Will's dashboard

Will replied on August 29, 2009 08:22 to the question "Reducing bounce rate?" in Yola:

I know this is an old thread, but had to contributre after reading and following Chris' words.

I own a small driving school in Bristol, England and competition is very high.
I've been using analytics and have seen my bounce rate shoot up to almost 50%. Wasnt sure what to do, tried optimization, tried new design, tried new images and all the rest of it. It wasnt until I found out (thanks to Chris) that you can see how people come to your page after what they have put into a search. It turned out that lots of people were coming to my site not wanting driving lessons, but information about the test area, which isn't on my front page. Those who came to my site with searches in google of looking for driving lessons had a very low bounce rate of 18%.

So the moral of this long winded story is ... before tearing your front page down and pulling out your hair, have a look to see what people are looking for and how they came to your site. You could be doing all the right things.

Will replied on August 13, 2009 19:41 to the question "Page heading question" in Yola:

Duke

Oh my god! I've been doing this so wrong. I was under the impression I could just bung in a whole load more key words ... for all my images ... crud! Thanks for the eye opener ... again! ;)

Will replied on August 13, 2009 06:50 to the question "Page heading question" in Yola:

Thanks Emmy

Just wanted to make double sure that having the yola "page heading" box empty wasnt going to upset google. I already had a text box with the company name associated with heading 2. yay!

Will replied on August 12, 2009 19:47 to the question "Page heading question" in Yola:

Also... littleus, how would I put the tags in my banner? can i do it in yola, or when Im making the banner some how?

Will replied on August 12, 2009 19:44 to the question "Page heading question" in Yola:

Hey Duke

I thought I had 6 key words
Bristol driving school, driving lessons, bristol driving instructor, driving test, intensive driving course, theory test

I thought if you had ',' between each, kind of phrase, that makes it one word...

So "bristol driving school" would be one keyword, not 3. Is this not right? If it's not right, how many words would you recommend? I've heard 10 is the max, does this sound right to you?

Cheers again Duke.

Will asked a question in Yola on August 12, 2009 10:29:

Page heading question

Will having no page heading have a profound effect when google crawls me? I'm not liking the limited text options for my front page, so have put a banner up with the text in, however, im wondering will google crawl the site and say "huh! No pgae heading, thats not good enough, we'll drop your ranking". Is that how it works? Or can I just leave the yola box option blank?

www.a-class-driving.com

Will replied on July 02, 2009 12:26 to the idea "Let's Share Our Sites!" in Yola:

Looks like everyone is getting the hang of it now.

www.a-class-driving.com

Will replied on July 02, 2009 07:27 to the idea "Website Grade" in Yola:

http://website.grader.com/

Whoops, here's where you get your site graded.

Will shared an idea in Yola on July 02, 2009 07:27:

Website Grade

This is half a question, half a shared idea (for those who don't know about it).

If you werent aware, you can have your website graded, analysed for free and then it tells you some very simple you can take (even I could do it) on how to get your site that little bit shaper.

My question is what would be considered a good website grade?

I'm up to 70% and can't get listed in the DMOZ, yahoo, Bing or Zoominfo (their add your business page is no linger working). Should I be happy with 70% seeing as Im just a small business, or should I be striving on further for a higher percentage?

www.a-class-driving.com

Will replied on July 02, 2009 07:10 to the question "jump in listings" in Yola:

Arrrggghhh!!!! I'm convinced that Google doesnt like widgets. Well, the widgets that I use. I had two Skype widgets that I put in and the next day I dropped over 160 places in the google listings. I've taken them out and 10 days later, after being crawled again I'm back at Number 4 in the list ... coincidence? I don't think so!

Will replied on July 01, 2009 20:35 to the question "I have completely remodeled my site. Please tell me what you think." in Yola:

Looks like you have put in some good work. I've got a thing about seeing ads straight away. Hows about putting the ads somewhere else? You can also have a say in to what those google ads your readers. At the moment they are askig if I want to see and read jokes... that doesnt seem to fit in with your website.

There also seems to be a vast amount on the front page, maybe break it up a little. You still have room at the top in your navigation for another page title up there. Perhaps use that space to make it look even and symmetrical.

www.a-class-driving.com

Will replied on June 29, 2009 09:23 to the question "why register domain with yola" in Yola:

And the people on this forum are exceptional fast at getting back to you, informative, patient, professional ... can't rave enough about the help I've received over the past 9 months from these people.

Will replied on June 29, 2009 09:19 to the question "Blog Search does not work" in Yola:

Have you saved and published the blog before your activated the search? I've just tried mine (for the first time) and it's working ok.

What I didnt know is that after a search you (or maybe its just me) get a little google ads banner at the top. How helpful.

Will replied on June 29, 2009 09:16 to the question "How to have two languages in my site?!" in Yola:

Beware the Widget!

I had a language widget on my site and google hated it! I had numerous webmaster tool errors which no one, not even the good people at Yola could work out. Then I was thrown into the Google Supplemental index, which once your in, it's almost impossible to get out of. In the end I had to completely remake my entire site and get a new domain name ... Is it really worth it?

www.a-class-driving.com

Will replied on June 25, 2009 10:16 to the question "Blog content sent to emails of subscribers?" in Yola:

My RSS feed button doesnt allow/offer the option of how to subscribe. It only asks if you want to book mark the page. How do you go about setting up the option of subscribing preference?

Will replied on June 25, 2009 09:22 to the question "RSS feed issues" in Yola:

I really don't want to sound too wet behind the ears, but ... where do I add this code? When I click on the rss feed widget Im given no options about setting anything up, only its position.

Whilst your here Duke, maybe you can help with this too (seeing as you help with all my problems). I was using your website grader and it was telling me about the rss feed etc, thats why I looked into it and found it all not to be working, and one of the things it says is ...

The web page does not seem to contain any type of signup form where visitors can subscribe to a newsletter or future updates.

We would suggest adding some type of simple subscription form (at a minimum) that allows users to get email updates. This is a great way for visitors to express their interest in the company and it's offering and for the business to stay in touch. Though RSS usage continues to increase, email is still what a majority of site visitors know and understand.

Do we have the option of addig one of these?

Will asked a question in Yola on June 25, 2009 08:45:

RSS feed issues

I've had the widget box RSS feed on my 3 blog pages for a while, but forgot to check them until now. They don't seem to work. When I click on them I get taken to untitled page and Im asked if I want to book mark the blank page. I've read the tutorial and tips on how to get the widget to work, but when I click on edit in the green bar above the widget box all I see is "margin" and "position" as the things I can edit. (See screen grab)

Am I just a bit of a thicko? Or am I missing something?

My 3 web pages that I'm looking to get RSS feeds set up on are

http://www.a-class-driving.com/southm...
http://www.a-class-driving.com/brisli...
http://www.a-class-driving.com/warmle...

Will replied on June 24, 2009 14:42 to the question "jump in listings" in Yola:

Thanks all.

Ed, I've used your zip code and have plopped myself onto the motherload, thank you kindly. I've also used the sitemap writer which came up wth something interesting. yahoo says they have never heard of me, but Im on their listings ... when I do a SEO tool page rank checker I come up in their listings. I'm also placed in their local business listings ... hmmmm...

John. I'm going to leave the Bing alone for the moment as it was only about a month ago I submitted to them, dont want to hastle them as I hear it can work against you.

FrostBytez, thanks for chipping in. I've already been over and placed myself up and on all the free UK business listings where my business doesnt seem out of place. Do you think placing myself in the US business listings would count against me? Has anyone thought about geographic location before as something that could count against you? Guess it's pretty hard for the bots to work this one out.

And last but not least, Duke! I love the website grader. I'm in the process of getting myself up and on all the blog spots and bookmarking sites etc etc. Would never have thought of that. Cheers again, you're a "ledge", as we say here in the UK!

Will replied on June 24, 2009 07:29 to the question "jump in listings" in Yola:

Only problem is I don't live in America. So I can't get the mother of all inbound links.

Could adding a Skype widget have knocked down my listing so radically? I put two in the other day and when I Xenued my site it classed them as broken links. I've had issues with widgets before, even getting an old site put into the supplemetal index because of a translation widget.

I've also applied for Bing, submitted my site a few weeks ago when I saw it on the News here in England. Still not listed with them.

Will replied on June 23, 2009 11:47 to the question "jump in listings" in Yola:

Hey Duke

I am listed with yahoo, according to SEO page ranker Im at around 130 with yahoo. It's Live that Im not with. I've tried 3 times now to get listed with them, but no use. I spaced my submission about 2 months apart from one another and still no joy. Will check out your tool recommendation.

Ed .... Ed, not sure what to say really. Thank you kindly for taking so much time to stop my chin from dropping, I will progress, survive and come out on top Im sure. I just might leave it in the hands of someone who does this for a living. I already work abot 70 hours a week with my business, I can no longer face workoing this hard, and then some, to be kicked squarley in the acorns by Mr. Google and his evil search machine!

I am intereste in the motherload links thing, however, arent we told to stay clear of links that have nothing to do with what your site is about? Guess I couldnt make things any worse!