Ok, I have tried various approaches to getting visitors to my site. I tried email blasting safelists (worst idea ever. Don't ever do it.), I tried paying yahoo to list me higher. You really don't seem to get the bang for your buck. Does anyone here have an honest good way to get good results for a shopping site? I would appreciate if you could just list what worked or didn't work for you.
I really hate to say this, but...
The only thing that will drive traffic to a site consistently is
.
.
.
.
(drumroll please)
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.
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Content that people want to see
Sorry, but there is no shortcut. If you have the content or merchandise or pictures that people want, they will tell others and they will come back. Nothing else works.
So what do you have that makes your site worth visiting, and who have you told about it?
I like the marketing advice available at 'www.wizardofads.com', he has some really good insights. For information more directly aimed at online marketing, check www.grokdotcom.com.
I think bbsguru is right about the content thing. If you have the content and your keywords set up then the SE's are more likely to return your site when your product is searched for.
Although I don't run any marketing sites myself one of my sites that has pretty good traffic is my puppet site. One thing that really helped kick it off was my site got a mention and good review on one of the biggest puppet sites on the net. Then on top of that I found other sites that had to do with the subject matter and either listed on them if they had a links page or in the case of puppetry there are many forums I am an active member on. Like here at the WH forum most let you enter your site in your profile or sig. By being active other puppeteers became aware of my site. As a result of my actions there are other puppeteers out there on the web that mention my site when on forums or in groups that I have not had contact with.
I do have a client that markets and sells puppets on her site. Within about three months after launching her site she had more bussiness then she could handle. I think this had to do with a couple things. One she was provideing a custom product that was hard to find in the puppet community at a very good price. It was almost to good a price. She has since increased her fees after about a year. Two we made sure that once her site was up and running that we took the time to submit it to the major SE's. I did not use a service but submitted myself to each major SE. We both worked at spreading the news of her site in the manner I mentioned above.
Thanks for your replies guys. Sounds like search engines are a pretty good way to start. Anyone ever try billboards, flyers or any other type of marketing. I'm generally trying to find what works assuming I have a site that people will want to view.
A nice way to attract visitors is to be innovative and make people discuss you. For example, WestHost created a Flash game and the top scorers got some webhosting. This is a good way to start: Do something new, something that may be discussed in forums and blogs.
Ok, I have tried various approaches to getting visitors to my site. I tried email blasting safelists (worst idea ever. Don't ever do it.), I tried paying yahoo to list me higher. You really don't seem to get the bang for your buck. Does anyone here have an honest good way to get good results for a shopping site? I would appreciate if you could just list what worked or didn't work for you.
HI im enjoying this forum as im new to this also. Has anyone heard of mirror sites?
i was told they are the latest thing ( although i seem to be hearing this about everything). You basicly extend your business profile with related topics to your main website. Content rich keywords in each site as long as they are not too repetitive 9 spam) and each mirror site links new customers back to the main site. Good for online shopping id say. If anyone knows more about this please let me know. Some hosting packages allow you to use up for eg 3 more domains. I am thinking of creating 3 tiny sites 2 pages long and linking back to the main site. What are your views everyone?
Anna
The goal of the search engines is to get relevant information to the requests of people who visit their site. If they don't people will switch to a search engine that can. The search engines are trying to find the sites with the best content and move them to the top of the list, because that will satisfy their visitors.
There are a lot of schemes ("latest things") out there to cheat the system and they often work...for a while. The problem is that the search engines figure out how they are being duped and will penalize those who are trying to beat the system and the quality sites once again move up the ranks.
From my experience SEO fads come and go. In the long run having a site that people want to visit and people are aware of (good content, good links in, marketed well, etc.) will win out.
Thanks for your replies guys. Sounds like search engines are a pretty good way to start. Anyone ever try billboards, flyers or any other type of marketing. I'm generally trying to find what works assuming I have a site that people will want to view.
Personally, I don't bother with fighting for search engine placement. As many have said, it's not worth the bang for your buck.
And I'm gonna have to disagree with a few posters. The best way to get traffic is to promote the heck out of your site (The best way to keep that traffic is to provide relevant content--no argument there). Getting people to type your site into the address bar should be your goal. And to do that, you've gotta advertise, advertise, advertise.
You can't rely on search engine placement because as we all know it can be manipulated and vary dramatically from day to day as crafty-folk exploit loopholes and software engineers close them.
So it's up to you to advertise. Where you advertise will depend on your budget, your target market, and your content.
I believe over 50% of the traffic to my my dad's site (www.BreckSmith.com) come from people typing the url, not using a search engine or clicking a link.
How did we get them to do that?
Well, his website is featured prominently in all of his print ads (some of his ads have even been completely about his site) as well as his direct mail pieces. We have been sending direct mail for 2 years now and running consistent ads for 2 years as well. We also distribute regular press releases about various events which always mention Breck's website. In fact, 2 of our local papers just ran the press release we sent about the recent redesign of Breck's site (which I did).
The day of and the day after the newspaper article, his numbers experienced a large spike. And best of all, submitting the press release was free!
Hope that gives you a few ideas.
JenMuse brings up some very good points and I think is right on target for most websites. I checked the link in the post and the buisness is a Real Estate company. I think you can imagin just how many real estate companies are out there and what the compitition would be. This is going to be a factor in how usefull the S.E.'s are to you I think.
As JenMuse has found in the case of thier dad's site it really would be difficult to get listed high enough. If you enter the term "Real Estate Companies" in a Google search you are going to come up with about 93,200,000 results and the top listings are all the big companies. I doubt there is any way you could ever compeate with the resources they have that get them listed at the top. I even added the location of the company into the term and still came up with 52,700 results.
Now in contrast to that I had mentioned that there was a puppet company that had really taken off and was getting tons of hits. I also mentioned they where offering something unique to the puppet industry. If I enter the following into a Google search "Blacklight Puppetry" I get around 15,200 results and the client I mention is listed on the first page of results. First off there are a lot less puppet companies out there and on top of that there are very few who specialize in blacklignt productions.
I guess what I am trying to get at is that you really must look at your company and talior your marketing to it. I fully agree that makeing sure that your web site address shows up on everything you publish about your company is very important. The first thing you should do is make sure it is on your bussiness card and letterhead. I am like JenMuse and spend very little time worrying about the S.E.'s and ranking beyound submiting a new site to the major engins.