Furniture > The Four Smartest Ways to Spiral Your Website Traffic

The Four Smartest Ways to Spiral Your Website Traffic

by: Cari Haus

People are paying pretty significant dollars for website traffic these days.
Pay-per-click charges of $1-10 are not uncommon for top search terms.
Multiply that by the 300 unique visitors per day that my log furniture website gets, and you are talking at least $300 per day, or $9,000 per month?depending on how many days are in the month.

?There Must Be Some Easier Way?

While pay-per-click may be a good business model for your website, there?s nothing like free traffic to lay the foundation.
My log furniture site used to get 100 unique visitors per day before it started fetching in 200, and now 300 on an average basis.
The personal goal here is 1,000 unique daily visitors?but 10,000 would also be welcomed!

Following are some of the best ways we have found to grow website traffic:

#1:
Website Optimization

A local business magazine recently ran an article calling SEO (search engine optimization) the equivalent of ?hocus-pocus?.
The author of the article, who apparently worked for an SEO firm, described optimization as a somewhat ?shady? activity that?s impossible to get a handle on.
I say ?Baloney!?

SEO is not pseudo-science.
It is a very tangible and real way to increase website traffic.
If you haven?t taken care of the basics?e.g. making sure your website has a relevant title, focuses on the right keywords, avoids practices that are disdained by the search engines, etc., you can be sure that, once found, your website will not rank as highly (or get as much traffic) as it otherwise would.
Begin your traffic-garnering efforts by making sure your website is up-to-snuff.

#2:
Publish Helpful, Relevant Content

Publishing helpful articles on the Net with a link back to my log furniture website seems to result in traffic spikes nearly every time.
Notice the emphasis is on ?helpful? articles.
There is plenty of useless drivel out there by people who are being paid $5 to write an article.
Not to insult anyone, but I spend 2-8 hours on the articles I write?depending on how much research is required and how technical the article is?and that costs more than $5.

It doesn?t seem to matter what you write about.
My topics so far have included SEO, the simplicity of Amish life, improving your bottom line, and understanding Google operators.
The key is to make them relevant, short and helpful.

#3:
Add more products to your website

Our experience has been that adding more products to the website helps us to come up in the search engines more often.
A person who finds a rustic night stand at our site might notice that we have log bunk beds.
Somebody who is shopping for an unfinished pine dresser might not be thinking of rustic furniture at all, stumble across one our products, like the whole site, and end up furnishing their cabin.
Each product is like a fishing line cast in the sea.
The more well-described bait you have out there?the more ?fish? will bite.

#4:
Improve your website conversion rate

Five years ago, we used to get one log furniture order for every 100 website visitors.
Now it seems like closer to one order for every 300 unique visitors.
Part of the reason for this, we believe, is that the web has become more competitive.
But we also pay attention to our conversion rate.

We are in the process of making a change right now that might really help.
Someone pointed out that when you click on an item to buy it within Miva Merchant?s standard interface, there is no confirmation that the item has been added to your shopping basket.
This might lead some customers to believe that the website isn?t working properly.
They might not be savvy enough to check the shopping basket.
They might even leave the site without ordering (perish the thought!)

These ?glitches? can really hurt website sales.
We went to the Miva Merchant site for third-party modules and found a script that displays the shopping basket after each item is added.
We purchased the script and install, and are watching to see how it affects website sales and conversion rate.
Our guess is that this will have a positive impact on sales.

Conclusion

Obviously, there are a lot of other ways to increase website traffic.
The four listed above are a great place to start.
If you?re not into SEO, find somebody who is.
If you are paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars of month for pay-per-click traffic, it may be wise to divert enough of those dollars to ensure that your website is the traffic-snagging, profit-generating machine you intend it to be.

About The Author

Cari Haus is a CPA and entrepreneur who has been offering quality log furniture on her website, http://www.logcabinrustics.com/

Organic Home Furniture Goes Mainstream

Organic Home Furniture Goes Mainstream

by: Chris Robertson

Organic foods have been around for decades, and those concerned about the pesticides and chemicals used in industrial farming have long turned to organics to ensure that the foods they eat are healthy and pure. Increasingly, though, people who don't consider themselves to be naturalists or environmentalists are embracing eco-friendly foods and home furnishings.

Whether out of a concern for the diminishing rain forests or for the chemicals found in the carpet that their baby crawls on, there is a growing market for eco-friendly furniture and home furnishings. From organic mattresses made from cotton and wool to wood furniture made from reclaimed wood, there is a myriad of eco-friendly home furniture from which to choose.

Typically, manufacturers of eco-friendly wood furniture and decorative wood home furnishings use reclaimed timber. In other words, the wood that is used to make...

Organic Home Furniture Goes Mainstream

Furniture > Organic Home Furniture Goes Mainstream

Office Furniture: Save Money When Setting Up Your Office

Office Furniture: Save Money When Setting Up Your Office

by: Mary West

Getting the right office furniture is part and parcel of setting up a business operation. That applies to simple home offices as well as large multi-city enterprises and everything in between.

Here are several things you can do to ensure that you buy office furniture as economically as possible.

* The first step is to plan your office. Write down your exact needs. Figure out what furniture you will need at the minimum. These are things which if absent will impair your ability to run the business.

Here's the most important rule for buying office furniture economically -- everything other than the essentials you identified above is an optional extra. You may decide to buy it or not depending on your budget. Buy only what you truly need.

* Draw out a sketch of the office and where each piece of furniture will go. This is a vital step in cutting down waste...

Office Furniture: Save Money When Setting Up Your Office

Furniture > Office Furniture: Save Money When Setting Up Your Office

Three Tips On Choosing Stylish Furniture

Three Tips On Choosing Stylish Furniture

by: Dakota Caudilla

Stylish furniture is not just what is considered to be fashionable right now. If you browse through magazines devoted to home decorating you will see all the latest trends in furniture, but not all of these trends are stylish. A stylish piece of furniture is much more than a cool, trendy or modern piece. Stylish furniture should pass the test of time, should be of high quality and should also be comfortable to use.

Test No. 1

Styles come and go, but furniture shouldn't. A stylish piece of furniture should be an investment. As such, it should be designed so that it doesn't age and become unfashionable very quickly.

While it isn't always easy to tell if a piece of furniture will pass the time test, there are some basic rules to go by.

Stylish furniture should have a sleek and simple design. Something that is understated and pleasant to the eye will often pass the...

Three Tips On Choosing Stylish Furniture

Furniture > Three Tips On Choosing Stylish Furniture

Coffee Tables, End Tables, and Sofa Tables

Coffee Tables, End Tables, and Sofa Tables

by: Michael Hargrove

No living room or dining room is complete without a nice set of tables. The type of tables you choose greatly depends on the theme of the rooms. There are many wonderful materials to choose from. There are also options for every price range.

Styles can range from very simple straight lined architecture to much more ornate and decorative. Simple styles are great for a contemporary living space that minimizes decorative objects and focuses on functionality of design. These types of tables can be stacked and look great that way, or can be stack and spread around when ready for use. Ornate decorative tables are for a more traditional type of setting. Rooms that use floral fabrics, and other decorative furniture, the traditional coffee and dining tables are more appropriate.

Recycled or pressed wood materials are used to achieve the same look as real wood. Using these types of...

Coffee Tables, End Tables, and Sofa Tables

Furniture > Coffee Tables, End Tables, and Sofa Tables

How To Choose Contemporary Rattan Weather Proof Garden Furniture

How To Choose Contemporary Rattan Weather Proof Garden Furniture

by: Angus Charlton

In today?s market place there is such a wide range of contemporary garden furniture available. Here?s some advice for helping you choose the right furniture for your garden or patio area.

If you?ve decided that you want to be a the cutting edge of garden furniture design then there are 4 options available in style and materials used for the contemporary look rattan garden furniture.

Hot out this year is the plastic rattan finish which is both appealing to the eye and fully weatherproof. There is no need to pack away this furniture as winter closes in, it can simply be left outside all year round. It give a very modern look and feel to your patio area whilst giving a quite a high level of comfort. Rattan furniture is available is around 30 different colour shades, but it?s worth while check on the actual guarantee on the fading of the rattan due to the UV...

How To Choose Contemporary Rattan Weather Proof Garden Furniture

Furniture > How To Choose Contemporary Rattan Weather Proof Garden Furniture