Retail websites can create some of the biggest challenges when it comes to building website traffic. The main thing with retail sites you have to remember is that you are competing with some BIG players! This is the down side, but the up side is that you can (1) use some of those big players to help you garner traffic.

Shopping sites like eBay and Amazon can be used to get you more website traffic. The prices to post items for sale on most sites like this are fairly inexpensive. You can even stick your URL on the same page and host your pictures from your website server if you choose. These sites have reach that most small sites can’t fathom. Use these traffic monsters to your advantage.

(2) The other thing about retail sites that you need to pay attention to is conversion rates. How many people come to your site, how much does it cost and at what rate are you converting these visits to sales. This is a major point you need to address before spending lots of money on advertising. Do a targeted test run on adwords and see how your website converts for certain keywords. If your site isn’t converting well, look at a site that you know does convert well. What are they doing that you’re not.

If you sell something that is similar or the same as another site you need to (3)make sure that the descriptions you have for your products are different of those on your competitors. This little trick will help you avoid the possibility of being seen by the search engines as a duplicate content site. If you are seen as duplicate content then you will surely not be seen in the top of the search results any time soon.

You have to remember that you are competing with mammoth competition in the retail sector. Many of the sites you compete with will have a vast number of unique pages of information. You need to make sure that the information your site has is unique also. One of the ways you can make this happen is by (4) putting a blog on your retail site. Just remember that you need to update your blog frequently and that you should have an internal linking strategy that connects to the retail side of your site.

(5) Another major focus is links. Let’s face it, search engines are used my the majority of retail buyers online to find what they’re looking for. The amount of links is a major factor when it comes to determining the importance of your website to the search engines. One technique you can use is to (6) get listed in B2C directories that relate to what you’re selling. Although the link itself very important you also want the right people to be visiting this link, enabling the right people to be able to find your site. This goes back to Marketing 101.

(7) Join forums and online communities that relate to the products you sell. Do your best to add quality to the conversations there, including links to your site only if relevant. Join MySpace and other social networking sites. There are tons of people out there with similar interests. They may just need a little help to find your products.