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Suggestions on Improving Sales?

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3 Aug 2009, 1:11 AM
#1
esugrue avatar

esugrue

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Suggestions on Improving Sales?

Hi!

I developed this site for a customer and for the past year she has had no sales, and noone even registering.

The client says her previous 4 page basic site did bring in business etc (I think it was part of a `ring') and she's naturally disappointed that this one isn't.

She says she emails her existing client base regularly etc.

Can you have a look and see if there's anything I can do to get her customers. Or indeed if people visit what is turning them off. I have tested the site and placed several test orders etc and to me it looks fine!

I have created a tinyurl so that SE hopefully don't index her URL.

To go straight there:
http://tinyurl.com/kp8wdb

To preview the URL first (so you know it's legit etc!):
http://preview.tinyurl.com/kp8wdb

Thanks for any suggestions
Ernie

3 Aug 2009, 1:24 AM
#2
stevesh avatar

stevesh

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Re: Suggestions on Improving Sales?

IMO, it's the dropshipper's dilemma. Your client is selling the same products as a lot of other websites, and at a higher price.

Search Google for the product names, and you'll see what I mean.

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to do this. If you're going to sell the same products as everyone else, you have to sell them cheaper, or offer some sort of added value.

3 Aug 2009, 1:33 AM
#3
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Re: Suggestions on Improving Sales?

I agree with stevesh

One further point is that i would install an analytics package (OK google analytics) It is easy to install (there are some mods that will help) and it will tell you if no-one is visiting, or people are visiting and not buying. These are different problems.

It will also tell you which pages people are leaving the site which can be useful in deciding why people aren't buying.

In fact it will give you a lot more information about why this isn't working.

Oh, and its free.

But the base problem may turn out to be exactly what stevesh has said.

3 Aug 2009, 5:16 AM
#4
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Re: Suggestions on Improving Sales?

It's impossible to give you any advice about what to change on the cart side without knowing what you have installed. But the site has no rank at all with Alexa and I suspect none then with Google or anywhere else. It's as if the search engines don't even know the site exists. Do you have Google Sitemaps mod and a robots.txt file installed? Essential for getting indexed well. The Alexa Sparky plugin for Firefox is a good tool.

Also, filling in the fields in the meta tags section in the admin panel's catalog>categories/products section, both for categories and products. Don't worry about the keywords section but you want a good meta tag title and meta tag description. Disable Title in the radio fields so your custom meta tag title will be used instead. Focus on keyword density, using the string 3 to 4 times in different combinations to cover the "long tail" spread. What you enter on these 2 lines will be what Google and other SEs displays on the search result page, the title being your link's title and the meta description being the short blurb under the link.

Also, the content in the category and product descriptions need to be reworded for better keyword density, again trying to use core keywords 3 to 4 times in the first 2 sentences with other keywords to cover the long tail. Long tail, in case you are wondering, is the vast majority of searches on the internet. They are usually 3 to 6 words long or even longer, and are far less frequently searched than the "short tail" which are 1 to 2 words strings that are much more common such as "denim jeans" versus "mens size 38 black denim jeans". We decided to go the long tail with our strategy and it has been working very well, we are number one on many long tails for many products and in the top 3 or 4 for many more.

4 Aug 2009, 12:01 AM
#5
esugrue avatar

esugrue

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Re: Suggestions on Improving Sales?

Hi:

Thanks for the suggestions.

The store is based in Australia (I didn't say that explicitly) so the pricing as such is the price for Australia (in AUD). Maybe I should make that prominent on the first page so if people do come and have seen the products elsewhere they know why the pricing is different.

I know the `market' is saturated but I would have thought one order in 12 months.. :laugh:

But once people get onto the site there's no reason that noone would buy (apart from the perhaps perceived price difference!)

I'll look into the SE descriptions etc though; thanks!

I thought I had installed Analytics, but if not I will and at least see where the vistors are coming from!

Would installing the Friendly SEO addon help or doesn't Google etc care as long as it's all linked etc.

Thanks
Ernie

4 Aug 2009, 7:08 AM
#6
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Re: Suggestions on Improving Sales?

Your site has absolutely no external link
-> are you sure anyone visiting the site? Do you even get visitors? You have to check all these.

And why do you redirect from main domain to a sub folder? Which redirect method are you using? Is this 301 redirect?

If the price is in AUS, make sure you mention that, many people will think it is USD.

4 Aug 2009, 5:56 PM
#7
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Re: Suggestions on Improving Sales?

niccol:

I agree with stevesh

One further point is that i would install an analytics package (OK google analytics) It is easy to install (there are some mods that will help) and it will tell you if no-one is visiting, or people are visiting and not buying. These are different problems.

It will also tell you which pages people are leaving the site which can be useful in deciding why people aren't buying.

In fact it will give you a lot more information about why this isn't working.

Oh, and its free.

But the base problem may turn out to be exactly what stevesh has said.

I disagree with steve and niccol regarding lowering prices, especially if the pricing has not been changed in the new version.

5 Aug 2009, 9:03 PM
#8
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Re: Suggestions on Improving Sales?

It's not about pricing here, I believe, but about getting the people to the site. There is no traffic, the site doesn't even have an Alexa rank! You need to submit sitemaps to the search engines and work on SEO: making content keyword rich, getting the meta titles and descriptions entered for products and categories. These few steps will get traffic and sales.