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"Optimizing a website"

"Optimizing a website"

Postby ar1stotle » Sat May 03, 2008 5:57 pm

OK, I built a website for a friend's mom who teaches yoga classes. She just called me today saying that someone from some yoga group she goes to said that she could "optimize her website" so that she'd get more people for her classes. She still wants me to modify some stuff like the site name (she didn't like the first one she picked, go figure), but then she seemed to be indicating that she was going to pay this other person to make changes to the site. Now, is it just me or does that kinda sound like a scam? I mean, it's just a local thing she runs out of her house... how much traffic can you expect to get? There were only 30 unique visitors to the site last month but she seems to think that people should be flocking there. Can anyone shed some light on this subject?
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Postby imnuts » Sat May 03, 2008 6:32 pm

If it's only for personal type stuff, I wouldn't expect a lot of visitors. Is she looking to get more local people to her yoga classes? There are a few simple things that could be done to make it better, such as putting more important content at the top of webpages and also make the titles descriptive. If the site is dynamic (php/asp) then you could find a way to make the pages appear static. I definitely wouldn't pay much to have someone do it as it doesn't sound like a real professional job is needed. She could also try to submit the site to things like Google and Windows Live local search, maybe Yellow Pages.com as well, then she may be able to get more local people visiting there, but I doubt someone in like Alaska or Hawaii cares to much about yoga classes in LA.
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Postby ar1stotle » Sat May 03, 2008 8:13 pm

Yea, she does seem to want more people. I have the site on google and all but its a simple, static website.
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Postby jbullard » Sat May 03, 2008 8:23 pm

Since it is local I would suggest using flyers and other marketing strategies compared to paying someone to put it out on the web. Unless, it specifically states it will be targeted to those individuals locally - then it might be worth checking in to. But I can say I can get her more traffic but it really doesn't matter because I don't have any ties to the local community. I would really find out what this "optimization" really means. That term can mean a lot of different things. :yesnod:
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Postby ar1stotle » Sat May 03, 2008 8:52 pm

Yea... the way she talks about the yoga group it sounds like some sort of money hungry cult like the church of Scientology lol.

Here's the site though

I guess is there a way to make it pop up on google when you type something like "Yoga in Mandeville, LA"?
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Postby imnuts » Sat May 03, 2008 10:51 pm

I just checked at Local Live search, Local Google search, and Yellow Pages, and they all have links on their sites to submit new information. That would likely be the best way to get the word out online, possibly trying to get a listing in the phone book there would help some too. Flyers as jbullard said would probably help too, possibly with the URL on them on little tear off tabs.
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Postby Grav!ty » Sat May 03, 2008 11:54 pm

We use SEO (search engine optimization) here at PRO all the time with our topic titles. For example if a member starts a thread with a title "Urgent help need please!!!" we change the title to read something like "Help needed with XP Vista Dual Boot". The idea is to get key words into the topic title and the body of the post so that it's more likely to be what someone will search for at google or yahoo.

The threads with the most views are those that are really well optimized. Check out this post by Mark (imnuts) for an excellent example of that. It has the most views of any thread ever here at PRO.

Another type of optimization is that for specific browsers, so a site could be optimized for IE7 or for Firefox or both. There are sites that give you an idea of how a site appears in different browsers.

I'm no webmaster but I think Jason and Mark can give you more ideas about this.
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