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Poor performing website/blog

by itchhh2
16 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hello,

After 6 months I have next to no traffic to my photography blog. This is actually my third website and this site is turning out to be an even bigger disappointment than the first two, especially when I consider the amount of effort I've put into it.

I realize and appreciate the importance of SEO and I've tried to be as proactive as I can be. I use Yoast and I try to write quality copy with each of my photographs, most other photography websites don't do this. Each of the photographs has Alt Text associated and GEO tags and they have been optimized for size. I have also set up a plethora of social accounts where I post each blog entry. What little traffic I do get comes from Facebook and that is on the decline for some reason. After six months I have next to no organic traffic and I still don't rank in the first 20 pages for "Chicago Photographs", this is especially frustrating when I see what is ranking ahead of me.

I do have a couple back links, but they seem to be difficult to get at least for me. I thought if I just posted quality work, that eventually I'd start seeing some organic traffic, but that hasn't been my experience. My bounce rate is terrible and pages viewed is abysmal.

I've not done any black hat stuff, I link to internal pages on my site, I use keywords in URL's, Link to other websites with relevant content, post twice a week, and the site is indexed, blah blah blah. The long and short of it, nothing seems to be working. Does anyone have some insight on what I'm doing wrong?

I would really appreciate any advice you might have.
#performing #poor #website or blog
  • Profile picture of the author itchhh2
    Here is the website: Chicago In Photographs
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  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    In other words, you've done nothing that really counts. Yes, onpage SEO is useful, but for competitive keywords it is not enough to get you ranked.

    What you need is backlinks.

    Or adwords. Or an ad in the local paper. Or... marketing, advertising.

    Originally Posted by itchhh2 View Post

    Hello,

    After 6 months I have next to no traffic to my photography blog. This is actually my third website and this site is turning out to be an even bigger disappointment than the first two, especially when I consider the amount of effort I've put into it.

    I realize and appreciate the importance of SEO and I've tried to be as proactive as I can be. I use Yoast and I try to write quality copy with each of my photographs, most other photography websites don't do this. Each of the photographs has Alt Text associated and GEO tags and they have been optimized for size. I have also set up a plethora of social accounts where I post each blog entry. What little traffic I do get comes from Facebook and that is on the decline for some reason. After six months I have next to no organic traffic and I still don't rank in the first 20 pages for "Chicago Photographs", this is especially frustrating when I see what is ranking ahead of me.

    I do have a couple back links, but they seem to be difficult to get at least for me. I thought if I just posted quality work, that eventually I'd start seeing some organic traffic, but that hasn't been my experience. My bounce rate is terrible and pages viewed is abysmal.

    I've not done any black hat stuff, I link to internal pages on my site, I use keywords in URL's, Link to other websites with relevant content, post twice a week, and the site is indexed, blah blah blah. The long and short of it, nothing seems to be working. Does anyone have some insight on what I'm doing wrong?

    I would really appreciate any advice you might have.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Your photos are awesome.

    So what's the plan, you aiming to rank photos, webpages, or both?

    One thing I see you need to do is stop linking to the large image, instead, build another page that host the larger image. That gives you another very relevant page per each blog post that can be ranked. Double and triple ranked pages per each keyword is possible. Obviously competition plays a role but double/triple SERPs should be your goal since you already have the content, you just need it organized.

    I have no idea about your followed backlinks, I didn't look.
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  • Profile picture of the author mamadsouri
    You say you use " keywords in URL's" .. which URLs? Internal or external?
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  • Profile picture of the author 3wCorner
    You need to bdo also off page seo like promoting your site to social media channels, forum posting and blog commenting, video marketing, and blogging.
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  • Profile picture of the author XSV1
    The images are wonderful, but what is your goal for the site? Are you hoping to make money from it somehow... as in getting hired by people that visit the site?

    If the goal is to get more traffic from Chicago area people then I would suggest you add another section to the site that incorporates city events, people in the park, along the water, whatever and wherever. Be friendly and get people to pose for you freely, post those on your site to showcase the people of Chicago living life in the city. Hand out your card with your website on it to tell them you put these pics on your site/FB/Twitter/Pinterest/Instagram and start letting these people help create a buzz for you. People love seeing themselves in beautiful, well done photos, most people only ever have crappy selfies with bad angles and even worse lighting. Let these people start doing the work for you, they will start sharing them for you, and you would probably get orders out of these as well. Make sure these digital copies are watermarked with your site URL.

    Another thought, my local paper, which is owned by the Chicago Tribune's parent company, has a section where they show reader submitted pictures daily, both in the print and online version. Try doing that if they offer this. If the building that you take a picture of has a social media page, start tagging their pages, if you don't already do this.

    Good luck with it, they really are great pictures.
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    • Profile picture of the author Zachmode
      Good looking site you have. Coming from a complete noob, i have no idea why people would visit it other than to look at some really cool grey photos. Is there a big search volume for black and white photos of chicago?
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  • Profile picture of the author kumaramitkumar
    Only competitive keyword are not the factor to get ranked all the factors are responsible for a getting a well ranked that are on-page ,off-page, blogging , commenting every section must be perfect then only any website get a better time in less time and the rank also depends on the search volumes of the sites .
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  • Profile picture of the author onegoodman
    First, I would like to say you have an outstanding website (design wise), very neat, but there is no off page SEO done to this site, you need to do an off page SEO for your site to get ranked. The backlinks to your site out there can be counted on a single hand
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  • Profile picture of the author John Alves
    The website looks pretty good, but I think you need to have more content on there. The posts that you are making seem pretty short, and I would recommend doing some keyword research so you can determine which keywords are actually getting searched in Google. You need to have a keyword list that you use with keywords that get searched. Then, you can include them in your articles, and it will help your pages rank higher for keywords that get searched. You will also need to have backlinks built to your website consistently so you can develop more authority and rank higher in the future. From a viewer standpoint, I think it would be good if you had some color photos as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      [DELETED]
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      • Profile picture of the author John Alves
        Originally Posted by yukon View Post

        Good grief, it's a photo blog not Wikipedia.
        He wants to rank the "photo blog", and he's not going to rank with the way it's set up right now. He needs more content and more backlinks to move up the rankings. On site time matters as well, and the black and white pictures are only going to get so far.
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        • Profile picture of the author itchhh2
          More content... how much more do I need? I'm on every social platform including Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr. Google +.
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          • Profile picture of the author yukon
            Banned
            Originally Posted by itchhh2 View Post

            More content... how much more do I need? I'm on every social platform including Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr. Google +.


            None of that ranks pages.

            Ignore the more content nonsense.

            The problem isn't even remotely a case of not enough content. The problem is you don't have any followed backlinks.
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  • Profile picture of the author PPG19
    The hope page animated illustration is amazing. Really like it.
    Btw what are you accomplish with this site? What is your goal?
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    • Profile picture of the author itchhh2
      Right now I just want to get eyes on it. Eventually, I would hope that it will open some doors for me. I may even start selling the photo's
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  • Profile picture of the author nadine cathleen
    Your photos are wonderful - you just need to get your site more out there.

    Engage in facebook, maybe boost some posts / photos to start with. Also consider submitting some of your photos to image submission sites to get traffic from there, e.g.:
    flickr, weheartit, imgur, imgfave etc.

    Good luck
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