Help with new site pleeeease

[jamesss]

Hi all,

i have recently published my on line shop and have advertised on google adwords and facebook with plenty of clicks on facebook and very little on google adwords resulting in zero sales by either.
I have since cancelled the accounts with both and have set up a feature that site ground (my web host and site design host)offer,google site map.From what i can gather this is free(apart from your hosting fee's) advertising to appear in the google main results not the ad on the right of the page.

Does anybody else use the google site map for advertising? And if so, what possible tips could you give for maximum use for a site like my own.
I will open Google adwords/Facebook accounts up again but only when i have found the best ways and methods to utilize them.

As you may guess i am very new at advertising online ,just like i was new to web design but took my time to learn how it works,now im starting that process over for online advertising.

I will be also advertising off line too, via local magazines/papers etc.which i feel will bring more sales given the nature of my site.

Any help/tips would be much appreciated,

James

designerswitching.co.uk

[Niche]

Hmmm.

First sitemaps are maps of your website that you can submit to Google through your google webmaster account. It makes it easier for the google bots to crawl and index your pages.

Google webmaster account is free, just do a google search for google webmaster tools.

Facebook is actually a good source of traffic that converts. You just have to network with the right groups there

There are other ways you can get targeted traffic to your site that don't cost you money, just time.

Free Methods to help promote your websites is an article that covers the basics

Good luck

[Brian Turner]

James, decide the following:

1. Who is my target customer?
2. What would they think if they looked at my website?
3. How can I entice them better?

I don't mean to sound harsh, but by today's standards your site looks like amateur. Even if you only have a very limited product range, there must be a way to incentivise?

TIP: Make very clear via a relevant graphic that you offer safe online ordering. That is known to be a positive factor in conversions.

Hope that helps a little.

[jamesss]

Hi,
Thanks for your help and comments,i will take on board your tips and see how i can improve the points made.

Even though i do have limited stock at the moment i will be expanding the stock listed very soon.
You say my site looks Amateur,is it the lay out,linkage,colours?
When designing the site i wanted it to be as simple as possible due to my own experience of many web sites being overly complicated with links all over the place and simply too much information on one page resulting in frustrated customers.

[lishiguang]

Brian has the point there. To improve a website and increase conversion rate, it is best to work on your website from visitor's perspective. Browse around the web and look at websites related to your field, and see what they do differently on their website.

For an online shop, you are basically writing ad copies advertising your products on your website. You have to communicate these points to your potential customers:

Your visitors would...:

Want to know what’s good about the product.
Want to know if you have a need for such product.
Want to know why this product is better than the others.
Want to know how to purchase the product, what are the available payment options...etc.
Want to know if there’s a discount for the current offer.
Want to know if they are protected for their purchase, e.g. warranty.

When you have a website that sell, your next task is to get targeted-traffic to your website. It's like running a local business. You have a nicely designed shop with good pricing, but it's not profitable unless you put it into a good location, like a mall, where you get customers, e.g. traffic.

For traffic, every niche is different. Spending time doing research on your market will definitely help down the road.

[bumfluff]

Originally Posted by jamesss

Hi,

You say my site looks Amateur,is it the lay out,linkage,colours?
When designing the site i wanted it to be as simple as possible due to my own experience of many web sites being overly complicated with links all over the place and simply too much information on one page resulting in frustrated customers.

There's a number of things..

1) colours - the colours you've used are quite bold and strong, which probably aren't qualities that people associate with 'the perfect ambience'.

2) There doesn't seem to be much cohesiveness to the layout, it kind've looks like it's been made up as you go along without any real concept. Eg, the header graphic (that grey part with horizontal scanlines and rounded top right corner) - I don't see how it relates to the subject matter or any image that your business might want to portray.

3) There's display issues with Firefox (I haven't tested it with other browsers).

4) The main page content is basically just one long list of stuff. There's no visual interest there. It might work for a B2B site, but I don't think the general public is going to find that attractive. The photos are quite nice, though... it'd be good if you could carry elements of the photographs through to the rest of the design.

5) While I understand you want to keep things simple, I think you need a little more variety in there too, simply for ease of understanding. For example, have your links in a different colour to your headings and text so it's obvious where to click.

[Webman]

The key to any e-commerce site now is to have clear calls to action. Make everything as simple as possible for people to buy and as Brian said earlier make sure the potential customer knows it is safe to order. Put this graphic above the fold on every page.
When going over your site from a customers point of view try to remember the following phrase "Don't make me THINK" and keep it as simple as possible to buy from you.

As for the advertising you should get far better return on investment from online than you will from offline because the key to successful advertising is targeting.

Also make sure you track all your marketing efforts because if you can not measure it then you can not improve it.

[GridmodelsUK]

I agree with all these points - you really need to go back to basics - look at your site structure, design and the ordering function. Have you asked friends and family to try using your site? Usability testing is very important. In terms of design, you can buy a professionally designed template for an e-commerce site for under £100 on one of the free template sites. Just type 'free web templates' into Google.

- think about how your customers will search for the type of switch they need and build this into your site structure (ie. which category would they look under, the finish, the size, the colour etc.)
- layout your product information and prices in a way that the customer can easily see the information they need
- Don't be scared of having more web pages on your site. As long as they are all informative and are named correctly in the URL, it doesn't matter how many pages you have.
- consider other content such as how to fit the light switch or how to find a good electrician.

[targetedtraffic]

All are very good points but i think you need to research your keywords to see how difficult this will be, achieving targeted traffic is the most important part in increasing conversions, Most high traffic sites will tell you the majority of their traffic comes from long tail phrases not top level phrases, and most importantly top level phrases will always convert lower than long tail phrases.

Try the google keyword tool.

Just put in your top level phrase and it will show you all the related phrases to your "vanity phrase", targeting these long tail phrases is a more realistic way to increase traffic to a new website.

Hope this helps

[JedWylie]

Dear James,

The other posts attack some really key points you need to address on your site.

But I believe the real issue on your site is the copy (writing)

Think about it like this... you want your visitor to move emotional state from being neutral about your business to falling in love with your products. What must you say to them to convince them that they NEED to buy from you?

There is a clear tried and tested structure for your webpages called AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire (or Benefits), Action. (Look it up on Wiki.) I would recommend that you re-structure your content to follow that approach.

Bottom line: the only way you can influence your visitor to buy from you is through what you write.

Hope this helps.

Warm regards,

Jed.

BTW, Your product range is great - keep going.