Need Some Guidance To Get Traffic

[traytray]

I am an ecommerce site that sells discount designer brand perfume. The people that come to sites like mine are interested in price, bottle size, availability, new products, and that sort of thing. They’re not looking to read 1,000 words of content regarding the designer’s background or the history of fragrance.

If the goal is to be considered an authority, what would constitute an authority for the sale of perfume? I don’t see anything authoritative on any ecommerce discount perfume site I have visited, that enjoys a good Google ranking. We all basically provide the same service and have competitive pricing. My store looks more boutique like than others and my About page and other content is of a more personal one-on-one nature than other stores which have a more corporate look. That is how I chose to stand out from the crowd.

Currently, I am working on resizing all of my images to make the page load quicker. Right now, I am just non-existent on Google and I’d like some guidance on how I should proceed. I’m not in a financial position to hire anyone for SEO or even to place advertising of any kind.

I’d appreciate any insight.

Designer perfume snob dot com

Thank you~

[badarac]

Don't take this the wrong way but how do you expect to rank on the first page of Google for the products you sell? If I do a search in Google for womens perfume it returns over 15 million indexed pages. The top pages are from sites like Macy's, Ulta, Sephora, and others. These are high traffic, aged domains, that will have high authority in Google. You don't seem to have any of your own products so whether you're an authority seems immaterial. What will differentiate you from others just selling commercial products is creating content that is shared on social media that drives people to your site. That will improve your rankings and establish you as an authority. You should also consider improving the product descriptions to make them different than the ones used on other sites. Make them human readable and descriptive with valuable content.

[traytray]

Don't take this the wrong way but how do you expect to rank on the first page of Google for the products you sell? If I do a search in Google for womens perfume it returns over 15 million indexed pages. The top pages are from sites like Macy's, Ulta, Sephora, and others. These are high traffic, aged domains, that will have high authority in Google. You don't seem to have any of your own products so whether you're an authority seems immaterial. What will differentiate you from others just selling commercial products is creating content that is shared on social media that drives people to your site. That will improve your rankings and establish you as an authority. You should also consider improving the product descriptions to make them different than the ones used on other sites. Make them human readable and descriptive with valuable content.

Thank you so much for responding. I'm at a loss how to make my product descriptions different than those on other sites. A perfume contains specific notes and I can't change that. Some websites will be more descriptive: "...juicy citruses dewed by the gentle rain shine under the moonlight and the darkness of the garden is scented by night-flowering." But after that flowery intro, they eventually have to list the perfume notes which are the same from site to site, and can that fancy intro really be considered "valuable?"

I would love to add unique product description, but what would have real value beyond the notes, price, size, etc. I know if I was looking to buy perfume online at a discount, that would be the information I would seek.

Suggestions?

[badarac]

Whenever you create content think about your customer. How can you describe the product in a way that will make them understand what they're buying, answer their questions, and make them feel comfortable enough to make a purchase. Remember they can't smell the fragrences so they need to make a purchase based on your description. You asked in your original post what it would take to be considered an authority. You'll need to answer that but providing that extra information over and abouve what they can get on another site would be a good first step.

[DivaVocals]

I'm at a loss how to make my product descriptions different than those on other sites. A perfume contains specific notes and I can't change that.

But you can write your OWN description and not copy everyone else's.. This is no different than when you were in school and everyone had to write a book report about the SAME book that you all had to read.. You all didn't write the SAME papers (unless you cheated and copied off of someone else's work..) Same principal applies.. Write your OWN descriptions and start to stand out in a SEA of SAMENESS..

[traytray]

But you can write your OWN description and not copy everyone else's.. This is no different than when you were in school and everyone had to write a book report about the SAME book that you all had to read.. You all didn't write the SAME papers (unless you cheated and copied off of someone else's work..) Same principal applies.. Write your OWN descriptions and start to stand out in a SEA of SAMENESS..

I am wrestling with this and I am no closer to coming up with an original description for even a single perfume. I am trying to apply your example of the book report, but I keep thinking that a book report can be a person's interpretation of events. I don't know how to interpret a list of ingredients aside from including flowery words that are just filler and add nothing of value. Saying "creamy vanilla" in place of vanilla doesn't add anything worthwhile and while there are many sites that do play with adjectives, how many times are you going to do that before it gets ridiculous? Isn't this the very reason all of the perfume sites have the same description?

If I don't mess with the fragrance notes, what am I doing different?

I'm looking at a dress on the popular site www.modcloth.com and this is the description:

Today’s breezy, sunny weather is perfect for reading a novel in the park while lounging on a picnic blanket in this ruffle-trimmed cobalt dress! The light wind gently flows over this A-line’s textured knit as you sink into the plot.

•95% Polyester, 5% Spandex.
•Fabric provides stretch.
•Hand wash.
•Unlined. Side zipper closure.
•Imported

So they have someone on staff that writes clever copy, but the part that the buyer really wants to know is untouched. The list of details is just a list of details and that is what I would want to know if I was interested in this dress.

I'm looking at the image, skimming over the copy, and I'm mainly interested in if I have to bring this garment to the dry cleaners all the time. So just like for fragrance notes, the details of this merchandise are straightforward. Now, let’s say you had the opportunity to carry the same garment on your website. How would you change up the description? Different snappy copy, perhaps, but the DETAILS would have to remain the same. This garment’s details are my perfumes fragrance notes and I don’t know how else to inform people of the ingredients or add anything else of any value.

If I could see just one suggestion for any one fragrance I carried than I could have a blueprint to follow, but now I am just looking a list and not knowing how I could interpret it any differently.

[dgent]

This type of product is more marketable on eBay / Amazon. Concentrate your main effort on that if you want to make money, not worrying about a standalone site.