Ecommerce Website Design vs. Standard Website Design

It may not be obvious to the untrained eye, but there are a lot of differences between eCommerce website design and standard website design. If you are considering a website to sell merchandise or services on the internet you may want to get a good understanding of what you are getting yourself into before you choose a simple web designer for your site. When it comes to the success of a website, every little detail counts.

What is an eCommerce Website?

An eCommerce website is a place where people on the internet can browse and purchase items for sale without ever having to leave the comfort of their homes. The internet changed the entire structure of the business world and has allowed customers to buy products directly from the vendor. The act of trading commerce on a digital platform is known as eCommerce or electronic commerce.

In most cases, an eCommerce website is built on the structure of a platform such as Shopify or WooCommerce. Platforms that are specifically designed to integrate with websites online allow the site to have individual landing pages for each item sold, along with a space to write keyword-rich descriptions of each product.

Websites for eCommerce can sell a variety of items such as:

• Clothing
• Beauty products
• Shoes
• Handbags
• Musical instruments
• Tools
• Electronics

In addition to physical items eCommerce sites can also sell things like:

• Service packages
• Digital media
• Software
• eBooks

Since the eCommerce world is so diverse there are virtually endless possibilities for people to get a piece of the online market in their own unique ways. Regardless of what it is, as long as it is legal, a person can sell it on a website on the internet and get paid for it without ever having to go outdoors.

What is a Standard Website?

Although “standard” is not the go-to definition, a site that is built for informational purposes is a “standard” website. There are websites built for selling things, there are websites built for booking appointments, there are websites built for social media and sharing then there are websites that are equipped with promotional content and contact information.

A website that is built to actually interact with people and help them do things is known as a dynamic website, and a website that just sits there and does nothing is just a website.

In any event, whether the site is for informational purposes or is built to sell things there is a level of expertise that has to be in place in order for either of the sites to be of any use.

Most standard websites are for companies that offer services such as auto detailing or housepainting. Although they are, for the most part, not interactive they can play a huge role in the success of the business just by being visible in the major search engines.

• Roofing contractors
• Concrete contractors
• Attorneys
• Insurance agencies
• Web design companies

It is easy to see that there are endless possibilities for what a website could be for. Anything from home repair to tattoo artists can have a static website that doesn’t do anything but allow users to contact somebody for scheduling.

eCommerce vs. Standard

Either way, most websites are selling something. Whether or not you can buy it right there and pay for it or you have to schedule a visit for a quote or an appointment the whole idea is to get the website out there on the internet where people can find it and become familiar with whatever it is that you have to offer.

One of the main differences between eCommerce sites and standard websites is that an eCommerce website can target anybody in the entire world as a potential customer, whereas a standard website that offers services is usually centered in a service area that they work out of.

Of course, there are electronic services such as digital marketing, graphic design, SEO, and so on that can be implemented from anywhere in the world, as a rule, many of the standard websites out there target their local communities and are more prone to get business from local customers.

Standard websites target a localized area, or areas, while the eCommerce site targets global exposure.

What this means is that it takes a much more robust SEO campaign for an eCommerce site to get dominating visibility in the search engines than it does a standard website. A standard local website can get to the top of the search engine results for their area with much less energy than a global website.

SEO With an eCommerce Site

Since it is much harder to achieve search engine visibility on a global or national level than it is to become visible on a local platform there are a number of technicalities that have to be addressed when it comes time to implement an SEO strategy.

Some of the major components to ponder when it comes to eCommerce SEO are:

• Website structure
• Item descriptions
• Off-page SEO
• Domain authority
• Number of quality backlinks

One of the most important factors in getting dominant search engine visibility is the structure of the site. You could have a very high domain authority score, but if your site is not structured properly the odds of you being able to compete for high-volume keywords are pretty slim.

There are literally trillions of websites out there that are working hard to gain international visibility. The little things that you do in order to beat out the competition could be the very things that allow you to obtain a robust presence on the web.

Some of your biggest competitors are going to be sites like Walmart,  eBay, and Amazon. The way that you present your website to the world could be the difference between constant conversions and constant failures.

SEO With a Standard Local Site

Websites that are competing for search engine visibility on a local level can have a hard time with competition as well. For example, you know that Los Angeles is a big city in California. How many restaurants or auto detailers are in that area?

The way that local searches work is that if the website has an address listed on it, along with a valid local Google My Business listing it has a much better chance of being seen in local searches regardless of the competition.

For example, if a person does a search for a bike shop while they are in a certain area of Los Angeles the browser they are using may know exactly where they are. If they are signed into their Google account, Google will know the exact location of their device.

Based on the information that is available on the website and the information that is listed on the Google My Business platform the search engine results could be different for each user that is in a different area in Los Angeles. When people search for whatever service is offered on the website they will get results based on where they are.

Still yet, domain authority and backlinks from quality domains are crucial for the success and dominant web presence of any local site.

The eCommerce Website Structure

It is not unheard of for an eCommerce website to offer upwards of thousands of items on the site. Things can get pretty confusing on the inside when there are items such as sweaters, tee shirts, and hoodies that are all the same colors and sizes but come from different companies.

In any event, the typical eCommerce website is going to be pretty large with a number of images, URLs, and content blocks. One good thing about sites that have a lot of items for sale is that each item will have its own landing page with specific descriptions and opportunities for varying keywords.

The bigger the site the more the site seems important to the search engines. With each item having its own page the site will seem like it has a plethora of information to offer to anybody that searches for something that it has to offer.

The structure of the site is very important when it comes to user experience, conversion opportunities, and search engine visibility. One of the things that a developer can take advantage of is the description that each item has to offer visitors. These are very good places to insert keywords and use them to the advantage of the SEO campaign.

For example, if the site offers three different brands of “hoodies” for sale this is a great opportunity to use varying keyword terms for the pillar keyword of “hoodie” or “hoodies.” If there are 100 different items that are hoodies each page can be optimized for a different variant of the keyword “hoodie.”

• White hoodie
• Red hoodie
• Hoodie for men
• Hoodie for teens
• Brown hoodie
• Red hoodie
• “Brand” hoodie

Each one of these key phrases is different, but they all contain the word “hoodie.” This website will look as if it has a lot of relevant content pertaining to hoodies and is more than likely going to be presented in a search result that turns into a solid conversion.

Conclusion

It takes a lot more than mere design to create a website that is both functional and generates revenue whether it is an eCommerce site or just a regular old site that gets emails and phone calls. Although there is a lot more to creating a robust site that has the capacity to sell stuff, it takes a professional to create either kind of site so that it becomes an asset to the company that invests in it.