How To Optimize Your Product Listing Page In 2021 [Best Practices]

Selling a product? You gotta have a product listing page! 

Since online customers can’t see, touch, taste, or smell your products, you need a visual and descriptive webpage to help your customer virtually experience each item in your store. 

But let’s take a step back. Before customers can even get to an individual ecommerce product page, you can help steer them in the right direction with one of the most important pages on your online store – the product listing page. 

What is a Product Listing Page?

A product listing page (PLP) is a web page in an online store that lists relevant products based on a product category or online search query. These pages are also known as category pages. Think of it as your online product catalog, where you can showcase your products and drive your sales.

Here is a good example of a product page template:

Image from www.sephora.com

Why your eCommerce product listing page is important

A product listing page is an important and popular webpage and an essential part of the overall ecommerce customer experience, as it directs consumers to specific ecommerce product pages and ultimately to conversion. 

Other than acting as a funnel from visit to purchase, this all-important page also fulfills these crucial functions:

• Boosts SEO: the rich meta-data of product listing pages coupled with the fact that they inter-link to your product pages helps optimize your store’s SEO so that you can rank higher in online search results
• Typically, ecommerce traffic sources direct to product listing pages so these pages are the first touchpoint in the overall user experience.

BeProfit helps you measure the impact of various marketing sources on your store’s profitability so you can decide which pages to optimize and promote in your marketing activities.

9 Product Listing Page Best Practices (with examples)

Prominent headers

Headers are important from both a user experience and an SEO perspective. A powerful header will attract site visitors’ attention and drive them to action. Including main keywords in your H1 can also help you rank higher in search results for your target keywords. You can also include pertinent information and updates in your headers, such as special promotions.

High-quality images and thumbnails

The more visual and experiential your online product listing, the more likely you are to make a sale. When surveyed, 83% of consumers stated that product images are very and even extremely influential on their buying decisions.

You can even get creative with your product photography – it doesn’t have to be static images.

For example, you could use any of these popular methods to create a visual experience of your product:

• Look inside: site visitors can hover over each image to take a peek at the inside of the product. This works well for anything that, well, has an inside like a handbag
• Change product view: by hovering over the product image, the consumer will be able to view different angles of the product
• Activate 360° view: similar to the change product view feature, consumers can opt to look at the product from every angle
• See product in action: ideal for products that you need to apply or use for example beauty products, toys, electronics and more

Easy to navigate

The easier your ecommerce PLP is to navigate, the more likely visitors are to click on a product page. Some tips to simplify this page’s navigation are:

• Provide filter options
• Allow users to sort by price, popularity and so on
• Use clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons
• Include back-to-top-button for easy navigation

Product titles

Descriptive product titles that are also keyword-optimized can help improve the functionality of your product listing page and drive conversions.

Fear-of-missing-out

Nothing drives a click or a sale quite like FOMO (fear-of-missing-out). If products are on sale, are trending, or have limited stock, let visitors know on the product listing page. A badge or banner on the relevant products with an eye-catching emoji can create this sense of urgency and improve your click rate.

Customer reviews

Social proof is one of the most important drivers of online sales.  Include the product’s customer star rating right under the thumbnail/image of the product.

Trust badges

The point of the ecommerce PLP is to get visitors to click through to the individual product pages and then buy the product. To give them a push in the right direction, you’ll want to prominently display trust badges on your product listing page, to reassure customers that your site is secure and it’s a safe place to shop.

Add to shopping cart

Give visitors a way to add each product directly to their shopping carts from your product listing page, without needing to click through to the product page itself. One less step in the buying process increases the likelihood that a shopper will make the purchase.

Personalization

Make your product listing page dynamic to reflect the preferences of each unique visitor. For example, if the customer clicks through to a specific product, make sure to show similar products when they return to the PLP. You can also add in an icon for the customer to click on to display similar products.

Key Takeaways

Too many ecommerce stores haven’t optimized their product landing pages. By implementing even just some of these tactics and simply knowing how to optimize your product pages for more sales, you could beat your competition in both SEO and customer experience.