Web savvy Internet shoppers want two things when they go to a site - a deal and good content, and not necessarily in that order.
There is always a sale somewhere on the Internet.
With the e-tail market take over by Walmart.
com, Amazon.
com, and Ebay.
com, it is next to impossible to compete solely on price.
Thus, content has become a big draw.
Website content should entertain, educate, or both to keep customers coming back and sharing messages with their friends.
In addition to your website content, there are a variety of channels that you may use to engage customers and increase web traffic.
Research Before you begin writing wonderful prose and importing fantastic images, do your research.
Although the Internet is available to people all over the world, you are not targeting everyone on the planet.
If you try, your business will fail from lack of message and resources.
Part of your research should also include a Google keyword search to find the words that your readers are likely to use.
If you search the Internet for the Google keyword tool, you will find a link to it.
Enter words you think your customers likely use to search for your product or service.
Then use the search result words throughout your writing.
This is optimizing your website content with keywords.
It should give you some insights into your customers.
Understanding your target audience helps you write better website content.
Ask yourself questions about your customers.
What does a visitor expect from your site? What do you want customers to take away from their visit? Why should they return to your site? After you have done an analysis of your target customer, be clear on what the objective is for your content.
Are you trying to build a community of followers? Do you want to establish yourself as an expert? Are you educating the consumer about your product? If it is the latter, clearly let your readers know what products and services your ecommerce business has to offer.
Frame your article so that it addresses the needs of your audience and accomplishes its marketing objectives.
Articles One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is to share your expertise in articles.
Create accounts and submit your articles for free to article submission sites that are crawled and indexed by Google such as EzineArticles.
com, ArticlesBase.
com, Amazines.
com and GoArticles.
com.
Write articles on topics related to your business and/or that are of interest to your customer base.
Articles are typically 300 to 500 words.
Some article submission sites allow up to 5000 words.
Don't forget to optimize your articles with keywords that your customers use during their searches.
Blog Blogs keep you focused on fresh ideas for your business because you have to generate new content to develop a following.
A blog should have an opinion.
Maybe the opinion is schools do not have the resources, so we need supplemental products.
Or, another blog might be passionate that the Internet is the best place on the planet to do business, so don't wait - educate and motivate.
Regular blogging is also important to increase your search engine rankings.
If you cannot blog daily, try to blog two to three times a week.
Blogging frequently and adding new content sends a message to search engines that your site's content is original and a good investment of their users' time.
Blog entries do not have to be as long as articles.
But, they should be of informational value or entertaining to the reader.
You have to give your readers a reason to return to your site.
Original Content Website content should be original.
It must use language that relates to the reader and makes them want to know more.
Many times web content managers copy the manufacturer's text to their website.
But, this practice is not enticing for your reader or Google search rankings.
As a Google webmaster said, "If you are a shopper, would you rather visit a site with boiler plate product specs or a site that has value ads?" It can be a daunting task to rewrite product text for hundreds of products, especially if you are small business.
But, think of the old adage.
"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
" Segment your products into categories.
Start with your most profitable or searched for products.
Plan how much time you have each day or week for rewrites and you can gradually change your product content.
As always, content should be optimized with keywords beneficial to the user.
The content should be well-balanced.
If you have done a good keyword analysis, you will use those words strategically throughout your content.