Advertising your space

[@?,*???&?]

Top 4 matches for impressions from google adwords stats on the ThirdMonkRecords.com site:

Keyword: lyrics
Impressions: 152,318
Click throughs: 3

Keyword: kalamazoo
Impressions: 9,205
Click throughs: 5

Keyword: music
Impressions: 4,771
Click throughs: 7

Keyword: studio
Impressions: 3,749
Click throughs: 9

I've got 734 keywords. Is this even worth it? That's a huge gap between the consumer term 'lyrics' and the actual item 'studio'.

Laughably, in May, I will have been with google for two years doing this and will have paid them close to $1200.

However, on the positive side is that the site/ad has had over 24,800,000 impressions over the google network...and not one paid client through clicking through!

[Jon~T]

Yikes that's a lot of money if you're not getting any benefit.
Before you give up on it, have a real good look at your site compared to other studios especially those in the area.
The layout is not particularly awesome.

[@?,*???&?]

Yikes that's a lot of money if you're not getting any benefit.
Before you give up on it, have a real good look at your site compared to other studios especially those in the area.
The layout is not particularly awesome.

Yes. I know. My site is crap. This is not what I'm about nor what I do. That's the unfortunate thing. Given a budget, all of this could be better. I've got a new site (not online yet) but in more of a blog-style format. Whether that's important or not.

My site is so 'millenial'. I agree.

I'm not sure how to go about auditing other sites for similar results.

btw, the main point of the post was in that keyword 'lyrics', it appears to be a good way to glean impressions.

[chris harris]

Yes. I know. My site is crap. This is not what I'm about nor what I do. That's the unfortunate thing. Given a budget, all of this could be better.

Nonsense. You don't need a big budget to put together a site that will give a favorable impression of your business. Your obsession with the idea that it costs a lot of money to do anything right, is just so wrong-headed.

btw, the main point of the post was in that keyword 'lyrics', it appears to be a good way to glean impressions.

THAT'S the most important part?!?! What good does including a keyword that for all practical purposes, has nothing to do with the service that you offer, do for you? It get's you a lot of impressions?!?! BFD! You just admitted that you've wasted $1200 on getting 24 million of these "impressions" that have led to ZERO business! If you hadn't done that, $1200 would buy you a very nice webpage!

What's the sense of advertising this way if it DOESN'T WORK?!?!

[JGriffin]

Yes. I know. My site is crap. This is not what I'm about nor what I do. That's the unfortunate thing. Given a budget, all of this could be better. I've got a new site (not online yet) but in more of a blog-style format. Whether that's important or not.

My site is so 'millenial'. I agree.

This is why we hire pros who know what they're doing. The build-your-own-site home webmaster model is killing the big web programmer industry. It's a travesty.

Like subatomic said, sink that Google money into hiring a good web designer.

[Snarl 12/8]

Like subatomic said, sink that Google money into hiring a good web designer.

+1

My worry is that you won't know how to hire a good web developer (more broad than just design).

I think you're [almost anyone is] better off doing "passive" search engine optimization and getting "natural" impressions. The best way to get people to your site and therefore through the door of your studio is to offer something of value to the web - for free. Like an interesting blog, great photos, great audio samples, tutorials. Give those 24,000,000 people a reason to visit, to stay, to come back and most importantly to link to your site.

If you had the DEFINITIVE web page about ANYTHING audio related on your web site you'd get more than 24,000,000 "impressions" in a week.

I'm worried for you that this flies too far into the face of your "pay $20 to borrow a Rat pedal" for you to implement it. And $1200 ought to do it twice over. IF you have anything of value to add to the internet. You can't apply your "old media" mentality to "new media" with much expectation of success.

[Gentleman Jim]

This is why we hire pros who know what they're doing. The build-your-own-site home webmaster model is killing the big web programmer industry. It's a travesty.

I saw what you did there. Clever with a capital C.

[roscoenyc]

Why pay google to work an out of date website?

[JGriffin]

This is why we hire pros who know what they're doing. The build-your-own-site home webmaster model is killing the big web programmer industry. It's a travesty.

I saw what you did there. Clever with a capital C.

very kind of you to say so, sir.

[mjau]

This is why we hire pros who know what they're doing. The build-your-own-site home webmaster model is killing the big web programmer industry. It's a travesty.

I saw what you did there. Clever with a capital C.

very kind of you to say so, sir.

SCORE.

[Tims96]

I would also vote for looking into a professional developer/designer. A good one will be able to give you a functional, nice looking web site that is also search engine optimized.

That's only part of the reason why you're not seeing the traffic you would like though. As others have said, the content on your site is actually more important than what keywords or meta descriptions you include under the hood. Starting a blog is a great idea, as long as you make relevant posts that will make visitors want to come back.

If you have a well-designed site and unique and interesting content, you won't need ads on Google at all.

[kslight]

Don't take this as a personal attack or anything, but I just visited your site and I don't even think this site would have passed for professional in appearance in the Geocities/Angelfire days (ie: mid to late 90s), so by today's standards if I were to visit your site as a prospective client then I would assume that your studio hasn't been operating since then (or at least 2007, your last News update). I understand what you're saying in that you aren't selling web design work and don't think you need a Flash-y site (har har), and I agree. You don't need a fancy site but you should at least have one that is functional and modern in appearance.

My top suggestions for what your site needs to be successful:

1. Fast loading. If you put in some fancy videos/Flash crap that takes me 5 minutes to load, its just a fact of life that my time is more valuable than to sit and watch the loading bar advance to 100%. It also should load fast for the other reason that a lot of people are surfing on iPhones (not Flash compatible!) and similar... All images should be lower res thumbnails that click to high res images for optimized loading (so people don't spend an obscene amount of time downloading images they don't care about).

2. Highly legible. Must be set to be easy to read on the lowest common denominator desktop resolution with minimal squinting (that would be...iPhones, or older computers).

3. Whoever visits your site should be able to find everything they want within 3 clicks and 45 seconds, and they should NOT have to scroll down to find it. It may sound lazy but a site that requires an obscene amount of clicks through tiers of menus or 10 pages of scrolling is a bad design, period.

4. Must be regularly updated. Every once in awhile I look around at what local studios may have popped up or shut down and many sites make them appear to be out of business! I'm not saying tweet every time someone takes a poop in your studio but any time you get major gear/room upgrades, fresh/hot talent in the studio...post some pictures or something and make it look like you're busy (even if you're not).



A Pro designer or freelance designer ought to be able to do this for you for much less than your Google Adwords. There are so many Web Design/Graphic Design graduates who are either unemployed or not working in their field it is not even funny (my wife being one of them!)...so many might be thrilled to do the work for not much money (or even barter studio time).

[route-electrique]

1. Fast loading. If you put in some fancy videos/Flash crap that takes me 5 minutes to load, its just a fact of life that my time is more valuable than to sit and watch the loading bar advance to 100%. It also should load fast for the other reason that a lot of people are surfing on iPhones (not Flash compatible!) and similar... All images should be lower res thumbnails that click to high res images for optimized loading (so people don't spend an obscene amount of time downloading images they don't care about).

Well, professional websites have always two versions, sometimes three; Flash (for bling and audio), html (for non-flash users, very tiny %) and mobi (for mobile users). This is how its done properly. If you do Flash you should make sure you don't use images to show your text content, since Google can't index text from images. What comes to subject.. i think contacts are everything, if you don't have great contacts you've to put your money to most important thing; marketing (to get contacts!) and that's whats webpage is about. Hell, even if i had too many contacts, i would still invest on great website and also brand of my recording studio.

[Snarl 12/8]

always

-1

[Jon~T]

FWIW my site cost nothing and was created (from a template) in a weekend by myself.
I'm not a designer but I think it looks great and works perfectly.

It does everything I want in one quick loading page. It's flexible enough that I can expand it as my studio expands (I'm moving this summer)

I would be happy to pass along any info I can if you like the design.

This is the original http://designm.ag/sitenews/free-one-pag ... -template/