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What's my next move
mark schaaf
Posts: 365
Joined: 04 Oct 10
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12 May 12 6:23 pm

What's my next move

I have put a lot of work into my main site and think because I wasn't hit by panda or any other google updates at all that I must have done everything the way they want. I am on page 1 and 2 for many of my keyword strings and have a PR of 3. All of my articles are written with the information I am giving in mind and not keywords so I normally add the keywords in later but always make sure they make sense when reading the article. I keep adding new pages and update the sites blog monthly so now I am thinking what is my next move.

I plan on adding articles and pages to my site as well as more backlinks but was wondering since I am doing well in SERP's should I concern myself at all with trying to get my site to a higher PR ranking. I kind of guess if I keep doing what I am doing and keep everything at a high quality it will happen sooner or later.

The one thing I have had suggested to me is to try and shorten some of my articles and add some pictures in order to keep the reader around longer and hopefully buy something after learning what I have taught them. I know I am in a tough niche but with as high as I am in, in SERP's I am not getting the sales I would think I should be getting. Any suggestions Mark
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Mark
 
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maryt
Posts: 3224
Joined: 16 Apr 12
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14 May 12 2:32 am

 Hi Mark,

Congratulations your site survived the Google changes. That is a big accomplishment already don't you think?

So now, you can solely focus on how to really get visitors that covert to sales. I have replied several times to your previous posts about your problem with your travel site. So adding to that, your niche may be a very competitive niche, however, this niche also leaves you to think of more "creative" ways you can market your site and get sales in return.

Like for example, do you have subscribers or have you been sending out newsletters? If so, you can (from time to time) distribute some kind of freebies that will entice your subscribers to constantly visit your website.

I have a friend who is also in the travel niche. Apart from doing SEO and social media marketing, he also provides subscribers monthly newsletters that are beneficial to them, but more beneficial to him. How? Like for example, he made a good itenerary/travel plan with a "travel" map to all places (like accommodation, restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, gas stations, money changer, etc) during the entire trip. These soft materials are also printable. His subscribers thinks that he is too helpful, well in fact, this is just another marketing plan that he used to get his subscribers plan their trip, rent a hotel he is acquainted with, and so on.

So that is the idea. I hope it sparks some creative juices for your site. :)

Mary
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cecille.l
Posts: 6369
Joined: 25 Feb 11
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15 May 12 9:12 am

 Now that you have your site up and your keywords ranking. I thin you should pay attention on your keywords and your analytics. These can help tell you why exactly you are not making sales. Continue with your backlinking work, but it doesn't have to be as rigorous as before. Your focus now should be driving more and more traffic to your site and convert those to sales.

I noticed you do not have a link of your website in your forum signature. I suggest you do add that so in case any of us needs to look at your site to give you feedback, we can. Putting your site's link in your forum signature is a way of promoting your site too.

Hope that helps. Have a g0od day!
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Cecille

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mark schaaf
Posts: 365
Joined: 04 Oct 10
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15 May 12 4:14 pm

 Thanks for the help and ideas, I don't have a news letter partly because I don't have many people in any kind of e-mail list. I know link building is supposed to be important but just haven't done much of it. I have been looking into putting a subscription box on my home page for like you've mentioned a news letter and to collect e-mail. On thing also is I don't have my main website listed as a signature and I did that on purpose. I was thinking that since I make a lot of comments on this site that every time I comment with my site as a signature that would be putting another link on this site adding to my back links and I didn't want to do that because I try to have most of my back links coming from my niche. I think I have commented on this site about 200 times and didn't want that many back links from a non travel site. I have my sites link listed in my bio and thought if someone was interested they could get it from there. Another thing is I don't know how to list my url in my signature. Thanks Mark
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Mark
 
contact20
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Joined: 15 May 12
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15 May 12 6:14 pm

 Don't worry about getting links outside for your niche. A site like this isn't going to hurt you. Reducing your article length is a bad idea. Adding pictures might help with traffic but not with conversions.

I suspect the travel niche has a very low conversion rate in general. Lots of lookers, few buyers.

Like someone else mentioned, you MUST start a list. Google traffic is great and all but you need to filter out the people just looking for information from the people really interested and looking to buy. In my opinion your site is good enough in the SERPs, leave off of your SEO efforts for a while or just stay the course if it isn't too much work.

You've brought them to water, now you got to get them to drink. Switch focus and spend all of your time building conversions and getting subscribers.

Start testing different page layouts, different text, different button colors, anything that improves your conversion rate. Google/Facebook ads are a great way to test this. Build two almost identical pages with one little change, a blue button vs a red one and see which converts better. Split test tell your eyes bleed.

Every single page needs to have multiple areas where people can subscribe and links to your products. Widen the funnel and grow as many links to your money pages as possible.

Have you tried advertising and other paid traffic methods yet? No idea what you are selling but there may be better options than Google search traffic for finding customers.
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mark schaaf
Posts: 365
Joined: 04 Oct 10
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16 May 12 10:31 pm

 I have thought about color changes a couple times and because I built my site myself using a web editor any time I want to change the background color or any color for that matter I can just do it on the master page and it will change all the pages. I could have as many different color schemes as I want and save them all and any time I want a different color I would just update my site with what ever color I want. I am just not sure a color change will make someone buy something more then the colors I have. I know I have a lot of options and plan on exploring many of then over the next few months. Mark
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Mark
 
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gradyp
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17 May 12 7:11 am

 Mark,

You may be surprised what a change in color might do for you. My brother James had a dating site that was getting really high bounce rates and he couldn't figure out why. I took one look at his page and told him that the background color he was using was probably scaring people away. He was using a color that can be good in the physical world, but on the screen can sometimes come across as bright and glaring. I suggested changing to a less glaring color, and his bounce rate dramatically improved.

I know my example was with background color, but the same principles apply. Like everything else, test, test, test! A simple change (even just a few shades difference) might make more of an impact than you may think.
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maryt
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17 May 12 8:10 am

 I agree with Gradyp. It would not hurt if you try and test out everything. :)

Good luck!

Mary
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jimcoe
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17 May 12 3:00 pm

 Congrats on setting up your site with an easy template (or style sheet, or however you make site-wide changes easily), Mark.

Sounds like a good use of Google's free Split Tester (Google Website Optimizer). When the effect on your bottom line is not obvious it's a lot better to test than to guess.

Problem I have with split tests is that they require a lot of traffic, or can take months. Sometimes I use a "sale proxy". That is, something people will click on that indicates high interest, but not an outright sale. The idea being that these "sales proxies" happen a lot more often than a sale, when traffic is low.

As I've said here before, when a site is new and you need A/B Split Testing the most is when it takes the longest - bit of a shame that.

Cheers!
_jim coe
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tonyguitar
Posts: 137
Joined: 17 Jul 08
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22 May 12 9:47 am

 Good for you Mark, that you haven't been hurt from google update. I personally think you should not shorten your articles, it's not a good idea. You can add pictures or even videos on , but don't shorten articles. The other things you can do is to do A/B test, however, it takes a lot of time and traffic to prove. so you have to make up your mind.

I don't know what niche you are in, but to build a list is always a good idea for your IM business. With a list you are building a solid business, whenever you have something to promote, you don't have to wonder about who to promote to. Having SEO traffic is great, but without a list, the website is like a corner shop wishing people to stop and buy from, and even if they buy through your website, you don't keep anything from them. This is how I look at list.
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