I've just built my first webstore - traffic advice please.

Moom

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May 27, 2013
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Reading, Berkshire
Hi

I've just built my first web store from a website I had previously. I was just wondering about any tricks of the trade and advice about gaining traffic and sales? It's till quite new (although the actual website is over a year old) and I am wondering how best to direct traffic to it. I already use hootsuite, pinterest, facebook, google plus etc, but I am wondering if there's anything else out there that people would recommend?
 
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PrincessDressUK

Hi,

This is most probably the holy grail of online sales and does not have any generic answer. Your are doing pretty well as you have good content in blog posts so i would keep that going. Content is King! Maybe run a small targeted FB campaign to boost your fan base there.

It looks like you are using Weebly, i have never heard of it before how are you finding this service?
 
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fisicx

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Hi

I've just built my first web store from a website I had previously. I was just wondering about any tricks of the trade and advice about gaining traffic and sales?
The trick is not to use weebly. I'm sure you are proud of your site but weebly is the pits. So the only way you are going to get traffic is to not use weebly or to start paying for advertising.
 
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Michelle Murphy @ Yoma

Hi Moom,

The main source of traffic should come from search engines such as Google and Bing. However in order to get traffic from these search engines, you must make sure your website is crawl-able and is optimised.

To do this, check such things as:
  • duplicate meta data
  • meta descriptions being too long
  • page titles being too long
  • have 1 <h1> heading
  • have <h2> headings
  • content includes keywords but without stuffing them in
  • you have a robots.txt file
  • you have a HTML sitemap
  • images include a descriptive <alt> tag
  • page speeds are above average
  • blog posts are based around search queries
This is only a small portion of what needs to be done, however it will give you a start.

I hope this helps.

Thanks,
Michelle
 
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fisicx

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However in order to get traffic from these search engines, you must make sure your website is crawl-able and is optimised.
Except it's a weebly site so none of your advice is going to work...
 
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flipfilter

Hi Moom,

The main source of traffic should come from search engines such as Google and Bing. However in order to get traffic from these search engines, you must make sure your website is crawl-able and is optimised.

No offence intended Michelle, but Weebly issues aside, this is the type of advice that misleads beginners into building mediocre ecommerce sites.

Organic Traffic is great when it's the cherry on top. It's free and it usually converts well but there's a massive downside to building your entire business on it.

1) it doesn't scale unless you're an SEO grand wizard, in which case it will sort of scale but not proportionately and it's not an exact science.

2) split testing and conversion rate optimisation takes forever unless you have significant traffic to start with

3) you have no control over your traffic. Relying on Google for your livelihood is like opening a shop in a shopping centre where the owner is a little crazy and may just decide to close your part of the shopping centre indefinitely if he doesn't like your window display or leaflets. An algorithm update or penalty can see all that traffic you've worked hard for disappear overnight.

My advice would be to focus on paid traffic. Unless you're making tiny margins, which I would doubt you are, then your priority should be working out how to profitably buy one visitor.

Start with Google PPC on search. It's the most expensive so if you can get a campaign to work here, you can roll it out to anywhere. From there try paid social discovery like outbrain, social PPC like Facebook ads, and then retargeting through google and perfect audience.

Then, and only then, is it time to focus on SEO. This way you can put in the hard work knowing you're generating revenue still whilst you're waiting for all the content and SEO things to work.

Hope this helps
 
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Personally, I would back Michelle's advice above flipfilter's. Newbies especially underestimate how difficult it can be to run a successful PPC campaign and there are no guarantees that any traffic you generate will turn into sales. Weebly aside, Michelle's advice is spot on - the main cost is time - which is value ably invested if you are learning SEO, which is itself an investment towards PPC.

Having said that the best way forward is to target past customers, make them an offer, and then ask them to pass that offer on to their friends. What I noticed about the home page is there does not appear to be any where to express interest ("Please add me to your mailing list..."). Creating prospect lists is key to creating a successful long term business.

Hope this helps!
 
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antropy

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    www.antropy.co.uk
    It's probably fair to say both Michelle and flipfilter are right - you could do with both paid and organic traffic.

    We've seen a better return for our clients who use Google PLA rather than AdWords.

    Also the advice about dropping the web-builder is probably sound seeing as a quick look shows there is no <h1> tag on the product pages and there are likely to be quite a few other problems like that:
    http://www.verticalmeasures.com/res.../using-h1-tag-improves-search-engine-ranking/

    The site looks nice though, well done for creating something clean and easy to use, even if it could perhaps do with some categories rather than one big long list of products.
     
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    titanium

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    I have no advice re marketing/seo but just wanted to say your stuff looks lovely. I have "liked" your FB page. For me, this is the kind of stuff I would like to see on my timeline and I hope you post with pretty pictures often! As a twitter/pinterest/googleplus user as well, those are not places where I would in the frame of mind for enjoying that kind of post (but that is just me: demographic middle aged married mother). When I'm on twitter I am searching for info related to my work, pinterest is nice but too much stuff so I never notice half of it. Googleplus=tumbleweeds.

    Oh and when I get back to the UK in a couple years I might actually buy something! :D
     
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    fallschirmjaeger

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    I would like to politely disagree about the use of Weebly and its SEO issues. Yes weebly has some drawbacks but the speed to market and ability to change the site rapidly and without the need for HTML skills, outweighs the disadvantages. In any case the disadvantages can pretty much be overcome 95% of the time. There are plently of sites that advise you how to do this.

    Yes all the SEO tips above in this thread are relevant and your weebly site should follow this but probably more important for SEO is fresh content on your site (and quality relevant links). With Weebly its easier than using a WORD document, which means you or an assigned editor can easily do it in minutes rather than waiting for your web designer to do it. A quick submit to Google Webmaster and its in the google index with nice fresh content.

    I've hand coded in the past - never again, CMS for Websites is the way forward for site development, SEO and checkouts - generally (there will always be exceptions).
     
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    fisicx

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    With Weebly its easier than using a WORD document, which means you or an assigned editor can easily do it in minutes rather than waiting for your web designer to do it.
    It's just as fast using a CMS.

    Everything you do with Weeblt you can do just as fast with a modern CMS. Weebly is NOT a CMS.
     
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    fisicx

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    Show me an optimised Weebly site and take my words back
     
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    junipaire2009

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    It's probably fair to say both Michelle and flipfilter are right - you could do with both paid and organic traffic.

    We've seen a better return for our clients who use Google PLA rather than AdWords.

    Also the advice about dropping the web-builder is probably sound seeing as a quick look shows there is no <h1> tag on the product pages and there are likely to be quite a few other problems like that:
    http://www.verticalmeasures.com/res.../using-h1-tag-improves-search-engine-ranking/

    The site looks nice though, well done for creating something clean and easy to use, even if it could perhaps do with some categories rather than one big long list of products.

    What's Google PLA if you don't mind me asking?

    Cheers
     
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    Hi all,

    I am in the same boat as Moom and I found this thread trying to get some advice. I have tried a lot of the normal tricks i.e. blog content, I have a Facebook page running paid adverts, all of my meta information and alt codes are right, long descriptive titles, Google merchant feed, Adwords, my site is low on errors and is fast enough, I have added directory listings etc etc etc…

    I have hit a bit of a brick wall now, does anyone have any more advice?

    If anyone wants to have a nose, my website is meisie.co.uk
     
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    fisicx

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    I have hit a bit of a brick wall now, does anyone have any more advice?
    Are you getting visitors but they aren't buying or are you not even getting any visitors?

    If it's the former, then you need to study your analytics to uncover what they are doing. If it's the latter then it means all of your marketing isn't working. Facebook ads are notoriously poor unless they are very targeted. Directories are mostly a waste of time. All the coding work you have done is only of any of value if your pages reflect the things people are searching for. And they don't seem to be. Site reviews are only for full members so can't offer much more advice on the site. But I suggest you look at alternative advertising platforms, etsy, ebay, amazon, google shopping and so on.
     
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    Ashanti Brazil

    Totally agree with fisicx. Facebook ads and posts are worthless without the correct targeting of your market.
    I posted the below advice in another thread, and hope it will help you also.
    I would suggest using the Share A Photo button on Facebook to share a luring picture from your website and the direct link to your site in the text. Sharing photos always gets more attention than 'update of status' without an image. However do not stop there... To ensure the 'correct' traffic I would use the Promote Post button on your Facebook post and specify the location, gender, age range, interests and other demographics of your target market. For instance if you sell mechanical appliances you will want to enter the demographics of your typical customer to ensure better conversion rates. You will have to pay a little for this promotion. You can specify a budget as little as £5.

    Also, try to connect with members on Twitter who are in a similar industry (not direct competitors) and will retweet your tweet to their many members. This has worked well in the past for me (remember to have a link in your tweet to your website). Lastly if your product is visual I would suggest opening an Instagram account and using relevant hashtags (as with twitter) to grow your target audience. Again ask members with more popular accounts than yours, in your field to give you a shout out or promote your product.
    All of these have worked for me in the past, and are low cost marketing options.
     
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    There is an Enterprise answer (Technical SEO - hosting - platforms - products) and the SME answer (Business SEO - backlinks, social media - pre releases). If you provide your platform and your hosting provide and cost per month hosting can give you a guide on organic traffic you will receive - after that it is your Business SEO that makes the difference.
     
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