What do i need to do to drive more traffic to my site
-
Hi i built a site around ten months ago but at the moment i am only receiving around 3 visitors a a day. it is a travel site that i write new content for but because i am still learning seo i am not sure what i have been doing wrong.
I am not sure of the basics from getting people to the site or the correct way of generating free links or if i should be submitting my site to all these free site submitters which includes to lycos and other free services that you can find on google.
If anyone can please explain what i am doing wrong and how to generate more traffic for free then that would be great.
also can anyone recommend any free service that would help with increasing traffic and links
-
Hi Diane,
I'm following up on older questions that are still marked unanswered. Have you been able to improve traffic to this site, or have you put it on the back burner? I still see the IN2TOWN CHEAP FLIGHTS header and Yemeni security checks article when I look at the site now.
-
sorry my mistake ref the health site, i am not sure what i was thinking, i am working another a health site but got confused which is not easy at the moment trying to type with one hand after having the other in a steal plate after a car decided to drive on the pavement and hit my hand while trying to avoid an on coming car
-
I just re-read your original question and you said this was a health site. Now, I'm really confused as to which site we're talking about.
For bullet points, Google has a couple of dozen of them relating to what counts as a high quality site that can apply to any site. If you ask yourself those questions (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html), that will really get you started in the right direction.
-
i would love to see a good example of a travel site or similar site to see what design method i should put in place and if i should reduce the number of articles on a page
-
sorry about this, this is because we are working on the site and currently using old articles while we work out the best design, i thought this time of night people would not notice and since we get little traffic i am spending the next six hours sorting it all out so hopefully tomorrow it will have a new feel about it.
the site is more about letting people know about saving money on holiday, letting them know about holiday news and also about personal experience about holidays.
i thank you for your comments which i agree with. please bare with the site and see what you think tomorrow but while you are there please with bullet points give me some advice on you as a user and what you would like to see of the site for you to say on it and come back
-
Hi Diane,
Some of the advice you received on your other sites can be applicable here, especially since you appear to be using the same template.
Specific to this site, my first impression was that an individual article had redirect to the home page when I went to visit the article about adults regretting not taking vacations (http://www.cheapflightsgatwick.com/adults-regret-not-taking-advantage-of-special-youth-holiday). I see 41 article abstracts or headlines above the actual specific article, in addition to three separate advertisement blocks. In addition, the banner for this page reads "IN2TOWN CHEAP FLIGHTS", and I have no idea where that came from.
Think critically as to why a user would like or value this site, and why another site would link to it. Why do I see news about Yemeni security checks on the first page of a site that is supposed to be about Gatwick? In this site, as well as another of yours based on the same template, the thumbnail images are way out of proportion. Combine that with text at the bottom that appears unnatural and keyword stuffed, and a user is going to have a hard time finding a reason to stay here. Google will also have a hard time trusting that this site answers a user's query.
-
yes the site is cheap flights gatwick which i am just re-designing at the moment http://www.cheapflightsgatwick.com
-
Hi Diane,
Can you include your site URL so we can see if there are some basic things that you might have overlooked or that are configured wrong, which could be impacting you?
Thanks!
-
I strongly support all of Ryan's comments. He gave great advice.
I notice your other questions about getting visibility for other sites. If you can deliver on the Ryan's content suggestions you might consider getting an experienced SEO to do a "study and recommend" for the site where you believe that you can produce the best content. This will help you set your SEO straight and advance your new content more competitively.
In a "study are recommend" the SEO learns about your site from a phone call with you and exploring it for assessment. Then you spend an hour on the phone discussing how the site can be improved with both on-page and offpage methods.
This is can be a relatively low cost way to kick up your SEO and learn at the same time. Most importantly it can get you up to speed quickly.
If you are interested just check out the profile pages of people who you see giving generous and competent advice to see if they offer SEO services.
-
Hello Diane.
The first step is adding content the public desires. You mention you run a health site. What is your niche? It is important to develop a well-defined niche that your site can be well-known for. There are tons of well-known sites with deep pockets such as WebMD which could be considered "health" sites.
Once you determine your niche, the next step is adding great content. Not "ok" content to fill the site, not "good" content that is similar to the hundreds of other similar pages on the internet, but truly GREAT content. Create pages that provide readers a feeling of "oh I am so glad I found this page" and "I want to share this page with others" type of feeling.
Once you have great content relevant to your niche, then go ahead and optimize the page completely with on-page SEO. Ensure the proper use of Title, meta description, H1 headers, file names, alt tags and all the other aspects of on-page optimization you read about daily at SEOmoz.
If you have truly completed the above steps, you are now ready to begin off-page SEO. One tactic I would suggest is becoming involved in every health community you can find that talks about your niche. If your site focuses on natural health care products (herbal products, vitamins, etc) then any time you find a discussion on the topic you can become a participant. When it is relevant to do such, provide a link to an article on your site discussing the given topic. You need to be careful using this approach. If you sincerely become a member of that community and just occasionally offer a link to your site, your feedback will be well received. If every comment you offer is a link to your site, you might be blocked as a spammer.
Another approach to help get started is to share one article with other sites. I prefer to keep all my content on my site, but by selectively sharing a single article every few months you can expose your site to readers who might otherwise not find your site.
These methods have the advantage of creating relevant links to your site with appropriate anchor text, and offer the chance to drive direct traffic to your site.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How much do branded search organic traffic & direct traffic impact the ranking for their non-branded topic/keyword?
Hi Moz community, We can see many websites with a reputation will have more number of visitors landing with these two types of traffic mostly (>90%): organic traffic of brand queries and direct traffic. Will these visits help and impact the ranking of these websites for the keywords/topics they been employing? Ex: Moz will have many such visitors. Will this really impact the ranking of Moz for non-brand queries they try to rank for, like "SEO Software". If so, will this have a huge impact or it's just a minor ranking factor. Because we have this with our website and we don't see such boost in rankings compared to our competitors with less direct traffic; where as I been looking at some SEO articles that direct traffic is one of the most important ranking factors. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Search traffic plummeting after HTTPS fumble - what to do now?
Hi all, Our website typically gets about 80% of our traffic from organic Google search over thousands of keywords (i.e., no single keyword (or group of) drives a large portion of our traffic). It's a nine year old website, and we have been growing steadily -- including about 30-40% year-over-year growth for the past 9-months. That is, up until Feb 2nd. On February 2nd, we switched to HTTPS. Everything was done per Google's recommendations: pages individually 301'd to HTTPS pages, no security warnings, added the new site in Webmaster Tools, etc. Google started to pick up our new site -- albeit 3 weeks into the transition, traffic was still significantly down. However, the big problem that we discovered was our ad revenues were getting destroyed. We're an ad based business and our CPMs were tanking, some of our ad partners were having problems serving ads, etc. We were losing a lot of money. So, we made the decision to reverse the HTTPS change and go back to HTTP. That was on Feb 22nd. Our traffic started to recover, and our ad rates did recover. However, 2-weeks after switching back -- March 8 -- our traffic started to fall and has continued to do so. Our traffic is now half of what it was a year ago, and only 1/3 of what it was before we made any changes. I am totally at a loss for what to do. I have spent endless hours digging through Webmaster Tools with no real insights. Here's the most I've been able to glean: Google picked up the new HTTPS site a lot faster than it has reverted back to the HTTP. Particularly for AMP pages. We had about 2,000 indexed AMP pages, which were quickly picked up when we switched to HTTPS, but since changing back to HTTP Google has been slow to re-index the HTTP. Only 935 AMP indexed pages now. According to Webmaster Tools, our overall ranking position has not been affected (the overall average). However, in a sampling of keywords I notice that a number of keywords seem to have been dropped completely from ranking, while others show the same rank position but Google seems to only be showing us in the results intermittently -- e.g., rank is unchanged, but impressions and clicks are much lower. I do not know what to do at this point, and sadly, I'm starting to get desperate for some help. I feel like all the hard work of almost a decade is slipping away and I have no idea how to change course. I've done absolutely everything I can think of from a technical standpoint. Am I being penalized for abandoning the switch to HTTPS? Should I now try and reverse course again, and switch BACK to HTTPS? Is this a temporary bobble that Google's algo will 'forget'? It's a super high quality website with long, unique, detailed articles. Not spammy and we have never had a manual action against us. I don't know what to do. Please help! Here's a link to the website. Thank you in advance.
Algorithm Updates | | tustind0 -
Anyone notice a 25% + drop in Google Traffic since the 23/24 August 2013?
Hi Guys, My site has seen a 25% drop in Google Traffic since Saturday the 24th August 2013. I see it being mentioned here: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-update-17268.html but not anywhere else really. I want to find out if there is anyone else that has been hit and what it is we have been hit by. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | joblife0 -
SEO ANALYSIS ON A NEW SITE
Hi just would like if anyone could help me in provide some seo analysis on a new website http://www.ppilegalservices.co.uk/ main keyword is mis-sold ppi Its a very competitive keyword but not being able to come on google result in long tail keywords as well, Just got ranked on brand keywords like PPI LEGAL Services. Also running out of ideas as to how to create quality content any tips please? many thanks
Algorithm Updates | | conversiontactics0 -
Why do in-site search result pages rank better than my product pages?
Maybe this is a common SERP for a generic product type but I'm seeing it a lot more often. Here is an example SERP "rolling stools". The top 4 results are dynamic in-site search pages from Sears, ebay and Amazon (among others). I understand their influence and authority but why would a search return a dynamic in-site SERP instead of a solid product page. A better question would be - How do I get my in-site SERPs to rank or how do I get my client's page to rise above the #5 spot is currently ranks at? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | BenRWoodard0 -
Client's site dropped completely from Google - AGAIN! Please help...
ok guys - hoping someone out there can help... (kinda long, but wanted to be sure all the details were out there) Already had this happen once - even posted in here about it - http://www.seomoz.org/q/client-s-site-dropped-completely-for-all-keywords-but-not-brand-name-not-manual-penalty-help Guy was a brand new client, all we did was tweak title tags and add a bit of content to his site since most was generic boilerplate text... started on our KW research and competitor research... in just a week, from title tag and content tweaks alone, he went from ranking on page 4-5 to ranking on page 3-4... then as we sat down to really optimize his site... POOF - he was gone from the Googs... He only showed up in "site:" searches and for exact matches of his business name - everything else was gone. Posted in here and on WMT - had several people check it out, both local guys and people from here (thanks to John Doherty for trying!) - but no one could figure out any reason why it would have happened. We submitted a reconsideration request, explaining that we knew we hadn't violated any quality guidelines, that he had less than 10 backlinks so it couldn't be bad linking, and that we had hardly touched the site. They sent back a canned response a week later that said there was no manual penalty and that we should "check our content" - mysteriously, the site started to show back up in the SERPs that morning (we got the canned response in the afternoon) There WAS an issue with NAP mismatch on some citations, but we fixed that, and that shouldn't have contributed to complete disappearance anyway. SO - the site was back, and back at its page 3 or 4 position... we decided to leave it alone for a few days just to be sure we didn't do anything... and then just 6 days later, when we were sitting down to fully optimize the site - POOF - completely gone again. We do SEO for a lot of different car dealers all over the country, and i know our strategies work. Looking at the competition in his market, he should easily be ranked page 2 or 3 with the very minimal tweaking we did... AND, since we didn't change anything since he came back, it makes even less sense that he was visible for a week and then gone again. So, mozzers... Anybody got any ideas? I'm really at a loss here - it makes zero sense that he's completely gone, except for his biz name... if nothing else, he should be ranking for "used cars canton"... Definitely appreciate any help anyone can offer -
Algorithm Updates | | Greg_Gifford0 -
Dramatic drop after rapid rise for new site
just launched a new site edenprairieexperts.com. The site jumped to the first page on yahoo and bing within a couple of days then fell off a cliff and isnt in the top 10 pages. Any reason for this? seems really strange for me. The only think I can think of is I got some really poor quality back links from someone screwing with me. If someone could take a glance at the site or give me some general direction I would appreciate it.
Algorithm Updates | | jjwelu0 -
Google removing pages from Index for Panda effected sites?
We have several clients that we took over from other SEO firms in the last 6 months. We are seeing an odd trend. Links are disappearing from the reports. Not just the SEOmoz reports, but all the back link reports we use. Also... sites that pre Panda would show up as a citation or link, have not been showing up. Many are these are not Indexed, and are on large common Y.P or other type sites. Any one think Google is removing pages from the Index on sites based on Panda. Yours in all curiosity. PS ( we are not large enough to produce quantity data on this.)
Algorithm Updates | | MBayes0