What is a standalone website?
An independent station refers to an e-commerce website built and operated by individuals or businesses, relative to the mainstream platforms in the cross-border e-commerce industry. The independent station has its own domain, content, data, and rights. It has independent business sovereignty and business entity responsibility, supported by socialized cloud computing capabilities. In addition, the independent station can independently and freely connect with third-party software tools, promotional media, and channels. It is a new type of official website.
Traffic sources of an independent station
Understanding the traffic channels is crucial when operating an independent station. The traffic sources of an independent station mainly include the following channels:
1. Domain traffic
Domain traffic refers to visitors directly entering the website through the browser or accessing the website from bookmarks. The higher the proportion of domain traffic, the higher the brand effect and user stickiness of the website.
2. Referral traffic
Referral traffic refers to the traffic that jumps to the independent station by clicking on links on other websites. Usually, it is through cooperation with alliance websites. The larger the traffic of the alliance websites, the greater the exposure opportunities for the independent station.
3. Search traffic
Search traffic refers to the traffic obtained through search engines. Search traffic usually has a higher proportion and conversion rate, but it requires time and effort to acquire. Search traffic includes paid search traffic (SEM) and free search traffic (SEO), which require corresponding techniques.
4. Social traffic
Social traffic refers to the traffic obtained through social media, including paid traffic and free traffic. Social traffic has lower costs compared to other channels. However, due to its social nature, it is difficult to directly convert for most products.
5. Email traffic
Email traffic refers to the traffic generated by email marketing to guide consumers to make repeat purchases. In cross-border e-commerce, email traffic is a common marketing method.
6. Display ad traffic
Display ad traffic refers to the traffic obtained through other advertising channels, which is usually not a high proportion for websites.
Methods to drive traffic to independent websites
To effectively drive traffic to independent websites, you can use the following methods:
1. Advertising placement
Advertising placement is a common method of acquiring traffic. It includes three steps: acquiring traffic, conducting user testing, and adjusting advertising budget and placement pace. In advertising placement, Facebook and Google advertising placement are common methods.
Ueeshop tips:
- Do not easily reject keywords. After the advertising is launched and operated for a period of time, a situation of "high exposure, high clicks, low conversion/no conversion" may occur. Before rejecting keywords, it is necessary to ensure that these keywords do not meet the requirements of the target audience.
- Set the advertising bid budget to be more than 20 times the bid; adjust the advertising bid based on the different sales peak periods to increase or decrease the bid.
2. Content marketing
Content marketing is a way to accelerate consumer decision-making. By creating content in blogs, social media, search engines, and independent websites, it can influence and assist customers.
Ueeshop tips:
- Follow the "Rule of 7" and continuously output content. The essence of communication is repetition, and the essence of the audience is forgetfulness, so repetition is needed to combat forgetfulness.
- Value original content and disseminate high-quality content. Join circles in your field, collect relevant books, and express your own opinions.
- Link between multiple platforms and publish high-quality content or adapted content on other platforms to redirect traffic to your independent website.
3. Social media marketing
Social media marketing includes platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Gain followers and increase brand awareness by sharing content.
Ueeshop tips:
- Develop marketing strategies based on the tone of each platform.
- Conduct multilingual marketing by translating content into different languages.
- Respond and interact in a timely manner, sincerely address comments and messages.
4. Influencer marketing
With the rise of social e-commerce, influencer marketing has become a way to engage audiences, evoke emotions, and drive traffic. It is estimated that for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, the return on investment can reach $6.50.
Ueeshop tips:
- Influencer promotion requires long-term exposure. It is important to first identify suitable platforms and then find the right type of influencer.
- Influencers can be categorized as macro-influencers (big V) and micro-influencers (small V). Micro-influencers are more suitable for niche markets.
5. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a way to establish contact with potential customers through referral traffic.
Ueeshop tips:
- The key to affiliate marketing is not to join a platform, but to find partners on the platform. Even if the product quality is not high, it can be promoted through online earning platforms.
6. Email marketing
Compared with social media, email can directly communicate with consumers. One-third of the traffic to most brand independent websites comes from emails.
Ueeshop tips:
- Stimulate customers to return to the website through promotional information, new products, discounts, etc.
- Regularly send emails, but grasp the push time and maintain a certain regularity.
7. SEO optimization
With good SEO optimization, the ranking of independent websites can be improved to the front page of search results, increasing exposure.
Ueeshop tips:
- Content is king, and external links are emperor. Optimize the content of the website internally and build external links.
- For content, it includes titles, keywords, tags, details, images, videos, etc. In addition to textual content, do not ignore non-text parts such as images and videos, they can also be tagged.
Nowadays, building an independent website no longer requires setting up a technical team like 10 years ago. Third-party website building tools can help you solve the problem of website construction.
In the future, brand layout will become an unavoidable issue for cross-border sellers. Independent websites have risen in recent years, and everyone wants a share of the pie. "Understanding the principles through concrete study", only by understanding the operating rules of something can you do it well, otherwise it will be in vain.