Some help needed!

[Barretts-Selfstorage]

We set-up an online packaging shop around 5 months ago and we have only had one order since then. We have done various pieces of advertising but this has produced no orders Has anyone any advice on how we could increase our lack of orders?

www.barretts-selfstorage.co.uk

Kind regards
Adam

[OldWelshGuy]

You are nowhere to be seen on Google, not in local results, not in Paid results and not in organic results. You are going to have to do something about that if you expect to get business :)

[brucet]

It's a nice looking site and the content looks reasonable well optimised for Google, but there are hardly any links pointing to it. Google will not regard your site as important if no-one else is linking to it.

You need to submit the site to some reputable online directories, and start looking for other sites that are complementary to your own - in the same kind of sector, but not direct competitors - and start trying to trade links with them.

[zhangxiaoli]

You have good idea in our business and good looking website.Just try to use paid and free tools to promote your site or to create your own blog.You can also use video emails to show people what is your service and what the advantage to choose your service or you also can show them your office, your warehouse...Anyway, to show then what is good for your business.By sending video emails, people know that you are doing a more real business.They feel that they were cared by you and they will get more chance to have a try.
All the best and to your success.

[phillipsinternet]

Hi Barretts,

First the good stuff - your page title tags look good, and you actually appear on the first page of google for the phrase "oxford student storage" - of course who knows how many people are searching for that?

As OldWelshGuy said, you will need to run some adwords, do some link building (but don't pay for them) and enter yourself into the google business centre.

Now for the bad - the site isn't consistent between Firefox, IE7 and IE8; the content falls out of your signpost boxes. Also, font style between pages isn't consistent, some have a mix of serif and sans serif and generally they should be kept the same, makes it easier to read.

One thing I'd recommend, you have 3 signposts offering a months free storage in some form or another, but they aren't very big and don't stand out. Maybe create one large signpost which says "Get 1 month free storage" with a link to a page explaining how to get the free month.

I hope some of this will be useful, sorry if it sounded overly critical.

PS there's a spelling mistake in your meta description "Thames Alley"

[charlesbob]

First check your keywords

self storage calculator
extreme plastic locker
student storage
storage for students
40mm padlock
businesses that need storage
dead space safe storage...... Then you will do it local SEO, one person do it full time for 2 or 3 month its Came it 100% business

[Moneyman]

i am not sure the storage."..from a box to...and from £5 per week" that sounds expensive a fiver per box per week. probably not what you meant but it reads like that.
i would try a few small adverts in the student mag that does the accomodation or leaflets in the agents offices.
also it helps to compare the cost with what they are currently doing. ie wasting a day or to plus van hire etc taking everything home. it sounds expensive at £175 to store your stuff over the summer as a headline cost...but if you work out a van hire/petrol 2 days work etc it is cheap.

[Place of design]

The real issue here is that there are 2 facets to the business. Storage, and selling storage products

Storage is a very local thing, and with Oxford Uni on the dorstep, a fairly captive market, probrably requiring more traditional marketing

Conversley, selling storage related products is not a totally local issue. Because of this, there perhaps needs to be a separate domain and a clear split between the 2 distinct offerings. Once this "split" has been made, there still can be a great big signpost from the "storage website" pointing at the online store & visa versa

One advantage of splitting the sales site of is that it means the product range can be diversified. If you are selling boxes, why not jiffy bags. If you sell packing tape, why not "fragile" "do not bend" tape etc etc..

Once the split has been made, the marketing and optimisation processes can also be split. The target audience for the new split off store will hae a diffent demographic

I think the issue for the online store at the moment is that it is too neatly hidden in a site that does a better job of selling storage

There is a massive change that can be made with the product writeups, which are quite "slim" at the moment Nesting information will enable you to talk about the products yet still have a nice minimal look (unless the user wants more information)

Example:

1. this is a rack
2. This is a rack suitable for abcdefg
3. This is a rack also suitable for ijklmno Dimensions are xyx, made from steel 2mm thick, comes flatpacked in a box that is xyx, takes 1.2 hour to erect, comes with a spanner and a choice of 3 groovy colours
datasheet
H&S sheet


The nesting process is a hit with users - for the geeks that want the info, it is there. It is a hit with search engines - you are feeding them text to read that is relevant