How Can I Bring In More Visits & Page Views

MidnightMomma · #1 (**permalink**) 08-31-2005, 12:40 AM

Hi Everyone,
I am a newbie! I currently manage a site for my employer. The url is http://womanswellnesscenter.com
It is a healthcare site that specializes in Obstetrics and Gynecology. I have been messing around with web design for about 8 years, but not seriously until about 3 years ago. I never went to school for this, but have learned so much. But, forgive me if I am ignorant to somethings.

I took over this simple site and have turned it into a large educational site. My hits have double since last year at this time. I currently only get about 500 hits per month with around 1500 page views. But I believe that because of what I've added, the hits and view should be through the roof. Though I am still maintaining this site, I am getting ready to redo the whole thing with a new layout and graphics.

Can anyone give me some constructive critisizm on what I may be doing wrong or right? How important is meta tags, title, etc..? How can I promote this site better?

Thanks alot!

send2paul · #2 (**permalink**) 08-31-2005, 12:58 AM

Er....."refused connection"?

MidnightMomma · #3 (**permalink**) 08-31-2005, 01:22 AM

hhmm...don't know why! Geeze...why wouldn't the www work! I am sure that is one reason I haven't gotten more hits.

Lets try this...
http://womanswellnesscenter.com/index.html
or
http://womanswellnesscenter.com

Thanks

send2paul · #4 (**permalink**) 08-31-2005, 03:19 PM

Odd. It works fine now. Will get back a little later to "review" things :)

MidnightMomma · #5 (**permalink**) 08-31-2005, 05:49 PM

I did go in and take the www out of the link for it to work in the main message. I didn't want anyone else to have the problem you did. But, it still really doesn't work with the www. I have no clue on why. Very upsetting!

cubeshark · #6 (**permalink**) 09-01-2005, 01:49 AM

Hi,

Its seems you have a Shockwave plugin trying to load. At least my FF thinks so because it crashes my browser.

When you get it fixed then I'll offer some suggestions.

Good Luck!

Ritchie
www.cubeshark.com

MidnightMomma · #7 (**permalink**) 09-01-2005, 02:47 AM

Hi Ritchie,
Ok, try it now. Hope it works. Thanks!

cubeshark · #8 (**permalink**) 09-01-2005, 06:08 AM

Great it Works now!

I did a quick scan of your site, and offer the following suggestions:

1. Place your meta tags before your scripts. Also, add more keywords that fit your site.

2. Eye movement on the page is sporadic, try working on the use of positioned headers to move the eye better.

3. The site is very elongated, and much of the information is below the fold. Place pertinent info on the right side of the page, and widen the page to accomodate the right panel.

4. I am not sure your why there is a weather applet there. But if you don't need it there, I suggest taking it out.

5. If the purpose for the site is form information, then place your service higher on the page, so your visitors will see them first.

6. There's many images on your site, and may hinder the download of the site. One image itself is about 35kb. The goal for optimization is to keep the WHOLE entire page at least below 15-20k, and even with that, you should try to get it as low as you can.

7. The business locations should be moved up more, for faster access. Since the site is more for information and not selling, you want your visitors to have access to the important info, without scrolling all the way to the bottom.

8. The page width, and how you set them using the horizontal headers needs to be aligned with the text.

There is alot of great info on the site, just make it easier for your visitors to access them.

Good Luck!

Ritchie
www.cubeshark.com

MarcieZoob · #9 (**permalink**) 09-01-2005, 07:35 AM

On first impression, I feel the site needs some focus in regard to design and scope. There are too many schemes going on so the site feels very "thrown together", and somewhat unsettling. The images that make up your header don't really match (one is sepia, the others are four-color). I was also put off somewhat by the image of the man and woman in bed - it was the first photo that caught my eye and made me wonder if I was on a soft-porn or Viagra site. Plus the title above that photo "Where We Care" doesn't make sense... Where do you care?

By creating a clean, streamlined design and a pleasant color scheme that is geared toward women, you would be giving a better first impression. Visits back to your site might increase and visitors might stay at your site longer.

Pick two fonts max (maybe three) to use on your site; since your site is using so many font styles (headers, logos, titles, body text) it feels a bit jumbled. Create an external stylesheet and format your font styles there; this will help clean up your source code (using the <font> tag is a thing of the past).

Maybe there's another way to format your navigation so it sits (or starts) ABOVE the page fold? Consider opening your external site links in a new window; I clicked on Mayo Clinic then closed the window and lost your web site.

I had to open my browser and find your site again...

The real problems lay within your code. The site has over 250 errors in the code (broken tags, no ALT attributes, elements like "CSSCRIPTDICT" that are undefined, no "type" for JavaScript) plus you're missing a <!DOCTYPE> declaration. I'm not sure how SEs are handling the indexing of your site when confronted with that many errors.

The size of your home page is 142KB so try to scale that back. Some of your information s/b moved to another page and a few scripts can probably be removed (weather, for instance). Your home page has more than 100 URL links - some search engines have problems handling more than 100 urls on a page. Create a links page and move the Health Care Industry links there.

MidnightMomma · #10 (**permalink**) 09-01-2005, 11:47 AM

Hello You Guys,

I can't tell you how appreciative I am! I agree with EVERYTHING you said and am thankful for you telling me what I didn't know. As I said, I took over the site. It was originally done by a "professional". She origianally did it with Front Page, which I didn't have. So I had to go in a write code where I needed it and take code out that didn't need to be there. Real pain.

The header and the picture of the woman and man in bed are original. I had to laugh when I saw your comments. I totally agree with your persception. As far as the color scheme, it used to be bright orange! Yuk! The weather thing, yes, I don't like it either. But unfortunately, I work directly with the CEO who likes it this way. I have explained that the length is to long and that it needs to be redone. It isn't pleasing! I was thinking of making it a 3 column.

I was working with primitive software, thankfully I just got the new Adobe CS Premium along with Macromedia MX (Dreamweaver,etc.)I am in the process of redoing from scratch. So really, I am working on both at the same time only I'm doing it parttime. I am sure that can explain a lot of the errors. My time is limited and have a huge list of To Do's. I have explained that this is a full time site that needs more attention especially because in areas you both are stating. I'm just waiting on the decision! Thank you again because this has been valuable information to me.

Nikki

cubeshark · #11 (**permalink**) 09-01-2005, 01:01 PM

You're Welcome :) Glad that all of us can shed some light on your project.

send2paul · #12 (**permalink**) 09-01-2005, 02:06 PM

Nikki - hello again :)

Okay, I think you get the gist of the "redesign the website" messages above. When you do, may also want to run it through here: Web Site Analyser. As it is at the moment, the homepage loads very slowly...

Connection Rate Download Time
14.4K 440.42 seconds
28.8K 220.21 seconds
33.6K 188.75 seconds
56K 113.25 seconds
ISDN 128K 34.68 seconds
T1 1.44Mbps 3.01 seconds

And it goes on...

The total size of this page is 568244 bytes, which will load in 113.25 seconds on a 56Kbps modem. Consider reducing total page size to less than 30K to achieve sub eight second response times on 56K connections. Pages over 100K exceed most attention thresholds at 56Kbps, even with feedback.

It's an extremely useful tool - one I use all the time.

The table width is also 800 pixels, which when viewed in 800 X 600 resolution, (which arguably about a third of the world still does - and possinly a large percentage of your target audience who may not have LCD 1024 X 768 res monitors), creates a small scroll bar across the bottom of the screen. Try re-sizing the table to around 740 pixels - it may help.

Good luck! :)