Tearing my hair out

[ali.kat]

Sorry if this post goes on a bit but I am looking for some advice before I go bald! Around 5 years ago I opened an online shop to run alongside my actual retail unit and after reviewing a number of web hosting companies on Trust Pilot, opted for my current provider but I am lucky to get a sale a month. I have emailed and rung them on several occasions and every suggestion they have made to improve my site I have implemented to the letter. I also pay them for an evolution scan every month where they check over my site and carry out the works themselves if they believe it is beneficial to me following my agreement but still no increase in sales. Last night I sold a product on Ebay UK at a price of £42.99 but I have the same product in my webshop for £29.99 so I decided to google "buy Spear & Jackson 14lb hickory sledge hammer uk" to see how far down my shop listing would be. After going through over 10 pages my shop did not feature at all yet my Ebay listing is 4th on the first page so I tried again with a couple of other products I sell on both platforms but the results are the same. Ebay listings on the first page but my shop no where in sight. Is this an SEO issue with the company I host my shop with or is it something I am doing wrong? The last email I had from them states that the shop is as it should be and they cannot understand why no sales are being generated but after the test this morning I can see why. Unfortunately having no experience whatsoever of web/shop building I have relied heavily on them to get this up and running but it is just not working. If anyone has any suggestions I would be grateful. Thanks

 

[The Byre]

Talk to @fisicx

Who is your current provider?

Trust Pilot reviews are worth slightly less than a bucket of warm spit.

If you are who I think you are, then I could not find ANY keywords that apply to your website.

 

[fisicx]

There are so many variable it's not really possible to give any useful advice.

Can you post the URL of the website. Can't do a site review as that's only for full members but we can tell you if your site will ever rank for anything.

Not sure why you think a hosting company knows anything about building and ranking a website. And stop paying them for the monthly scan, it's pointless.

 

[The Byre]

http://www.costlessdiy.co.uk

 

[UKSBD]

How long ago did you change from the .com to the .co.uk?

Not that it makes much difference, the bigger question is why would anybody buy from you when there are dozens of well known, established stores selling the same products that people trust.
It's a bit like opening a shop selling tins of baked beans next door to Tescos

Spear & Jackson 14lb hickory sledge hammer

The only people who are going to search for that sort of thing are SEO companies who can't rank for Sledgehammer, SEO companies demonstrating long tail, store owners looking to see where they rank and people who have already found the product and who are comparing prices

 

[ali.kat]

Yes the website is costlessdiy.co.uk (wasn't sure if I could mention it).The .com and .co.uk should both point to .co.uk and I am with EKM powershop. I appreciate the 'baked beans' comment but many of the products on the website are cheaper than other places are offering and I can also understand that some people have favourite shopping platforms they will purchase from without doing some pricing research but it seems that the website isn't ranking anywhere when doing a search for a product. Just taking the sledge hammer as an example, the prices for the same item are almost double if you buy from elsewhere. EKM are adamant the SEO on the website is fine but being a complete novice I have to rely somewhat on their advice although I am sure there is something going wrong somewhere.

 

[UKSBD]

https://www.rsc.org.uk/buy-tickets/select-your-own-seat/?performanceNumber=31869

The £10 tickets are not as nice as the £70 tickets and if you pay £10 for a ticket it isn't as good as a £70 ticket.

Some people may say the £10 ticket is worth it some may say the £10 ticket isn't worth it.

The person thinking of buying the £10 ticket then has a choice;
Don't buy a ticket at all
Buy the £10 ticket but don't get the full benefit
Pay more for the ticket

Only real difference between this and SEO is that you know (at least hope) that that the company selling you a £10 ticket is selling you something worth £10 and the company selling you a £70 ticket isn't selling you one worth £10 as well.

No idea what you pay your SEO Company but if you are paying £10 you get the cheap seats whilst your competitors paying the £70 get the best seats

That doesn't mean your SEO company isn't doing a good job, it means your not paying what your competitors are paying.

Now if your paying £70 and only getting the £10 ticket it may be a different matter.

 

[fisicx]

EKM might be adamant the SEO is OK but it isn't. If it were you would be ranking on page one.

A cursory look at the site shows me a generic ecommerce store no different to thousands of others all selling the same products. There are all sorts of problems with the site (SEO is one of them) that could be fixed but the chances of you ever seeing a return on your investment are low. The reason is simple: there is way too much competition. Your prices may be lower but nobody will even see them because they will never find your website. And Google doesn't care.

PS: And the UX on a phone is truly awful.

 

[Elliottc26]

Last night I sold a product on Ebay UK at a price of £42.99 but I have the same product in my webshop for £29.99 so I decided to google "buy Spear & Jackson 14lb hickory sledge hammer uk" to see how far down my shop listing would be. After going through over 10 pages my shop did not feature at all yet my Ebay listing is 4th on the first page so I tried again with a couple of other products I sell on both platforms but the results are the same.

I put this in Google:

Spear & Jackson 14lb hickory sledge hammer

..and your site was showing on page 1, number 7 for this product.

Each product page should absolutely include the product attributes in the titles and descriptions, with bullet points and features, dimensions, weight, multiple images, and everything about the product.

 

[aflat9]

Shocking.

I really do not like the idea of outsourcing. Do they have access to Google search console?
Have the pages been crawled?

Sounds like a big issue that could be easily rectified!

 

[Paul Norman]

Marketing an online shop in a crowded market place is a specific thing, even if the SEO is sorted.

You need to be proactively promoting the site online, offline, on forums, in relevant content sites. You need to be doing this all the time.

Putting a website up, even with good SEO, and expecting sales in any quantity, is part a route to disaster for a very big percentage of would be online retailers.

 

[bigbuzzbelfast]

For what it's worth I looked at your social media and you are not exactly embracing that as well as you could, and yes it can have a bit of a bearing. I know it can be hard to wear all the digital hats and do all that is required but just having an online shop and some seo is not enough sometimes.

There are some very good people on these forums who would be able to enhance your social media campaigns which would help. I know at times it seems like it is all output financially. If you get it right though, the rewards will pay you back in abundance.

My view of any product being sold on the internet is that it is worth what anybody is willing to pay for it. If somebody finds your site likes how easy it is to navigate, is able to make a purchase within so many clicks you could do well.

Think positive and I know that can be hard at times but my mantra is that positivity brings positive results. I know that thinking positive may not pay the bills and may stress you at times but stick with it, find the right people to work along side you and help you (we all need help sometimes) don't listen to EKM as they are only concerned about themselves (it is a crowded marketplace) so they will tell you what they think you want to hear (and yes I do have experience of this with that company). It's obvious what they are doing is not working as well for you as you would have liked. So it's OK to find other help. Good Luck I wish you well

 

[Pat Walsh]

Some great replies here to the original post (or should I say paragraph) and my small observation would be that the web hosting company are likely to be good at providing web hosting/ a website, but not so good at providing SEO advice and keeping up to date with SEO developments. So, I'd recommend engaging an SEO expert to help on that front - for the sake of your website and your hair!

 

[Jamie Hennings]

Thanks, for suggesting such a useful information about hosting.