Website Traffic - How to Increase?

[C-2]

Are any of the programs, like TrafficBlazer, effective, or a waste of money? Any tips on increasing website traffic to a targeted business market?
Thanks in advance

[Jbb]

:D Drama!...

[Tom Brown]

If you send me an IP address, I can flood ping you.

[OutCole'd]

If you send me an IP address, I can flood ping you.
Sounds painful.

[ChumpChange]

Just post the link here on ***boat. Everybody will click on it. It works for JBBs videos. :D

[Jbb]

Is flood pinging along the same lines as the Cleveland Steamer, Donkey Punch,.....or Blumpkin?

[Tom Brown]

"Cleveland steamer" :D
I just looked that up on Wikipedia. Nice. :D :D :D
I had to bounce over to the urban dictionary to find out WTF a blumpkin is. :D :D

[Outnumbered]

Is flood pinging along the same lines as the Cleveland Steamer, Donkey Punch,.....or Blumpkin?
I think it is more like a Dirty Sanchez:sqeyes:

[uvindex]

Are any of the programs, like TrafficBlazer, effective, or a waste of money? Any tips on increasing website traffic to a targeted business market?
Thanks in advanceIncreasing traffic, or increasing your ranking in search engines? (Although often related, not the same thing. :))
"Increasing website traffic to a targeted business market" is pretty vague. In general, you need to give people a reason to go to your site, and you need to give them a way to find that site. ***boat is an example of a "sticky" site -- the forums, with all their drama and adventures, keeps people coming back day after day. If the content on ***boat wasn't like that, people would have no reason to come here except maybe to look up a ***boat article or something.
You need to have a well-designed page too, of course. (Users are fickle, and if they see a crappy or slow page or if the page does something annoying they're likely to just abandon the page.)
There are lots of ways to increase your rankings in search engines. Some are simple, e.g., giving web pages meaningful page titles, as those are used when search engines index pages. Including meaningful keywords can help too, although it won't help so much with some search engines (like Google) that rank you depending on how many other pages refer to your page.
There are lots of sites and books that give info on good page design as well as increasing your page's ranking in search engines. I don't know much about Traffic Blazer other than it helps you do the stuff described above (and also helps submit your site to search engines -- but you can do that yourself). If you or your designer don't have that expertise already then it might be a decent deal.
Good luck! :)

[sorry dog]

Tom is holding back on yall.
He can tell you that free porn will exponentially increase your traffic in a short period of time. I do believe that he had to employ a signficant portion of the Saskatchewan bandwith providers to keep up.

[Jbb]

Tom is holding back on yall.
He can tell you that free porn will exponentially increase your traffic in a short period of time. I do believe that he had to employ a signficant portion of the Saskatchewan bandwith providers to keep up.
And that was only to accomodate Magic Mountain Dan.....:D
....sup cuz....

[Tom Brown]

MMD. lol! :D
Last I heard he started his own web site. www.onshoreonly.com

[C-2]

WTF, JBB?
Sleeping on the job. You missed a beauty last night....
This nut paste is no longer welcome in my system.

[BEER&WATER]

google adwords

[Bradman]

Are any of the programs, like TrafficBlazer, effective, or a waste of money? Any tips on increasing website traffic to a targeted business market?
Thanks in advance
HavasuDoug who is on the boards could point you in the right direction. He did a great job fixing my website. He is also helping me drive more traffic to our website. His email addy is sales@havasudoug.com.

[C-2]

Thanks for the help guys.
As RatherBINLHC points out correctly, it's not actually traffic I'm looking for - but search engine hits.
I am my own website designer/graphics/webmaster, but have never had a need to openly market a segment of my business (it's not a nice business - evictions). The majority of businesses would not be interested in my site, so it is a small clientele I am going after.
Although I have figured out the mechanics of the site, I am still learning how to market it.
I saw the Google ad words, and I think I need to re-name some of my pages to index pages for the crawlers?
Waht else? Here's the site:
www.hughesreo.com

[uvindex]

I saw the Google ad words, and I think I need to re-name some of my pages to index pages for the crawlers?
Waht else? Here's the site:
www.hughesreo.com
Cool site! Yes, definitely give your pages meaningful titles, using words that your potential clients might use when they're searching. For example, you might change your main page title from "HughesREO.com" to "HughesREO -- Evictions, Lock & Lockout, Vacancy Verifications"
One usability thing: change the text on the "About Us" page from fully justified to left-justified (like you have it on other pages). It's more readable, and consistent with your other pages.
Another thing: The "Status" email address looks kind of odd. Maybe your existing customers will know what it means but a first-time visitor to your site is going to say, "What is this "status" email address for?"
On your subpages, it's OK to have the "Home" link at the bottom of the page. However, I recommend that you also make your HughesREO.com logo (that appears at the top of each page) a link back to Home -- users are accustomed to being able to click on something like that to get back home.
Finally, to "get your URL out there" make sure you include it on all your collateral and consider making it part of your signature when posting on various forums. The more times your URL appears on pages that Google finds, the better.
Good luck! :)

[socalmoney]

Cool site! Yes, definitely give your pages meaningful titles, using words that your potential clients might use when they're searching. For example, you might change your main page title from "HughesREO.com" to "HughesREO -- Evictions, Lock & Lockout, Vacancy Verifications"
Great advise. I would add your location to this string as well. You are a local company so you really don't need some guy in Ohio on your site. Now if that guy was looking for your service in Riverside then he will want your info.
Consider this
"HughesREO -- Evictions, Lock & Lockout, Vacancy Verifications, Investigations, Riverside, Orange County, San Diego, Southern California Full Service"
You want Google to return your page when someone enters "evictions riverside California" etc. You could also throw these words into every page URL.
OK now for some tips on cleaning up your page design. It is a great start and looks pretty good for a DIYer. See my mark-ups and corresponding comments. I hope they are constructive and you don't get pissed at me. Just trying to help out.
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=37599&stc=1&d=1187715415
1. Not a big deal but the key doesn't represent a G in my mind and I got hung up on that a little.
2. Consider a color change on this. Hard to see and very important info. Also remember that any info that is in the form of a graphic can not be indexed by Google. You might want to repeat this info as text further down the page.
3. This graphic is very large and really doesn't convey your services. To me this represents a transfer of ownership or a new purchase of something that has keys associated with it.
3.1 Remember that the information above the fold (the part of the page that is visible before a visitor has to scroll so see more) is critical. When I visited the site for the first time, I instantly saw 3 generic images that really didn't tell me what this site is about.
4. This is your navigation info and I would consider redesigning this. It is in an odd location and it only really appears on your home page. I have to go back to your homepage and wait for your flash to load and display before I can click on my next page. This will wear out your potential customer and they might not get all the info you want to present because they abandon your site. I would create a navigation plan the stays with the user in the form of tabs or a side nav column. That way when they click on About Us, they can go right to Price List without having to go back to the homepage.
I would limit your flash animation to your logo only. The rest of it is kind of annoying.
5. I found myself wondering what this stuff was about but wasn't really motivated to click on it. The artwork is very cliché and the roll over noise is not necessary. I would limit the amount of animation. Again, it's above the fold and doesn't inspire me to look further, which is what I have to do if I want more info since your not giving it to me on the homepage.
6. I would consider re-wording this. I wasn't sure what was being offered here. Maybe say something like Featured Articles on Evictions, Lockouts, Vacancy Verifications. ETC. You get the idea. Also you will be giving Google more key words to index. Also your "more topics" appears to be a link but you can't click it. Try to keep your dead white space to a minimum.
7. More clip art here. I have really no idea what this refers to. Also you are welcoming people but also putting "Panic" in their mind for some unknown reason. You want people's panic to be over when they land on your site because your here to take care of their issues.
8. Your welcome is below the fold. I have to take in a lot of info before I hear from you.
9. I am seeing a lot of teasers. "services to include......" The problem is when I click on this, there is no mention of the expansion that is coming soon.
10. Lots of call to actions but you can not click on them.
11. All the verbage in this section needs to be revised.
12. The word "strange" is negative. You don't want people associating Strange with HughesREO.
Let me know if you have any questions. This is a great start and you just need to massage it a bit.

[lucky]

if you want more coverage on your website , I found it necessary to Post porn :D

[Nord]

I am trying to figure out the same stuff with my site as well. I want to come up more on the "organic" side of Google, Yahoo, etc. This ppc stuff is pretty spendy for me.
www.thecorralwesternwear.com

[Big Inch]

Socalmoney do you design websites for a living?

[C-2]

Let me know if you have any questions. This is a great start and you just need to massage it a bit.
Wow, thanks SoCal, I really, really appreciate your input – it’s the kind of stuff I’m looking for. I appreciate your willingness to enumerate the various components – that’s what I need, and I will gladly return the favor….I can be very useful at times.
Later tonight I will look at the items you have addressed, and make corrections. Also, to understand the site better, I thought I would give you the concepts behind creating it.
------------
The site is a generic flash template, which I am wrenching on with Macromedia Dreamweaver suite.
My real goal with the site is to convince an REO industry reader to engage our services. My secondary goal is to make sure the site is sales driven beyond just a “here we are, call us”, online business card approach. Each header or section has a specific purpose and has been thought out, but some might be missing the mark. For example, the animated keys represent the transfer of possession; much the same as you receive keys after you purchase a home. In REO, it represents the final step in the foreclosure process.
As with my investigative services, there is nothing I want anybody to order since each service is different – very similar to a law firm sites which only describe services. In fact in my PI business – I don’t work with the general public. City Attorneys, large corporate law firms, banks and title companies are my clients – so the site is not designed to appeal to any members of the general public, or even my regular clients – only people who immediately work in REO.
The site is also a work in progress, but then again, maybe not. Everything I want a reader to se is already on the site – I am only looking for a phonecall or email since the reality is, I will need to conform to their industry software, and will not process any orders thru my site.
I use the “winning through intimidation” sales approach, wherein you create a sense urgency; make solutions available; have mechanisms to trigger action on part of the readers; and motivation for the reader to act quickly. I adopted the strategy from “The Ultimate Sales Letter” by Dan Kennedy.
I also adopted the unconventional strategy of painfully long descriptions of services. These descriptions also identify problems and solutions, raise and address questions the reader might have (without them asking), and again, are designed to create a sense of urgency, or even panic. The theory behind this strategy is to weed out all the impulsive type people – I don’t want them. I want the analytical person who will take the time to read thru everything.
So if somebody says to me the site is boring and they bailed cuz it was too long, then it has served its purpose! :) My printed sales material is the same – a longwinded but fact-filled, unconventional and unique letter.
The site is also written in conversational English, as opposed to straight business, legalese or grammatically correct writing. Again, this is done on purpose and meant to stand out as unconventional.
Whew, anyhow, keep your thoughts coming :)

[C-2]

BTW, is there a way to create a "back" button which is not a script, so I can eliminate the "home" buttons? I too agree, having to weather thru the animation sucks arse. But I thought it was a safer route than using a scripted button which might not fly on all browsers. Or am I missing something? (probably, lol)
Thanks again

[socalmoney]

Typically you would break up your page into frames so your navigation would fallow the user to whatever page they are on. Traditionally when your logo is on every page, most users know to click on it to take them back to the homepage.

[socalmoney]

Socalmoney do you design websites for a living?
I work in web-dev for a major on line retailer.

[C-2]

Hey SoCal, anoither quick question.
If you have a website link, in a siggy, with the font attributes set to white so it's not readily visible - does Google and any of the other spiders/crawlers still index it?
I would think so, but I thought I read you can't do that with meta tags, or a bunch of keywords buried in a site?

[Nord]

Hey SoCal, anoither quick question.
If you have a website link, in a siggy, with the font attributes set to white so it's not readily visible - does Google and any of the other spiders/crawlers still index it?
I would think so, but I thought I read you can't do that with meta tags, or a bunch of keywords buried in a site?
From what I understand, Google and Yahoo spiders no longer like hidden text, but I would like to know as well.

[socalmoney]

This might help. Don't piss off Google, they run this world.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66353
Hiding text or links in your content can cause your site to be perceived as untrustworthy since it presents information to search engines differently than to visitors. Text (such as excessive keywords) can be hidden in several ways, including:
* Using white text on a white background
* Including text behind an image
* Using CSS to hide text
* Setting the font size to 0
Hidden links are links that are intended to be crawled by Googlebot, but are unreadable to humans because:
* The link consists of hidden text (for example, the text color and background color are identical).
* CSS has been used to make tiny hyperlinks, as little as one pixel high.
* The link is hidden in a small character - for example, a hyphen in the middle of a paragraph.
If your site is perceived to contain hidden text and links that are deceptive in intent, your site may be removed from the Google index, and will not appear in search results pages. When evaluating your site to see if it includes hidden text or links, look for anything that's not easily viewable by visitors of your site. Are any text or links there solely for search engines rather than visitors?

[C-2]

This might help. Don't piss off Google, they run this world.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66353
Hiding text or links in your content can cause your site to be perceived as untrustworthy since it presents information to search engines differently than to visitors. Text (such as excessive keywords) can be hidden in several ways, including:
* Using white text on a white background
* Including text behind an image
* Using CSS to hide text
* Setting the font size to 0
Hidden links are links that are intended to be crawled by Googlebot, but are unreadable to humans because:
* The link consists of hidden text (for example, the text color and background color are identical).
* CSS has been used to make tiny hyperlinks, as little as one pixel high.
* The link is hidden in a small character - for example, a hyphen in the middle of a paragraph.
If your site is perceived to contain hidden text and links that are deceptive in intent, your site may be removed from the Google index, and will not appear in search results pages. When evaluating your site to see if it includes hidden text or links, look for anything that's not easily viewable by visitors of your site. Are any text or links there solely for search engines rather than visitors?
I saw that...and wonder if they are full of shiat?

[C-2]

From what I understand, Google and Yahoo spiders no longer like hidden text, but I would like to know as well.
Wow, your page is coming along nicely Nord - I like the photos of your store.:)