Any ideas on generating more 'visits' to my website?

PrincessJR

Hi,

I'll begin by saying I know very little about the technicalities of running a website, and of how the internet works generally. I have used a website builder (web eden) to create my own website at a cost of £5.99 per month which I think is very reasonable.

I offer spiritual counselling amongst other things and although I get a steady 'drip' of traffic, I dont really get enough to generate any business. I tried Google AdWords (pay per click) but I didnt see any results from it (apart from a hole in my bank balance!). Im assuming I wasnt using this in the best way given my lack of experience.

Can anyone make any recommendations for increasing traffic to my site? I am considering paying for someone 'in the know' to give my site a kick start but would like to have 1 last crack at it myself before shelling out too much money.

Any advice really appreciated

Suarez

What is the site about?

Submit it to google and choose careful keywords.

Start a Facebook page and/or twitter.

Get a 1000 stickers made.

hoyteam

Adwords is generally only good for e-commerce websites and you really have to be good at copy to make the most of it.

How about handing out business cards with your website address on them or making sure your site contains plenty of keyowrds you expect people to use when they search in google? Whatever you try it`ll take time.

SailorSam

You often hear guests on local radio talking about a business idea or a service they are starting to offer promoting their sites, could you give someone like that or perhaps the local free paper to ask if they'd run a story. Maybe print flyers and see would the local college let you put them up on their notice boards.

steve1980

PrincessJR wrote: »

Hi,

I'll begin by saying I know very little about the technicalities of running a website, and of how the internet works generally. I have used a website builder (web eden) to create my own website at a cost of £5.99 per month which I think is very reasonable.

Not really! Not sure even what plan you've taken out with them as, at £5.99 per month would equate to £71.88 which is not a price they are offering. I have access to hosting from £1.99 a month and which offers a whole lot more than the packages available through Web Eden.

PrincessJR wrote: »

I offer spiritual counselling amongst other things and although I get a steady 'drip' of traffic, I dont really get enough to generate any business. I tried Google AdWords (pay per click) but I didnt see any results from it (apart from a hole in my bank balance!). Im assuming I wasnt using this in the best way given my lack of experience.

No point using Adwords, not suitable for your type of business.

PrincessJR wrote: »

Can anyone make any recommendations for increasing traffic to my site? I am considering paying for someone 'in the know' to give my site a kick start but would like to have 1 last crack at it myself before shelling out too much money.

Any advice really appreciated

Social network yourself!

Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter

Add a blog to your website.

On a personal note, I see so many ads in the papers for all these spiritalists who are this that and the other that I don't see how there is any money in it.

PrincessJR

Thank you all for your responses and ideas. I will definately look into the leaflets etc..

Steve - I am now thinking of shopping around! As a bit of a novice I felt the ease of using web eden, and the tools I can use through them (site stats, links to facebook, google analytics etc) were all pretty handy for £5.99, but I also pay £10 per year for my domain name so maybe there could be ways I can reduce my site costs. Thanks for the advice.
Out of interest, can I ask which hosting you use? IS it easy to transfer my site to a new host or would I have to rebuild my site from scratch (sorry if these are silly questions!)

Thanks again

steve1980

You would not be able to use the site builder with Web Eden, although Wordpress is by far the best content management system around.

I'll send you some links.

paulwf

Please take a step back before spending any money on advertising! First make sure you have a product that people want, perhaps they aren't using your service because no one wants it not because you aren't getting enough traffic? Secondly is your site designed to convert visitors into buyers? So many sites are poorly optimised, you need to tell the customer what to do ("Call now...").

I would get as much feedback as possible and get the site and service absolutely right otherwise you have a very high risk of wasting your money.

JuniorDesigner

Maybe try some SEO to get your ranking up on Google? There are a fair amount of people who do this type of work, I've had a minimal amount done myself through someone and it has worked.

Networking yourself on places like LinkedIn, Twitter and possibly Facebook (not sure as I don't have it) is a great way to get people to view your site. Make sure to join some groups relevant to your business on LinkedIn, I feel this helps a great deal.

Also the comment about blogs is a great one, I have a blog on my site which I update on twitter with links and I usually get quite a bit of traffic through that.

Anything else you need to know get in touch!!

wileycat

Are there any groups communities which you can join as linked sites, it does increase traffic more which will increase youre google rank when searched!

Very good for craft sites.

VSC

Find all the relevant forums by doing a search on Google.

Check them out.
Would you feel comfortable commenting on them?
And importantly, do the posters there have signatures after their posts.

Join 5 to start and gently start making helpful and positive comments.
You will probably have to make a number of posts before you will be allowed to have a signature.
As soon as you can, link to your site.
Join more forums and be helpful!