way to assess the state of your web site and decide any website optimizations or product additions.

Product Page Preparation

Your product pages are an important pages in your web site. In most circumstances, it’s the touchdown web page for your site visitors: your very first impression.

Many companies put tons of power into optimizing their homepage, but neglect the product pages clients land on. What’s worse? Smart Shopping can solely drive site visitors to product pages. So let’s be sure that your product pages are prepared to shine:

Product Page Checklist

• Product title and subtitle 
  • Make certain the product title is evident, descriptive, and sincere sufficient for Google to establish the product and ship related site visitors your means (Look at Amazon for inspiration)
  • But keep away from “keyword” stuffing! Honesty and ease are key

• Product description
  • Product descriptions are supplementary to your title
  • Use this chance to elaborate on the specifics of your product: any specific supplies, particular  options, components which are value highlighting however can be too lengthy for your title

• Product media (pictures and movies)
  • We buy with our eyes first
  • Custom imagery is at all times going to be higher than inventory photographs, notably way of life pictures that assist clients image themselves utilizing your product

• Nested navigation 
  • Make certain navigation is evident, straightforward, and accessible—we don’t need folks to get misplaced
  • Use breadcrumbs so customers can at all times discover their means again

•  Social proof (i.e. evaluations)
  • Customers purchase from companies they belief—Enter: evaluations
  • Aggregating sufficient evaluations takes time, so ask your clients for a evaluate after 30 days of buying and provides them an incentive or reward for completion
  • The 30-day rule provides you no less than just a few days/weeks to resolve any points—and get a superb evaluate for it
  • Once you’ve gotten sufficient five-star evaluations, you’ll be able to add them to your website.

• Clear call-to-action (CTA)
  • If you don’t inform folks what you need them to do they received’t do it
  • A transparent, daring CTA nudges your buyer to the following step 
  • Isolate the motion you need them to take: make the CTA a BIG button (not only a hyperlink)

• Clear customization choices
  • If you provide custom-made merchandise, be sure that the choices are clear and don’t overwhelm your clients to keep away from cart abandonment

Product Media

When it comes to including pictures in your web site, right here’s the factor:

You don’t want to be knowledgeable photographer. In truth, all you want to create top quality pictures is:

✔️ A smartphone (new iPhones or Samsung do a very good job)

✔️ A plain white background

✔️ Natural lighting

Don’t zoom in. 

Don’t use flash. 

And edit your photographs when you can (verify Fiverr or pixc for outsourcing choices). 

That’s all it takes! 

Remember,  your photographs ought to give context and additional showcase particulars of the product. If your product has a novel function, it’s greatest to clarify what that function is within the descriptions and present it in your pictures.

Overwhelmed by what number of merchandise you want to seize? Start along with your bestsellers. Make certain every of them has a good product picture and (if doable) brief video. 5-7 pictures per product needs to be sufficient.

We are visible creatures. High high quality product media will shut the sale. 

Product Media Part Two: Lifestyle Images

Speaking of product media, way of life pictures are crucial for clients to visualize your product in motion. 

*Remember: Lifestyle imagery is a photograph or video of merchandise getting used* 

Here are some ideas:

✔️ Give context

• Hey, your product doesn’t have to be the “main subject” within the picture. In truth, it may very well be within the background—like this poor Nespresso machine, competing with George Clooney’s everlasting handsomeness: 

✔️ You can use photographs out of your Instagram or Pinterest

• Speaking of Instagram, you’ll be able to ship your product to influencers (for free) in alternate for promotional content material on their web page
• Check out imagency.com to discover influencers 

✔️ Shoot a YouTube overview of the product and paste it in your product web page

Robust Titles and Descriptions

✔️ Use the product description to promote the transformation

• The description sells the TRANSFORMATION, not the product
• Use the language that your avatar makes use of however be sure you additionally embrace in the precise key phrases that Google understands

✔️ Include specs 

• Size, materials, weight, options

✔️ Use the product titles and descriptions to talk with Google 

• Google depends on product titles and descriptions to establish merchandise and ship related site visitors—so, be sure that they’re “machine friendly” (clear and straightforward to perceive)

✔️ Good descriptions might be repurposed 

• Save a while and power! Quality descriptions might be loosely reused for different product pages in addition to for advert copy

Live Chat

We strongly suggest dwell chat in your web site. Here’s why:

✔️ Diagnose errors

• Live chat permits you to compile customer questions and create content material that solutions these questions for future clients
• Add useful data to your product pages and place them close to the highest of your web page

*Try tawk.to* 

*Check out Shopify’s app integration right here https://apps.shopify.com/tawk-to*

✔️ Identify objections

• Live chat may give you perception into what holds clients again from making a purchase order—what questions do they ask earlier than abandoning their cart? What issues do they convey up within the chat? 

✔️ Improve conversion charges

• Sometimes, all it takes is slightly supportive nudge for clients to make a purchase order
• By “being there” by their digital journey, you’ve gotten a better probability of creating a conversion

Get That Website Ready to Convert

I do know, I do know. I simply gave you plenty of homework.

But hear up: I’ll be again with a information on the following steps of organising profitable Google Ads campaigns—the dreaded technical and authorized necessities.

But when you’re feeling extra-eager, you’ll be able to try this Google Ads Mastery Workshop.

Or, you’ll be able to try my complete step-by-step guide to Google Ads for eCommerce here.

Kasim Aslam

Kasim Aslam is the founder and CEO of Solutions 8, one of many world’s prime ranked Google Ads businesses.

Recipient of the Arizona Interactive Marketing Association’s 2017 TIM Award for Person of the Year, Kasim was additionally named one of many Top 50 Digital Marketing Thought Leaders within the United States by The University of Missouri in 2020.

Kasim was hand-selected because the Traffic Coach for DigitalMarketer.com’s ELITE teaching program by their govt staff. He can be the co-host of the long-running podcast, Perpetual Traffic.

His e-book, The 7 Critical Principles of Effective Digital Marketing, was featured as one of many Top 100 Digital Marketing Books of All Time by Book Authority.

Kasim helped launch the National Association of Child Helplines (NAACH) and labored with the United States Army, Intel, in addition to a Gates Foundation-funded nonprofit, a 54,000 member PPO, the biggest privately owned financial institution within the United States, and an Academy Award-contending documentary.

He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona together with his spouse and two sons.