10 must-have web pages for your e-commerce site

 

Your website is your primary sales tool and your best asset for introducing and converting customers to your products, so it’s important to put your best foot forward by optimizing your website for the customer journey.

Unlike your brick and mortar store, there are several entry points to your website. Your customer may come from social media, from search, or from an email campaign. This means that every page of your website needs to be primed for conversion, ready to lead your customer through the stages of awareness that propel them from “Eh, ok, I’ll take a look” to “I love this brand and will shop here forever!”.

With that in mind, let’s talk through the pages on your website that will help you make your most convincing case; that is, the pages that you need to have to turn cold leads into repeat customers through the five main stages of buyer awareness:

The 5 Stages of Awareness

10 Must-Have Pages for Your E-Commerce webSite

1. Homepage

2. About

3. Category page(s)

4. Product page(s)

5. Testimonials

6. Store locator

7. Contact & media

8. Shipping & returns

9. Cart

10. Order tracking

1. Homepage

Stage of Awareness: all of ‘em

Think of your homepage as a navigational menu, but with flashy visuals, persuasive calls-to-action, and your best brand messaging. Your homepage, in some ways, is like the entering through the front door of your brick and mortar store, and the layout should be similarly stacked from most to least important.

Lead with your best sellers, your highest praising testimonials, and the content you know gives your brand that certain je ne sais quoi.

But at the same time, when a visitor lands on your site, they could be a first-time visitor, a repeat visitor, or someone who has you on virtual speed dial. The point is they could be anyone. Which means you need content that:

• Appeals to visitors at each of the five stages of awareness

• Directs visitors to all of the content they need to lead them through to the next step of the customer journey

Your homepage goal is simple and unwavering: get the visitor to click on something that brings them deeper into your site.

Yes, homepages are tricky (understatement of the year award goes to…). Not only do you need to account for site visitors from all stages of awareness, but you also have less than 15 seconds to hook them and encourage them to keep reading.

Yikes. Fortunately for you, there are people out there who know how to create a homepage that will actually hook and convert (ahem. *cough cough*). For real though, if you’re struggling with your current homepage, let’s talk.

2. About

Stage of Awareness: unaware, pain aware, solution aware

The oft overlooked but hugely important About page (or pages, depending on the size of your company) is one of the best ways to connect with customers and deepen engagement.

The About section of your website accomplishes a few goals:

• Explains why you’re unique and qualified

• Showcases your mission and values

• Allows you to craft your origin story

I work with a lot of small businesses who sell eco-friendly products, and I’m amazed at how often About page goodness is just…left on the table. If your products are certified organic, cruelty free, or vegan, by all means, PLEASE cash in your bragging rights and tell your prospective customers all about product quality and attention to detail.

The best About pages out there are personal, transparent, and answer how you will solve your customers problems with your unique innovation and approach.

If you launched your company with your husband (or sister, or cousin) and sold out of your garage for 10 years before gaining enough traction to launch online, please don’t deprive us of that origin story.

If your company values community outreach and partnerships, please provide pictures of your team getting involved.

You get the idea.

3. Category page(s)

Stage of Awareness: unaware, pain aware, solution aware

A category page is your opportunity to talk about your products on a macro scale and give customers a chance to browse through your selection. The best category pages are a landing page as well, with carousels, widgets, and other content that further curates your selection in a customer-friendly way.

It’s also a great way to boost your content and infuse your e-commerce site with keyword rich phrases that will help you get ranked by Google.

4. Product page(s)

Stage of Awareness: pain aware, solution aware, product aware

Of course, of all the pages on your website, your product pages are the meat and potatoes. Each of your product pages is a mini-destination in itself that has the potential to convert at many stages of awareness.

That’s why I recommend that you spend some time optimizing these pages for on-page SEO and for brand awareness. This will help you attract more traffic to these pages from search and keep them on the page once they land there.

How? Why, I’m so glad you asked!

Optimize Product Pages for On-Page SEO

1. Use a clean, consistent URL structure

2. Use relevant keyword phrases in strategic places throughout your page

3. Use proper header structure

4. Break up your text with compelling images and videos

Optimize Product Pages for Brand Awareness

1. Interlink to relevant pages like About and top-level category pages

2. Use testimonials

3. Include a paragraph about your company and mission

4. Tell a story about the product (I’m all about those origin stories…admittedly, this is likely due to my geeky love for comic books)

5. Testimonials

Stage of Awareness: Pain aware, solution aware, product aware

Include a page for customer testimonials, and summarize them with a star rating. Make it easy for customers to add their review and encourage feedback. This is easy to do on Shopify, but some platforms will require manual intervention or the help of a third-party tool to accomplish this.

Testimonials from your customers give you added social proof and can be immensely persuasive for new and prospective buyers. Let your customers do the heavy lifting for you. A testimonial is worth a thousand words of explanation by you.

6. Store locator

Stage of Awareness: Solution aware, product aware

It probably goes without saying, but some customers will visit your site looking for the store nearest them. Beyond that though, a store locator page is an additional source of additional social proof for you.

If you work with large or prestige retailers, your customers will better understand your value and popularity. Similarly, if you work with boutiques and local small businesses, customers may appreciate that, as well.

7. Contact & media

Stage of Awareness: product aware, most aware

Oh Heather, you may be thinking, obvi I need a contact page. And perhaps there was a time when the contact page was the sole reason to create a website, but you’d be surprised how often this page gets overlooked today.

I get why many e-commerce sites focus on the check out funnel (because dolla dolla bills ya’ll), but while the checkout experience automates, the contact page makes you human. It provides a connection and (hopefully) a name or two that leaves the customer feeling like maybe you are a person beyond the screen after all.

There are a few elements to include on your contact page:

1. Your company email address, mailing address, and phone number

2. A customer service chatbot and/or the names and faces of the customer-service team

3. A map of your office location or flagship store location

4. A contact form

8. Shipping & returns

Stage of Awareness: product aware, most aware

Otherwise known as the FAQ, give customers a destination to acknowledge and address their most pressing questions. What are your shipping policies, restrictions, fees, and limitations? What’s the process for returns? Do you have a cut off window for returns? Do you only offer store credit or will you return in full?

If you have other product use or care specification, this is also a good place to address them. Do your t-shirts shrink in hot water, do your shoes run small, or do customers need to read a product guide with purchase?

A thoughtful FAQ page on a website demonstrates transparency, builds trust, and increases confidence in the purchase.

9. Cart

Stage of Awareness: most aware

Of course, in order to have an e-commerce store, you’ll need some kind of cart that allows customers to purchase, but how you optimize this page could make or break your customer relationship and your cart abandons.

Help customers as much as you can here by making checkout as fast and painless as possible:

• Remind them of promo codes

• Provide fast checkout

• Provide different payment options

• Track customers with logins

Finally, the checkout page and subsequent thank you page (post purchase) is a good time to ask customers for a wee favor in return, like a review or a rating of their experience.

10. Order tracking

Stage of Awareness: most aware

Finally, once you’ve secured the first purchase and turned a first-time site visitor into a returning customer, make sure to carve out space for your customers on your website with a login and/or order tracking page. Beyond just making your customers’ lives easier, this is prime real estate for you to build trust and rapport with your customers. Give them exclusive discounts or other incentives that remind them of why they chose you in the first place.