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cooper
Posts: 773
From: Woburn MA USA
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Customer concerned with lack of business - 6/5/2003 8:38:39
I built a site for a customer (www.northlakecustomwoodworks.com) last fall (November of 2002). To date, he has take only one order for $120. He keeps asking me what can be done to " increase traffic, increase sales, etc."
I have told him it comes down to his marketing the site. I am afraid he believes the " Field of Dreams" (If you build it, they will come) stories of the Internet. I have used Self Promote, and hand submitted to the majors. I have linked to him off my " Portfolio" page. I have had him gather links to other sites in an effort to trade links to help the Google page score.
I just finished rebuilding the site' s homepage to carry A LOT more keywords, but is there anything else you guys can think of to help drive him some traffice and potential business?
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Cooper
BAC Web Design - Tools & Templates - Buck A Ball - Stopspamstop.com
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Andy from Spain
Posts: 922
From: Ipswich
Status: offline
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RE: Customer concerned with lack of business - 6/5/2003 9:17:06
Hi
I just checked for the site in Google and couldn' t find it there, also there were no back-links and white rank bar. (I know Google is going through some major changes but if the site was up November 2002 it should be there somewhere). As a jump start, do you think he would be willing to consider ad words? Have you submitted to Dmoz and could he get his suppliers to link to him?
Cheers
Andy
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Ecommerce software | Website templates
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Mojo
Posts: 2431
From: Chicago
Status: offline
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RE: Customer concerned with lack of business - 6/5/2003 12:50:04
A great book, " Don' t Make Me Think" by Steve Krug should be forced upon clients.
Most web visitor don' t read all the nice paragraphs and such. They skim through the site looking for text and such that catches their eye.
Your client has a lot of nicely written text, that nobody is reading. It would need to be more catchy.
Also, not being in Google means he is missing *huge* numbers. I looked through MSN and while he is listed, he is not coming up very well (I gave up trying to find his site) for search terms.
I have not found him listed under any search term - that is generating traffic (I use wordtracker and overture) - within the first 60 listing. Most people will not go down that far.
There are tons of sites offering somewhat the same things that he does, so he has some competition.
Not to sound condescending, but MSN is fairly easy to crack into the top 10 - once you convince your client to change a bit of his text.
Google is more difficult, depending on your competition. There is a lot of debate on what works and what does not work in Google. One camp will tell you that with decent content and keywords all you need in Google are links... lots of links. I kind of believe that (for now). Also, Google eats up certain kinds of SPAM (not the so called bad spam, rather - search engine spam  ).
It just depends on how risky you want to be.
As was mentioned, Adwords may be a good place to start. Looksmart gives me a huge ROI on a few sites. I know many people do well with Overture, but I don' t do well with them (must be the click wars I am always involved in).
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Split Testing
Chicago Order Fulfillment
Emergency Kits
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Peppergal
Posts: 2207
Joined: 9/20/2002
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RE: Customer concerned with lack of business - 6/9/2003 14:12:21
One of my clients pays Looksmart up to $50 a month (it' s pay per click, and she set her budget at no more than $50). She comes up #1 on MSN with the main search term for her site. Unfortunately, she ranks on the 4th page of google with that same search term. I just advised her to get AdWords as well.
Your client will have to spend some money, that' s for sure. Hopefully, not much. I know people who spend $800 a month to market their site!! (I think if their site had a better design, they' d be able to get more customers without paying through the nose)
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Northeast PA / Poconos/ Lake Wallenpaupack Real Estate
wallenpaupacklakeproperty.com
Karen's Real Estate Blog
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garry
Posts: 858
From: Northern Territory Outback Australia
Status: offline
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RE: Customer concerned with lack of business - 6/9/2003 19:52:23
Coops
I have had the same " problem" with one of my sites ! Google, Fast & altavista have not picked it up in the last 4+ months. With all the linkages to it from Portfolio page etc.........if you do a search for it, do you locate your portfolio page? . I do , but nothing after that.
I' m giving it another month.
Most sites are picked up off my portfolio page within a month.
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Gil
Posts: 7533
From: North Carolina, USA
Status: offline
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RE: Customer concerned with lack of business - 6/16/2003 12:52:17
quote:
He' s climbing up one side of me and down the other for lack of business and search engine ranking and he is SPAMMING search engines behind my back!
The domain may very well ahve been banned already!
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Gil Harvey, 1947-2004
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cooper
Posts: 773
From: Woburn MA USA
Status: offline
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RE: Customer concerned with lack of business - 6/26/2003 16:19:57
quote:
The domain may very well ahve been banned already!
I asked the client to email Google and explain himself. They accepted his " apology" and relisted his site. Heck... he now has a Google page rank of 2!
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Cooper
BAC Web Design - Tools & Templates - Buck A Ball - Stopspamstop.com
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cooper
Posts: 773
From: Woburn MA USA
Status: offline
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RE: Customer concerned with lack of business - 6/27/2003 20:02:51
quote:
bad speeling
I' ll admit, I am an English Major with a writing concentration, but I have these really fat fingers...
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Cooper
BAC Web Design - Tools & Templates - Buck A Ball - Stopspamstop.com
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LilyVorTek
Posts: 8
Joined: 7/1/2003
Status: offline
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RE: Customer concerned with lack of business - 7/1/2003 22:19:38
You need to think about this differently.
1. Look at the site from the point of view of his customers. It' s not a bad site the way it is but the home page sort of floods you with content.
2. Start advising him on how to conventionally promote the site. Is the domain on his business cards, his answering machine, everything that is printed or moving, do all his employees know the domain.
3. start looking at ways he can use the site to help his current clients in addition to getting new ones. If his current clients use the site frequently then they will tell others the domain when they are talking about the company.
4. This is the key to getting google to pick you up... put a link to you business site on the bottom of every page of every site you do. Put a link on your site to every site you do. Then add the site to google. As soon as any one of you sites gets spidered they all will be so new sites get picked up quick, usually within two weeks.
5. Start a list serv and get him to do a newsletter every so often with deals or whatever he is doing.
I could go on forever... if you just get sick of him... I' ll take him.
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