Setting KPIs for Product Pages and Improving Performance

Before we start talking about things you can do to improve product pages that drive KPIs, it might be helpful to review a few basic concepts. Let’s start by discussing KPIs — what they are, why they’re so important, and how to set them.

KPIs, key performance indicators, provide businesses with concrete data regarding website user experience, consumer preferences, and customer behavior. They give you hard data you can use to meet specific business goals by letting you know what’s working and what’s not. The right KPIs are a must for both growing and established businesses. Not every company needs to measure the same things. KPIs must be appropriate for your business, marketing, and sales goals.

The first step when it comes to getting started with performance measurement is to determine your goals. Figuring out how to measure KPIs comes towards the end of the process. After you’ve articulated your goals, think about what factors lead to success when it comes to your objectives. Select performance benchmarks with those elements in mind. Finally, make sure the measurement tool you choose fits the information you’re looking to gather. You’ll need web analytics software to gather and parse the data. From Google Analytics to paid tools with tons of features, you’ll find several options to help you get a handle on what’s going on with your e-commerce site. A company with web analytic experience can help you make optimal sense of the findings.

When it comes to eCommerce, product pages dominate sales and marketing strategies. They literally drive and create eCommerce success. To increase sales and overall profit, you’ve got to know how your product pages are working. Product page KPIs provide an efficient way to evaluate if you’re doing the right things to grow your eCommerce business. They give you insight into metrics like how long consumers typically stay on your product pages, organic traffic rates, and what items shoppers frequently purchase together. Other types of key performance indicators include how quickly pages on your site load, number of page visits, and even some measures of brand loyalty. Let’s review a few things you can do with product pages to maximize the chances of hitting your performance goals.

How to Improve Product Pages to Boost Organic Traffic

Let’s say you’ve set a goal of increasing your website’s organic traffic as a way to make more sales. Your research team runs the numbers, and now you have absolute proof that your company needs to do something about its lackluster organic traffic numbers. You decide to make some changes to your eCommerce site to fix the situation.

Using long-tail keywords in product descriptions should be one of the first options you explore. Let’s talk for a minute about the two broad keyword categories: short and long-tail. Short-tail keywords are not terribly specific, and they tend to generate large numbers of queries. Since so many sites have text with these frequently occurring terms, including short-tail keywords typically won’t help you improve your search position that much. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, provide more specificity. If pants is your short-tail keyword, potential long-tail variants might include, blue button-up pants, blue straight leg pants, and blue cargo pants.

Adding long-tail keywords to product pages provides a simple, unobtrusive, and natural way to raise your search visibility. It also has the potential to lift sales. Shoppers tend to search using long-tail keywords when they’re ready to make a purchase. Include long-tail search terms in title tags, meta descriptions and H1 headers to get the most out of this SEO strategy.

Optimize Your Product Pages to Reign in Pesky Bounce Rates

You added a few long-tail keywords to your product pages, and your organic search results started to soar. You decide there might actually be something to this KPI for product pages stuff. You ask around, and your web genius says that you really should look into your site’s bounce rates. Your analytics savant runs the numbers and sends you an email describing the results. Things don’t look so good. It turns out that large numbers of people just go elsewhere after getting to your product pages from search engine results.

People typically bounce in two situations: when the page they end up on doesn’t contain the item they’re really searching for, or when the page itself turns them off for some reason. You ask your web person dig a bit deeper. A few days later, another report appears in your inbox. It turns out that shoppers seem to be getting to the right page from search engine results. But they spend a few seconds there and then leave. Your web analytics master suggests there might be something about your product pages that disappoints or frustrates shoppers.

You see reducing bounces as a promising way to increase sales and resolve to act. Here’s a list of six product page optimizing must-dos that’ll reduce those dreaded bounces.

Increase page load speeds
Add killer visual content that accurately displays products
Get rid of distracting popups and advertisements
Create crisp, easy-to-read copy with compelling headers and subheaders
Make it simple for customers to initiate a live chat directly from product pages
Provide accurate and engaging product descriptions

Make a Few Easy Tweaks to Increase Brand Trust

You optimized your product pages and started working long-tail keywords into your product descriptions and your company’s profits really started to rise. Fewer bounces and high organic search results led to increased sales. Convinced this product page KPI stuff is driving your rising profits, you turn to your web team and ask them if they have a way to provide insight into how much trust customers have in your brand. Your web all stars suggest taking a look at the number of people who come back to make another purchase. The head of your research team sends you an article explaining that repeat customer numbers provide a pretty accurate measure of brand loyalty, which studies suggest grows out of brand trust. Your web department does a bit of investigating. It turns out you’re not getting as many repeat customers as you’d like.

You’d love to increase your customers’ brand loyalty. You paid attention in those marketing classes when professors talked about the link between long-term business sustainability and customer loyalty. Here are five easy-to-implement product page tweaks to get you moving in the right direction.

Add customer reviews to your product pages. They help the decision-making process and increase the likelihood that a shopper will follow through and make a purchase.
Include an easy-to-interpret product star rating or something similar. It gives shoppers a quick, convenient way to gather information that drives purchasing decisions.
Provide useful product descriptions. Put the things most important to your audience front and center in your copy. For bonus points, tailor your descriptions to the interests and needs of your target market.
Clean up broken links and create a well-designed 404 page. Nothing says sketchy louder than a site full of broken links, all of which lead to some generic, unprofessional-looking 404 page.
Put shipping, return, and warranty information right on the product page. Don’t make your customers search for this sort of crucial information. It’ll do two things: improve brand trust and reduce page bounces.