Most PDP audits start with conversion rate. Mine doesn’t.
The first question I ask is this: what does a buyer need to know that the photo doesn’t tell them?
That sounds simple. It rearranges the whole page.
If the photo answers the question, the page is mostly aesthetic — trust badges, social proof, a clean buy box. The customer is buying with their eyes. Don’t put much text in their way.
If the photo can’t answer the question — because the product is technical, or service-driven, or the value is in something invisible like ingredients or guarantees — then the page is mostly editorial. Long-form copy. Comparison tables. Specs above the fold. The customer is buying with their head. Give it room.
Most stores get this backwards. They use editorial PDP templates for products that should be photographic, and photographic templates for products that should be editorial. The conversion data looks fine for a few months — until you realize what you’re really measuring is how many people were willing to buy despite the wrong page, not how many would’ve bought because of the right one.
So before I touch CSS, before I A/B test a button, before I rewrite a single headline, I sit with the founder and ask: look at your photography, look at your product. Who’s the buyer? What do they need that the photo doesn’t give them?
The answer tells me how the page wants to be built. The rest is technique.