slump in sales

[little_stork]

:( Well as many of you may know this started for me as a bit of a hobby as I am now going into my third year at uni. Over the past few weeks i have hit a wall and no sales:eek: . At the moment my attention is focused on getting things sorted for a local shop that i am displaying my products in. I have stock that i need to add to the site. But not a sniff for ages??

I know my site could do with more added to it and some ammendments but am at at a loss. Also what is the average number of hits you should be getting a day coz they aint great either!!!

Any advice would be appreciated!! Sorry for the moan, blame it on the PMT :p
Thanks Tracey x

[sirearl]

Hi Tracey you need your site SEO to generate traffic .Nice site there's loads of people on here

[little_stork]

Thanks Sirearl

[inova]

Hi little Stork
just wondering how are you able to put the signature with link?

I tried that before but it doesn't seem to be allowed

thanx and sorry to trouble you :)

[little_stork]

inova
I think you have to submit a certain amount of threads??
Tracey

[HC-Martin]

Hi little Stork
just wondering how are you able to put the signature with link?

I tried that before but it doesn't seem to be allowed

thanx and sorry to trouble you :)

inova
I think you have to submit a certain amount of threads??


No - You need to be what is know as a "Fully paid up UKBF Member" - something that has been added recently - if you were an active member before this transition then you were given the right to have a link in your sig without having to become a paid up member. Further details can be found here : http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/faq.php?faq=membershiplevels#faq_memberlevels

[Mr P Tucker]

Hi Tracey

Thinking slightly outside the box, do you get much in the way of passing trade??

Even if they don't come in !!

[little_stork]

mr Tucker
I am due to put my stuff into a local shop next week. So no passing trade as yet lol.
Regards Tracey

[little_stork]

Designwizard
I knew I would get it wrong !! Thanks for clearing that up ..

[HC-Martin]

No Probs...

[Malcolm Cooper]

It's a lovely site, well done. How many unique visitors per day are you getting, i.e. is the problem visitor numbers or is it conversion rate?

Test your pages using this handy little too. It isn't the answer to everything but it will help improve your title and description tags. Any score over 4.5 is really good.

http://www.instantposition.com/seotest.php

I bet you're quite proud of the images on the site so I'll be careful what I say. You are essentially selling pictures and your pictures could be bigger, brighter and sharper.

http://www.stevesphotoshop.co.uk/photo_light_tents_cubes.html

[sirearl]

It's a lovely site, well done. How many unique visitors per day are you getting, i.e. is the problem visitor numbers or is it conversion rate?

Test your pages using this handy little too. It isn't the answer to everything but it will help improve your title and description tags. Any score over 4.5 is really good.

http://www.instantposition.com/seotest.php

I bet you're quite proud of the images on the site so I'll be careful what I say. You are essentially selling pictures and your pictures could be bigger, brighter and sharper.

http://www.stevesphotoshop.co.uk/photo_light_tents_cubes.html

I don't think you can be to carefull about the absolute importance of large high quality images of the products a site is selling :)

For many this is the only chance they may have to view the product they are considering buying ,unlike entering a real shop where they can handle the goods.

Good Images are far more important to successfull sales :)

How many times does one come across a site displaying a tiny unclear image of a product,and quickly pass that site by :|

[little_stork]

Ampalian
Thanks for the SEO tool what can i say my words are rubbish lol how do i overcome this?? Also i had a look at my pics which ones are you talking about? I am getting anywhere from 240 hits a week to 500 hits, i dont know if thats good or bad?

Anyway any criticism is appreciated be it good or bad.
Tracey

[Malcolm Cooper]

Please remember I said it's a great site and I meant it. I think your pictures could be brighter, sharper and bigger. This one (http://www.littlestorkbabyboxes.co.uk/viewproduct.php?prod=1)for instance could be 400 px wide and landscape. Better lighting could really lift it off the page.

As for using that tool to improve SEO it's just trial and error and picking your keywords/phrases right. I guess top one for you is "baby gifts". Remember google indexes pages, not sites, so optimise every page that you can for different keywords, not just the homepage.

Then get on with some link building.

Lots is said about traffic numbers but firstly it should be targeted traffic, not just traffic for the sake of it. My site now achieves around 650 to 750 unique visitors per day with conversion running at between 1 and 2%. The conversion rate shoots up to around 5% in the run up to Christmas.

SEO takes time. After you've done all you can think of doing the comes patience. Page one position for "baby gifts" in Google might take 1 to 2 years. Anything involving gifts is highly competitive. You can get there though and be very successful. You've got nice products and nice presentation.

[little_stork]

Thanks soooooooooooo much for your positive comments Ampalian I will sort out that pic you mentioned. I will also read up more on SEO and picking specific words for my pages.
Many Thanks For the help...
Tracey

[Malcolm Cooper]

It's a pleasure Tracey. It's not possible to put the last 7 years of pain and learning into a simple reply but I hope I can help put you in the right direction and I'm sure others will help too.

I haven't got all of the answers, I'm still learning every day.

You can do better with all of the pictures. Make use of the valuable space available to you (accounting for different screen resolutions) and really make the images leap off the page. Convey passion and interest in your market and your customers and you really can do great things. Don't let the glass half empty brigade stop you. The ecommerce internet is a High Street like any other. It's highly competive and not easy but if you work at it, it will reward you.

Treat every customer like gold.