How can I drive more traffic and sales to my website

[Claude & Celeste]

Hi I have small e-commerce that specialise in French skin care, our new website was launch in September, I have submitted it to hundred of directories, I am also using Google adword (not a great success for me) I monitor the traffic with Google Analytics. Unfortunately our traffic is around 15 people per day. That convert into 2 sales per week, I feel this is not enough and I looking for any help I can get. the website can be visited at claude-celeste.com Let me know what you think I could do. Thanks

[love2hire]

I wonder if you can help, i am after the Kenzoki range that only sells in France, very annoying. Do you have any contacts or able to get?:D

Nice website though!

[AndyP]

OK... the first thing that has jumped out to me is your shipping cost....I just added one bar of soap to the basket and for UK delivery you think you can seriously charge me £4.50? This appears to be a flat rate regardless of what I might buy but this market is very often a one product purchase so bear that in mind....there is no way I would pay £4.50 to have a bar of soap send to me.

Your website seems to have some issues in that if I click the back button sometimes I get an internal server error....most buyers would navigate away at this point.

Attention to detail...mother's day offer on your toolbar has a typo in it..pay attention, it makes you look amateur!

Your meta keywords repeat and repeat and repeat over and over and over...do you think that search engines are stupid?....spend some time learning about SEO techniques..or employ somebody to do it for you.

Why should I trust you anyway? You don't even seem to have an about us page....who are you? Are you a real business? Do you operate from a spare bedroom? Who knows? I don't....maybe I will go to somebody who tells me something about themselves.

Put yourself in your customers shoes and consider what they might want to know about you and then set about writing an about us page that will make them feel comfortable....

I could go on but that should keep you going for a while.... :)

[Claude & Celeste]

Thank you for your reply, this is very positive feedback and I really appreciate it, I don't mind if you want to go on about I am already doing some changes so I will have a "about us" page very shortly, Thanks again


OK... the first thing that has jumped out to me is your shipping cost....I just added one bar of soap to the basket and for UK delivery you think you can seriously charge me £4.50? This appears to be a flat rate regardless of what I might buy but this market is very often a one product purchase so bear that in mind....there is no way I would pay £4.50 to have a bar of soap send to me.

Your website seems to have some issues in that if I click the back button sometimes I get an internal server error....most buyers would navigate away at this point.

Attention to detail...mother's day offer on your toolbar has a typo in it..pay attention, it makes you look amateur!

Your meta keywords repeat and repeat and repeat over and over and over...do you think that search engines are stupid?....spend some time learning about SEO techniques..or employ somebody to do it for you.

Why should I trust you anyway? You don't even seem to have an about us page....who are you? Are you a real business? Do you operate from a spare bedroom? Who knows? I don't....maybe I will go to somebody who tells me something about themselves.

Put yourself in your customers shoes and consider what they might want to know about you and then set about writing an about us page that will make them feel comfortable....

I could go on but that should keep you going for a while.... :)

[fisicx]

Site is loading very slowly for me (it's hanging on the googleapis thing).

The site looks and feels like a bog standard e-commerce store. There is nothing specail and no reason for anyone to visit or buy anything from you.

You don't even make it clear you are selling french products. Not sure what the boutique locator is? You have out of stock items on your category pages. Product descriptions are weak and have no allergy information. Checkout doesn't seem to work. All sorts of misalignments in firefox (can't read half the footer). The list goes on and on and on...

[alanc]

I thought the overall look was quite nice.

From the index page, in the Mother's Day Offer area, I clicked on View Now and got sent to a blank page. (BTW the View Now button has 'dark' corners).

There is an address on the T's and C's page, but I also found this:
"See our privacy policy here"
... err... where?

Several items in the Cancellation and Returns section are not in keeping with the Distance Selling Regulations.

[Place of design]

As we are specifically talking about SEo and getting traffic, and not conversion of the traffic you are getting....

The front page has absoloutley no content for goggle to index. Search engines indexes text, not images. Without text, google has nothing to index you with, which is why you are not getting any traffic

to illustrate this point - your competitor :http://www.naturalfrenchsoap.com/ has loads of real text for google to read, and for mainly this reason is on page 1 on google

[UKFChloe]

You could look into your hosting options. Speeding up your website would not only improve the customer experience on the site but would improve your Google rankings to drive more traffic to your site. Ecommerce clients on the hosting network of UKFast have seen sales increase by 300% through better visibility on Google and a faster page loading speed reducing bounce rates.

[Josh B]

Hi

I like the look and feel of the site, but as said it's about the bricks'n'mortar.

Firstly you need better hosting, when I was browsing I get invalid pages and the page loading could be faster. Spending a bit more on hosting isn't a waste.

Secondly there isn't enough content. You either need more products or more information. Make sure the content is relevant and factual though.

Also valid links to your site helps SEO. A good way of doing this is to have a feedback forum company that links with your ecommerce software - lots of; 2 way, content rich links.

[mikeyred]

Hi Guys,

ummmm, now I know I may regret this but I am also asking for comments on our site as I know you guys won't take prisoners. I am about to start SEO'ing and marketing in the next couple of months. The site has been live since Jan 09, due to personal reasons, restructuring and trade deals behind the scenes during 2009, not a lot got done. We are now in the position to get back on track with the ecommerce and retail side.

I am needing to attract more traffic but more importantly would like to reduce the bounce rate so wondered what you would criticise on the design, layout (limited skills in this area), text content, etc., - meta tags are currently a job in hand and aways to go yet.

[papverpoppies]

Hi I have small e-commerce that specialise in French skin care, our new website was launch in September, I have submitted it to hundred of directories, I am also using Google adword (not a great success for me) I monitor the traffic with Google Analytics. Unfortunately our traffic is around 15 people per day. That convert into 2 sales per week, I feel this is not enough and I looking for any help I can get. the website can be visited at claude-celeste.com Let me know what you think I could do. Thanks

Your site is 'pretty' but sadly, like so many others..

The products you leave to sell themselves, assuming that we the intended buyer know all about them - which of course most of us do not!

The site is very static and impersonal, which is not good for us lady shoppers, who like to experience the shopping (if you understand what I mean)!

As pointed out, you also make no real mention of the French Skin Care aspect.

The SEO content I cannot comment on, and plenty have come forward to help you with that apsect.

Hope you manage to turn things around, and good luck!:)

Poppy

[Claude & Celeste]

Hi Mike what is your website address?

[AndyP]

Hi Guys,

ummmm, now I know I may regret this but I am also asking for comments on our site as I know you guys won't take prisoners. I am about to start SEO'ing and marketing in the next couple of months. The site has been live since Jan 09, due to personal reasons, restructuring and trade deals behind the scenes during 2009, not a lot got done. We are now in the position to get back on track with the ecommerce and retail side.

I am needing to attract more traffic but more importantly would like to reduce the bounce rate so wondered what you would criticise on the design, layout (limited skills in this area), text content, etc., - meta tags are currently a job in hand and aways to go yet.


You need to start this post in a new thread, not add it into an existing thread, as thats unfair to the OP.

[papverpoppies]

Mike you would be better starting your own thread, rather than hijacking the OPs.

Poppy

[Claude & Celeste]

I would like to thanks everyone who has posted comments about our site I already done some changes and will do more in the next few days. Thanks again

Alex

[mikeyred]

Mike you would be better starting your own thread, rather than hijacking the OPs.

Poppy

Sorry Poppy just use to another way of posting, on our our forum if a thread is on the same subject or title you want, then you link onto it, I will remember this is a no no on this one - cheers for the heads up:redface:

[papverpoppies]

I would like to thanks everyone who has posted comments about our site I already done some changes and will do more in the next few days. Thanks again

Alex

Alex can I just say that when I buy perfume/cosmetics/skincare etc on line, I always like to read what is in each product.

Not all the nitty gritty, but the basics of what makes up that perfume, or product - sell the product to me, and make me what to own and use it.

After all, skin care, perfume it is all about selling us a dream, and making us believe it will work for us, and make us (what we desire to be)!;)

Concentrate on your French apsect, which many women associate with beauty and elegance!

Good Luck

Poppy

[papverpoppies]

Sorry Poppy just use to another way of posting, on our our forum if a thread is on the same subject or title you want, then you link onto it, I will remember this is a no no on this one - cheers for the heads up:redface:


No problem - you will get more replies also from your own thread!

Cheers

Poppy

[Claude & Celeste]

Poppy thank you for your comments they do help us, the problem is I am a man! yes from France so I still think like a man

Alex

[papverpoppies]

Poppy thank you for your comments they do help us, the problem is I am a man! yes from France so I still think like a man

Alex

Ah...you need a nice lady to write those flowery words for you.

If you are French though, come on, you can do it;)

Do you have the wonderful French accent? If so, pity you do not have a speaking website, we would be buying in the bucket full from you!

Just think romance, flowers around the door, soft music, scrummy meal, - once in that frame of mind, write about your products.

I remember my friends (was then boyfriend, not any longer) he presented her with her fav perfume, with the comments 'stinks a bit'!

She went off the perfume, and definately off him!

Good Luck

Poppy

[Claude & Celeste]

I still got a French accent, I guess I could try the audio tape! lol Bonjour ladies....

[Claude & Celeste]

I am looking to add a nice wording next to our logo here are what we got so far what do you think?
Luxury French skincare
French skincare expert
Quality French skincare

Ah...you need a nice lady to write those flowery words for you.

If you are French though, come on, you can do it;)

Do you have the wonderful French accent? If so, pity you do not have a speaking website, we would be buying in the bucket full from you!

Just think romance, flowers around the door, soft music, scrummy meal, - once in that frame of mind, write about your products.

I remember my friends (was then boyfriend, not any longer) he presented her with her fav perfume, with the comments 'stinks a bit'!

She went off the perfume, and definately off him!

Good Luck

Poppy

[papverpoppies]

I am looking to add a nice wording next to our logo here are what we got so far what do you think?
Luxury French skincare
French skincare expert
Quality French skincare


Luxery French Skincare - sounds so decadent;)

Poppy

[Miss Pretty Pink]

Have you considered free shipping in the UK - saves clients a lot of hassle and they know the full price.

[Place of design]

Amazing. We are talking about driving traffic to the site, not converting it once it gets there, or what server the site is on. These are 3 very differrent (but important) topics

[Claude & Celeste]

it run on Linux I am looking to move hosting soon but it will still be on linux

[Searcher]

For me, the prices are way too high. Shower gel for £14 + £3.50 p&p. Happy with my £1.00 Asda special. But these are obviously different products and more Gift purchase, something you'd see in J Lewis. I know you're trying to boost traffic but if I was to buy something as a gift I need a lot more information about why they cost (are worth) so much.

[Claude & Celeste]

Thanks for your comment, I agree they are different products, the packaging is very well design and the ingredients are natural etc... I think we need to add furhter info about the products.

[Big Pete]

Thanks for your comment, I agree they are different products, the packaging is very well design and the ingredients are natural etc... I think we need to add furhter info about the products.


Yes and change server hosting its to slow , i got fed up with waitting .. so didnt look at many pages !! people do NOT like to wait..

Even if you get visitors to follow link to your site a lot will give up and move onto the next one..

I like the look of the site by the way .. agree with the others on about us and why the products are special etc etc needs addressing..

[Luc]

As your main problem is that you get few visitors, you need to do a lot of search engine optimisation. As someone mentioned, having text to index on your home page is a start.

Getting links from other sites in the same niche is a second important thing. I'd focus on that if I were you, it brings you traffic and higher SERP rankings.

[Claude & Celeste]

Thanks all once again for your comments I am now undergoing some changes, hosting, improving SEO, adding better products descriptions... I guess our next tread will how to convert all our new visitor into buyers so keep an eye on Claude & Celeste I will keep you posted. I also look forward to hear from many other great people what they think of our site. Thanks