Hello,

My company has recently launched an online store and our traffic is descent but our conversion rate and search engine ranking is really low. Could anyone give us some pointers to get people to start buying? Thanks a lot.

presres

The easy way, of course, is to pay someone to improve your search engine rankings. You can pay the search engine for a sponsored link. That works pretty well. You can pay a company to improve your rankings for you. But here a little secret they won't tell you: everytime a robot finds your url on the net somewhere, it helps to improve your ranking. So you might want to join some newsgroups and plug your site.

But here a little secret they won't tell you: everytime a robot finds your url on the net somewhere, it helps to improve your ranking.
Umm... not exactly.

I can join a cross country marathon but if I do not train and get my body in top physical condition, then I am not going to win as well as finish in the first place.

Search engine marketing is no different. Anyone can have a site but if they do not optimize it in a way to reflect their most important keywords, they will simply be buried in the indices of search engines. Sure they will be in the index but being there doesn't mean you are going to rank well.

Welcome to the forum presres! :standingw

So you might want to join some newsgroups and plug your site.

GoodGuy2 may want to clarify this statement a bit, but as it stands, I disagree. Newsgroups generally are not for plugging your site. They are for discussions.

It's always best to spend as much time as possible educating yourself on search engine optimization, conversions, etc, etc. This will allow you to have a better understanding of what is occurring with your site and will allow you to ask more specific questions.


Here are some starting points:

Ingredients of a Search Engine Friendly Site
http://www.searchengineguide.com/wallace/2005/0107_dw1.html

Let's Talk About Links
http://www.searchengineguide.com/hartzer/003067.html

The Value Of Using A Good Web Analytics Package
http://www.smallbusinessbrief.com/forum/showthread.php?t=704

There are a few other factors to consider when looking at a conversion rate that might be lower than what you like or expect.

One may be that there is some type of problem keeping people from making a purchase. This could be confusion over how to order. A little usabilty testing might tell you if people are having problems making an order using your pages.

It could be a question of credibility - how credibile do people believe your pages to be. There are a lot of things that you could do to make your site seem credible. What types of things are you doing?

It could be a lack of information on shipping costs. Or a failure to put prices of items in the right place, so that people know before they try to place something in a shopping cart.

Or a lack of a privacy policy, and a link to it at the right place. I usually like to include a link to a privacy policy at the bottom of every page, and a link to it at the top of the first page of an order form. Secured ordering also reassures people when they go to make an order. Do you have easily visible logos showing on your pages from the certificate authority that provides secure transactions?

In addition to possible problems with usability, credibility, and trust in the security of the information gathering and transaction process, the site might need to be a little more persuasive. Are you writing to the people whom you believe are your targeted audience? Are you using the words on your page that they might expect to see? Are you focusing on the benefits that your products might bring to them? Are your pages engaging, informative, and persuasive?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will help people get to your pages. And if done right, the person performing SEO will try to get a good sense of your business objectives, the market you are aiming at, and the words that people will probably use to search for your site, and will expect to see on your pages.

But once people arrive at your pages, the other issues I mention above are very important, too.

On your website, do you offer "specials" (whether they are or not) that are tied to time...like weekend sales, end of month sales. This can encourage the traffic you are getting to buy something now.

Do you offer any type of free drawing? On my jewelry website, I offer a free drawing for a piece of jewelry. People sign my guestbook to participate. Then I have their email addresses where I can offer ongoing specials, advice, free articles, or anything that keeps me within their consciousness. It's worked well for me.

Michele

I wanted to thank everyone for the suggestions. I'll pass those on to my supervisor and see what we can do. Thanks again!

Presres