I'm getting desperate. My website has been online for almost two years now and I haven't even gotten 5,000 hits to my home page yet. I need to know what, if anything, is wrong with the site. I know that people are hitting some of my interior pages, but I'm getting very few hits to the index page from the interior pages. I'm also not getting a good percentage of return visitors. Can someone please take a look at the site and give me some useful ideas as to what needs to be changed? I'm open to almost anything, so long as it doesn't involve having to do a complete reworking.

to me needs more appeal

not just links with no text all over the page. Tell what your site is about and more not just have it cluttered with links all over


If it is a library site it needs to be better than what it is


I wouldn't return myself because find it boring

I concur with Gee,It needs more appeal.

Make your 'About the library' the home page

Get rid of the white background

Put one large photo (not linked) near the top (photo's grab attention)

If you insist on having those photo links and text links on the home page then,if it was me, I would build a block of photo's say 5 x 4 (each individual photo about four times the size they are now) with the text links listed in a paragraph underneath.

Header looks good

But there again, that's me .......

Thank you for the frank reviews to date. I agree the home page needs more pizzazz, I just haven't figured out exactly how to make it work. But, since that seems to be the general opinion so far, I guess I'll have to get it figured out.

Further to the above, why don't you consider using the sitepal animation? (albeit with limitations) but it does grab attention....

Good luck

it does grab attention....
Sure does. One minute you are lazily looking at a webpage, the next, as the manic shouting begins, you are frantically grabbing for the mouse so you can hit the back button.

If someone needs something like the sitepal to grab attention, their site is in a lot of trouble. A site should stand on it's own merits, without resorting to flashy gimmicks. While it doesn't hurt your ranking on search engines, but it certainly doesn't help it.

Scott,

Yes, your home page does need some work. When I initially looked at your your site, my initial impression was that I hit one of those annoying search pages that you get, when you hose up the URL. It looks a little better now, but it's still mostly a page full of links, that lead to other links, that lead to other links... But it's more than just your home page.

Getting hits on the interior pages is very common. On one of my sites, which gets 15,000 hits a month, my home page is only hit 9 percent of the time. The interior pages are where all your real information is. The home page is just an access point and introductory page. On your site, the home page and intermediate pages do not have enough information on them for a search engine to work with. Your end pages have some keyword meta tags for a search engine to work with, but your home page doesn't have any. Granted, a web site doesn't have to have any keyword meta tags to get indexed. Search engines will find you and index your site no matter what. But if your trying to get a better hit rate and more visibility, they help.

You may want to think about using a CSS dropdown menu, rather than all of those intermediate pages that have nothing but links. They can be a little difficult to understand and implement, but work well with all newer browsers. This also keeps the management of your pages and links in a single place. If you add a page, you only have to modify the CSS menu and all your pages see the menu update. An example of a simple implementation of a CSS dropdown menu can be seen at the web site I linked to in this post. I tend to make the menu common to all pages so that a visitor can get from any page to any other page, no matter what page they are on.

Get a good stat counter. I use a free stat counter from AddFreeStats.com. It lists my last 500 visitors, where they came from, how they got there, how long they stayed, and where they went when they left. I can look at the searches my visitors used, and see what keywords they were searching with. This also shows me what other sites come up and how I rank. A good stat counter can give you insight on what visitors are looking for.

Then, add much more content to your information pages. Your range of information is wide, but skimpy. With only a couple of paragraphs in some cases. This doesn't leave much to make someone come back. You need to remember that you are competing with all of the Wiki sites. They give reams of information and links to related information. You may want to trim down the range of subjects and enhance the information behind each subject you cover.

In my opinion, you should clean up the fonts. Try to stick with 1 or 2 colors for the words. Reading white words on black background hurts a persons eyes. Your "Library Divsions" on the left side of the page could be more uniform. I wouldn't put different colors for all those links to other pages. If you put a white background behind the centre part of the page where teh bulk of information is, it would help the look of the page too. Try using CSS to control the look and placing of everything instead of just using tables.

Take care.

David

Hi, I know you didn't want to hear this but I honestly think a re-work is the answer. My suggestion is to try and use a company with a good template - everyone has their own opinion of course- but I think you should create a new site. You might try Homestead, or Citymax - their templates are pretty fool-proof and you can personalize and edit them a lot. Good luck.

Okay now for the practical suggestions:

Go to the want ads and the yellow pages on the internet. They are free. Make sure and put free want ads and free yellow pages in the search window of your browser.

Enter your website in as many of these as possible. Also exchange links.

Would not hurt to add a blog so you can up date your readers and give them a chance to interact.

Enter in the search engine of your browser the search words "free advertisement for websites" This will give you numerous websites where you can advertise for free.

Have a links page. You can get one for free through Bravenet.

Also have as much original material as you can.

You can also add your site to search engines such as Yahoo, Google, etc for free. Just look up how to do that.

Let us know if this helps. Okay

Oh by the way, You might put an introduction to the page of what your website is about on the front page. It can be just a brief summary and then you can have a link from the summary too besides the link you already have.

Also put in the search window of your browser "How to increase traffic to a website" and do some research. Please do not pay for traffic. That tends to be a rip off. Read what I said earlier about website submission to Yahoo, Google etc. Just ask the search in your browser about "free submission of website to Browsers" Also Bravenet has a free subscribers application that you can add to your website. That may help if you keep subscribers up to date on what is new.

Feel free to put your site on my site. I have a free links page and free want ad section. Either one may help you.

Browser: ,4

I think you'll have to redesign the entire site. You've already been given some great suggestions already. So all I'll say is to keep your new design simple with loads of white spaces to make your content stand out. Also make good use of CSS.

Hope that helps.

Hi Scott,

Sorry to say that, but, you do what many, many newbies do >>> too much choice! Is it a website that you want, or a flea market? There are some very good professional templates around for you to use. K.I.S.S. is always the message to keep in mind!

Best wishes,

John