As the year draws to an end, and a new year brings more opportunities for sales and growth, it’s the ideal time to schedule an audit of your B2B eCommerce site to make sure it’s functioning properly, driving traffic, and meeting buyer needs. The different aspects of your site – from its technical performance and design interface, to its site content and shopping cart features – affect not only the user experience but also the channel’s overall efficacy.
Carve out some time in the coming months to review three areas of your site to find opportunities to improve, remove, or expand its offerings for buyers.
Audit #1: Site usability
It’s important to regularly check the usability of your website to ensure your site’s performance isn’t detracting visitors and prohibiting potential sales. A site with slow page-load times, broken links, or poor navigation can be a huge deterrent for buyers. Perform these critical audit checks across your site:
- Click through pages to find missing links and images, poor quality images, and wrong images
- Make sure the left-navigation filters work and that attribute filters are relevant and useful for finding specific products
- Test the onsite search capabilities so that products and content can be found using a variety of search terms and values
- Check that breadcrumbs and backlinks work properly
- Confirm appropriate title tags and descriptions are used, including ALT tags for images
- Use Google Analytics to report on 404 “page not found” error messages and correct any broken links
Don’t let bad links, poor search functionality, or slow page loads be the cause a frustrating user experience. Many of the above elements also affect SEO, so when they aren’t in tip-top shape, they will directly impact your search engine ranking and, as a result, your exposure to buyers.
Audit #2: Site content
The content you display on your site is just as important as its technical features and user functionality. Content is meant to attract, engage, and inform site visitors, and if there’s nothing there to keep them interested, they will go elsewhere. Audit your website content to ensure you’re using clear messaging and providing a wealth of information:
- Evaluate and update SEO keywords to ensure they are still applicable within your content and URL structures, and that they include commonly searched terms
- Make sure you are using terms and language that are relevant and understandable to those outside your organization
- Check how often you’re creating content such as blog posts or white papers; if it’s a span of more than a couple of months , you may lose visitor interest
- Make it easy to download resources and fill out forms; long form submissions and the request for too much contact information to access resources is a turn off for many
- Review your Home Page, About Us, and Services pages to ensure they communicate clearly what you offer and how you add value to a customer
- Confirm the calls to action and contact information are clearly visible and available on every page on the site
Clear and compelling messaging encourages engagement and builds strong impressions about your brand – and it’s one of the easiest ways to increase your site’s awareness.
Audit #3: Online products
Once you review your technical and content components, the next step is to perform a deep dive into your online product offerings. Product sales can show how well they’re performing online, but can also bring light to other factors that may be keeping your so-so sellers from becoming best sellers.
- Review your overall product content to ensure the product data is accurate and up-to-date
- Look for missing product images, specifications, and descriptions – essential content elements that help a buyer make an informed purchasing decision
- Make sure pricing is displayed correctly for products
- Research the products you sold most and compare them to your best sellers from the year before
While you entire product catalog should include enriched product information and digital assets, focus on your best sellers and quick-turn items to ensure they have great content that will attract the most attention. Noticeable items are those with unique product descriptions, additional images, videos, and supporting documents like manuals and spec sheets – the types of content that Google and other search engines love, and potential buyers can use.
Keep a finger on the pulse of your website by performing an annual audit. Your site’s health determines how effective your digital commerce business is to your overall company success. If you’d like an eCommerce expert to review your site’s effectiveness, contact Unilog for a free analysis of your site’s performance and product content. Schedule your check-up with us now and we’ll show you opportunities to improve your e-business.