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