www.elesclothing.co.uk and www.elesplusclothing.co.uk have found another article that I hope helps!!!

www.elesclothing.co.uk and www.elesplusclothing.co.uk have found another article that I hope helps!!!

When you set up a website online, the theory “build it and they will come” certainly does not apply. There is no doubt that there are far fewer costs involved in creating an online store compared to setting up a traditional brick and mortar business. However, you are usually trading significantly smaller set-up costs for zero initial traffic. If you open a brick-and-mortar store, at least some people will walk by. This isn’t the case with an online store. You have to establish your website and give it visibility and presence online; that way you will get visitors.

It is important to realise that you shouldn’t rely on one strategy for generating traffic to your website, you should rely on several. This way, if you encounter a problem with one of your traffic sources (which is likely to happen from time-to-time on the internet), your traffic is not wiped out overnight. Here are seven top tips to help you get customers to your website:

1.   SEO

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is probably the best-known tactic for attracting customers to your website. It involves using keyword phrases and back links to give your website a high ranking in the major search engines. Keyword phrases are the phrases that people type into a search engine, and back linking is when other websites have links pointing to your site.

SEO is certainly a long-term strategy, but if you focus on high quality content and are realistic with your goals, you should find that your site starts to get ranked higher over time. A major advantage of high rankings in the search engines is that people are actively looking for your product. If your online store sells dog kennels and someone searches “Dog Kennels” on Google and finds your site, there is a possibility that they may buy something on your site. If you can get your site into the top three results for a good keyword, you may consistently get a number of customers buying from your site each day.

2.   HubPages and Squidoo Lenses

Hubpages and Squidoo Lenses are a way of getting backlinks to your site (external links pointing to your site). This helps your site to rank well in the major search engines. You basically create an information page on a certain niche, and within this information page you put a link to your site. You must add value on these pages, spend an hour writing a real high quality page that HubPages or Squidoo will like. Remember, the more people visit your HubPage or Squidoo Lens, the more likely they are to click on the link to your site. For example, if you sold herbal tea on your website, you could write a Hubpage on the history of herbal tea, and put a link to your site at the bottom of the page.

3.   Social Media

There’s no doubt that Social Media has taken over the internet, and is where many people spend the vast majority of their time online. The only problem is that people are not there to be sold to, they are there to socialise. You have to tread very carefully if you want to advertise your site on Social Media; but if you do it right, the rewards are tremendous. For example, you can set up a Twitter profile and have a link to your website on your public profile. If you operate in a niche, start talking to and engaging with people who show an interest in that niche, and establish yourself as an expert. Remember, people are not there to be sold to, talk to them about the products that you sell. If you display a level of expertise, they will be interested in discovering more about what you do and what you sell.

4.   Paid Advertising (Cost per click)

There are many paid advertising platforms online. One of the most widely-used advertising platforms is Google Adwords. This can be expensive, but cuts out the hard work involved in SEO. You basically choose keywords related to your site, and then set the maximum price you are willing to pay for someone to click your link. Remember, you are paying for clicks, there is no guarantee that the person will buy. However, if you are willing to pay high prices for clicks, your link will be one of the first that is seen by someone searching for that keyword. This can be a good short-term strategy, unless you have a monthly advertising budget which you want to spend on these ads.

5.   Free Advertising (Ad Swaps)

The internet is a strange place. Competition is not always seen as a bad thing. Many people help each other out by advertising each other’s sites. For example, if you’re selling herbal tea, you may come across a site that sells green tea. You put a link to the green tea website on your homepage, and the owner of the green tea site puts a link to your site on their homepage. This can be a very effective way to ethically leverage someone else’s website traffic. This is all done for free, but is mutually beneficial. This works if you both operate in slightly different niches, as it is unlikely that someone in the same niche will be happy to advertise your site.

6.   Video Marketing

There is massive potential in this area. Youtube alone gets over two BILLION views per day. If you sell dog kennels, you could make a video where you review one of the kennels that you sell. You can place a link within the video and underneath the video, so that a person can click the link and visit your site when they have finished watching your video review. It is very important that you make your videos interesting and interactive. With billions of videos online, you need to make yours stand out.

7.   Submitting Articles to Article Directories

Submitting articles is another way to get backlinks to your site. As you have probably gathered by now, backlinks are an extremely important way to increase your rankings in the search engines. Additionally, some major article directories like Ezine Articles get millions of visitors per month, so a good article may bring hundreds of extra visitors to your site. Like with HubPages and Squidoo Lenses, take time to write a quality, engaging and informative article that is 500 words or more; it will be worth the time for the extra traffic this can bring. You can submit as many different articles as you like.

Add more strategies like

Participate in forum and communities

Monitor traffic and rebuild your strategy around it

Offer promotional items and learning courses

These seven strategies will help you to get customers visiting your site. It is advisable to use at least three or four of these strategies at one time. It will take patience and hard work, but these strategies are tried and tested, and you will see results. In addition to the several strategies, be sure to keep your visitors coming back! By making your site interesting, easy to navigate and informative, you will get return visitors. If people are visiting your site more than once, it shows that you are providing value to your visitors, making it much more likely that they will become customers.

HAPPY SELLING TEAM www.elesclothing.co.uk