5 Tips for Optimizing Your Product Pages

A product page is a landing page, and a good landing page is one that “gets the sale.” In order to maximize sales revenue, it’s a good idea to review the content and structure of your product pages, with an eye towards addressing the concerns and objections of potential buyers.

While there are a lot of items that can be tweaked and adjusted on a product landing page, we’re going to focus on five items that tend to have a sizable, positive impact on performance.

#1 – Part Descriptions Should Be Clear and Informative

When a customer reads product information on a page, they’re usually looking for details and facts. Therefore, the content on a good product page isn’t “salesy.” Instead, the description should strive to:

• Distinguish this part from other, similar parts. Consumers are wondering which part they’re looking at, eg. “Is this the standard alternator, or is it the heavy-duty alternator that’s rated for an extra 30 amps?”
• List common uses and purposes, eg. “This alternator is frequently used on police and emergency vehicles, but also by vehicle owners looking for extra electrical power.”
• Explain details and options, such as listing all the available colors or finishes, explaining the mounting options. For example, questions like “What mount does the part come with?” or “Should I add a different mount to my order if I’ve got a truck?” should be anticipated and answered in the description.

The main goal when writing a part description is to provide details, specifications, fitment, and facts — it isn’t sales copy. In fact, you want to avoid telling the reader how “great” your part is, as text that appears to be sales copy will often be discounted or ignored.

Also, avoid general statements about features and benefits. Telling someone that you’ve got “the best alternator on the market” doesn’t make any sense unless you explain why. Which sounds more believable?

1. “We’ve got the best alternators on the market!” or
2. “We’ve got the best alternators on market because we use OEM quality chromium steel bearings, rectifiers tested to 300V, and all our testing utilizes NIST grade equipment,“

A good product description is factual, comforting, and compelling. Someone who reads your description should know exactly what they’re getting.

#2 – Quality Images Are Hugely Important

The human brain is wired to process images much, much faster than text. As a result, a good set of photos on a product page goes a long ways towards making the page perform.

Ideally, you’d have a good cross sampling of images on your product page:

• A collection of images that showed the product from various angles
• An image or two showing the product installed and/or in use
• An image or two focused in on a key feature

All the images would also be available at high resolution, so your site visitors can zoom in. Part diagrams and schematics are also helpful, as it helps people visualize where the part fits on their vehicle, if it’s actually the part they need, etc.

Finally, while videos are technically not images, they can be very valuable. If you have good footage of the part being installed and/or reviewed, adding it to the product page can’t hurt.

#3 – Include Whatever PDFs You Can

Providing PDF versions of installation instructions, owner’s manuals, and spec sheets is always a good idea. Consumers who plan on doing their own installation always appreciate a chance to look at the instructions before they buy. People who are concerned about quality or functionality often like to review an owner’s manual before they buy. Serious enthusiasts often want to download specs (or manuals and other materials), print them out, and then pour over them.

The best part is that many part manufacturers provide these PDFs free of charge, and it’s a simple matter to download them from the manufacturer’s website, then upload them to your product page. Of course, you can also open a part package, scan the materials inside, and then load those on your site as well (assuming the manufacturer doesn’t have any restrictions on sharing this material, which isn’t common).

Another benefit of including manuals and install instructions right on your product page? You keep the customer on your site. Instead of searching for a copy of the owner’s manual before buying the part, your customer can download the manual from your site, read it, and then (hopefully) buy. No leaving your site to look for a manual and finding it on a competitor’s site.

#4 – Show Product Reviews

Part reviews are hugely beneficial when it comes to convincing a customer to buy, particularly when we’re talking about an upgrade or accessory. Integrating reviews into your product pages isn’t always easy, but there are systems (like Yotpo or ShopperApproved) that let you integrate review widgets into each page, as well as solicit reviews from existing customers.

Additionally, it’s important to understand that a large quantity of reviews is almost more important than the quality of the reviews. For example, a part with dozens of 3 star reviews will often sell better than a part with a couple of 5 star reviews, as consumers are leery of products with a limited number of reviews (especially when those reviews are glowing).

A popular anecdote about reviews in online marketing: Many store owners assume that a bad review will hurt their sales, and they will go to great lengths to hide or avoid bad reviews. Amazon.com, however, found that featuring both good and bad reviews on product pages increased sales. As it turns out, consumers are more likely to buy when they’ve had a chance to understand both the good and the bad aspects of a product before they buy.

#5 – Make It Easy To Buy

In no particular order, it ought to be easy for a person looking at your product page to:

• Find a picture of the product
• Find the price of the product
• Find the ‘Add to Cart’ or ‘Buy Now’ button
• Find the part name and description

If you want to see how easy your product page is to use, ask friends and family members (particularly younger family members who can’t read, as they often have amazing insights) for feedback. You can also invest in some user testing or A/B testing.

The focus of your testing should be on making the page as usable as possible, and it’s a good idea to test the page on desktops, tablets, mobile devices, etc. as well.

Summing Up

We can’t guarantee that implementing these 5 tips will make all the difference in your product page performance, but these changes definitely won’t hurt you. What’s more, by taking the time to flesh out your product pages, you’ll probably find other ways to improve your site.

Finally, we recognize that most auto parts ecommerce sites have hundreds or thousands of product pages. It’s not always possible to “tune up” every page. If this is your situation, focus on your best-selling items or most profitable pages first, and then invest in page testing. Conversion Rate Optimization is one of our services, and it can deliver a lot of value on larger ecommerce sites with significant traffic.