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re do my home page then rest of site
mark schaaf
Posts: 365
Joined: 04 Oct 10
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28 Dec 12 10:41 pm

re do my home page then rest of site

I have done all my seo, articles and backlinking and still do and am on page 1 position 1 for many keyword phrases. I am getting descent traffic but not many sales, I have gotten comments from this site and others that my site may look outdated but it is only a little over 2 years old.

I got to position 1 from asking peoples opinion and filtering through it and that is why I think I am in position 1 but the funny thing is many of the same people who liked all of the changes I made a year ago now say the site looks outdated and the homepage is too long.

I know my home page is a lot longer then many but I think all the information I have on it could be why I am in position 1 but like some have said it could be too long and people are coming some are staying and reading but not a lot of buying.

Even the people who come back don't buy much. So my big problem is I am a little afraid that if I change my home page to look more modern and glitzy and shorten the article that it could drop me from not only position 1 but from page 1 as well. I know the goal is to sell more but what about my traffic, if I am back on page 5 I won't get much traffic.

I am planning on running an A and B test and was wondering if doing so will effect my position if the new home page isn't as long or as good as the original. One thing i also think is many people think colored sites like mine don't look to flashy and clean while a white page with black print just seems crisp and clean thus the new homepage layout which I haven't finished quite yet. I also plan on changing the color scheme of the site if the test goes well but still worried that all the hard work it took to get to position 1 will go down the tubes if I change the home page. Just looking for opinions and ideas on what people think might happen. Thanks
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Mark
 
esolutions
Posts: 475
Joined: 28 Apr 09
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29 Dec 12 5:18 pm

 Hi,

If you do a split test using Google's free website optimizer it should not hurt your rankings. Why not have both? Use a clean summary on the top of the homepage followed by the article below.
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List not growing fast enough?
Get More Opt Ins:
http://mattgreener.com/view/arfree
 
burkhardt5
Posts: 216
Joined: 26 Jun 09
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30 Dec 12 5:48 pm

 Hello Mark.

I would take a look at these few things first.

Is your text in large blocks? You might want to break it up into smaller chunks.

How high is your bounce rate? If it's say 70+ you may want to change your top intro information as people may be getting turned off right away for some reason.

What is your # of pages/visits and time on site? If it is just over 1 then people are not even looking at your pages and if your time on site is very low like 30 seconds or less then people are clearly not seeing what they came there to see.

I have found that depending on the keyword phrase that you are getting traffic from, you may not want an add towards the top of the page as it may scare off people right away.

Sit back and get into the frame of mind as someone who is typing in the keyword phrase and think to yourself "If I typed that in as a search, is this what I would expect to find". I know this sounds kind of weird but you have to think like a visitor might.

Never Give Up!!!
Paul
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Paul J. Burkhardt
 
mbeelow
Posts: 47
Joined: 06 Mar 12
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17 Jan 13 4:39 pm

 Hi Mark,

your site really looks outdated, don't be offended please, this is pure analysis and that can be a problem for you.

That's the point. You can have less traffic but more sales. You need to rise conversion rates.

See, the length of the text may be good for seo but might prevent people from buying. I'm sure if you follow all the guidelines for webmasters and change your layout and home page, you won't lose traffic. Or even gain more. But at the same time with better on-page factors you could sell more. I strongly suggest you changing your layout as it's not very difficult using WordPress.
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