Website Review and Suggestions

**rockleeman** · 06-25-2010, 08:24 PM

I had noticed that my top landing page is the same as my top exiting page(home page)...so in other words i have a high bounce rate with this page...i own a web directory site...my goal is to have my "submit a link" page be my top exiting page....is this normal for any website (like a
eCommerce site)??What are you guy's home page bounce rates??And if you dont mind could you look at my site and tell me is it hard to navigate?or can you clearly see the "submit a link" ?should i change my script?

**chrishirst** · 06-25-2010, 08:41 PM

To analyse the "whys", you need to look at the "whats" and "wheres"

What is the traffic that "bounces"?

Where does it come from?

"bounce rate" is one of stupid metrics that suddenly every has heard of but nobody has any idea what it actually means. (Thanks very much Google Analytics!)
It is NOT a figure to be taken in isolation, and there is no "good", "bad" or "ideal" ratio.

Yes, it can be a very useful figure when taken as part of the overall traffic/visitor analysis, but on it's own it is completely meaningless.

**robin b** · 06-25-2010, 10:33 PM

The first site is a interesting idea but looks like it needs some more categories.
Perhaps you should post up categories that are hot topics like the oil spill with BP or the 2012 predictions. These are topics that would get attention.

On your free back link web site I would suggest adding a section explaining different things that can be done to improve the traffic to a website. Good and poor ways to write a website.

**rockleeman** · 06-26-2010, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrishirst

To analyse the "whys", you need to look at the "whats" and "wheres"

What is the traffic that "bounces"?

Where does it come from?

"bounce rate" is one of stupid metrics that suddenly every has heard of but nobody has any idea what it actually means. (Thanks very much Google Analytics!)
It is NOT a figure to be taken in isolation, and there is no "good", "bad" or "ideal" ratio.

Yes, it can be a very useful figure when taken as part of the overall traffic/visitor analysis, but on it's own it is completely meaningless.

Thanks chrishirst...but bounce rate is the first analytics term i found out

im well aware of what it means in its entirety....my site's average for my top landing page (home page) is 48%...today it was 58%...now the funny thing is most of my traffic source(85%) comes from referred websites...these websites are websites that list directories...so in other words 85%of the people that come to my site go there for the sole purpose of submitting a link to a directory....BUT close to half leave once they get there

...THATS why bounce rate is important as hell....my question was is my site hard to navigate through? can you not clearly see the "submit a link" option? Or is that a normal bounce rate for a top landing page? i was thinking about switching scripts to:

http://www.qlweb.com/

or

http://joomla.sigsiu.net/directory.html

Quote:

The first site is a interesting idea but looks like it needs some more categories.
Perhaps you should post up categories that are hot topics like the oil spill with BP or the 2012 predictions. These are topics that would get attention.

my second site...my first site was a mistake like my sister

Quote:

On your free back link web site I would suggest adding a section explaining different things that can be done to improve the traffic to a website. Good and poor ways to write a website.

I just added a forum:
http://freebacklinking.com/phpbb3/index.php

does it fit my directory script?As i said i was contemplating changing scripts...

**chrishirst** · 06-27-2010, 05:56 AM

Your "top landing page" will be the one that most links point to, so depending on what kind of promotion you do that information may or may not be useful.

If Directory submission, forum signatures, blog commenting, "social media" link, "bookmarking" are the kind of things that are done, then the "home" page will be "top landing" it will also be the "top exiting page" as well.

@the general directory owning population.

You really need to lose the idea that your "home" page is important.

If your raison d'etre is to get people to "submit their site" why the hell hasn't your "home page" got a thumping great link dead centre in the page that reads;

Submit Your Link

That's all you need. No boring useless blurb about "SE Friendly", "improve your PR" and the other such crap that you think will attract people in their hordes!!

Just TELL THEM what they should do!!!!

**ThailandForum** · 06-27-2010, 06:41 AM

The site loads very slowly so many maybe leaving before it has loaded, the log in and register will put a lot of people off, I very rarely bother with directories you have to join before submitting links and looking at it many might assume they have to join first.

**rockleeman** · 06:48 PM

Quote:

Your "top landing page" will be the one that most links point to, so depending on what kind of promotion you do that information may or may not be useful.

If Directory submission, forum signatures, blog commenting, "social media" link, "bookmarking" are the kind of things that are done, then the "home" page will be "top landing" it will also be the "top exiting page" as well.

@the general directory owning population.

You really need to lose the idea that your "home" page is important.

I kno I kno I kno...the words i put there was just so that google can put relevant contextual ads u should of seen my ads before i put tht garbage...anyway to what you had said earlier ...thats what i was saying...my highest TOP LANDING PAGE >>aka my home page>> has the most visits...85% already go to it with the intention of submitting a link but half of them don't...smh?....a question that was answered by:

Quote:

The site loads very slowly so many maybe leaving before it has loaded, the log in and register will put a lot of people off, I very rarely bother with directories you have to join before submitting links and looking at it many might assume they have to join first.

...based off of this i can tell that there is some misinterpretation ...because YOU DEFINITELY DONT HAVE TO SIGN UP AND REGISTER TO SUBMIT A LINK!!!! its in the TAG...oh my god im doomed i hope that's not the great disconnect..i wouldnt count on the slow load because as a webmaster i could care less about the slow load i just want my juicy link dropped

....... i was also formulating a theory that maybe everyones homepage has a high bounce rate regardless of niche...what are you guyz home page bounce rates?

**chrishirst** · 06-28-2010, 11:39 AM

Quote:

what are you guyz home page bounce rates

Unless it is also a directory, "bounce rates" on other sites won't tell you anything.

Oh and BTW "it's", "desired" & "Essential".

Quote:

85% already go to it with the intention of submitting a link but half of them don't..

Nope! only ~40% have any intention, the rest just click "because it's there" and are expecting you to tell them what to do next.

THIS is what OPTIMISING is about, marketing and promotion gets people there optimising gets them to do something when they have arrived.

BTW how is your site going to "Increase your website's traffic" when most people leave your site with taking any kind of action?
And the only action you want visitors to do is "Submit a site" there are two conflicting goals, you are suggesting that your directory will send traffic to the listed sites, yet you prefer people NOT to browse the directory.

**ThailandForum** · 06-28-2010, 12:13 PM

Quote:

based off of this i can tell that there is some misinterpretation ...because YOU DEFINITELY DONT HAVE TO SIGN UP AND REGISTER TO SUBMIT A LINK!!!! its in the TAG

I know, I submitted my links, but that is the first thing that caught my eye, normally I will open half a dozen directories at a time, if I see log in and register here I just close that one, webmasters are not interested on what you have put onto your home page, they want the "SUBMIT URL HERE" button, make it stand out and the login and register stick right down the bottom or something.

**rockleeman** · 06-28-2010, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThailandForum

I know, I submitted my links, but that is the first thing that caught my eye, normally I will open half a dozen directories at a time, if I see log in and register here I just close that one, webmasters are not interested on what you have put onto your home page, they want the "SUBMIT URL HERE" button, make it stand out and the login and register stick right down the bottom or something.

****..ye i'm going to get rid of the register link now definitely..while im at it i'll get a new script too frankly mines is ugly and wont match my forum's script...i put all that text in the homepage because my adsense ads werent even remotely relevant to my site until i did so even after turned off the "interest based advertising" option..i know what ill do now...