Welcome, Guest Login
You must login or register to post.

where sales come from (Read 2626 times)
Leslie_134775
Junior Member
artist
**



Posts: 67
where sales come from
Oct 20th, 2008, 4:25am
 
I didn't notice before, but with my latest sale, (thats 3 now, Yipee), the email notification said the customer found it via a google search for 'greeting cards'. Not very specific I know, but it was nice to be told where the sale 'originated'. Shows how important the keywords are, as at the moment, I have no idea how customers might find my site/cards other than accidently? using google etc.
 
Is there anyway I can be informed if the customer was directed by google straight to my pages or to gcu home? I was wondering if the customer then used gcu categories and came accross my card? I'm just wondering if to make sure I have the best possible gcu category for the cards, or if to put more work into search tags, to try to get traffic direct from search engines. Any advice very welcome.
Thanks, Les.
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Norval_132688
Gold Member
artist
*****



Posts: 908
Re: where sales come from
Reply #1 - Oct 20th, 2008, 7:12am
 
Leslie, I have been here almost a year, and you know, I don't think that question has ever been asked.  I'm interested too.  I hope someone has an answer.---------Mindy---------Shaun--------- Smiley
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Delores_132508
Gold Member
artist
*****



Posts: 978
Re: where sales come from
Reply #2 - Oct 20th, 2008, 8:30am
 
This was such a great question that I went and did some tests on search engines.   If I was more general in my search such as "birthday 97 greeting card" I got GCU in the result and the click when to a group of cards on GCU that matched this search.   If I was very specific using  more of my own tags such as "birthday 97 greeting card bible religious" my own GCU shop popped up in second position on the search engine and the click went straight to my shop on GCU.
 
Great question!
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Tammy_135163
GCU Newbies
artist
*



Posts: 24
Re: where sales come from
Reply #3 - Oct 20th, 2008, 10:34am
 
tags are very important even if they don't show up on a site search, they drive a lot of google traffic etc
 
you know you can also submit your shop's specific URL to the google, yahoo and msn livesearch crawlers to help increase your chances of appearing near the top in a search ...
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Leslie_134775
Junior Member
artist
**



Posts: 67
Re: where sales come from
Reply #4 - Oct 20th, 2008, 11:26am
 
Thanks Tammy, I don't know how to do that, any suggestions?
 
about the tags, I would imagine that I, like most people,  put in tags that fit the way I think and the words I would use to search. I suppose the best way is to learn to think in the many ways that other people search for items - are single words better, or groups of words or a phrase. If I search for my items using my choice of search words/terms I can find them, but I have no idea if someone who might like my card/s would use the same term/s.
 
Still waiting to find out if it is possible to let us know a little more info about the path customers took and eventualy bought a card. It would help us all to target our tags better perhaps? If the customer comes via sorting through the displayed cards in a category, then the tags might not have been used at all?
 
By the way, does a search engine see the seperate words 'snow' and 'man' when used as tags to a card as the same as 'snowman'?
Les.
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Tammy_135163
GCU Newbies
artist
*



Posts: 24
Re: where sales come from
Reply #5 - Oct 20th, 2008, 11:56am
 
regarding tags..everthing I learned about tagging I learned from Squidoo ...
say you have a blue snowman card
you would tag it with: blue, snow,snowman,winter,holiday,holidays,seasons,seasonal, Christmas,xmas..
if it was created digitally I would add "digital art"
if it's not realistic I would add "abstract"
 
get the idea?
 
submitting to search engines is simple
here are some links to get you started-
http://www.google.com/addurl/
https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
http://beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Leslie_134775
Junior Member
artist
**



Posts: 67
Re: where sales come from
Reply #6 - Oct 20th, 2008, 12:09pm
 
Thanks Tammy, I'll take a look.
Les
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Ernestine_131365
Gold Member
artist
*****



Posts: 853
Re: where sales come from
Reply #7 - Oct 20th, 2008, 8:26pm
 
Leslie and all-
 
Put a stat counter/site analysis on your GCU store such as: statcounter.com. (It's free up to 500 hits.)  It will tell you a lot more about how/who (part of the world) folks get to you store  and your cards (what search engine and where they clicked from), what system they use and how they searched.  Just another tool beyond GCU's anyalitics to see where your clicks are coming from.
 
"E"
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Leslie_134775
Junior Member
artist
**



Posts: 67
Re: where sales come from
Reply #8 - Oct 21st, 2008, 2:07am
 
That sound good E, I'll take a look. Is there any reason why gcu couldn't have something similar built in to our sites instead of just the visit/click counter? It should be worth it if it helps us all target our efforts at promotion.
Les.
 
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Delores_132508
Gold Member
artist
*****



Posts: 978
Re: where sales come from
Reply #9 - Oct 21st, 2008, 9:04am
 
Ernestine,
Thanks for the suggestion about the stat counter.   I signed up at statcounter.com and have it up and running now on my store front page.     I like it especially because you can choose it to stay hidden.   Very nice.  Thanks again. Smiley
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Wendy_132744
Junior Member
artist
**



Posts: 79
Re: where sales come from
Reply #10 - Nov 9th, 2008, 3:10pm
 
Hi Leslie,
I've never personally submitted to Google or any of the search engines.
But ALL my sales to date on GCU have been through google tag searches.
I don't mind one bit.  I am a bit of a mad tagger.  I put everything I can think of in there.  
Also remember that GTU is a member of Big Dates.com so your cards not only appear on this site but about four others too.  
Saves the legwork of putting them into various sites personally.
I also love GCU's category section
Have you looked at those yet?  
They have categories you couldn't dream of.
I always go there when I'm stuck for inspiration.
I'll look through and go "Ooh they don't have many Vietmanese New Year Cards; I must make one of those"  And I do!
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged

About Us     Artists     Artist FAQ     Blog     Card Sellers     Contact Us     Content Disclaimer     Forum     Paper Card Categories     Privacy Policy     Shopper FAQ     Holidays 2011

Click to verify BBB accreditation and to see a BBB report.                        
© Copyright 2000- Greeting Card Universe - Powered By Bigdates-Solutions.com   

GCU Forum » Powered by YaBB 2.1!
YaBB © 2000-2005. All Rights Reserved.