So, your WordPress designer has given you a green signal to launch your WordPress e-commerce website? But you still want to assure that you and your web developer have gone through the critical details that may have severe consequences?
Well, you need not fret.
We have put together a list of 15 essential check points that you can go through before making your WordPress e-commerce (WooCommerce) website live.
#1 SSL certificate Installation
Having your e-commerce designer installed an SSL certificate will help in encrypting & protecting sensitive information like your users’ credit card information.
Even Google may flag your website as insecure if you do not have an SSL certificate.
Not having an SSL certificate can have an adverse effect regarding your brand’s perception.
Oh, one last thing, lack of SSL certification may also affect the SEO of your e-commerce store.
Your WordPress designer must set up automatic, regular backups for your database and website files.
There are many ways of doing this, either through your web hosting provider or using plugins such as Jetpack.
#3 Updated Plugins, Themes & Version
Your e-commerce developer should ensure that your plugins, themes and WordPress software is kept up to date.
You are vulnerable to attacks by hackers if you are running older versions. You can make your life easier by setting up auto updates from your dashboard.
#4 What About 404?
Your e-commerce web design should provide for a 404 page to guide users to what they are looking for.
Include hyperlinks to important pages and provide a search box. This is an excellent way of turning an error into a sale.
#5 Ease Of Checkout
Make sure that your shopping cart design provides easy access to the users to checkout & shopping cart pages.
You do not want your customers to quit on you because they are not able to figure out the checkout process.
A theme that is consistent with your brand tells your customers that they are in the right place.
Check every page of your website to ensure that your WordPress designer has used consistent colors, fonts and styles.
#7 Products Must Stand Out
Ensure that your fancy e-commerce web design does not take focus away from your products – they should be in focus.
Do also make sure that customers can easily identify your products on category and catalog pages, understand each one of those, and can easily get to additional information.
#8 No Broken Links
Go through your WooCommerce website and check all the links on headers, footers, products and other pages. None of the links must show “page not found” message on click.
If you have links for external websites, make sure that they are opened in new tabs.
Have your e-commerce developer delete all unused pages, posts, plugins and themes.
Besides showing up in searches, they become easy entry points for hackers.
#10 Test Coupon Codes
Have your e-commerce developer test all your coupon codes to make sure that proper discounts (like percentage off, free shipping, etc.) are applied during the checkout process.
#11 Test Shipping Methods
Try various combinations (you may be using product based, cart based or weight-based shipping calculations) to ensure that the shipping costs are calculated correctly.
Go through all supported shipping methods & locations.
#12 Search Must Be Robust
Have your WordPress designer ensure that searches for products on your website come up with correct results.
Test your search using keywords like “white flowery dress” rather than product names.
#13 Check Up-selling & Cross-selling
These can be very effective ways of increasing the total value of your shopping cart, so you would want to ensure that they are set up properly.
You can go to Product Data > Linked Products and look through each of your product pages.
#14 Product Titles & Description
You should make use of descriptive and concise titles for your products.
They should be written to target your users and should also contain your target keywords.
Remember, this is what is going to show up when they search for products on various search engines.
#15 Terms & Conditions
Terms and conditions spell out the rules of engagement between your visitors and your website.
These must be adhered to when your they buy your products. In order to add this during checkout, go to Appearance > Customize > WooCommerce and select “Terms and Conditions” page.
