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1. skinnytwinkie
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Hi everyone! I have a health website that I have been working on for awhile now...but still feel like I have a lot of work to do on it.

   1) I still don't have a lot of visitors coming to my site. Whenever I "complained" about this in the past, I have been told: CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT! I have been working on this, with two posts a week for over a year.

   2) I set up Google Friend Connect to establish more of a "community" within my website. I am finding people don't seem to want to sign up? One of the benefits of signing up is that I send out a monthly newsletter, and showcase my top 5 posts (some recent, some older). I even have an article that talks about the benefits of signing up - one of them is the fact that I update them...only monthly (not annoying, right?), and the fact that they don't have to keep coming on their own. I like it, personally, on other websites...I guess I'm hoping they do to.

   3) Overall, what do you think of the site?

   Thank you for your help/suggestions and feedback!

   http://www.SkinnyTwinkie.com

2. wongxiao
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I think it's a great website. Your dedication to provide such a consistent stream of content is admirable; honestly I'm not really sure why you're not generating more traffic. I can only surmise that it's poor SEO, which is a topic I am not qualified to speak on. But I'll try to anyway haha

   One thing I did notice is that your tagline reads "Weight loss done the right way!" while your content seems to more broadly address health issues in general. If people looking for weight loss info find your site, they may lose interest quickly. Perhaps you could try specifically targeting folks who would enjoy the content of your site. I think this would be people who want to be healthy (or even those who already are), but aren't actively and specifically trying to loose weight. Also, you might want to put your tagline next to your blog's name in your <title> tags—this will show up as the link/heading when people do searches, and I think that's a good, although brief, place to "draw people in."

   If you were looking for a place to go to for information about general health, what would you search for? Try to use those words and phrases in your content (of course, not in a contrived or spammy way). Also bear in mind what you're up against—I'm sure there's a vast array of "health tips" type websites, all the way on up to WebMD. Find these sites, look at them. Figure out what would make them better—and do that on your website (easier said than done, I know). Figure out what you have to offer that they don't, and capitalize on that.

   Also, the poll and the Law of Attraction sections seem kind of... well, random, I guess?

   Well, that's my two cents, which perhaps you should take with a grain of salt.

3. raoulspence
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I think you should reconsider the decision to have pink type. It's horrid, like a 12-year-old girl's MySpace page. (Sorry!)

   I also find the blue a bit "medical".

   This site - about fitness holidays - is a good example of a simple, clean design that says - to me, at least - health and well-being.

   I would also be a bit more bold with the use of images (ie. use them bigger)

   In terms of SEO, don't do too much onpage fiddling - just get some links from high authority sites.

4. skinnytwinkie
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Thank you, Thank you so much for the honest and very helpful feedback!

   You are right about the tag line... I will change that when I get home tonight!

   I needed to hear that about the purple writing. It will take awhile, but I can change it all to black. I hope it would provide more credibility to the site.

   What makes my site better? I don't believe in antibiotics and medicine. I believe in losing weight the all natural way... Healing your body from sickness/depression with herbs/vitamins/minerals rather than drugs. And, I won't say sugar is healthy, which a lot of other "health" websites focus on. It's not all about low calorie. It's about eating healthy food loaded with nutrients to fuel your body.

   I will keep working on portraying this message on my site!

   Thank you for the feedback, and additional feedback is welcome!

   Thank you!!!

5. shalzers
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Your purple font hurts my eyes.
   Yes this one: #800080

   ~Ss

6. keebee
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Getting more visitors is a tricky process. Yes, it's true that content is important, but there are a few other factors that outweigh the quality of your content -- at least in regard to bringing in traffic from the search engines.

   Someone else mentioned competition, and that in fact probably is the primary roadblock you're facing -- especially considering the over-saturated market of "weight loss" blogs and websites. For anyone who is serious about bringing in traffic from the search engines, I would suggest learning the basics of keyword research. This will help you direct your time and energy towards particular keyword phrases that you might actually have a fighting chance of ranking for. Otherwise you're entering a fight blind folded.

7. skinnytwinkie
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   @wongxiao - I changed the tag line to "Healthy done the right way" - for now. I will come up with something better, but I at least changed it for now. I will work on the SEO bit...which seems like it may take some time.

   @raoulspence & @shalzers - I am working on changing the color. It's a dark purple, and didn't realize the color was so offensive? I appreciate the feedback, and perhaps I will have to result to a black.

   @keebee - I will continue to focus my efforts on being different than other health sites. Sadly, a lot of health sites out there are pure crap. They think Yoplait yogurt is healthy, when in fact...it is not. So my approach to health is a lot more strict and is more like reality than a calorie counting guide. Hopefully my different approach and consistent posts will provide a growing audience...eventually.

   Thank you EVERYONE for your feedback! More feedback is always welcome! I am making changes to your suggestions (the turning all posts black will take some time, but I hope to complete that change soon).

   Thank you all!

8. keebee
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I applaude you for wanting to publish a better-quality website. And I think your efforts will pay off in the long run.

   I also think you're on the right track to find readers from other sources than the search engines -- things like Facebook, Twitter, and all that. People who are successful in those venues usually have something that other people are geniunely interested in. This is in contrast to people who are successful with search engines simply because they've figured out how to trick the spider bots.
   In regard to sluggish signups for your newsletter...keep in mind that it's kind of a numbers game. Doesn't make much difference how great the thing is you're offering, statistics show that you'll be lucky to get one-half perent of your daily visitors to do anything you ask them to do. Take a look at your visitor stats and see what the "conversion" percentage is.

9. skinnytwinkie
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   @ keebee, thank you for your words of encouragement :)

   FYI to all who have helped... I spent the last 2 nights changing all of my posts to black ink rather than the dark purple. I believe this was a small step moving forward.

   Thanks for the help/feedback!

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