Question: I’m not getting the traffic I would like. Can you tell me what I need to do?
Jim’s Answer:
For advice on “getting” traffic, you might check with one of the SEO experts (Ask The Experts). But perhaps the real issue is the traffic you are getting at your site (www.petbaskets.net) is not buying. That I can help with! I have two comments: it would help if you focused the visitor and romanced your products.
Focus: if you want to sell pet baskets, focus on that and do it the best it can be done. If you want to sell pet toys, do that on another web site or make it less prominent on the current site. It seems to me you have more information and pages on single toys than you have on baskets, which means people looking for baskets can easily get confused and go elsewhere.
For example, the first link on your home page is called Baskets. If you click that link you go to a picture of empty baskets. Not what I am looking for. So I leave. In fact, you have 7 links for all kinds of other items before the 8th link, which is for a Dog Gift Basket. Most visitors will never make it that far. Move that link to the top of the page near the photo, and make the photo clickable to the same page the link is to.
Romance: As part of the above, you need to really sell the baskets by telling a story. Don’t just list the items in the basket, describe why the basket is so interesting and unique, and then describe all the items in it with passion.
For example, what is “The Doggy Bone Cookbook”? Why should somebody care about it or want to own it? You have to give people emotional reasons to buy things or they simply won’t. Tell the story, make them want the item. This can be done with even the most mundane items; if you don’t believe me, check out this description of a pet water bottle.
Jim Novo has nearly 20 years of experience using customer data to increase profits. He is co-author of The Guide to Web Analytics and author of Drilling Down:Turning Customer Data into Profits with a Spreadsheet. If you want more visitors to take action on your web site, try using the free conversion metrics calculator, downloadable here. If you need to sell more to customers while reducing marketing expenses, get the first nine chapters of the Drilling Down book free at http://www.drillingdownbook.com.
