Hi, Does anyone out there have any tips for increasing web site traffic,  I have a website but really need more visitors.  I've tried everything I can think of but would welcome any advise.

 Karen

 I was having the same problem until I started with an add on Google using their pay per view add words. I pay for each hit but my sales went way up. Got to keep the words you use to be very specific and no frills in my opinion. Good Luck.

You may want to try making your own pages on MySpace, FaceBook and other social networking sites that link to your (sales) site.  There are SO many of these networking sites...!

Write blogs thatt relate to what you make and sell.  Be sure to attach the appropriate "tags" so you can be found.

May take some effort and some time, but it does work to help drive traffic to your site.

Hi Karen!

It's true that creating a MySpace page and posting links on your Facebook profile can help.  You can also post your URL to Delicous and Digg.  I highly recommend using Twitter to post updates of your activities - find people in the community and friends that you want to follow, and they will see your links as well. 

Blogging about your site and related activities is a great way to get your links found by search engines.  If you don't do it already, you should submit your URLs to some of the top search engines once every 4-6 weeks.  Here are the pages you need to go to for the 3 big ones:  Google, Yahoo, MSN.

I also highly recommend creating a Squidoo page about your site, as well as your other interests.  If you create a page with good content, it can be a great landing site for people who are interested in your products.  My Squidoo group Beads and Jewels has a list of How-To's that can get you started.  There are also some really great Squidoo pages (called lenses) about getting website traffic that may help you.  Just do a search or check out the SEO and Affiliate Marketing section.

I hope this helps you - good luck!

-Morti

Thanks so much everybody, you've all been so helpful !  I'm running a google adwords thingy at the moment but I'll review my keywords, I've just joined facebook (on your advise) and am just getting my head around it (a friend I haven't spoken to for 5 years contacted me through facebook so an unexpected bonus - thanks).  I haven't even heard of Twitter and Squidoo so I'll definitely have a go at them and although I always swore I was not the sort of person to have a blogg I'll have to eat my words

Thanks again

Karen

migs:

I always swore I was not the sort of person to have a blogg I'll have to eat my words...

You'd be surprised by how fun it is!  Most blogging sites like Google's Blogger let you add all kinds of custom thingies, including affiliate adds, logos, pictures and slideshows.  And for some reason, it's one of the best ways to get traffic.  Any links you put right in your posts get bumped up the ranks in search engines.  I linked to one of my sites on my blog the other day, and it's now the only one getting clicks directly from Google!  Not to mention that lots of people browse for blogs, and if they like what you're writing, they'll probably check out what your selling.  If you do start a blog, once you're happy with the layout and have a few posts, claim it on Technorati.  This is a way for blog readers to bookmark you and give your blog even more 'cred'.

Good luck with all your efforts!

-Morti

 I have a Yahoo 360 page, a Multiply page, a Cafemom page, an MDJunction page, Facebook, Squido..............

On any of them that I can change the background image, I use a picture of a piece of jewelry (with my web address watermarked across it).

For all of them, I plaster pictures of my pieces all over my pages.  I make my profile picture one of my jewelry, a signature pictures something different........

And I did the crazy thing and joined Trafficswarm and Webbizinsider.  Most of the traffic that shows up from those sources just clicks through but I have had some traffic that "parked".  The downfall to those are that you either have to do some major clicking through other's pages (they are traffic trading sites) or you pay for membership and the right not to have to spend time clicking.

Other than that, I have car door magnets, window "sticker", business cards, a business credit card with my business name on it..................

 Hi guys,

 I never thought about increasing traffic by blogging and linking in to your site, but it's quite clever. Just be careful how much stuff you post on your blog versus how much you post on your website itself. You don't want to be replacing your primary site with your blog, or people will be browsing your blog instead of your site, and may completely miss your site! And remember that google (and other search engines) rank based on textual content as well as inward-pointing links on other sites. So if all your text is in your blog, your blog will be rising through the ranks instead of your site!

My beading website, 3Dbeading.com, slowly became successful over time. You will find that over time, other beading websites will link to your website on the basis of its own merit. On the web, time is your greatest asset to ensuring your success. I now get about 1000 visitors per day through my website, and I never blogged or digged.

 By the way, if you are in the business of selling your beadwork, I totally don't mind showing some of your work on my site's Beading Market, which I'm offering to beadwork sellers for free to get some exposure to their target audience. The market is already up so you can see what it's like (through that link).

 Good luck!

Allegra

Welcome Allegra!  Nice to see you here.  I have pointed one or two people from here towards your site.  In fact, there is a question posted now where I was going to look for the link to your site again today, so I'm glad you posted.

I'm glad to see you got the piggie up!  Thanks for all of the time you put in to give us free patterns.

Cat

Hi, i just created my site http://skyjewelry.weebly.com/beaded-bracelets.html

Im not sure if this joining facebook, twitter etc stuff will work. Although my brother who is a web designer says the same thing, but i dont see how that would work. Facebook i can do as im already a member, but sites like twitter and squidoo. How do i get people to look at those sites.

 Im hoping this whole new business idea works for me, as i've tried many things to work from home. This good be fun and a great learning experience for me, making jewellery, but selling is my main focus here. I want to be a custom jewelry maker. Any ideas, on how i can promote my site better.

Hi Shetal

I've followed much of the advice kindly given here and although I am still having problems with low hits on my website I seem to be coming up in google searches better than before so it does seem to be working but it's taking a long time.

When I first setup my website I used a web analizer to see how many visitors I got and the numbers were huge but I think very misleading, now I use Google Dashboard Analytics which seems to give me a realistic figures and where they came from (referrals), what they looked at, how long they stayed etc so you can see where it is maybe worth putting more effort into.  I don't know if anyone else uses this and what they think about it ?

Good luck with your site and as you say any tips of what works gratefully received - Karen

 I agree completely about google analytics. I use it as well. It's a God send. As are most products and services from google. The amount of information it provides is unreal. I couldn't believe it. For each and every visitor to your website, you can see where they are in the world (what city) on a map, you can see how long they stayed on your site (down to the seconds), how many pages they visited, which pages they visited, etc. You can see what pages are most popular, what page is your top entry page (which page do people come to first, maybe not your home page! which tells you to make that other page your home page or fix up your home page), which page is your top exit page (which page do the most people decide to close your site and leave from, which also tells you to fix up that page 'cause it's not keeping your customers), what are the average total page views, visits, unique visitors, average time spent on site, average number of pages visited, most popular browsers used to see your site, most popular screen resolutions, operating system, etc. It's ridiculous. It took me a few hours to see it all the first time I installed it.

The only disadvantage is that it's a pain in the neck to "install". You have to paste a piece of code into each and every page of your entire site. I recommend using a search and replace program to auto-insert it across all pages. Good luck!

 Allegra

3Dbeading.com - Free 3D beading patterns

Hey, quick question. Honestly how long does it take for people to start buying from your site. I mean it hasnt been long since my site has been up, but im a very impatient person.

I want to create more and i currently am, but soon i will ran out of budget if noone buys anything. Can anyone help.

Here is the lastest stuff i have created

http://skyjewelry.weebly.com/handcrafted-earrings--necklaces.html

It takes a lot of hard work and better yet alot of patience. It can take up to 7 or 8 months before you get noticed. You need to make sure you are listed on all the major search engines and get as many links as you can. Email people, call them etc etc., who might have a relevant site that would assist yours. If you live in an area that tourists visiting, contact or email your tourism associations. You want to of course, get high quality links. Be wary and review there sites well.  Make sure you have all the right keywords and everything on your site is up to date and working well with the major search engines. It is an ongoing adventure. You may also try buying mailing lists and designing your own postcards and just sending them to everyone you know and people on mailing lists.  Take out ads in local newspapers and leave your card anywhere you can.  Also, drink a lot of coffee, because it is a ton of work.

www.tearsofthesea.com

 It does take a while before your website will be picked-up by the search engines and re-classified in their search results.

I looked at your code, and you have good code and keywords. It looks like you've only had the domain since 2007, so you should be starting to show-up in the search engines better.

There are scads and scads of internet promotion things you can do via the internet. A lot of it is time consuming on your part, but in the end your results will pay-off.

 I am not sure if you are doing the web page yourself, or it is a template, or you have someone else doing it, but there are some aesthetics that could be worked-on to make the site look a little better (and more professional). Email me at blurplesuburban@uniquebeadedjewelry.com (Or through this forum) and I'll go more into detail about a few things I noticed. (I don't think it is appropriate to talk about someone's work in an open forum).

I also suggest putting your site into places like http://www.submitexpress.com/ , or do a search for "Free SEO" in a search engine. Be sure to use the quotes in the search, and it will find that exact phrase on people's websites.

Also, do a search of peoples websites that are similiar to what you are selling and see why their site is doing better than yours.

We have been around since 1995, and I have spent a lot of time doing SEO. Our website is usually on the first page of any search engine, if not within the top 5. We are known best for our Beaded Hummingbird, so typing that in will almost always take you directly to us. (There are also 20-something other domain names that all point to our website).

Bead & Button magazine also did our Hummingbird Pattern in one of their issues, as well as I believe it is in one of the books you can buy from them. This will also get your name out there. Think of it as free advertising! They will put your website URL on your pattern if they use it, and that definitely will get traffic to you. FMG (Fire Mountain Gems) has also used several of our finished pieces as the backdrop to their ads. (Usually the full back cover, and glossy!). Glossy pictures cost MAJOR $$$.

 We looked into placing an ad in magazines. But we thought that it was WAY too expensive for what we allow in our budget for advertising. The best things I would say we've devoted our time and effort to is Google AdWords and the Yahoo one. (I don't do that part of our website, so I am not sure what the Yahoo one is called).

Anyway............................I can be long-winded, lol.

Just a few thoughts I had that I though might be useful to you.

Have a great day & Happy Beading!

BeadShark

One thing I did was buy one of  those For Dummy books, it was SEO for Dummy's.  It was really helpful, lots of info on where to get links, trade links, how search engines work, etc.  You might see if you can pick up a used copy of that on Amazon.

Of course I just switched shopping cart systems so I lost a lot of my ranking.  But now that it's all switched over, (I have over 2,000 kinds of beads, findings and books that I had to weigh individually and move to the new system.. what a PAIN.  lol), I can start working on my SEO again.

Hope that helps a little.

Carrie

www.djbeads.com