The holiday shopping season is right around the corner. More shoppers will be making their purchases online than ever before. Make sure your website is ready for the additional traffic from Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Here are 4 ways to prepare your eCommerce website for the holiday shopping season:

1. Present your brand & products in the best possible light.

Make sure your photos are high-quality. This is also an excellent time to make sure your branding is well-represented across your website, so it is more attractive to potential customers. You have a short time to make a good first impression.

Your website’s design needs to be able to catch visitors’ eyes in about seven seconds. Also, many of your customers use their mobile devices to shop online. This means that you also need to make sure your website is responsive. By responsive, we mean that the site adjusts to all screen sizes.

2. Include detailed product information.

Along with informing potential customers, product information also helps with your search engine ranking. eCommerce site owners assist search engines in verifying specific data they can’t identify on their own.

For example, pricing, discounts, tax, shipping, and related products are all examples of this type of information. Product names, sizes, colors, and other details are typically treated like regular website content is.

To do this, you need to provide structured data, which search engines discover through website crawling. You can also manually submit a feed of all product data or use an API to update products individually through Google Merchant Center.

This, in turn, helps shoppers find your product as Google and other search engines only display product information in search results when they’re confident they’ve obtained the most accurate information.

3. Make shopping easy.

If your website is easy to navigate, it is more likely that visitors will stay and possibly even make a purchase. This means making products and information easy to find through navigation menus, search options, and buttons. Remember that “less is more” here. You should ideally have five or fewer navigation options for quick and easy access, especially at checkout.

Although your customer makes the ultimate decision about what they’ll buy, you can tell them what to do with your navigation with a call to action. By call to action, we mean including an action you’d like them to take. For example, a button that says “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart” is a call to action button.

4. Give your customers a voice.

People read online reviews when making purchasing decisions. This is the new “word of mouth.” Make sure customers have the opportunity to review your products and share their experiences with those looking at your website.

Customers’ reviews are an invaluable resource to you and your website’s visitors. By compiling this information, you can create buyer personas or representations of your customers used to guide marketing efforts. You can also use their feedback to improve your product or service.

Along with allowing product reviews, allow customers multiple opportunities to reach you. This can include a contact form, a chatbot, or even just listing your contact information on your website. That way, if they have a question or concern, you can handle it promptly.

Ready for the Holiday Shopping Season?

With the holidays rapidly approaching, it may seem like you have so much to do in such little time. That’s where we can help. Contact Links Web Design for a free consultation to prepare your website for the upcoming holiday shopping season.

Links Web Design is a Website Design Company in Bangor, ME, and Fruitland Park, FL.