17 replies to this topic

[ianhaney]

Hi

I am using oscommerce 2.3.1

I have changed the design of the site and changed the colours on my site and installed the header tags seo add on for 2.3.1 and using seo friendly urls but still not getting any sales or visitors really, I only get visitors mainly when I advertise the site on Facebook and the the odd one or two from google etc

Has anyone got any nice suggestions

I am really passionate about this business doing well and want to succeed

My website is www.irhtoys.co.uk

Kind regards

Ian

[burt]

My advice would be to take a look at other shops in the industry and see what they are doing that you are not.  And what they are not doing and you are.

For example:  hamleys . com

You can see at a glance that the website looks like quality.  There is nothing on the page to distract from the products.

You also need to look at your english grammar.  My english sucks, and I know this, but when used on a commercial site, it should be nearly perfect.  Example:

"

Free UK delivery on orders over £29.99 and orders under £29.99 is £3.99 in the UK and Scotland

"

What does that mean ?  Why not:  "Free delivery on orders over £29.99".

It seems like you didn't really know what you wanted so you've put together a real mish-mash of styles and effects, most of which are not (in my opinion) suitable for a ecommerce site.  I'd suggest that you restyle the site in the format that Hamleys has their site, it's more pleasing on the eye and the colour scheme works.

If your site does not look spot-on (in terms of colour scheme, layout, style and so on), then you have lost the customer in the first few seconds.   And they will never return.  First impressions count, closely followed by price.

Edited by burt, 02 July 2012 - 02:23 PM.

[14steve14]

Totally ignoring the look of the site. It will take ages to get your site fully listed in all the search engines, so you have to help the system along a bit. Have you created and submitted xml sitemaps to all the major search engines. As you use google analytics code on your site, what sort of figures are you getting in terms of visitors. What is your conversion figures. Have you created other backlinks to the site. These will all help.  Search engines also love standard sitemaps, i see you do not have one.

what have you done in off line marketing. Apart from searches what have you done to let people know where your website is. Join suitable forums and discreetly advertise your site, most forums hate this, but there are some that will let you.

If your site was working really well you still might only achieve a customer conversion rate of 2-3 percent, so for every hundred visitors three would buy something.

If you have installed headertags_seo on your site, you are not making the most of the features that are available. You are not using the Product Listing Text and the Product Page Sub Text:. You also do not have the related categories, manufactures and products shown on the product page. How about also cross selling items for particular products. I have found that this really helps.

Just remember that it takes time to get an online store started. Its not like the high street, where people can see you, you have to make people see you. More importantly, you have make people buy something, so your website is your sales pitch.

Use google to help find lots of infomation relating to making your website better. You are not the first to ask your question, and for sure, you will not be the last. Have patience.

[Praful Kamble]

@ianhaney

Hello Ian,

Had a look of your site and would like recommend few points to market you site online.

1. List your products in 3rd party sites like Google, ebay etc.

2. Improve page load speed: You should compress your HTML to reduce your page size and page loading times - this will help your site retain visitors and increase page views. Consider using GZIP to compress your HTML. If you were using compression, you could be compressing your HTML size by 78% to further reduce page loading time. If you were using compression, you could be compressing your HTML size to 5.45

3. Blog and News letters: Blogs helps you to create unique content and newsletter is a great way to engage your audience with promotions, special offers, and discounts that encourage repeat purchases.

4. Audio and video are an effective way to engage website visitors

5. Create remarkable content and promote it through major social medias.

6. If you have a budget then do PPC campaigns.

Praful

PS.
Better way to do marketing of site on internet is do and follow all SEO & SMO activities .

[ianhaney]

Hi Praful and Steve

Thank you so much for the advice

Sorry for the late replies

Been making lots of changes to the website and will be looking into the suggestions made by Steve about the product text listing and product page sub text

I will also look at doing a standard sitemap, I have a XML sitemap submitted to Google

I have a couple of backlinks to my site, I will approach some companies likes nurseries and play schools and see if they will link to my website and schools

I will look at my google analytics stats in a min and see what they are

Thank you again you two for your help and advice

[ianhaney]

Hi @Praful Kamble

How do I compress my HTML using gzip

I have not done it before so not too sure how to really

Can you help me on this please

[burt]

You're welcome.

[Praful Kamble]

@ianhaney

I think you are using osc 2.3.1 version. Right?

Then go to admin>>Configuration>>GZip Compression make it TRUE.

Praful

[ianhaney]

Hi Burt

Sorry, I thought I said thank you to you as well

Thank you for all your help and advice and input as well, I really appreciate it all and have taken it on board to make this work

[ianhaney]

Hi @Praful Kamble

Yeah I am using 2.3.1

Thank you, I will do that now, is that all I need to do to compress the HTML

[ianhaney]

ok I have set it to true

its got compression level 5

Shall I leave it as 5

[multimixer]

Sorry for jumping in, but I think that this is a marginal issue, the compression

The original question was about marketing the site and from all suggestions done here, that would give you 2 weeks of optimization work, and from what you could expect some results, you focus on the compression !

Looking at your site, do you really think that what visitors and search engines are missing is that compression?

[Praful Kamble]

@ianhaney

Yes you can leave it as 5.

[ianhaney]

Hi multimixer

No its not all about the compression as to why I am not getting any sales or many visitors but has helped a bit as noticed the site loads quicker now

I think as it loads quicker now, people are more likely to visit and look around the website

I know the main factor is the seo work on the site

[ianhaney]

Ok cool thank you for your help @Praful Kamble

[Mort-lemur]

If you have not already done so, submit a feed to google base (google shopping) and check out your product prices against others in google shopping.

I use googlefeeder by Jack_Mcs

[ianhaney]

yeah am using google feeder, think all the products are approved and accepted for it

[AdOptimize]

The most important thing is really to spread your products. Shop design is not that important. payment solutions is important!! and yes.. shipping costs.
people prefere to buy a more expensive product when there are no shipping costs. even if shipping costs + products price would be less.
Tell them what your USP is (unique selleing preposition) and try to be different.

Marketing:
with a new domain you might need ages to get a good ranking. esp. when many merchants are around.
take our top products, put them to google and see which price-comparison websites show up.
Check the other merchants and their prices.. if you can compete with the first 1-4 entries. Try to sign-up for that service, use a referer (affiliate-module) and check the invested money with the revenue of the marketplace!!!! very important.
don't go to affiliates  like tradedoubler. you need to be a professional to argue with the members wether it's fraud or not.
Take your time and .. checkout ebay and amazon.. it is no fun having thousands of products listed on both marketplaces, tough work, but if you can compete.. it's worth the effort.
last but not least.. yeah! google. if you have 1-2h time a day.. you will soon learn what is important and what is not.. but it works.

Always have in mind that 15% of your income across these platforms is for marketing. NEVER ever do less than 30% proivit on a product (or .. you are a master and know your business very well.. the profit of an merchant is the purchasing, that's where you make the money!)

If you reach the 15% .. open a bottle of beer and say cheers.. if you reach 7-8% go for the champagne!

hope this helps! good luck..