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CP #65: Unique Selector IDs

CP #65: Unique Selector IDs

Allen Finn
March 19, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Welcome to Conversion Party. This week, we’ve got…

🔥 Heatmap Update: Tables go dynamic
🕳️ CRO Deep Dive: The case for unique selector IDs
🗺️ Goings On: Not nothin’
🔦 Partner Spotlight: Shoplift

Let’s ride.

🔥 HEATMAP UPDATE
Shared Screen Recordings

Discover the strategies and tactics you need to optimize for more revenue in ecommerce. In this in-depth essay we explore data-driven approaches, real-world examples, and proven best practices to help you drive more sales and revenue.

Big news—Heatmap’s powerful filtering just got even better!

You’ve always been able to filter within individual heatmaps, but now you can apply those same filters across all of your pages and screen recordings to quickly identify opportunities to drive more revenue.

✅ Filter across all pages: Instead of sifting through every heatmap manually, use filters to pinpoint which pages need attention.
✅ Easily find key screen recordings: Zero in on specific visitor sessions based on entry page, traffic source, session tags, rage clicks, purchases, and more.
✅ Speed up your analysis: No more clicking into each heatmap individually—now you can search and sort all pages dynamically before diving deeper.

This update makes it faster and easier than ever to spot friction points, uncover revenue-driving pages, and optimize with precision.

🕳️ CRO DEEP DIVE
The Power of Unique Selector IDs in Ecommerce: Why They Matter and How to Implement Them

Every click, scroll, and interaction on your website holds potential insights into customer behavior.

To harness these insights effectively, it's crucial to implement unique selector IDs across your site's elements. These identifiers not only enhance your site's functionality but also play a pivotal role in analytics, accessibility, and conversion optimization.

What Are Unique Selector IDs?

Unique selector IDs are specific identifiers assigned to HTML elements within a webpage. Unlike classes, which can be applied to multiple elements, an ID is unique to a single element on a page. This uniqueness allows for precise targeting of elements for styling, scripting, and tracking purposes.

For instance, consider a "Buy Now" button on a product page.

Assigning it a unique ID like id="buy-now-button" ensures that any scripts or styles targeting this button will affect only this specific element.

<button id="buy-now-button">Buy Now</button>

Why Are Unique Selector IDs Valuable?

Enhanced Analytics and Heatmapping

Accurate data collection is the backbone of effective e-commerce strategies. Unique IDs facilitate precise tracking of user interactions, enabling tools like heatmaps to provide detailed insights into user behavior. Without unique IDs, analytics tools may struggle to differentiate between similar elements, leading to skewed data.

For example, if multiple buttons share the same class but lack unique IDs, a heatmap might aggregate clicks across all these buttons, obscuring which specific button is attracting the most attention.

Improved Accessibility

Accessibility is not just a legal requirement but also a moral imperative. Unique IDs enhance the navigability of your site for users relying on assistive technologies like screen readers. Screen readers can jump directly to elements with unique IDs, providing a smoother browsing experience for users with disabilities.

Efficient JavaScript Targeting

In web development, JavaScript often manipulates specific elements on a page. Unique IDs allow scripts to target elements directly, improving performance and reducing the likelihood of unintended side effects.

Consider a scenario where you want to display a modal when a user clicks a specific button. With a unique ID, your script can precisely target that button:

document.getElementById('subscribe-button').addEventListener('click', function() {
  // Display modal code here
});

Streamlined A/B Testing

A/B testing is essential for optimizing conversion rates.

Unique IDs enable you to test variations of specific elements accurately. Without them, distinguishing between elements in different test versions becomes challenging, potentially compromising the validity of your tests.

Better On-Site Analytics Data

Assigning unique selector IDs to the elements on the pages of your website makes it easier for tools like heatmap to track element-level revenue. This means more accurate metrics, leading to better site optimization. Duh.

The Risks of Not Implementing Unique Selector IDs

Neglecting to assign unique IDs can lead to several issues:

Inaccurate Analytics: Aggregated data from elements without unique IDs can mislead your understanding of user behavior.
Accessibility Challenges: Users relying on assistive technologies may find it difficult to navigate your site, leading to a poor user experience and potential legal repercussions.
Inefficient Scripting: Scripts may inadvertently affect multiple elements, causing unexpected behavior and complicating debugging efforts.
Compromised Testing: A/B tests may yield unreliable results, hindering your ability to make data-driven decisions.

How to Implement Unique Selector IDs

Implementing unique IDs requires a systematic approach:

1. Audit Your Website

Begin by reviewing your site's HTML structure to identify elements lacking unique IDs. Focus on interactive components like buttons, forms, navigation items, and product listings.

Use AI!

Don't know where to begin? Use AI! Here's a quick five-step technique for how to use ChatGPT to analyze the HTML structure of your pages. Look for bland, unique IDs and recommend more descriptive ones:

Step 1: Use a browser’s developer tools to inspect critical pages (homepage, product pages, checkout, etc.). Copy the HTML structure of these pages.
Step 2: Provide the HTML snippets to ChatGPT, asking the tool to identify elements lacking unique IDs.
Step 3: Request ChatGPT to suggest descriptive, consistent IDs for these elements based on their functions and locations.
Step 4: Review ChatGPT’s recommendations, making adjustments as necessary to align with your internal naming conventions.
Step 5: Document the final approved IDs and integrate them into your HTML templates.

2. Establish Naming Conventions

Develop a consistent naming strategy for IDs to ensure clarity and maintainability. Use descriptive names that reflect the element's purpose and location.

Good Examples:

<div id="featured-product-carousel">
  <div id="product-card-bestseller">
    <button id="add-to-cart-bestseller">Add to Cart</button>
  </div>
</div>

Poor Examples:

<div id="section1">
  <div id="product">
    <button id="btn123">Add to Cart</button>
  </div>
</div>

3. Update Your HTML Templates

Incorporate the unique IDs into your site's HTML templates. Ensure that each ID is unique within the page and adheres to your naming conventions.

4. Verify and Test

After implementing the IDs, test your site to confirm that all elements function as intended. Use browser developer tools to inspect elements and ensure that IDs are correctly assigned.

5. Maintain Consistency

As your site evolves, continue to assign unique IDs to new elements and update existing ones as necessary. Regular audits can help maintain consistency and prevent issues from arising.

Best Practices for Naming Conventions

Adhering to best practices ensures that your IDs are both effective and maintainable:

Use Descriptive Names: Clearly indicate the element's function and location.
Maintain Consistency: Apply the same naming patterns across similar elements.
Avoid Generic Names: Names like id="button" are too vague and can lead to confusion.
Use Kebab-Case: Separate words with hyphens for readability, e.g., id="main-navigation".

Priority Elements for ID Implementation

Certain elements should always have unique IDs due to their significance in user interactions and analytics:

High Priority:

Product tiles/cards
Collection slides
Navigation menu items
Featured sections/banners
Sliders & category elements
Call-to-action buttons
Forms and form fields
Modal dialogs
Tabs and accordions
Checkout process elements

Medium Priority:

Informational sections
Footer sections
Social media links
Secondary navigation elements
Testimonial blocks

Final Thoughts

Implementing unique selector IDs isn't just a technical best practice—it's a critical component of optimizing your site for better performance, accurate analytics, accessibility compliance, and ultimately, higher conversions.

For detailed, CMS-specific implementation guidance and troubleshooting tips, refer to our comprehensive article.

🗺️ GOINGS ON
Not Nothin’

Stay in the loop with our latest partner activations—from webinars and in-person meetups to fresh content collaborations. We’ll highlight upcoming events, share key takeaways from recent gatherings, and give you an inside look at what’s brewing in our network.

🫰 Want To Make Every Checkout More Profitable?

Your checkout should be one of the biggest revenue-drivers in your Shopify store.

After analyzing 150+ Shopify stores, Platter found that the most profitable brands use the same simple optimizations to maximize profit at checkout.

Here are 5 proven strategies you can start using today:

Increase AOV with high-converting upsells
Use post-purchase offers to generate incremental revenue
Gamify checkout to incentivize bigger orders
Add social proof to boost trust and conversions
Enable one-click checkout to reduce friction

Get all 27 revenue-boosting strategies inside the full guide

Grab your free copy here 👉️

🤫 Add To Cart After Dark (Shoptalk)

EcomFounders.com presents... the most exclusive party at Shoptalk, with (not one, but) TWO of Las Vegas' most iconic headlining musical acts. 🤫

This will be the best room to be in all of Vegas, filled with only the top executives from the most exciting brands.

CAPACITY IS STRICTLY LIMITED, GUEST LIST REQUIRED, MUST SHOW ACCEPTANCE TO SECURITY AT THE DOOR

🤖 AI-Powered Personalization

Personalization isn't just a trend - it's the key to building lasting customer relationships and driving revenue. In this exclusive DTCx Webinar, industry experts will reveal how AI-powered personalization can transform your shopping experience, increase conversions, and boost customer loyalty.

What You’ll Learn:

How AI is reshaping the future of eCommerce personalization
Practical strategies to create hyper-relevant shopping experiences
Real-world examples of brands successfully leveraging AI
Actionable insights to increase customer retention and AOV

🐳 The Most Powerful Triple Whale Yet

Ecommerce is about to get a whole lot smarter.Join us for a special livestream event featuring Triple Whale leadership. During the session, we’ll unveil a lineup of powerful new tools built to help you:

Plan confidently for 2025 and beyond
Make smarter budget decisions across a diverse media mix
Save hours on data analysis
Uncover trends and spot anomalies buried in your data
Monitor and optimize your entire business

Psst: Bring your retention marketing and CRO friends — they’ll thank you later.

🔦 PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Shoplift

Each week, we shine a light on an outstanding partner—be it an innovative tech platform or an agency doing game-changing work. Learn about their expertise, what sets them apart, and how they can help take your ecommerce strategy to the next level.

Most brands think they know what converts. But your brand proves it. Shoplift’s A/B testing tool seamlessly integrates with your Shopify store, helping you optimize each page, unlock hidden revenue, and run experiments that move the needle–all within minutes.

Shopify Plus brands like Liquid Death, Third Love, and Skullcandy are boosting their RPV, AOV, CVR and more just by making smarter, data-backed decisions.