E-Commerce Website Redesign: Ultimate SEO Checklist

Revamping your eCommerce site should be planned in detail. Here below, you'll find a 7-step checklist that will help you achieve the best results.

First impressions are important, and your website's look is visitors' first impression. If it's not appealing, customers will leave. Your website design helps put visitors at ease, so keep it updated to provide the best experience to users.

Here are some hacks you might want to work on when creating a new look for your site:

Choosing an e-commerce host implies selecting a web hosting platform or eCommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce. Such platforms provide your site with essential tools, including payment processing, security, SSL, and shopping cart software.

Choosing the right hosting plan during the redesign process is vital for your site. A good host helps you keep the traffic, make customers happy, and get good brand positioning.

It is particularly important in today's world where everyone seeks fast internet connection speeds. Research has shown that 47% of consumers expect eCommerce websites to load within two seconds.

Sadly, about 79% of these consumers never return to a site after a poor loading or browsing experience. More than that, Google considers site speed when ranking a website.

Hence, make sure your eCommerce platform has quality hosting to avoid future problems.

Now that you have a host, the next step is to move your content from the old website. The first thing you should do before moving is to take stock of what you have and what you need.

Find out where your platform falls short right now. Make a list of "must-haves" to get started. The most important things for enterprise-level stores and those who want to get to that business level are speed and volume.

Some companies need their platform to handle big jumps in traffic without crashing. Others need a platform that can manage rapid growth in both the number of visitors and the number of SKUs (stock keeping units).

Before moving to a new eCommerce platform, it is essential to look at the data on your legacy platform to decide what needs to be moved and what can stay where it is. You should also download a backup of the data you already have if the migration doesn't go smoothly. Decide which third-party apps you want to keep and which you want to get rid of, since some may be outdated.

You can move your data in one of three ways: by hand, with a migration app, or with the help of an outside team.

When moving data from your old platform to your new one, you should think about two main types of data: product data and customer/order data. 

• Moving your product data manually is best since automated migrations can get complicated quickly when you have different product options, bundled packages, carts, and themes. When you move product data manually, you can be sure that the information is transferred correctly.
• When it comes to customer data, on the other hand, an automated migration app is enough because address and order history data is usually the same everywhere.

You should keep an up-to-date copy of your product catalog on your old platform since there are "hard" references to products, categories, etc.

SEO migration ensures that you don't lose any of your search engine visibility (rankings and traffic) when you move your website. Your eCommerce site has built up organic visibility over time, which has helped your customers easily spot you on search engines.

When you change your URLs or your site's content, you adjust what search engines know about your site and how they've ranked it. Any time a website moves, the goal is to lose as little traffic as possible. Doing a thorough SEO migration minimizes traffic loss.

When migrating to a new platform, consider the following SEO settings:

Before launching the new e-commerce website, it's essential to test it thoroughly to ensure the migration went well. The testing phase is the longest as you have to check several new website components.

You should start with an SEO audit. To ensure that your new website is optimized, do a full SEO audit of the website as part of your testing.

Serpstat will perfectly fit this task. You can use this platform to:

➡️ scan any site page to check for on-site issues;
➡️ sort out technical issues by their priority;
➡️ see recommendations for fixing issues that have a higher impact on your rankings;
➡️ track the growth dynamics of the site optimization level;
➡️ schedule automatic checks, and monitor if the number of issues found is decreasing.

Check all the other parts, features, and functions to make sure that no typos, bugs, or mistakes were missed during the importation process. 

A few other tests you can do include:

• putting test orders on your new platform and paying for them with all the available methods;
• testing the platform on popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari;
• using both a phone and a tablet to test your platform on mobile, especially on iOS and Android.

After putting your platform through several tests and ensuring it works well, you can now launch it knowing that customers will have a good time with it. 

Don't forget to coordinate all the processes afterward and keep on track with SERP checkers. You can use Serpstat Rank Tracker Tool to monitor your website rankings in mobile, desktop organic, and paid searches. It allows you to:

➡️ get an accurate overview of your organic positions in the search;
➡️ analyze your market share and assess your potential;
➡️ evaluate which SERP features drive traffic to your site;
➡️ check the search ranking for your website, compare it to your competitors, and find new possibilities to appear in search engine top results;
➡️ see how stormy are the SERPs to correct your strategy in time.

The following are some proven tricks that can help you during the redesign process.

Your homepage is the heart of your website. It is the first place your customers view when they visit your website. Here below, you will find some proven tips to better grab the clients' attention from the very beginning.

• Utilize Simple Website Design

The more difficult it is for your customers to find what they are looking for on your website, the less satisfied they will be with your brand. This leads to two possible outcomes: either your customers don't find what they need or leave without checking what you propose. Both scenarios are unsuitable for your business, so you must avoid having a complicated design.

Here are some points to consider when optimizing your e-commerce homepage:

• Consider Mobile Experience

A lot of shoppers in the US use smartphones and tablets to interact with brands. If you want to reach mobile customers, your store must be optimized for mobile. That is:

→ responsive design on mobile;
→ fast website load time on mobile;
→ optimized images and videos for mobile;
→ simple checkout process on mobile.

Conduct mobile A/B testing to know what works and what doesn't. Mobile A/B testing isn't as straightforward as for desktop because shoppers may use mobile as a touchpoint. Customers may see something on mobile, but complete the purchase on a desktop. 

To overcome this challenge, you must understand how customers use mobile to interact with your store before split testing. You can then proceed to test mobile sites or app elements just like on the desktop.

• Include Primary Calls-to-Actions

According to Ilija Sekulov from Mailbutler.io, “People want and sometimes need direction. Use strong CTAs to guide visitors. CTAs can improve website navigation and conversions.”

CTAs should include verbs to encourage action. When it comes to CTAs, simple is best. However, you can experiment by adding and removing words to see which works best.

Color matters for CTA buttons. Hubspot compared a red button to a green button, and the red button converted 21% more users. What's more, many companies use a color that stands out from their brand's color palette and white space to draw attention to the CTA.

• Demonstrate Site Security

One of the problems with online shopping is the security of information. Online shoppers want assurances that their data is secure when they shop. If your website is secure, you'll convert more visitors.

Your homepage should feature trusted seals and badges as footer items. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates are vital for your eCommerce website. Otherwise, the browser will label your site "not secure" and won't display it.

After working on your homepage, proceed to your category page. The following are some of the best design practices to improve your category page.

• Promote the Latest Arrivals at the Top

Even if most of your products will live on internal product pages, you can highlight your latest arrivals on the homepage. Putting your latest products on display gives customers an instant idea of what is available. It helps you take advantage of quick rush sales.

You can also test which products perform best on the homepage over time. You should experiment with displaying bestsellers, seasonal items, or new products on the homepage. See what works best for you and stick with it.

• Show Personalized Product Recommendation

Customers nowadays expect personalized shopping recommendations from eCommerce websites. After receiving personalized content, up to 34% of consumers are more likely to make an unplanned purchase, according to Forbes. It makes them feel special and creates an impression that you care about their needs.

You can do this using data from the web and social analytics, which shows who they are, what they like, and where they've been on your site. This is what can increase a customer's engagement and lead to additional purchases.

• Add a Search Bar and Filter Options

→ While most of your visitors will be content to simply browse the site in search of items that appeal to them, some of them will have a specific goal in mind. A search bar gives your customers with specific needs the ability to navigate directly to the page they require.

→ Filters help users find what they need among many products. Most eCommerce sites today have mobile filter overlays that help customers find products they want using specific keywords.

When editing your HTML Heading Tags (like main heading H1, and subheadings H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6), you should pay attention to the words your audience frequently uses.

You can pick the right keywords that attract your audience using Serpstat Keyword Research Tools. It can help you collect real-time search suggestions and find out the interests of your audience to write effective content and edit tags.

The service shows similar keywords based on the similarity of the top-20 of their search results, for which there are at least two pages at the top as in the analyzed keyword. For example: 

• "Related Keywords" report represents all search queries that are semantically related to the searched keyword. This is where you can check and use new variations of the queries. 
• "Search Suggestions" report shows the queries offered to users under the search bar.
• "Search Questions" report is where you can see all question forms of search suggestions. These are questions that include a selected keyword that users are looking for an answer to.

Overview the most popular keywords, improve your site pages and attract new visitors using this tool with a great variety of reports. 

After searching through the categories, your customers will proceed to select the products they want. This stage is important as you have caught their attention. The following are some revamping tricks to improve your product page.  

• Create Consistent Branding

Consumers today often switch between websites or apps when shopping online. 85% of customers begin a purchase on one device and finish it on another. This means you must ensure brand consistency across all of your pages.

Customers should see the same colors and messages on all your website pages. Different branding on your pages could confuse your customers, especially if they switch websites during purchase. 

• Quality Content Only

Don't mistake using pixelated images, huge image renders, and sites with no product photos. Customers are more likely to buy products if they can see them. So, take good photos of your products, so as better picture quality increases product appeal. 

Use high-quality, small-file-size images on your product pages. This improves web store page performance and user experience. A good idea would be to add videos, as they capture a product's look better than images.

While optimizing your videos and pictures, do not forget that content includes the text in your product description. Ensure to provide accurate information, including inventories and pricing.

According to a survey by Emarketer, 83 percent of respondents believe that high-quality product images and descriptions help them decide to buy products. So:

It is possible to use a spelling checker in Serpstat to ensure that your text is mistake-free. Here is how it works:

Simply go to the "Content analysis" section → "Grammar and spelling." You will be redirected to the app that finds mistakes in your text, highlights and corrects them. Enter your text, and press the "Check!" button. The corrected text will be available below in a few seconds. 

This tool is based on Machine Learning generative model. Make the most out of this and other Content Analysis tools.

• Include Reviews and Testimonials

If you want your e-commerce website design to stand out from the crowd, you must collect and display your best customer reviews. You need reviews to make sales because 90 percent of customers read reviews, and 88 percent trust them. Reviews provide social proof and are extremely helpful in persuading new customers.

• Develop methods for continually sourcing reviews and adding new testimonials to these areas.
• Display your most vibrant reviews and testimonials prominently.
• For an added boost, consider using customer faces and names.

Shopping cart abandonment is a significant issue for eCommerce retailers. According to the Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate is about 70 percent. Most often, cart abandonment happens because of faulty checkout pages or processes. 

Optimizing checkout pages is critical as it can help you make more sales. Here are some ways to do so.

• Integrate Payment Options

To avoid losing your customers, ensure you have as many payment options. Aside from the regular credit card payment option, look into payment wallet services. Examples include PayPal, Apple Pay, and Android Pay. They are becoming increasingly prevalent as options on e-commerce checkout flows. 

In fact, they may eliminate the traditional checkout and use of credit cards and cash because they are easy to use. Therefore, you should consider using them on your eCommerce website. 

• Optimize Checkout Process

Shopping cart abandonment is a major issue for eCommerce stores. According to research, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69 percent.

Cart abandonment can result in significant losses for your business. That is why you must optimize your checkout process for maximum returns. Make some adjustments to your design and content in the following ways:

• Add Shipping and Tracking Information

One of the most important aspects of a great customer experience is informing people when their items will arrive. According to ProShip, nearly all customers (80 percent) expect to be able to track their online orders.

When prospective customers are unsure when they will receive their products, most will not complete the purchase. Giving your customers all the information they need is one of the simplest ways to improve the conversion rate of your e-commerce website.