Site Traffic - How Do I Compete with the Big Dogs.

[joshuapaccione]

I opened my business in November of 2011 and I have been getting some site traffic however not as much as I would have expected. I have been looking at my Google Analytic and from what I can tell seems most of my potential customers leave my site after visiting the front page. I understand this to a point however I am wondering if my home page lacks professionalism.

I am using my site to generate sales & leads. So far has been a paperweight. Maybe because its so new...

What I am doing to drive traffic

Google Adds $200.00 (not working)
FaceBook adds $300.00 (Is working well for me...sorta)
submitted to SEO Tools by Attracta
submitted to Yellow Pages
submitted to Local Newspaper
Have Facebook link to
Have Twitter link to
Have Linkdin link to
Have SiteLock $100.00
Have a blog (I try to write content but am busy with sales meetings and appointments)

I am also hosted by the best business web hosting company of 2011 by consumer report and various other sites. Ipage.com

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Any advice on what you would do to increase site traffic? Part of me thinks I need to just be patient and keep doing what I am doing and in time it will become what I am looking for.
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[YouGotMyMoney]

dont waste money on google ads or fb ads, its not worth it.

1. you should just use WP as your main site, like you do with your blog. I would def redesign your site to make it look more professional, and better call to action. You mention life/health/disability in the content, but you only have a life quote on the right hand side.

2. you dont have much content. on your homepage, write around 1000-1500 words that target the main keyword(s) you would like to rank for. and of course add more pages with good content 500-1000 words.

3. your site was created in dec/2011, older sites are given more trust and authority by google just based on ages, you would do better to buy an aged domain already indexed.

Example, at godaddy auctions here's a domain that's going for $12 plus ICANN/registrations and auctions membership fee, it's 5-10 yrs old, already indexed in google. insurance-rates-now.com

4. Learn keyword research.

5. Dont waste money on ads, invest that into SEO. That can either by hiring someone like Brook to fix the design of your site, order content/articles, ordering backlinking packages....etc.


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BTW, most of your visitors arent from search right?

 

[joshuapaccione]

Red = Drop off
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Most of the GREEN is from Facebook and twitter
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FaceBook Adds
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Uploaded with ImageShack.usI thank you for your feedback I will work on further content and switching over to a all WordPress site. However I am confused why I should not use adds. As you can see from my Facebook report it seems to be decent.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I'll give you an opinion from a client's perspective. When I went to your site the first thing that caught my attention was "Call us today for a free no-obligation quote."

I'm not calling anyone for a quote so I'd leave within 5 seconds.

 

[joshuapaccione]

Well hiring a site designer and SEO is not in this quarters budget, but it is differently something after the comments that I need to invest in. I am completely out of my element when it comes to websites.

 

[Guest]

I am using my site to generate sales & leads.

I admire you. I do. I admire anyone who has the goal of using a web site to generate sales and leads.

Those who are able to actually do it, I see as marketing "gods."

I've only known a few who are able to rely ONLY on their website for generating sales and leads... and that is partly because they were already so well-known in their market niche.

The holy grail of every agent in the land is to receive an almost unlimited number of leads from his or her web site. My guess is that those who know how don't tell, and those who tell don't know!

I use my web site not to get sales, but to open or close them. I get my leads the old fashioned way... cold calling via the techniques in this book

I think trying to compete with what you call "the big dogs" is a wasted effort. They didn't get to be "big dogs" by trying to compete with other big dogs. They got "big" by developing a USP... a unique selling proposition... and telling everyone about it.

For the record, I'm NOT a "big dog." I'm just an old dog. But I do as well as I need to in this biz... and I don't need to do as well as most. I'm twice the age of many 30-sometings here, meaning I've had 30 more years to save my puppy chow for when I would become an old dog. What I don't know about insurance (which is a lot!) I know about in sales and marketing. As was once said... "Success is the result of good judgement, good judgement is a result of experience, experience is often the result of bad judgement".

YMMV.

Al
I am at this site.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

Well hiring a site designer and SEO is not in this quarters budget, but it is differently something after the comments that I need to invest in. I am completely out of my element when it comes to websites.

Site Design: you can find premium WordPress themes for free at many SEO forums.

outside of that it should cost you less than $100 to hire someone to customize a WordPress theme with a good call to action header, integrates quote engines, and set up plug-ins to optimize for SEO.

SEO: hiring somebody to run a search engine optimization campaign for your website can be one of the most difficult things you will ever have to do. there is no license or credentials necessary to be an Internet marketer, so you never really know up front how it's going to turn out.

This is why it's important to learn the basics of SEO yourself, so that you're knowledgeable enough to know what tactics work or don't work in SEO in your niche.

Learn SEO | SEOmoz

this is a great resource to start with, then once you understand the basics, read through this forum to learn about different backlinking techniques: Backlinksforum - Archive.


For HTML/Web Design:

HTML Tutorial

Start with learning the basic HTML tags and markup, then learn CSS.

If you need any help, with either check out CSS-Tricks: Video Screencasts | CSS-Tricks, and TheNewBoston: List of Videos for XHTML & CSS
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However I am confused why I should not use adds. As you can see from my Facebook report it seems to be decent.

how many leads did those Facebook clicks turn into?

One of the reasons you should not be doing any ppc advertising right now is your website is not optimized to generate any leads.

For example, let's say you wanted to generate mini med leads. and your sales copy was targeted towards pregnant women. Well you want to make sure when they click on your ad they go to a page that talks about mini meds for pregnant women with a nice big call to action quote box to capture leads.

 

[Josh]

Well hiring a site designer and SEO is not in this quarters budget, but it is differently something after the comments that I need to invest in. I am completely out of my element when it comes to websites.

It's not nearly as expensive as you might think it is. I've been helping a forum member with his site using stuff Brook as taught me (and some of his help) and the site has done nothing but climb. In fact, on bing he's climbed over 30 positions on two terms and now has three of his money terms on page one with bing (which is a less discerning critic) and is page one for one of his money terms on google and has been steadily climbing for others.

My point on the above is that you don't need to hire a rockstar SEO company to get you to rank for terms that will make you money, you just need someone that is better than the rest of the competition and knows what keywords to attack. By weeks end I'm looking to offer an SEO package with the help of brook for less than $199 that includes keyword research, coding your site to be more search engine friendly, and a pile of safe backlinks. Most of this stuff isn't really that hard because if you're doing it right, you aren't competing with "big dogs".

 

[Guest]

OP wrote...Have a blog (I try to write content but am busy with sales meetings and appointments)


Well, if you dont have time to write a blog, then you dont have time for more appts right?

 

[joshuapaccione]

OP wrote...Have a blog (I try to write content but am busy with sales meetings and appointments)


Well, if you dont have time to write a blog, then you dont have time for more appts right?

Wrong , I am always ready for new sales. However I believe I understand what you are saying and plan to schedule a hour a week to blogging. I may even toss a few bucks to a couple of people to post once a week.

As for the SEO I am out of my element and I admit that. I have no interest in wanting to learn SEO so I will start calling companies on Monday to see what options I may have.

Also thanks for the WordPress idea. I am finding several themes that seem very nice and could offer my customers a better environment than I currently offer.