Drupal Blog

This is the Drupal insights blog. We also write website improvement tips.

9 April 2013

What Are Product Rich Snippets

Rich product snippets are a new Google feature that make your results stand out. They provide users with more information on a specific product from the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

They are available for products, blog posts and other type of content.

We are going to focus on product rich snippets. They can be used to show availability, price and ratings and other attributes of your products. Ultimately they can boost click through because your results are more obvious and show more up front information.

I will guide you through best practice and benefits, from this you can decide whether rich snippets are for you.

Google Guidelines

Google have devised guidelines to best practice on rich product snippets. Here they are;

When you are using product markup, the main topic of the page should focus on one product only (‘Product markup on listing pages is not supported’).
If the product is for purchase then it should be available for purchase directly on the page. Google don’t support ‘product markup’ for pages that require a user to visit the seller’s site.
The products review has to be the reviewer’s name and it has to be valid. For example “CNET Reviewers. For example, “50% off on Monday” is not a valid name.

Benefits

With rich snippets you can have the availability, price and ratings and other attributes of your products on the results page. This attracts potential buyers whilst they are searching for items to buy in Google

You can also control your product information so that product descriptions stay accurate and fresh. With this in mind always make sure that your product descriptions and ratings are up to date.

If you can stand out from your competitors when that set of search results pops up, then you’re likely to experience increased click through rates.

Limitations

You can view many different aspects in your product listing. However you can’t view the actual picture of your product. This is something that is available on recipe and blogging rich snippets.

Hopefully this feature will be available in the not so distant future.

A further problem with rich snippets is that you are putting your product out there with it’s ratings available for all to see. If that particular product has negative feedback then you open yourself up to scrutiny.

Conclusion

Rich product snippets are a new Google feature that makes it easier to create stand out search results.

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This post was by Rob, business development associate at WeMakeWebsites. We are e-commerce and Drupal experts based in Clerkenwell, London.

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8 April 2013

Ecommerce - What Makes A Good Buy Button?

Your buy button is a fundamental, especially if you want to sell something.

Subconsciously, the colours, layouts, text and placement can all determine the fate of that all important buy button. With this in mind I will guide you through current best practice.

Where to Place my ‘Buy’ Button

This is dependant on the style and design of the website, but put it somewhere visible, in the most obvious and intuitive place on the page. This will be dependent on design.

Another option is to test it. Through A/B testing put your buy buttons in two different locations and figure out which one works better.

Stand Out Style

The most important factor to any buy button is the text. The button colour could be great, but if your wording is bad, or not catchy, then whats the point?

So make it different. Make your button stand out on your page. You see a lot of buttons that are the same colour as the page, and you may think that this is the right thing to do. It is not. If it stands out people are more likely to click it. Take a look at Apple, known for it’s all white products and website…

Image Credit: Apple UK

As you can see, the change is subtle, but the buy button colour stands out from the page. After all Apple must be doing something right…

Colour

Visuals follow on quite well from style. If it is going to be different then go for a drastic colour. When you do this don’t make it so drastic that it looks out of place, but you want it to stand out on the page.

Orange is one colour that works well. research shows that an Orange button increases overall website engagement by 5%. On most sites it’s enough to stand out, but doesn’t look out of place. It is also the closest you can get to red without the colour subconsciously screaming warning.

Size

Your button size will vary from webpage to webpage. However, it needs to be obvious. Again the name of the game here is to make it visible, make it intriguing, make people want to buy from your page.

Ask yourself, “how big can I make it without it looking out of place?”

Too big and it could become counter productive and will look out of place.

Font

You want your font to be legible, clearly standing out from the button colour and should use title case rather than uppercase.

A really great example of this is eBay:

Image Credit:eBay UK

As you can see, white on a blue background makes the text stand out, also note the upper and lower case text.

Conclusion

Your buy button design can influence your conversion rate. If you ensure your colour, layout, text and placement are all correct then your room for failure will be limited.

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