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Thread: Website Question

  1. #1

    Website Question

    I periodically check the statistics for traffic to my website and have noticed for some time now that a disturbing number of visitors to my website don't do beyond the first page, i.e., the viewer hits the home page and moves on. Sometimes I see the same viewer hits the home page twice in row and then moves on without looking at subsequent pages. I'm wondering why this occurs. It could be that the user sees the home page image and decides he or she is not interested in exploring further. Fair enough. It could be that the user does not understand how to access the subsequent pages, though I find that explanation a little harder to believe - navigating the site is not that mysterious. It could be that the user has a slow connection and that the home page image takes too long to load) though I have seen the same behaviors even when the home page image was of relatively small size. It cannot be the case that the visitor is fishing for an email address because my email address is not given on the home page. So, I am left to wonder what is happening here and why? Any ideas or suggestions? Has anyone else reading this post experienced a similar issue? Thanks in advance.


    NER
    https://normanrileyphotography.com

  2. #2
    Pieter's Avatar
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    Re: Website Question

    Bots?

  3. #3

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    Re: Website Question

    A lot of website base traffic is search engines (and there are a lot more than just Google and Bing). Depending on how your site server is configured, these may not dip into the site proper. Then you have bots doing scans looking for RSS feeds, site systems/software for research, etc. And finally you have bots looking to see if the site has a vulnerability/has already been exploited.

    If you have a low traffic site, all this noise can make it difficult to work out if you have any real visitors at all. Without digging into the actual logs it is hard to come to any particular conclusion.

  4. #4

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    Re: Website Question

    Is your website http: or https: ?

  5. #5

    Re: Website Question

    Thank you for these answers. It did not occur to me that the home page visitors I mentioned might be bots: I was worried there might be something wrong with the design or presentation of my site. I receive a decent number to visits to my site (591 visits since January 1 of this year) and most go beyond the home page but if a significant number of these are also bots of the kind that crawl entire websites doing whatever bots do, it makes me wonder whether having a website is worth the time and expense necessary to maintain it. Although I have thought of my site as a convenient showcase, it remains a disappointing fact that my site does not pay for itself by generating sales, and it happens with me that I do not make photographs solely to put them on my website. I am now wondering why I should bother with a website? To "xkaes," my site is an https site.

    NER

  6. #6

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    Re: Website Question

    My personal site is partly for vanity (!) and partly because I put together a document once that is still in active use and cited in print. It does not generate income at all, and it was never intended that it would. if I get more than a few real visits per month, it is probably an accident 8-)

    You do have to advertise a site, especially if you are not a household name. Even with search engines, people have to know who to look -up.

    [ going off-topic: The whole 'everything must be https' thing does annoy me a bit. Fine for the 99% of sites using databases and programmed content, but of marginal value for plain HTML. It does provide some guarantee that the site is the one matching the domain name. But the cost/effort (which varies with hosting providers) of obtaining and installing certificates can be more than the domain registration. I used to maintain HTTPS systems and domains for my work, and wouldn't have dreamed of plain HTTP for those.]

  7. #7
    Moderator
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    Re: Website Question

    Quote Originally Posted by Graham Patterson View Post
    You do have to advertise a site, especially if you are not a household name. Even with search engines, people have to know who to look -up.
    This. The benefit of having a site is that it gives you a "virtual portfolio" which you can easily share with potentially interested people when you encounter them through whatever channels. It's not realistic to expect random people to find your site simply because it exists, among the grillions of other sites that exist.

    [I'll add that I'm grateful to Graham for going to the trouble to create and maintain his site, including the extremely valuable Mamiya TLR System Summary, which I used heavily during a period when I was assembling and using a Mamiya TLR kit. Thank you!]

  8. #8

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    Re: Website Question

    Quote Originally Posted by Oren Grad View Post
    It's not realistic to expect random people to find your site simply because it exists, among the grillions of other sites that exist.
    Hammer to nail.

    Anyone who puts together a website should/ought to know why they are doing it. There are lots of reasons, and they are not mutually exclusive.

    If you have it to sell something, you have to realize that you have a universe of competition, and no way for people to find you.

    If you want to make money, that's even harder.

    If you to it to have fun, etc. Nothing lost, nothing gained.

    We really don't know your purpose for having a website, so that limits how we can help.

    There are numerous SEOing companies (Search Engine Optimization) that people and businesses use to increase traffic on their website. They are not free, of course, but available to anyone. I don't use them, but they pay me to place links on my websites to increase traffic to their customer's websites. They apparently work -- and it covers the costs of my websites, and then some.

  9. #9
    Alan Klein's Avatar
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    Re: Website Question

    Quote Originally Posted by NER View Post
    I periodically check the statistics for traffic to my website and have noticed for some time now that a disturbing number of visitors to my website don't do beyond the first page, i.e., the viewer hits the home page and moves on. Sometimes I see the same viewer hits the home page twice in row and then moves on without looking at subsequent pages. I'm wondering why this occurs. It could be that the user sees the home page image and decides he or she is not interested in exploring further. Fair enough. It could be that the user does not understand how to access the subsequent pages, though I find that explanation a little harder to believe - navigating the site is not that mysterious. It could be that the user has a slow connection and that the home page image takes too long to load) though I have seen the same behaviors even when the home page image was of relatively small size. It cannot be the case that the visitor is fishing for an email address because my email address is not given on the home page. So, I am left to wonder what is happening here and why? Any ideas or suggestions? Has anyone else reading this post experienced a similar issue? Thanks in advance.


    NER
    https://normanrileyphotography.com
    Change the picture on the home page so it grabs the viewer's attention better. Maybe add more than one exciting picture to the home page. There's an expression: "You only get one chance to make a first impression."

  10. #10

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    Re: Website Question

    Quote Originally Posted by Alan Klein View Post
    Change the picture on the home page so it grabs the viewer's attention better. Maybe add more than one exciting picture to the home page. There's an expression: "You only get one chance to make a first impression."
    Good point, but it won't help anyone find his website.

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