9 expert tips for designing a scented candle website

So how do you design a website for a product that needs to be smelled to be loved? Actually, maybe it’s smelt. Smelt can’t be a real world though. Ya know what, I’m not gonna Google it and willll instead live in a peaceful smelled/smelt ignorance.

Welcome to another edition of my blog series, Website Tips For… where I share some suspiciously specific tips for designing websites for different industries, products, businesses, and maybe one day – even vibes too.

And today, we’re getting into scented candles. Now as the lead web designer/founder/consultant of a web design co that works exclusively with small businesses, many a scented candle company has walked through my metaphorical doors.

And it’s always a tricky challenge, because how are you supposed to convince shoppers to buy your scented goods, if they are unable to experience the good scents?

Heck, how are you gonna get those shoppers to even find you in the first place?

Well, here’s the truth: yeah – it’s harder for you.

But it’s certainly not impossible to have a successful, easy-to-find and high-converting website – so let’s dive on in, you sandalwood-scented scallywag.

1. Lean really, really hard into gifting

Nobody needs a scented candle. Lots of people want scented candles, but they don’t need them in the same way that they need a sofa or a bath mat or running shoes.

However, lots of people need birthday gifts for their sister. Mother’s Day gifts for their mum. Valentine’s gifts for their partner. Leaving gifts for Becky from Accounts. Housewarming gifts for Mike & Kieran. BBQ host gifts for Dave & Kate. Little treat gifts for Emma who needs cheering up after a tough week. Secret Santa gifts for Becka from HR who HATES being confused with Becky from Accounts.

Now I don’t need to tell you that scented candles make the best gifts (and even the gift of having a gift to give away).

Selling products to meet a need is much easier than selling products to meet a want.

On your website, create a ‘Gifts’ mega menu and curate collections for all sorts of gifting opportunities and gift recipients. For Christmas, Valentine’s, and Mother’s Day – I would even recommend creating dedicated seasonal menus that you pop up a couple of weeks before shoppers arrive, and archive once the holiday is over.

Always have a gifting presence on your home page, like a feed of your favourite gifts. And make sure at least some of your banners are tied into seasonal gifting.

2. Use your content to give shoppers excuses to buy scented candles

Let’s work on turning some of those wants into kinda needs, by using our content to give reasons to click ‘add to basket’.

This can be simple and obvious. I may not need a lavender scented candle, but I can convince myself that I need something to help me relax after a week of designing websites, maintaining my pond, and hitting a new deadlift 1RM.

That’s where a well-timed headline like “Slow down with our collection of ultimate weekend relaxation candles” can hook a gal in. Or even a tidbit in the product description like “Need to unwind? This candle’s for you”.

This can work particularly well in the candle off-season, where you can switch your pitch from cosy homes to outdoor entertaining, bringing the garden into your home, capturing travels, and did I mention wedding gifts?

3. Embrace lifestyle product photography

Us humans love buying products based on how they look, so again, you candle folks are facing one heck of a challenge.

Luckily, humans also love buying products on how they make them feel emotionally, and you candle folks can catch one heck of a break here.

Lifestyle product photography is not about packshots, packaging, and plain backgrounds. It’s about catching moments that evoke real life – or at least what we dream our real lives could be.

The perfect scented candle next to a bath with a good book. On a handmade wooden tray with a latte. Half-unwrapped in front of a Christmas tree. Sat on a garden table next to a happy lady in a lightweight blanket.

I know ‘have a photoshoot’ might not be the website design tip you were hoping for – but imagery is often the difference between an OK website, and a beautiful, profitable website.

I want to see your home page smattered in seasonal, seductive pics – and I’d love for your product galleries to embrace a lil lifestyle too.

4. Put the main scent of each candle in your product names

Time for us to get a bit drier and a bit more technical.

The name of your products become the H1 title on your product pages. H1s are at the top of your content hierarchy, and they’re basically the highest weighted indicator for Google to understand what a website page is about.

Now let’s say that you sell a lovely basil and cucumber candle, and you’ve named it ‘Spritz’ on your website. Now let’s say another candle brand also sells a basil and cucumber candle, but they’ve named theirs ‘Fresca Basil & Cucumber Scented Candle’.

And now let’s say Becky is shopping online for a nice candle to celebrate her new job, and types “basil cucumber candle” into a Google search.

All Google wants to do is pair searchers with the results most likely to satisfy their needs; based on this, who do you reckon will rank higher for Becky – Spritz, or Fresca Basil & Cucumber Scented Candle?

It’ll be Fresca Basil & Cucumber Scented Candle, because Google can be almost certain that’s exactly what Becky is looking for.

I know, I knoooowwwwww it looks a bit cluttered and repetitive writing the scents out every time. But this is where we want to compromise a little on aesthetics to get an absolute colossal search engine optimisation (SEO) win for matching searchers queries more directly.

5. And pop ‘Scented Candle’ in those product names too

‘Basil & Cucumber’ could be a lovely candle. But it could also be a salad, a cocktail, a dip, or maybe even a delightful gazpacho.

From a practical perspective, having your products named correctly as ‘scented candles’ will be an enormous help when it comes to appearing in results for scented candle-related searches.

But as a bonus extra thing.

When we talk about SEO, we often talk about getting individual pieces of content to appear in search results – but there’s also the overall SEO ‘power’ your website holds.

If you have a website with 40 pages containing the phrase ‘scented candle’ in their H1s, that is a very very very strong indicator that your website is a great resource for people who want scented candles.

If you have a website with 40 pages that do not have ‘scented candle’ in their H1s, well then that just doesn’t help you rank for anything specific at all.

So it could just be that popping ‘scented candle’ in all your titles not only makes your candles much easier to find, but also helps your home page rank higher too.

6. Categorise by type, vibe, gifting, room, and fragrance

Hear me out. Good categorisation is probs the most unsung of ecommerce heroes – and sadly, it is a hero that is all too neglected by small businesses.

Your candles can be grouped in many different ways, Basil & Cucumber could sit with Summer Scents and Signature Candles and Botanical and Gifts for Gardeners and Kitchen Candles and Picnic Picks and Gifts under £30.

These categories (or collections if you’re a Shopifyer) can make up a rich, highly shoppable and even inspirational mega menu – giving your customer heaps of avenues that point towards the perfect candle for their kitchen windowsill or Becka from HR.

And yet – there’s a very good chance you’ve only categorised your candles, as, well, Candles.

How do I know this? Because in the last five minutes, I’ve visited 10 independent small business candle websites – and half stored their candles in a single candle category.

The rest? Maybe 2-3 categories each.

I’m not saying you need to make as many categories and collections as you can possibly think of – but I definitely do want you to create as many as your customers would find helpful.

One thing I hear a lot from small businesses is that they don’t want their menus to be to ‘busy’ but hard talk now – c’mon.

John Lewis has over 600 different categories across their main mega menu. Oliver Bonas – over 300. Marks and Spencer had so many I gave up counting.

Again, I’m not saying you need hundreds of categories – especially with a smaller product catalogue – but I am saying that “my menu has too many links” is almost certainly not true. Just push it a little bit further and gain some decent ecommerce benefits.

7. Make vegan-ness unmissable

Buying a gift for a vegan when you’re not one yourself can be a minefield. A lot of people genuinely don’t know about some common animal products found in every day items, and even those that do want to be 100% sure that what they’re purchasing is suitable for their recipient.

So if your candles are vegan – your customers shouldn’t have to hunt down that information. Pop a nice big bullet point, icon, or badge near the top of your products or maybe even in the product titles.

In my own experience, I’ve met with scented soy candle brands that don’t mention their products are vegan at all, and when I’ve asked, I’ve been answered with “Of course they’re vegan, they’re soy”.

But there’s a whole glob of your customers who don’t know that unless you are the one to tell them. So, tell them.

8. Cross sell matches, snuffs, lighters and gift boxes

It’s a lot easier to sell two products to one person, than two products to two people.

However, if your business is pretty much all £24 candles, getting someone to double their order with a second candle isn’t as realistic a goal.

Howwwwever, convincing some shoppers to add in a £9 box of matches – especially if you do free delivery over £30 – is realistic.

Smaller cross sells can be a nice way to nudge up your average order value, especially if the products are well positioned. Popping them as add-ons on product pages, or around your basket, could not only earn you some more profits, but help gift-buyers top-up their order to hit their budget too.

9. Create a brilliant wholesale page

If you want to wholesale your scented candles, you’re gonna need to impress and inform buyers and shopkeepers.

Ya know what isn’t that impressive?

• A lil link in your footer that goes straight to a log in page.
• That classic embedded Faire banner
• A heading that says “Become a stockist” followed by a registration form and nowt else

Going by my experiences at Top Drawer and Spring/Autumn Fair scented candles are often the stars of the wholesale show, and they also often invest in the coolest trade show stand design.

But alas, website pages aimed at wholesale customers are more often the opposite of cool. They are mid* at best.

Instead, create a full service-selling page, kinda like the pages I have to sell ecommerce websites or ghost blog writing. Now I totally need to write another blog on wholesale pages, but here’s a list of possible things to include to get you started:

• Intro pitch
• Mini bio about your brand
• 3-6 biggest benefits to stocking your brand like low MOQs, fast delivery, custom POS, seasonal imagery
• Practical info like VAT, how to place an order, or Christmas cut-offs
• A product feed of wholesale favourites
• Intro to your wholesale manager (even if that’s you)
• Testimonials from other stockists
• Plenty of pics of your products

*my first time using ‘mid’. I hope I nailed it**
**because I know I totally nailed the cringy older person pointing out that they’re using young people words

Boom! Nailed it. That’s my 9 expert tips for designing a scented candle website, and I hope you had a ruddy whale of a time reading through – although maybe I’ve set my expectations too high for a pretty wordy blog about website design.

Make sure to check out the rest of my Website Tips For… blog series, because even if you aren’t a coffee shop owner, a photographer, or a jewellery designer, you can still learn a lot about the nuances of crafting an utterly splendid website from the tips, tricks, and tweaks from other industries.

For now though, I’m off to daydream about having a picnic next to my well-maintained pond with a fancy scented candle. Cheerie-bye.