Advertising online Store

One way to very quickly increase your web presence is by using pay-per-click advertising to have your business appear prominently in search engine results. This is probably the quickest way to promote your business, but is also probably the most expensive. You will need to budget carefully and ensure you make the most of any paid ads.

• Pay-per-click ads are sold by auction so they can get very expensive very quickly.
• If you do get one, create a strong landing page for people who click through.
• Ensure you have the systems in place to analyse the amount of traffic and custom you receive through your ad. You need this information to evaluate whether it was worth the investment.

Join listing sites. Listing sites are essentially online databases which make large numbers of companies easily accessible and searchable.There are a number of major listing sites which are likely to appear higher up in search engine results than your own site. For this reason it's important to maximise your presence on these heavily frequented sites. Many listing sites are free to join and can direct a lot of traffic your way so you should take advantage of this.

• You may already have been added to listings and review sites by a customer, but by taking charge of your presence you can control how your business is presented.
• See which listings sites are most prominent in your field of business simply by searching online and writing down which ones come high in the results.

Connect with web affiliates. You can join up with other businesses and develop mutually beneficial relationships. Web affiliates will typically provide links to each other's stores on their web pages to help direct traffic to your affiliates. This can be particularly effective when the online stores have something in common or sell complementary goods.

• For example if you sell hair care products you could share links with a store that sells skin care products, and recommend each other's goods.
• Only do this with a company you like and trust who share a similar ethos to you.
• You can expand these relationships into shared offers and deals if they prove effective and bring in traffic.
• As well as sharing links, affiliates can agree a deal to sell each other's products on their site.

Method 2

Optimising Your Store for Search Engines

1. SEO is a collection of techniques which increase the chances of your site being high up in search results on search engines. Rather than paying for a more prominent position, the practice of SEO can drastically help increase the profile and presence of your online store. It's free and effective, but it does take a little time to understand the principles of SEO and apply them to your website. Major search engines provide guides to how they work for those wishing to optimise their results.
   • SEO is necessary primarily because of the ubiquity of search engines. Think about how you search for something online.
   • Ask yourself how often you click through past the first couple of pages of results.
2. You probably think you already have a decent idea of the key words that bring traffic to your website, but it's best not to leave any stone unturned when doing SEO. Use online tools to determine which words bring traffic to your store. There are a few different ways to measure key words.
   • Key word frequency refers to how often a word appears in the title or description of a website. Be aware though, if you have stuffed your site full of key words it may be judged spam.
   • The key word weight is the number of key words in comparison to the total number of words. By having less text on a page, you can achieve a heavier key word weight.
   • The positioning of words in relation to each other is known as key word proximity. For example, if you are selling "black socks", you will outrank someone selling "black cotton socks" if the search term is "black socks".
   • Having your key words high up on a page and prominent in headings and the first paragraph of text gives you a good key word prominence score. Similarly, having the words in titles or links can equal good key word placement.
3. Once you have a clear picture of the best key words for driving traffic to your site, and how to include them in your web copy and site design it's time to put this into practice. Give your website a thorough audit revising main sections to make sure they are optimised for key words in frequency, weight, position, prominence and placement.
   • Remember to do this in a considered and careful way. If you load it down with key words out of context your site may be deemed spam and ignored.
   • Put key words in tags, titles, links and high up in copy.