I have been reading articles on increasing sales using search engine optimisation as well as writing them for a very long time and I have not seen many which point out the best way to increase sales.

The answer is obvious yet often overlooked; you just have to be as good to your customers as you would expect any other site owner to treat you.

The World Wide Web is vast and the choices are many, it doesn't matter what you want you have probably got a choice of 30,000 to 3,000,000 sites to pick from. Our customers will become repeat customers if they are provided a personal service that exceeds their expectations.

The Internet has been a boom for many people, businesses have sprung up and their owners have managed to make a living from them, some more than others.

The Internet has also taken away the contact we used to have with shop assistants, we no longer see shopping as a personal experience and I think this is a real shame. You can't ask questions, you can't see the goods you are buying and you don't get a feel for the person you are dealing with.

It is down to us, the seller, the owner, the customer service manager to provide a personal service to these people who entrust us with their hard earned cash to provide not only value for money but also a service that will leave them with a warm glow in their heart and a need to return to us for further purchases.

We will also get the benefit of the most valued advertising; FREE word of mouth recommendations are invaluable and must never be underestimated. One person shows off their newly acquired goods and says how fabulous your site is to 2 or 3 people and then those people tell 2 or 3 people so on and on it goes. Before soon you have loyal customer base.

Remember that it takes a long time to build a solid reputation but only one mistake to destroy it. It takes a lot of hard work and sometimes you have to swallow your pride and say " the customer is always right", we all know that is not always the case but even an awkward customer has mellow moments and friends (well most of them do).

Mark White has worked in I.T. for the last 15 years and currently runs 3 websites.

http://sunspeks.com/

http://tendollardownloads.com/

http://phone-bits.com/

And administrates for http://freetraffictip.com/members