Marketing an online business

Katy43

Hi Everyone,

I'm just wondering how to put some extra oomph into my website.

My business is quite niche (Jewellery Designer x 13yrs) and my site just 'ticks along,' sometimes quite nicely and sometimes quite slowly but I would like to increase online sales.

Would any of you be willing to pass on some tips that have worked for you?

Many thanks.x

Percy1983

Do you have a facebook site? its great as you can get new products on there, a few poeple like it/share it it goes to friends etc, could get you more traffic.

Katy43

Many thanks for your reply.

mmm no I haven't tried Facebook, for 2 reasons; (my own very personal view)I hate it, I know a few friends that have had a horrible time using it and also when I've asked around for feedback it does seem to produce much in the way of actual orders.

Having said all that I haven't tried it and could of course be proved wrong!

Percy1983

I am completely with you I too hate facebook, I am not on facebook myself but as a business it has been useful and doesn't suffer from the usual facebook rubbish and problems you get.

In my case I update when products are released to which some customers leave nice comments to which I can reply, I do get messages through facebook too about up and comming events and such.

As said if you get some good products and a few followers then you can get a picture of one of your pieces and many peoples facebook pages with no effort at all.

Even if it doesn't generate too many orders its a great PR tool, and shows you are an open forward thinking business.

From there you can add a 'like box' to you site if you want.

It may aslo be worth listing on freeindex.

Katy43

Thank you so much for your reply. Okay, I'll give it a go...

So the next question is, how do I create a business page on Facebook? Is it idiot proof?!

Does anyone use pineterest? (Not sure of the spelling.)

Thank you.x

Percy1983

I will say as a complete none facebook user I can't remember getting stuck, I can't even remember how I did it so it must have been easy.

chef-martin

I recommend Amazon Associates for traffic or and sell it via amazon!!

shmeeko69

Katy43 wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

I'm just wondering how to put some extra oomph into my website.

My business is quite niche (Jewellery Designer x 13yrs) and my site just 'ticks along,' sometimes quite nicely and sometimes quite slowly but I would like to increase online sales.

Would any of you be willing to pass on some tips that have worked for you?

Many thanks.x

Some of the key areas to address are -

Do you have social media integration with your site - Facebook, Google +1 and Twitter? If not, then you're missing out on some extra traffic.

Do you have an email sign up form were you can grow your list and promote to it whenever you want?

Is your website properly optimised - Are you competing for the right phrases relative to your niche- Check the competition using a free keyword tool like Google and make the necessary changes.

Do you have your main keywords in your title tags and web description?

Is your website presentable and nicely laid out, so when people come visiting they want to stay and come back again?

Do you have fresh and interesting content on your sites pages?

Have you bookmarked your site and do you have any quality backlinks pointing towards it?

These are most of the things that will help with your site and not only get you new visitors, but people who will bookmark your site and return again.

Brassedoff

Did you do the website yourself or use a company to do it? If you have a serious business, please refer yourself to a local firm that has good references in SEO work. They will, if your business is online and relies on it need to ensure it is optimised as well as it can be.

Trying it yourself if you don't know what you are doing will push your site the other way and reduce your traffic.

Each to their own, I would not know the first thing about jewellery apart from the wife only likes diamonds with her gold.

martindow

I imagine SEO for jewellery could be difficult as it must be a highly competitive search term. What do you think people will be typing for their search? If you can produce pages for more specific niche products that you sell you are more likely to be found.

Katy43

Thank you so much for all your replies and emails. I appreciate your time.

My site is niche as it's mainly aimed at Brides and it's a templated site by puresilva and I have to say that the person who runs it is brilliant (no I'm not connected to his business.)

I did a few years ago, try to get someone to do SEO for me and got badly burned. It seems that some of these 'professionals' charge a lot of money for little or no results.

I could do with having some help with this but don't really know how to go about finding a cost effective solution. I will though have a go at the Facebook idea!