Hello Everyone, Desperately in need of help

[twebdonny]

Our website has been suffering more and more, year by year and I am at a loss as to why I cannot get this figured out.
Tried white hat techniques, black hat techniques, purchased gigs on Fiverr and Gigbucks. Added content, yet still
seem to be getting less and less traffic, and thus less revenue on a site that once did rather well.

I am out of funds so I cannot pay for SEO services at this time, but just ask any enterprising individual with a skill for this
to take a look and offer advice.

Thanks

www dot travel-ascending dot com

 

[davids355]

Our website has been suffering more and more, year by year and I am at a loss as to why I cannot get this figured out.
Tried white hat techniques, black hat techniques, purchased gigs on Fiverr and Gigbucks. Added content, yet still
seem to be getting less and less traffic, and thus less revenue on a site that once did rather well.

I am out of funds so I cannot pay for SEO services at this time, but just ask any enterprising individual with a skill for this
to take a look and offer advice.

Thanks

www dot travel-ascending dot com

Shouldn't really post your URL here. What has your strategy been up to now? How do you get your content? What sort of site is it? Have you done keyword research etc.

Answer those questions and it will be easier to offer advice.

 

[twebdonny]

I have a great deal of original content as well as some scraped, spun as well. The site is a travel affiliate site
and I have downgraded keywords over the years in a futile attempt to retain some type of ranking for those
yet am not succeeding regardless.

Thanks for any help, I need it

 

[igniteimages]

Just visited your site and quite frankly it looks very very bad.

If I came across that site I'd click off it immediately. The design is dreadful, and Muzak playing when you hit the site is a big turn off.

You say you have original content on there but I don't think anyone would want to stick around to try and find it.

Good travel sites are far more slick than yours.

Why not try and rework it? As it is it is dreadful (sorry for the hard truth).

 

[Techxan]

The music is a killer, couldn't leave it open for even a second.

 

[carlikito]

The music is a killer, couldn't leave it open for even a second.

Exactly this ^^ Your bounce rate must be horrendous!

Your site is in an urgent need of an update. You can check your competitors and see what they're doing so you can get an idea.

 

[Furious George]

This site, in 1998, probably raked in the big bucks.

Now, I'm shocked that you get any traffic at all.

My advice, sell it.

If we have to tell you this site looks like a project you did for homework at your local community college, and you can't come to the conclusion that it needs a serious overhaul just from looking at it, you're probably in the wrong business.

 

[CyberManiaK]

I'm a complete newbie in all this but I have to agree, that site is far from a site where someone in 2013 want to spend any time. The first thing I made was put mute on the speakers, and then close the browser window..

 

[twebdonny]

Thanks Everyone, I wish I had stayed up with the tech and knew how to build a site using WP or whatever the
site building tech du jour is now. Instead I am just flustered and at a loss and feel like a failure.

 

[Junkfood00]

You've broken every design principle there is. Seriously, what made you think you'll make revenue with that site?

Have you used the internet before? Go through some sites in the same niche to get ideas on how to design your site.

 

[steelballs]

OP Sorry to say this the site looks like a 'Dog's Dinner!'

Only difference is like humans they will not travel there...

 

[WPRipper]

The website is awful, the music is annoying. Want more?

 

[twebdonny]

Yes, More, bring it on, I know I could just give up but I won't.
I will learn from this criticism and somehow find a way
and maybe someone with some skills to help me in a rebuild.
I will not give up. I have been through some dire health issues of late and haven't given in to
them and will not give in to this either.

 

[CebuSMM]

The website is awful, the music is annoying. Want more?

I agree the music is really annoying...

And You must improve Google Page Speed Score too.

 

[mickyfu]

Just visited your site and quite frankly it looks very very bad.

If I came across that site I'd click off it immediately. The design is dreadful, and Muzak playing when you hit the site is a big turn off.

You say you have original content on there but I don't think anyone would want to stick around to try and find it.

Good travel sites are far more slick than yours.

Why not try and rework it? As it is it is dreadful (sorry for the hard truth).

Was not going to say anything, but I completely agree with this. When people are booking a holiday they are not just going to part with their money. Your site looks unprofessional, which will put off 99% of people visiting your site. I would either a) Spend money on a designer who can put something very good looking together. or b) Change niches completely if you are not capable of putting a good looking site together. There are plenty of niches where the looks of the site are basically irrelevant and niches where the looks of the site are highly relevant. When selling things people need to feel that their money is going to a safe place, and your site simply does not give that feeling. Maybe you could 301 your domain to a travel agent affiliate link, I think by doing this you will have a better chance of sales, although they will die down after a bit.

 

[WPRipper]

Yes, More, bring it on, I know I could just give up but I won't.
I will learn from this criticism and somehow find a way
and maybe someone with some skills to help me in a rebuild.
I will not give up. I have been through some dire health issues of late and haven't given in to
them and will not give in to this either.

In other words, REDESIGN.

http://www.csswinner.com/category/Blog/40

For ur inspiration.

 

[davids355]

Lol I just took a look. It reminds me of what my site looked like in 2000 - but yours is a bit better if I'm honest

You definitely need to re-design, but from looking at your site, I'd guess your out of the game a bit!

My advice to you would be to buy a site from bhw - you can get fully built sites here from $30 depending what you want and what budget you have.

Get a nice fresh site fresh niche even, and start learning what's going on in 2013.

The reason I say that, is to upgrade a running site, will be more expensive and a big job, and I'm guessing you are on a budget?

 

[twebdonny]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.
At a loss as to what direction to take as funds are depleted.
Guess it's time for a crash course on Wordpress.
I will not give in, or give up.

 

[princekoku]

You definitely need your website redesigned to bring it in to the latest standards.

First impressions counts and unfortunately your site is not winning you any votes at this time.

Get rid of the music. People don't like distractions.

Rebuild your site completely. Try to use a responsive design model. It's really the way to go now.

You want your website to look professional and inviting so visitors will be confident placing a booking through your website.

Right now it's screaming back button.

 

[etern1ty]

Ten Quality Steps on Improving your Site

10. Nuke the music. Seriously.
9. Get a professional logo designed. Check out BST threads here on BHW, or logotournament dot com or oDesk dot com for cheap services
8. Find yourself a WordPress Theme. Use themeforest.net for quality themes you can buy or just google "free wordpress theme" or "template" and you will see hundreds & thousands. I still would recommend paid themes because they are far more easily customizable and plug-n-play.
7. Learn everything you can about WordPress. I mean everything. If you don't have the time for that, but maybe the cash, then skip to #5.
6. Install WordPress on your existing hosting account, or a new one if your host happens to not support it. Just google wordpress hosting and do your due dilegence on finding a good WP host. Check WebHostingTalk dot com for advice too. A lot of quality hosts have Softaculous loaded on their cPanel which allows for (literally) 2-click, 1 minute installs of WordPress. It's brain-dead simple.
5. Load up your chosen theme/template into WordPress (it is really freaking easy, trust me, you'll figure it out), or hire someone to do it all for you including install, setup, configure, migration of content/images, and hopefully basic on-site SEO w/ various WP plugins (again, oDesk, BST, WHT)
4. Scrape all of your old site's sections, content, SOME images (honestly, a lot of your images are pure junk), and google for more images where necessary (don't go TOO crazy with images that aren't relevant to your content). Make it look good. Now create your Menus, necessary Widgetized areas in WP, and load back your content, one by one, and make it easy to read, not too much text, etc. It's all dependent on your theme/template to make it look pretty. This can easily be done by paying qualified WP developers too.
3. Look closely at your keyword competition. How are they doing things? What is their design like? Their rankings? Traffic? Backlinks? Use ranking tools like SEObook's toolbar or various other SEO tools out there (search these forums for ideas). Then see how you can do it better and execute like a sniper. I'm impartial to White/Black hat methods. I would go after what WORKS and this is only done by trying/experimenting SMARTLY.
2. Rebuild your in-page links, especially for monetization. Look into WP plugins for tracking of various things like google analytics, sitemaps, etc. There are a lot more you can do and this forum is a huge resource. Check ALL of your site's links, content for misspellings/typos, and get third party opinions continually on your overall site experience.
1. Never stop learning wordpress, SEO, design, and web-mastering in general but most importantly, stay ahead of everyone else by thinking outside of the box, working smarter not harder, and executing ideas to test/try.

Good luck to you!