website traffic

yorks · #1 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 11:54 AM

Hi all

I have a sailing website http://www.go-sail.co.uk.
The site attacts a resonable amount of traffic which has been climbing steadly up to about a month ago.

I have tried to follow many of the SEO and marketing hints and tips given on these forums but would certainly welcome anymore !

Are there any glaring errors in the website which may hinder indexing etc ? These are often easy to miss when you have been looking at the thing for months on end :)

My current thinking is that the site needs more relevants links pointing to it. Would I be right in thinking this ? Any advice would be much appreciated.

thanks in advance

mlevenhagen · #2 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 01:31 PM

Hi Yorks!

Well, according to the Google PR Bar, you aren't even indexed; the bar is greyed... You are indexed when I do a search but according to Google...

Are you banned? A greyed toolbar usually means you are not indexed yet, or you might be banned or it was deliberatly removed from the index OR...

But in this case you are in the SERPS which is strange.

Or it could be a glitch.

Am I the only one that sees this?

...barring that not being an issue. The site looks great! Very nicely laid out.

Links are definitly a good thing if Search Engine traffic is your goal. Find link partners etc.

You may consider some other methods as well. You may want to get into building an e-mail marketing list if you haven't been doing that already...

Always good to capture those visitors somehow.

Consider submiting articles. There are 1000s of article sites out there.... there is software available that will automate the process for you.

Find forums related to your sites theme and start hanging around. Get noticed...

Find a reason to shoot out Press Releases...

Find someone with a similar themed site and with a list and either advertise with them somehow (to their list or whatever) or some other sort of Joint Venture... if you have a list, you can market to each other in trade.

Spin off a forum if that's something you want to manage...

Definitly start a Blog... definitly.

A few things for you to think about. AND... Definitly... would see why that bar is greyed.

:)

wrmineo · #3 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Well, according to the Google PR Bar, you aren't even indexed; the bar is greyed... You are indexed when I do a search but according to Google...

Are you banned? A greyed toolbar usually means you are not indexed yet, or you might be banned or it was deliberatly removed from the index OR...

... take out the ending period "." from the link they posted and you'll see the PR ... I thought the same thing initially ;)

yorks · #4 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 04:01 PM

my fault for including a full stop.

I have started a frorum on the website

What advantages does a blog have for gaining traffic to your website ?

thanks

greeneagle · #5 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 06:57 PM

yorks,

You might start with this Thread about Blogs in this Forum to get your feet wet:
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=48835

They tend to get indexed faster but a disadvantage might be, that it is another commitment that you must make time for to be successful.

Ken

mlevenhagen · #6 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 08:20 PM

Hi Ken! Haven't seen you for a while. I hope all is well! :)

greeneagle · #7 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 09:14 PM

Everything has been going well Matt, just been buried. Took some time to help my brother with his company, until we got it back under control.

What is your take on Blogging? I have started setting up a Marketing Blog on my Site.

Ken

mlevenhagen · #8 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 11:21 PM

Hopefully you're not sorry you asked!! :o)

Blogging, in my mind, brought balance to the Web Universe & helps us focus on whats important... content.

It gives us an opportunity to stream line our delivery... quicken's our ability to be heard...

It provides us a simple content management system, yet powerful & flexible.

I use WordPress... used to use blogger, but I like controling my content on my server.

Is there an advantage to having a blog from a search engine perspective. No.

You could have the same results if you just added fresh content to a site that is crawled regularly... of course, it does speed the process of getting to that point... but in the end, same rules apply.

AND it depends on the SE you are targeting. I know my blog is bombarded by MSN for some reason... My current one is only 3 months old, but most of my traffic comes from MSN. It's amazing sometimes how quickly after I publish/ping.

Of course... don't have the IBLs yet.

And having RSS capabilites built in...

I think the most important thing blogs have done for people is given something that is already designed for them and provides everything including content management without them doing a thing if they don't want.

Simplicity.

I love WP because it's easily modified for one. Plus I LOVE the category function.. I love that it's set up to connect to other blogs... a natural linking mechanism built right in.

Golly... A perfect match for doing what the web was designed to do. Link.

Oh and comments... what a great way to build a following and stay in touch with your community of visitors by allowing them to comment on your posts and you in turn can communicate with them within those comments...

Search... what a great search function built in. Even I use it!! I'll often want to go back and reference posts I made. All I have to do is do a search!

I could go on and on... but I think you get the picture, LOL. I like them.

I think every website should have one either internally or through a sub-domain. Why not!? You have a new product or a new article on your website... reference it in your blog and POW! crawled and one quick inbound.

The real beauty is it forces us, reminds us, makes it easy to create fresh content. And that makes the SEs happy and our clients, customers and community happy.

I will tell you, I have numerous websites AND Plenty of opportunity to add fresh content... all I have to do is FTP . But do I? No..... Why? To much work I suspect... to many steps... create a new page... enter and format content... upload etc.

A blog. If I had a thought right now... If I wanted to comment on this thread, all I have to do is go to my favorites and hit my "Press It" link... a window will pop up with this threads link already embedded with a title and I make a few comments, format and BOOM! Fresh content.... PING!

10-15 minutes a day... a small article a day... that really adds up! 30 a month! 365 a year!

Easy. Just easy...

Wow... wasn't planning on posting so much. Guess I was in the zone. LOL

iany · #9 (**permalink**) 08-01-2005, 06:39 PM

Nice site. Has the look and feel of the RYA's site.
Unlike earlier response, I found it indexed by Google. As a dinghy sailor/instructor/race officer I have an interest in this and have put together websites for our sailing club and have page 1 on Google. Have used a combination of content (which you have plenty of) and tags (for Yahoo, alltheweb etc). Directories are good. However, I cannot see what your audience is? Eg in our club site, I have placed emphasis on dinghy training and sailing clubs in Scotland - hence No 1 or at least first page.

If you know what your market is you can home in on the marketing and optimisation. Have to say, not a great advocate of stuff on any website that won't be used by punters. That's why relevant content is more important. For what its worth, I believe that the only folk who are interested in blogs are real web nuts like us. Ordinary browsers want something simple to navigate, easy to read, easy to find and meets their needs. Pretty basic marketing concepts really. Your case is not helped by the fact that there is another site called gosail.co.uk.

BTW. No point in putting a disable right click. For those who are interested in such things we will find a way round. Eg Source is readable in Opera,and can be downloaded to a web editor like FrontPage.

Good luck with site.
Yours in sailing

Ian

DrTandem1 · #10 (**permalink**) 08-01-2005, 09:58 PM

Not to change the subject, but I too find the no right click annoying. If you're trying to prevent the copying of text, highlighting of the text and a "control c" will defeat that. If it's the images they want, they can turn off their browser's javascript. They could also simply look for the image in the source code and grab the image directly such as the globe:

You may ask why should you make it easier for them? The answer is that right clicking has many legitimate uses such as copying and pasing an email address or copying a shortcut.

If someone is going to steal your content, they will. Don't punish your legitimate visitors in the process.

The script used distances the top of your page from its content in the source code. If you just have to have the script, have only one line pointing to an external page for it, similar to how your CSS is written.

**ctabuk** · #11 (**permalink**) 08-02-2005, 03:54 AM

Using the latest Beta technology I have produced a Google UK report to be e-mailed over later. This is a great site, with a huge potential. Let's do it people! Cheers David

yorks · #12 (**permalink**) 08-02-2005, 10:20 AM

Many thanks everyone for your constructive advice. I see what you mean about the right click and have now got rid of that code.

btw ctabuk do you mean a google report for the go-sail website ?

**ctabuk** · #13 (**permalink**) 08-02-2005, 10:45 AM

Nope, bigger and better than that, the real McCoy, all your rivals, their websites, their keywords, the lot. Just PM me your e mail and it will be with you in minutes.

jg33 · #14 (**permalink**) 08-02-2005, 05:13 PM

For Matt,

I enjoy reading your responses and other people on this forum. I am new in internet marketing some terminology I might missed.

"But in this case you are in the SERPS which is strange. "
What is SERPS?

"You may consider some other methods as well. You may want to get into building an e-mail marketing list if you haven't been doing that already... "

What is the best to go about it?

"Consider submiting articles. There are 1000s of article sites out there.... there is software available that will automate the process for you. "

What do you recommend of software? I saw your list for sumitting articles on another topic. What a great list you got?

"Find a reason to shoot out Press Releases... "
Can you submit articles as Press Release?

Thanks
Joseph

dburdon · #15 (**permalink**) 08-02-2005, 07:59 PM

Yorks,

I maybe a little old fashioned, but check the punctuation on your keyword meta tags. The tags have little intrinsic value these days - but they are useful as a discipline to align content with keywords.

**ctabuk** · #16 (**permalink**) 08-03-2005, 03:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jg33

For Matt,

I enjoy reading your responses and other people on this forum. I am new in internet marketing some terminology I might missed.

"But in this case you are in the SERPS which is strange. "
What is SERPS?

"You may consider some other methods as well. You may want to get into building an e-mail marketing list if you haven't been doing that already... "

What is the best to go about it?

"Consider submiting articles. There are 1000s of article sites out there.... there is software available that will automate the process for you. "

What do you recommend of software? I saw your list for sumitting articles on another topic. What a great list you got?

"Find a reason to shoot out Press Releases... "
Can you submit articles as Press Release?

Thanks
Joseph

Search Engine Results Pages Stats - Well others have differenrt conurbations, but roughly that's right.

mlevenhagen · #17 (**permalink**) 08-03-2005, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jg33

For Matt,

I enjoy reading your responses and other people on this forum. I am new in internet marketing some terminology I might missed.

"But in this case you are in the SERPS which is strange. "
What is SERPS?

"You may consider some other methods as well. You may want to get into building an e-mail marketing list if you haven't been doing that already... "

What is the best to go about it?

"Consider submiting articles. There are 1000s of article sites out there.... there is software available that will automate the process for you. "

What do you recommend of software? I saw your list for sumitting articles on another topic. What a great list you got?

"Find a reason to shoot out Press Releases... "
Can you submit articles as Press Release?

Thanks
Joseph

Hi Joseph,

Yes, Ctabuk is correct... Search Engine Results Pages... actually the 's' at the end of 'SERP' I've always just assumed to signify the plural.

I do that a lot and apologize... I get in the habit of short hand as much writing I do & I'm not thinking that everyone reading won't know what on earth I'm talking about, LOL.

Software.... Try ArticleMarketer.com

"Submit articles as press releases"... I would have to say no and yes. You could adapt I suppose.

Generally the press release will highlight something your site has done... new site, a product launch, a new addition of some kind, big change...

Anything you could consider major and people would be interested in.

You know.. I collect all kinds of stuff. I have a page dedicated to this & article submits on one of my sites... Easier than posting it all:

Press Release Info

At the bottom there are some links to "how to's" and even some links to some WPW discussions from way back.

Oh, and e-mail marketing. There are quit a few ways to go about it. The most obvious way is to put some kind of form on your website for people to sign up for a newsletter... you can give away something with opt in form (free report, eCourse, or simply more info...)

Some people use pop ups... I'm not a big fan. In fact I've avoided it up to this point.. I will be for the first time testing a slide in. It's a script a buddy gave me that doesn't open a new window.

The form actually slides in once for the visitor... it can be timed to only do it once per visitor or at some interval. I've never wanted to annoy the visitor, but this approach seems suttle & I'm all about testing so we'll see. The numbers will tell.

In all honesty though, the fastest way to grow a list is through some sort of arrangement with other people with a list... which is tough at first because you don't have another list in trade.

Giving away articles, free software or reports to each others lists... marketing in general to each others lists can help grow your list.

In the beginning, you may just find someone with a list related to your sites theme and put a small report or article together that that person can give away to their list... and obviously have some sort of way to capture the e-mail within.

I'm wordy again, lol.

I write eBooks about this stuff. There is so much one can do and it's hard to put it all in a little post.

But that should give you an idea and you can go out and explore it more...

There are so many things out there that you can do... and I know it's hard to decide what's right for you. But I will tell you this. There is nothing more powerful than building relationships with like minded individuals. That in and of itself can rocket your business forward.

Building alliances and sharing lists etc. with other businesses with related products or services is how the big boys get to be big boys. The people with lists of 100K or more didn't do it overnight and with little opt in forms on their sites & a bit of traffic... some might of over a long period of time, but most likely it was through big campaigns and joint ventures.

There is no need to worry about spammy or tricky techniques to grow ones online business... there are tried and true methods that marketers have been using for years that have not changed... that existed before the Big Dot Coms... and still exist today.

OK... I better stop. LOL

Hope that helps!

P.S. And sorry to all if I'm scarce at the moment... I'm in the middle of a giant membership site launch with some partners so I'm a bit swamped. I'll swing through when I can. :)

jg33 · #18 (**permalink**) 08-23-2005, 09:00 AM

Thank you Matt for your response. I appreciate it. Sorry for the delay in my response. I had a death in the family.

The information was great.

I have a small question:
My site is www.freespiritcentre.info
Can I open another one and call it www.freespiritcentre.com.cn

and have the same site runned on both URL. Does that considered a spam?

Thank you

Joseph

mlevenhagen · #19 (**permalink**) 08-23-2005, 12:16 PM

Hi Joseph, sorry to hear about your loss. :(

What you mentioned there would be considered duplicate content which is a no no...

You could have one site that your prevent the Search Engines from crawling (using special tags in your code to stop them...). You just don't want to be caught duplicating two sites... not a good thing.

You could certainly have the same layout and change the content so they are different...

jg33 · #20 (**permalink**) 08-29-2005, 03:35 PM

Hi Matt,

Thank you!

I appreciate the info. I have no intent of duplicate my content. I am changing the title of the sections, and changing the place of all articles to reflect a new position of the articles.

The new site will reflect more the area where the site will be concentrated on because I will be moving myself there within 2 years. It is kind of preparation for my move there.

Matt, thank you again for mentioning that point to me. I appreciated.

Joseph