I think that the title is actually my question sorted. But I'll give you some detail that might help you in actually responding to this.
Basically, the site was launched in mid-April and for a short period we had relatively decent visits for a new site. I think our average visit rate per day by the end of the first month was about 30 visits a day (it may be slightly less). However, since the start of June the number of visits per day have dwindled down into single figures. Out of all of these visits, the site has had about 10 sales amounting to an average around £60/£70 per sale.
First of all, this is a golf website - obviously in an extremely saturated market, with its big guns and everyone already has a "favourite" store, as it were. So I do appreciate that "breaking" such a market will not be easy. Early signs were promising - we were ranked highly in the UK's version of MSN search for various golf terms - like Ping Drivers and even higher when specific like Ping G2 Drivers. We have tried to compete on a small scale by offering "Specials" to the customer - for example one of our drivers had something like a 90% reduction in price.
The site in question is:
I have submitted it to Google and other various search engines etc. But it is yet to appear.
So...over to you...yet back to me (if you understand what the hell I'm saying)!
robfenn posted this at 12:24 — 16th June 2005.
He has: 468 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
In all honesty i'm surprised MSN was good to you, however maybe it just loves new sites as i seem to get the same thing. I like MSN because it does seem to be the easiest search engine to work with, it re-indexes really quick and always seems favourable to my sites.
Anyway, i have just reviewed a site in the critiques section and its the same deal.
No where near enough text, and it's all WAY down because of the tables. You are also missing ALT text on your images.
This is all irrelevant though, 99% of the problem is incoming links. You have 24, you need thousands, hundreds of thousands to compete. I'm afraid you won't get that over night. You need a site running for about a year to have a chance to challenge the big boys...
First of all, throw a bit of money at Google Ads and see what happens. This way you can 'jump the queue' in the search engines, although it is NO WAY a permanent fix. Besides, it would get expensive.
You can either spend your life getting incoming links or buy them from sites that can sell high PageRank links. Incoming links is important, but the QUALITY (PageRank 5+) is equally important.
Offline, look after your current customers. Send them emails with discounts, get a compeition going. Try to be creative. Then you get peoples friends and family on your site...
Also, try and have a unique selling point. As you know, an online golf store isn't exactly a new idea. Why should i buy something from you instead of JD Sports?
Did you build the site yourself? To really earn a living from a website you need some real SEO work, and it would be too consuming for a one man band to do...
I'd love to help you out, but i'm not free
Cheers,
-Rob
Web Based CRM | ISO 9001 & ISO 14001
Timewell posted this at 15:23 — 16th June 2005.
They have: 344 posts
Joined: Jun 2002
Yes I was quite surprised by just how easily it is to get a high listing too
I'm somewhat confused by this point. What exactly did you mean?
Yes - I do know that I need links but how did you find out how many incoming links I had and what is classified as an "incoming link"?
Yes I had set a timescale down for a pretty topsy-turvy year. Maybe I was a bit surprised at, what seemed to be, a peak in sales so early. Surely there must be a way of getting something like that back.
I was considering looking at GoogleAdwords. Would you recommend it at all? It certainly talks itself up well - but I'm not willing to invest someone else's money in something which may be a pile of....if you hear what I'm saying.
Where can you find out a site's pagerank? I always thought that PageRanks were kept secret for obvious reasons!?
Yeah I appreciate that this is a necessity. If they like you, then word may well spread. I do understand where you're coming from here.
I believe that our current offers could may a unique selling point. However, it is getting that selling point across to the wider web that is needed! I mean, I don't think many offer a 90% reduction in price on a brand-new driver.
Well I sort of did. I used osCommerce but then I've modified it, to a certain extent.
Well thanks for your help so far anyway. I've got a number of things to look at, but if you (or anyone else) could answer my questions then I'd be most grateful.
Thanks
Rob
no1golfpro.co.uk - High quality golf equipment at competitive prices.
robfenn posted this at 16:07 — 16th June 2005.
He has: 468 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
Are you saying thanks Rob or are you called Rob as well?
Your textual content is way down when it comes to looking at your soure code. Your introduction text starts on Line 209. You want your text to be as high as possible as well have more of it, which is keyword rich. All of your tables have taken all of those 209 lines out.
An incoming link is someone who links to you. Ideally with a high page rank and some description text opposed to a normal link, i.e Rob's Golf store - Top quality brand names such as Callaway, Nike, Ping for cheap prices. (there you go, your first decent incoming link!)
With Adwords, i would say have a go. Perhaps by a book about it on Amazon to avoid any confusion. Marketing never does guarantee success...but if you don't try, you'll never know, as they say!
You can see other sites Pagerank by downloading the Google Toolbar, make sure you choose all the options as only the advanced option shows the PageRank feature if i remember correctly. Also, get the Alexa toolbar.
Links:
Google Toolbar
Alexa Toolbar
Link Popularity Checker
-Rob
Web Based CRM | ISO 9001 & ISO 14001
Timewell posted this at 14:33 — 21st June 2005.
They have: 344 posts
Joined: Jun 2002
Nah - I'm called Rob too!!!
Right...ok I see what you're saying. I'm not quite sure how I'd be able to do this for all of the pages because it would take weeks to do! However, if it is going to help improve the site's rankings then it must be worthwhile doing I guess! So CSS really IS the answer?!
Right - glad I've got that sorted!!! Now, I guess this is a stupid question because if you knew the answer then you'd be a millionaire but still, how do you increase your incoming links? I guess this must be something that can only be done over time right? How would SEOs manage to increase the incoming links?
Yeah I'll have to get a book on Adwords! It does look like something that may improve sales and the customer base - but for it to be effective, you'd have to recooperate the amount spent on Adwords by sales!
Thanks for the links - that link popularity checker is something that I'm going to enjoy playing with!!!
Thanks for all of your help so far!
Rob
no1golfpro.co.uk - High quality golf equipment at competitive prices.
robfenn posted this at 10:33 — 23rd June 2005.
He has: 468 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
It's very addictive. I'm not very techy, i used to do graphic design and then moved onto websites but the whole SEO thing has got a real grip on me!
As for incoming links, you can actually buy quality ones (PageRank 6+) to save time, but it can get expensive, some PageRank 9 links cost $1000! Generally though, get on the Google & Yahoo directories and any other free ones you can find, ideally to do with what you're selling. Avoid trading links if you can as this basically cancels you both out (unless they have a higher PageRank and so you'll be stealing theres which is ideal in a naughty kind of way)!
It basically just takes time, you can try writing articles and sending them to free press release sites. Try to get listed on major golf sites, like Ping or whoever as they are likely to have a very good PageRank.
It will take you a long time to build your site up, years. Thats why i would say do some offline marketing initially.
Cheers,
-Rob
Web Based CRM | ISO 9001 & ISO 14001
robfenn posted this at 10:35 — 23rd June 2005.
He has: 468 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
BTW - change your link in your signature. Do people search for competitive golf equipment, or cheap golf equipment?
Web Based CRM | ISO 9001 & ISO 14001
Gargen posted this at 04:58 — 7th July 2005.
They have: 18 posts
Joined: Jul 2005
and do not submit to SE's it actually hurts you get your link on a site that is crwled regulary and you will be added this way
IHateGargen.com
timjpriebe posted this at 12:09 — 7th July 2005.
He has: 2,666 posts
Joined: Dec 2004
Maybe you're talking about some specific circumstance, but in general I've not found that to be true.
Tim
http://www.tandswebdesign.com
yourlifeforce posted this at 16:15 — 7th July 2005.
They have: 26 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
The Golf market is really doing poorly right now. I worked for Norwood Tee Off ... we printed on Golf Balls ... you know for charities and such ... but the general market is down ... this could be the problem with your website.
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