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nadirehss

posts: 3

Apr 14, 2009 5:59 AM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Hi,
 
I have recently set up a new business, working as a genealogist researching family trees for customers worldwide.
 
I would really appreciate some feedback on my website, and any suggestions you can give me as to why I have gotten more than 100 unique visitors so far but only approximately 15 leads / enquiries from potential customers.
 
I am currently working towards accreditation with our national body for professional genealogists, and will include this on my website when completed.  There are less than 50 people with this accreditation in Ireland, but I don`t feel this is a major factor when potential customers are choosing who`s services to use.
 
I am happy with the number of visitors who are finding my website, and with the associated marketing/advertising required to maintain & improve this, but would like to improve on the follow-through from visitor to customer.
 
My website can be found at:  www.ofirishdescent.com
 
Thanks in advance for all suggestions & comments.
 
Nadirehss
austinjm

posts: 2

Apr 15, 2009 12:11 AM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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I am a bit curious as to whether or not there is an upper image I may not be seeing.

I see:

Of Irish Descent - Trace your family..... in blue hypertext

EDIT
-It showed up in Internet Explorer, but not in Mozilla Firefox 3

White space (is there an image here)?  If not consider filling this area with an image of a "family, tree" something relevant to your business, perhaps even a picture of yourself if you choose to market it that way!

Home
About Me ...and so on

I am unsure of who your clientel is, but might I suggest making your font slightly larger in your text heavy area.  I am 22 and have perfect eyesight and know that my parents would definitely have trouble reading font that small.

Are you using Google Analytics or similar software to track your website traffic?  This will give you great insight into who is coming to your website, where they are coming from and for how long they are staying; and help you figure out where to concentrate your efforts.

-Austin

austinjm4/15/2009 12:20 AM
nadirehss

posts: 3

Apr 15, 2009 4:37 AM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Thanks Austin.
 
The website was created from a template & must be hosted in the same format, and there are areas that cannot be edited, including above the heading where the extra white space is.  I agree with your suggestion of either removing this white space or adding a relevant picture and will keep this in mind if I change to a different template / provider.
 
It is interesting what you say about the font size being too small.  This is something I hadn`t noticed, but felt that it was important to reduce the need to scroll as much as possible (I`ve read somewhere that many visitors will only read the first text that appears on their screen and will not scroll down).  I will review the text content and see what I can remove so that I can increase the font size and still have the most important infomation visible when the site loads.  My target clients do include the more mature 40+ category, and many being retired people who have time to turn their attention to their family origins.
 
The hosting company I am using provide their own Analysis area, which records number of visitors, page-views and referring site which they enter from.  Google and Yahoo searches are the main sources.  I have used Google Analytics in the past & loved it`s flexibility and the amount of data available.  Unfortunately I cannot add hidden html to my template on this hosting site, so cannot use Google Analytics while I`m using this hosting company.  Maybe I need to start looking for a new layout and hosting company...
 
Thanks for your feedback - it`s been very helpful!
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