i would  love to hear   some  best practices  for website promotion  OUTSIDE OF   working on the  tekk parts….. on mine i try to   post keywords  monthly, i  try to get links    but am only on  2 industry forums  right now,  i link  from my facebook once in a while and its in my profile of  course,  ,  i try to  get in as many authentic   directories  as  possible, and  the site is on all the paper that  leaves  the store and mentionied  or  shown  on all the   ads  ……also  what   would be  good  views for a local  place like mine?  my statcounter says i get  from 50 to 80 views a day….but i dont know the  benchmarks…

.our  site is   over 10 yrs old…and the serps are  great…[robins  word]…but  what else should  i do? 

looking forward  to   your  insights…

Hi Ann, here’s a link to 17 free local business services that will help get you more exposure to your website.

Hi @annfurnivall —

It’s because you are regional and not national that you should be doing much better with your terms and new ones as well.  

Ann, you don’t JUST sell antiques, you sell furniture, lamps, cabinets, refurished goods, country decor, collectibles, gifts, used furniture, bars, china cabinets, hutches, garden and lawn ornaments, and any terms you can think of for household decor: signs, buckets — everything.  Why you’d want to cloister your store to one category is simply beyond me. The potential of your store is lost if you only concentrate on one area. 

Sure the home page could be and should be “antiques” but also is could fall under “country decor” and other pages should stand out ON THEIR OWN for what the goods are.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have dozens, or hundreds of different search terms for your website?  Each page is a potential gold mine all on it’s own.

I saw that someone in another thread tried to lead you in the right direction (as I have several times) and that is that your website needs an overhaul by someone who knows how to build a REAL website structure; how to research keywords for your business; how to make it so people STAY on the website to look for what they want. Organization of a website it not something just anyone can knock off with the potential you have there. And I’m gonna say this too, if at all possible don’t go for a CMS (content management system) site.  

People could go to your website and PayPal you money to hold an item for them (a down payment) until they can make the trip to your store.  There are so many options I can’t begin to list them all here. 

Ann – I’ll make an example to show you what I mean and post a link so you can see the potential in the numbers that Google has to show us. 

Back Later.

Eileen 

Hi @annfurnivallWhat do you consider tekk? I’m assuming you mean anything you am do right away without any real training?There are infinite ways to connect with customers – a better starting point is working out what your aim is. I find it usually falls into one of the following:- being discovered by people who are no yet customers. - converting prospects (people who know about your business) into paying customers - converting paying customers into repeat customers - converting competitor customers into your customersEach of those requires a slightky different set of tools. Once you pin this down we can probably be a bit more helpful.

hi  mat…im  going for all the  good  goals  you mentioned.!!

…  we are  very  active on the internet.. our site is over  10 yrs old and we are on the first page of  google   for our  main words……im not interested in a website  revamp…

im asking about   more  ideas  to  spread our  website in organic ways.

things like we already do with our  website   like……..getting in  most of  the  good list   GLEN  llisted…. joining  many directories   involving   antiques and tourism.,,keepi ng our  site out there  with  our email list[4000] monthly   our  facebook page [3900]  .our pinterest  posts that  come  from the store,     and   having it on  all  the paper that  goes out of the store…and  on a few  forums in our   realm   where  they let  you put your website  in  your signature…..and in all our  newspaper and  radio  and  tv advertizing……all this  is  working  for us…..

i just dont want to miss anything…. so   any ideas  for me?   we are  brick and mortar only and dont  sell online…and  dont w ant to sell online…

@annfurnivall
“hi  mat…im  going for all the  good  goals  you mentioned.!!”I always recommend that businesses have a plan for each of these. It seems like you’re doing the awareness activities really well. Perhaps your attention should then shift to converting your traffic into paying customers? 
You don’t sell online, but are working to build traffic and interest in your products then I’d suggest you need to look at your website as an information piece., and/or an email capturing machine. I think it’s great that you’ve made the decision to not sell online. So many people feel like they have to. Antiques are not a commodity – it’s so much better to market your business to get people into the store, where they can look and feel the products.
You’re doing all these great things in terms of building traffic to your website – but what do you do with people once they get there?
They see some pictures of antiques – all the relevant contact and location information is there. This is great. I’d be looking really closely at whether the website is working for you. What is your ratio of website visitors to email inquiries, for example? 
Without knowing the numbers it’s hard to comment, but there are a lot of people that put so much effort into pouring more prospects into the funnel, but not enough into making sure a higher percentage come out the other end. An efficient website can improve the profitability of your business in a big, big way.
Obviously you will get some people that visit the website, like what they see and pick up the phone. But what about the people that like what they see but aren’t ready to buy right now? How do they easily add their name to a mailing list?
You have a mailing list of 4000, which is excellent for a small business. I think your website should provide a place for interested visitors to supply their email address to you.
It sounds like you’ve got just about every traffic-gathering activity covered. My suggestion is to focus on nurturing that traffic into prospects and customers using your website as the tool.
(and yes, I’ll put it out there that my company creates and designs websites. This is not a pitch for service, please don’t see it as anything like that).
Thanks for the welcome.