How can I increase traffic to my online retail store?

There’s a lot of nonsensical suggestions out there about how to drive traffic to a website, especially eCommerce online retail stores, by generating fake clicks. There’s something dubious about trying to beat the system. And I hate it.

The problem with simulated clicks is that they are not real. Unreal in the sense that they are generated by a computer script/program. Search engines like Google will detect that at some point; and punish you severely. Any gains that may have been made by cheating will be lost. This could be detrimental to your business. The question you must answer is - what’s the quality of such clicks? Ranking highly on search engines does not necessarily guarantee higher sales.

Best 4 Suggestions on How to Grow Traffic to your Website

Firstly, it is pertinent to note that successful flow of traffic to your online store is highly dependent on whether the site is optimised for search engines. Search engine optimisation (SEO) basically requires that you place keywords at designated places all over your site. These are the words or phrases that your customers are likely to type into a search engine to find information about. And hopefully find you at the top of the result list.

Keywords also play special roles on social media platforms. Twitter uses hashtags (#) to group discussions that are similar thereby making them easier to be found. They are also used on Facebook, Instagram, etc. Hashtags complement website SEO.

Your real business goal has to be to drive sales revenue growth. Getting fixated on how to increase traffic to online retail store may well be an exercise in futility. This is because getting to your site does not guarantee a sale. Nor does ranking No.1 on search engine result page. You should therefore focus on how to attract a sale; not how to attract a click.

1. Identify 10 immediate competitors and copy the key good things they do. You should try to improve them if/when you can and refine your process to suit your own immediate business goals.

2. Establish your brand by proving that you are real and there to stay. This is very important if you are a new business. A good way of achieving this is by demonstrating that you aren’t just there to sell stuff to people, but want to provide value. Think about it, how do you feel when people just shove sales/marketing campaigns in your face? Its off putting, right?

3. Reach out to your target audience in a very appealing and realistic way. Attention span tends to be short so you need to keep your communication short, simple and straight to the point. Sometimes you do have to provide detailed information for people that are so inclined. Blogging is useful for this purpose. 

4. Use social media efficiently. Do the free stuff first. Do some basic research ab initio to understand how things work. It is always good to be-in-the-know. Let me tell you what I did for HetoGrow that has worked so far. Notice how I use keywords below and link them to where I want to point you to. This is a demonstration of what you need to do.

Consequently, it makes sense to first understand your business and local market. Then design a suitable marketing campaign policy that is practicable and easy to implement. This should include targeted advertising that focuses on your immediate market. To drive traffic you must first lay a good foundation for the traffic to flow on. Here are some suggestions

Six Free Ways to Increase Traffic to Online Retail Store

Below I summarise 6 ways to drive real traffic to your website for free. The key areas and methods/platforms have their nuances that you need to be aware of. So, do some research on them.

1. Backlinks work best to improve your ranking when they come from different sources. Set up as many social media accounts as quickly as is possible and get them verified. Chances are your customers will be on a few of them but also have their preferences. Link your accounts to your retail store. You get active backlinks to your store and this will increasingly drive traffic.

2. Link up your social media accounts to each other. Brand them with similar images and colour codes as on your website. This will make you stand out and your customers will readily know they are at the right place.

3. Different social media platforms have different rules. Find out what works best for each and use as appropriate. For instance, on Facebook I can write long posts with a combination of moving and still pictures. I joined several groups where I believe my potential customers are. When I post updates on my Facebook fan page I also share on the groups, to reach more people where I also encourage them to Like/Follow & Share the post and page. I also include a Call to Action, which is what I want readers to do, i.e., click on links and buttons that direct traffic to the online store.

4. My Quora account has been a blessing. Quora also allows you to use a combination of videos and still images. Plus, you get backlinks that drive real traffic to your online retail store. I joined discussion groups that serve my purpose, just like on Facebook. I answer various questions on topics I have certain expertise in. Naturally, I add backlinks to HetoGrow online retail shop and give good examples to buttress my point. I get upvotes and clicks as well. One of the benefits of this is that answering questions gives you great ideas to generate your own content, which you can share across your social media accounts. There’s a good chance that other people will be interested in the question and click to read your answer. This results in increased reach and more real traffic to your website.

5. Adopting similar approach, you can also gain a larger reach and get even more real backlinks/traffic from Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Google+, Google My Business site, YouTube, Blogger/Blogspot and other tools within the suite of Google platforms. The beauty of all this is that one post can be shared across all of them. The post could be read and be reshared by more real people. Try to post at about the same day/time. And do it when your audience are most likely to see your post - on way to work and catching up with news, during lunch, on way back home. This will vary at the weekend or bank/public holidays. Each time your post gets shared, it serves as a recommendation from people interested to even more people that are likely to be interested. And you get larger generic post reach and increased potential traffic to your site. This should tell you one thing - your post should have great content, be apt, attractive, likeable and shareable. Easier said than done. But, it's achievable. Just start and grow.

6. You can also do a press release about your store or specific product. It should contain your website so that readers know exactly where to go on the internet. Ensure you hyperlink your URL to your website. Bloggers who decide to share your press release on the sites may do so verbatim, including your backlink. If they do, you’ll get traffic from several domains by real people. If they remove the hyperlink before sharing it, you’ll still get free exposure. You just have to make your press release an interesting read. Remember, its not about you, its about the value you provide to your customers. That's the idea you need to promote.

Content is Key - Make it count

Your content is the material you put out there for people to see and it should reflect your SEO keywords. Generating good content takes time and requires creativity and ingenuity. Chances are other people are already doing what you want to do. A good example is your daily bread. You go to the grocery store and you see a variety of breads. But, fundamentally, they are all the same. What makes you choose one over the others? A further example is international air travel. The carriers use same or similar planes. Why do some people choose to fly one airline over the rest?

The key question to bear in mind is - how do you stand out from the rest? The answer lies in the purpose and style. Not your purpose but your readers’. Your target market must see value in your content and accept it as solution to their problem. They’ll like you and want to be associated with you. That’s trust; and hence they’ll buy from you. Result!

For instance, I’m responding to your question; so I’m serving your purpose. Correct? If you like my response and appreciate the time I’ve taken to help you out, chances are you’ll give me an upvote, a Like or a Share, right? Yeah, so go ahead and do just that. And that's my purpose served. Result!

Remember to direct your advert/posts to the people that need what you are selling. So, refine your advert/posts to reach your target audience. Be clear about your objectives too. Your objective per post/advert could be one or a combination of traffic to website, Like/Follow, Share, Comment, etc. 
Decide on what you want to achieve and be absolutely clear about that. However, you need to be subtle in communicating that. If your post is a blog, your objective could be a bit more exotic. It is another means of getting multiple backlinks from different sources.

For HetoGrow, I set up a blog site on Tumblr and Blogger which is owned by Google. You can imagine how this will contribute to multiple backlinks and search engine ranking. One of my most viewed and shared posts across all my social media platforms is - Phone battery runs down quickly: do I need a power bank? This article is my answer to a question someone asked. I've been asked this question in different forms but the answer is the same. It addresses issues so many people have and it continues to drive traffic to the HetoGrow eCommerce website.

Conclusion

My one-line-summary is - if you make yourself useful, people will come to you. And that’s quality traffic that is highly convertible into sales revenue.

Hope this has been helpful. If you want further help, you can contact me directly for targeted assistance.

Dave Ebi is a Most Viewed Power Bank Writer on Quora.