How to increase traffic

[iany]

Hi guys

Have taken up the cudgels to carry out some -marketing on this site The Swipe | Guitar string cleaner as, although performance in Google is reasonable the traffic isn't good enough.

we have started the on-page stuff and have validated the somewhat over coded html which I inherited so will see what the effect that has for a wider range of key phrases.
We are having videos prepared for inclusion in site and for submission to social networking sites and will also bookmark this to same networking sites.

Adword campaign started but I will be finessing that.

Any thoughts as to how to drive this even further forward?

Best

Ian

[Jeremy80]

Their problem is that they have a decent product that nobody searches for. This is a challenge for seo professionals who are used to just targeting keywords that get lots of searches. You should try to get more content added to that website so that they can target related keywords such as any keyword with 'guitar strings'. Or how about more content about the other instruments this can be used for? They need some decent rankings on some high volume related searches.

[intelinside]

I agree with Jeremy80. You will need to make content pages with relevant keywords with good search volume.

Social bookmarking, directory inclusions will certainely help but you are optimizing a product which is not a well-known item so add few related keywords and you will see some increase hopefully.

[iany]

Thanks all.

This is in line with our own thinking. We have added content under the Flash - through the perfectly legal SWFObject in case some folks switch off their Flash and that is keyword rich and with good sematic layout.

The other pages have fair bit content but perhaps we need to beef that up a bit.

Onwards and upwards.

Cheers

[zenfort]

I highly recommend using social networks - face book, Myspace. As said before musicians probably aren't searching for it. It needs word of mouth buzz.
I have a friend that just started marketing a product for guitarists that potential customers would not be searching for... I work with a lot of musicians so I'm trying to hook him up through people I know in the biz.

namaste

[jannmirch]

I agree with what the others have posted. Being that you are targeting a very specific demo here, you want to start hanging out where they are hanging out in terms of social media. And sharing information about your product. Creating pages where you can invite others to join and keep up to date will be helpful in creating some buzz.

[iany]

Originally Posted by jannmirch

...... you want to start hanging out where they are hanging out in terms of social media. And sharing information about your product. Creating pages where you can invite others to join and keep up to date will be helpful in creating some buzz.

Cool,

Been speaking to client about that very thing. Seems we are on right track.

All suggestions are great. Thanks.

[murphypj]

Originally Posted by jannmirch

I agree with what the others have posted. Being that you are targeting a very specific demo here, you want to start hanging out where they are hanging out in terms of social media. And sharing information about your product. Creating pages where you can invite others to join and keep up to date will be helpful in creating some buzz.

I would agree with the social media thing, from an SEO pov, if you mean del.icio.us, digg etc. Not so much the 'interactive' social media sites ( FB, MS etc ), unless you want to take out ads, and even then...

My guitarist website has been around for 10 years. I don't have a sales product, but much experience in marketing other good guitar products to about 4,000 daily visitors and a subscriber list of about 5,000. The big players would have many times these volumes.

I would suggest hanging out with the main players in the guitar resource arena is, establishing relationships, and getting them to promote your site. The low cost precludes sales based affiliation, but webmasters/owners in the guitar genre will appreciate the usefulness of your product and may well be prepared to promote it, both to their site visitors and mail list subscribers on a fixed fee or banner-click basis.

One of my partner sites have an offer to market guitar products to genuine double-opt-in subscriber lists in the 6-digit area for about $100 per month. I'd be happy to make the introduction if this is a direction you think might be a useful addition to your marketing. I might be interested in a text or banner promotion myself, as I think this looks like a product guitar players would want, and it's affordable for even the young learner.

Either way, a few minutes Googling 'learn guitar', 'guitar player', 'guitar blog'... and cherrypicking sites who's market matches your own, and a few dozen personal emails will introduce you to the big players in the online guitar market. I'm sure at least some of them will be interested in promoting The Swipe.

[iany]

Thanks Murphpj

You find me doing the "cherry Picking " right now. I would be interested ins a link up with your site. Ok, if I PM you and we can discuss off forum ?
Happy to call you too.

cheers

Ian

[murphypj]

Originally Posted by iany

Thanks Murphpj

You find me doing the "cherry Picking " right now. I would be interested ins a link up with your site. Ok, if I PM you and we can discuss off forum ?
Happy to call you too.

cheers

Ian

NP Ian, you can use the contact link on my site

PJ

[explorador]

I think you need to avoid flash based websites, or at least create some html pages, some juice for SE. Flash pages are hard to rank well.

I would suggest you to create original content for other sites... I mean, search and sites that are in the same field and have good traffic. Contact them for a link exchange AND article publishing. You could write a "guest post" with your link on it. IT works better than just a link.

They could charge your for that, but some sites are SO hungry for new and original content that might do it for free.

[iany]

Originally Posted by explorador

I think you need to avoid flash based websites, or at least create some html pages, some juice for SE. Flash pages are hard to rank well.

Thanks for input, but the thinkig here is somewhat out of date. It is perfectly possible to rank Flash sites using the SWFObject protocol. I have been doing that successfully for some time. Page 1 Google with Flash sites is reasonably straightforward.

There is also a fair amount of content on other pages other than home page which are key phrase rich.

Believe me when say that Google rankings are not the issue. It is building the traffic which is important and that is more than just having SE juice as you put it.

Cheers

Ian

[webgheek]

I always submit my new entries on squidoo, and its one of the most effective ways to get traffic and get indexed quickly by search engines, after that I'm submitting my pages to social bookmarking sites.

after submitting my sites over these bookmarking sites, I usually turn over to "Comment Hunt", its a free do follow search engine and get easy backlinks from doing creative comments.

[rennee]

Focus on onpage optimization. Try to add quality content with targeted keywords.

Also do social bookmarking, article submission , press release, forum posting.

These things will help you to increase your traffic.

[iany]

Originally Posted by rennee

...
Also do social bookmarking, article submission , press release, forum posting.

These things will help you to increase your traffic.

That is in hand. Video and submission to YouTube etc in next week or so.

Currently laboriously working my way through the link building too.

Thanks all for suggestions.

Cheers

Ian

[dzinestand]

for increasing your targeted traffic just go for Classified submission and Group Posting This two things brings you lot of explores.

[iany]

Originally Posted by dzinestand

............ just go for Classified submission and Group Posting This two things brings you lot of explores.

Not sure what you mean here.

[Bernd]

I believe dzinestand suggests submission to directories and postings in forums and communities.

[williamc]

You want honest or condescending?

Let's just be honest, and maybe a tad blunt.

While many of the above posts will help you in other marketing aspects besides seo, the question was about how to get more traffic from search. A couple people touched on some things, but the underlying thing I see clearly standing out here is that while the SERPS are good for the keywords chosen, they are not delivering much traffic. This tells me simply that you did a poor job on your keyword research picking poorly performing keywords, and should first go back to the beginning and do it right this time, before you lose the client.

[ericajoieake]

you can try tweeter it can drive quality traffics and also you have to participate in related online community like forum to introduce your products.

[iany]

Originally Posted by williamc

You want honest or condescending?

Let's just be honest, and maybe a tad blunt.
............
This tells me simply that you did a poor job on your keyword research picking poorly performing keywords, and should first go back to the beginning and do it right this time, before you lose the client.

We did consider that, of course, but we believe that throughout the site we have incuded most of the relevant key words for the market. Nothing is perfect and we tweak on a monthly basis. As it happens, our latest review of analytics and stats would suggest that traffic has trebled in last couple of months. Still a long way to go but maybe it is just patience that is needed.

cheers

Ian

[sujancsecuet]

First research on keywords and try to find Keyword popularity of your theme than optimize your site with Highly popular keywords.

[innominds]

If you want instant traffic, then go with sites like Twitter, Digg, Stumbleupon etc. If the option is slow and steady then SEO it.

[Janna122003]

If your niche has less searches then you should try other viral marketing from social bookmarking, social networking and get lots of links from related sites.

[genie.liam]

Focus on On-Page Optimization first. It deals with the proper use of keywords (you can use some of the tools to check keywords), meta tags, title tags, alt-tags (when describing images), and description.. Then, thats the time you can do Off-Page Optimization.. It deals with building links..

[David Michael]

go to the site that has high traffics and link to them, another thing is optimize for a high search volume keyword.

[sherone]

If you need quality traffic try for this article marketing, blogs, social bookmarking etc .
If you need automated traffice easyhits4u, trafficg are the options.