What’s the most important page of your website? Depends on what you’re trying to do. If your main objective is to increase branding, advertise your retail store, or drive traffic to affiliate sites, the home page should probably be your main point of focus. But if you’re like a vast majority of product-related sites, your fundamental goal is to sell, sell, and sell some more — and that can’t happen without a product page that does what it’s supposed to do.

The home page, category pages, and even your paid search placements can be considered online appetizers—they should look good, be easily digestible, and whet appetites for the more substantive stuff to come. It’s the product page that’s the real meat and potatoes of your site — it’s the place where the most important of all consumer decisions is made, the place where your product or service really needs to shine. Once the shopper clicks that crucial “Add to Cart” button, the odds of them ultimately converting the sale dramatically increase.