Ask Girl Geek: Help! My sites aren't getting any traffic.

Hi Annette,
I've had two websites for over a year (built in Mambo - a popular content management system). I'm happy with my web designer, but don't know why my sites haven't gotten any traffic. Can you help?
K

Hi K,
If you are relying solely on search engine marketing to promote your website, there are 2 immediate problems that make your sites "unappetizing" to search engines. First is your domains are being redirected to the URL (domain name) within Mambo. Search engines don't like URL redirects, therefore your site might not be appearing on some of the major search engines.

Second, search engines do not rank websites built in Mambo (or other site builders, such as the highly advertised one available on Register.com) as high as they do sites built in html. If your site isn't found on the first 2 pages of the search engines, it might as well not be there.

That being said, since you already have a web designer that you are happy with and since I don't know Mambo, I would suggest you use me to do the keyword analysis of each page of your site, and go through a refinement of your keyword strategy for both Search Engine Optimization and PPC advertising. I will generate a report and recommendations that you can then give to your web designer to incorporate into your site. The report will review what keywords are already prominent on the pages of your site(s), suggest 2-3 keywords for each page and metatags that are relevant to your niche, actually being searched at a high level, and have "low" competition from other websites or other bidders on Yahoo's PPC program.

Also, as we discussed, if you have a clear description of your niche, you could also have me develop some other website promotion ideas particular to help you reach that niche.

Thanks for asking!
Annette

Ask Girl Geek: How Can I get aweber.com to archive my newsletters on my website?

Hi Annette,
I tried to put my December newsletter (on aweber.com) in the archive and was unsuccessful. I clicked on the web archive link but it doesn't come up when I try to reach it through the web site. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Angela

Hi Angela,
When you login to aweber and set up your newsletter you have to click the link way at the bottom where it says
Not published in RSS/XML feed or HTML archive, click to publish message. Then it will publish it and be able to be found on your site.

I just did that for you. Remember to do it each time.

Thanks for asking!

Annette