I have a website that has been active for over a year. My traffic is sporadic. I have had 100+ views, but most days it’s less than 10. I’ve tried to use a variety of tags for my products for better search opportunities. A blog and newsletter have been created. A Facebook page was recently created. I have submitted my blog for review on the Blogging Networking Club. My products are not for a specific demographic. I’ve posted comments on a couple of blogs that would be relevant to my site. I plan to join Twitter and Pinterest. I would appreciate any basic pointers for marketing a website.

Thank You

@inhighcottonmall Hi Sherry,

I would say that I agree with @alice-ly about the colors, but I think you might have already fixed the URLs and buttons. 

One noticeable thing that would cause me to leave your site would be that if I am on the home page and click on: BLOG, NOTICES, or TODAY’s NEWS/MEDIA a new tab is opened, which makes me think I am leaving the site. The top navigation seems to change depending on what page I am on also. On the home page the links at the top are:

BLOG NOTICES PHOTOS TODAY’s NEWS/MEDIA

But on the Notices/special-savings page the links at the top are:

Home BLOG PHOTOS NOTICES

The pages also do not have clear structure (header tags — h1 title tag for example), user-friendly page titles (the text that shows up in the search engines to click on), or meta description tags (the text that shows up in the search engines that users can read when deciding if your site is appealing or relevant to their search). For example, on your home page the title AND description are: inhighcottonmall.com Blog
Sorry I couldn’t get more in depth, but if you have any questions please let me know!

Sherry, I suggest teasing how-to blog articles on LinkedIn groups that include people who like to repurpose or recycle items, crafters, people who own gift shops, etc. LinkedIn has more than 1 million groups so you are sure to find several groups that include people interested in what you have to share. At the end of the group post, include a standard signature like I do here …

Kathy Bernard
Getajobtips.com
OPEN to connect 

Hi Sherry — @inhighcottonmall  

I’ll try not to cover the same ground but will ad —-

1 – the colors are all wrong don’t use black for a shopping website background.  

2 – SEO needs serious work – every page – this is why your traffic is nil.  

3 – Once the SEO is in place, then branch out to social media.

Trying to do it all at one time will be impossible. Concentrate on the website itself first – then the blog second – social media comes after the other basics are in place.

Eileen

@inhighcottonmall Sherry, it’s been a lot of feedback for you. Don’t try to change all at the same time. Do small changes and learn from what they bring. For example

1 – do the SEO2 – change the colors and design3 – go social

Those steps are enough work for at least a month or two, if you want to do it really well and analyze what the changes lead to. Never ever do two changes at the same time, because you will not be able to figure out which of the changes led to the result.

Hi Sherry @inhighcottonmall  

Note: – Choose the keywords for each page individually and concentrate on using those words in all the titles, URL, sub-titles, and content for that specific page.

If you know anything about naming conventions, take a look at your images and design elements too. You can really turn your traffic around (when you get a new look too) by concentrating on one page at a time.

2 more cents.

Eileen

You have some mechanical/navigation issues that I’ll address later (Lose the neon green especially on the white – it’s not readable).
I’ll come back with a once over but in the meantime what’s your back link strategy?There’s 2 sides to SEO – Content and backlinks. Google doesn’t give a hoot about your website if no one else (links to you) does. 
I recommend starting here http://www.ericward.com/ – his weekly letter is $8/mo and worth 10 times that

@ron-ashworth

You are absolutely right about a great place for information. I have participated on this site for just a short while and in that small amount of time I have received a wealth of information. Not only from the daily e-mails with constant helpful information, but also from the participants in the clubs who are willing to take the time to offer very good advice. This site is priceless.

@mitch-rezman
Thank you for your input. I am very appreciate of all information that is offered to me and am attempting to use it in revamping my website. I have been working on the main website and will soon move to revamping my blog (which should take care of the green on white text). Thank you for taking time to look and comment.

Sherryinhighcottonmall.com

@kathybernard

Kathy about a month ago you replied to a topic that I submitted. I have been working on the list of “fixes” submitted by everyone. In your reply you suggested that I join a few LinkedIn groups and to always end my post with a signature similar to your example. Forgive me for my ignorance of the “Social Media Scene”, but at the end you have “OPEN to Connect”. Does this have to do with your business or does it have to do with connecting with people on LinkedIn? I’m definitely in training mode on ALL social media sites!

Thank You

Sherry

inhighcottonmall.com

How’s your blog traffic? if you’re getting any there you need call to action buttons on your blog directing people to your website, not just a link – an image would help on the blog post. 

do you have GA installed on your website and or blog? what’s your bounce rate?
your website is not trustworthy (appearance wise) is it secure? do your have a BBB rating? how long have you been in business? do you have any testimonials?
for traffic are you uploading to Google shopping? If you’re on a buget you can used a source like http://www.godatafeed.com and submit to Bing, oodle and the find or do it manually – all 3 sites offer free ppc
big opportunity you are missing is not collecting emails (at least I didn’t see a subscribe form on the website only the blog) we deploy 65 – 70 times a years – email gives your biggest bang for your buck. we’re running a Fb sweepstakes now and we’re getting 200 fresh emails a week – that’s pure gold – are your emailing weekly?
on your website – the banners are nicely dotn but i have no idea what you sell – can I buy a band saw? when you click your alt tags are things like decorative/novelties – the spiders don;t know what a “decorative” is

I’d get some images up of what the category represents or a meaningful description 

If you look at panda updates – you’ll want to turn off the “ornaments” category – it’s empty and google wants the end user to have a good search experience and not be disappointed with “empty” categories

@mitch-rezman

I’m very grateful that you have taken the time to look at my website and offer valuable tips on improving it and the traffic. I’m afraid I would not have positive answers for a lot of your questions. That is why I am trying to educate myself on what needs to be done to improve and increase traffic. The site has been up since 2011 without much traffic. I have seen some increase since I have implemented some of the suggestions from people such as yourself. I am still working on some of past recommendations and I will now add your info. Once again thank you and I will definitely put your response to good use.

Thank You

Sherry

inhighcottonmall.com

HI @mitch-rezman – really like the mouseflow – nice addition here.

@mitch-rezman Mitch, you recommended she “turn off” the ornaments category. I must admit that I have categories that I now don’t want to use, but that Google has already indexed. What do YOU mean by “turn off” the category?

I’ve also got categories that I need to change the name a bit, but am afraid to do that for fear of messing up some permanent url structure that I don’t quite understand. Plus, Google’s indexed over 2,500 pages in the past couple of months, so just the sheer numbers kind of  overwhelm me.

Nevertheless, I’m thinking I need to “turn off” some of those indexed categories and change the parent of some of my categories, and organize them a bit better. 

Will my deleting categories that had parents and children mess things up? Is there a way to fix them like I want them and then press some button and magically make it all reset? Yeah, I’m looking for the easy button, lol.

(I’m only half through with cleaning up a massive mess with all my video posts not showing up after a plugin kersplashed with another plugin… hate it when that happens, lol).

So, Sherry, thanks for asking for help on your site, as all this great feedback is helping me, too. Plus, reminding me of certain things I need to go back and fix on my site, too.

Don’t you just love this awesome, helpful crowd here in the Clubs? Great folks!

Robin Carlisle @inhighcottonmall @mitch-rezman @supereb

Try to join more social networks like delicious. stumble. chime.in it will get you more exposure and more traffic. do mutual activities as well.

Hi @mitch-rezman —  

No, I don’t think you’ve missed anything at all.  Overall (from the last report [study] I read – admittedly a couple of months ago) website sales amount to 1% of sales on average (this is all sales combined). This is why although social media is important it doesn’t work for many businesses as well as it works for big box stores. You are doing exceptionally well with your numbers.

Knowing how to connect with local folks (if you don’t ship from online sales) is the key to social media for a local business. This is where you and others with brick and mortar shops can really shine.  If you do ship products (and I think you do) those are still good SM numbers. 

For a greater knowledge base (as you have certainly discovered) a wider range of social media is necessary to understand the beast at it’s best. The same for understanding how business works online. You already know this part anyhowsen from your many helpful remarks. 

Eileen

@atlantarobin I totally agree about SME being an awesome site. The comments and help I have received from everyone has been appreciated more than I could ever describe. I thought it was interesting that you were rethinking your site as far as turning off empty categories. I am doing that very thing today. I’ve been making changes to the site for about the past month, but did some serious evaluation about streamlining. I know everyone uses different software, but in my situation I use ZenCart. I moved around and eliminated some linked items and instead of deleting empty categories I just turned them off. I will be happy to go into more detail, but your situation is probably different and my process may not work for you. Please let me know if I can help. Thanks

@ebusinesssubmit  Thanks for your comment on adding more social sites. I’m still training myself on what few sites that I am a member of. Plus finding the time to maintain them! The one site I am thinking of adding is Pinterest. One of my main problems is figuring out how to market my used and vintage items. If I were just selling t-shirts I could handle that reasonably well. I’m thinking Pinterest would reach more people who would be interested in my products.

@mitch-rezman Thanks for the link to mouseflow….very interesting. I can see your distaste for SEO resources! Right now I am just trying to apply the info from this post with a little SEO reading on the side. I’m beginning to wane from the SEO reading because my head is about to explode. This past week I just took another good hard look at my site and as I explained above I’m working on good old fashion streamlining. Thank you for your help and information.

Sherry Stover

inhighcottonmall.com

Hi sherry,

I’m hesitant to post a reply because, I’m not any kind of an expert ..and don’t even have an ecommerce site to sit alongside our 25+yr bricks and mortar product based business yet..so definitely not an expert .

But, I did set up a little blog last july (under a pseudonym) and I am playing around and educating myself and I am finding that pinterest is responsible for driving a good portion of the traffic to the blog.

I have taken a quick look at your pinterest boards and don’t see any of your website products displayed on your pinterest boards.

In the pininterest admin you can apply for a “pin it” button that will be added to your toolbar. Apply the pin it. Then create boards on pininterest that are the same as your product categories on your website, then go back to your website hit the pin it button on your toolbar and you will be given the option to pin any one of your images on any one of your boards on pininterest…and that essentially is how you market on pinterest.

I have repinned one of your pins (with no repins or likes as yet on your boards) and will let you know as it goes and will promise to repin one/some of your product to help you on your way.

I hope I’m not being too basic here

@jlhilleary

Jonelle – I appreciate your insight on improving my website. To say I have received good advice from the people participating in this club is an understatement! My site may still need work, but all of the information given to me by these contributors has helped me beyond description. I will keep your recommendations in mind as I am going through my website. Thank you for your valuable advice.

Sherry

inhighcottonmall.com