Forum Moderators: phranque
I thought I would start this thread as a collection of serious mistakes and the lesson we have learned from them - hope that some with follow and do the same.
Here we go with mine: I had done some smaller website projects when I did one for a friend of mine about a year ago that happened to be a successful one - mostly through his input and SEO. By then, I havn't had the faintest clue about SEO at all and started to read WW and other sources to eventually work on an own site.
This site aimed to provide "local" advice and independent travel information on a well-visited travel destination in Europe (where I happen to come from). On contrast to my previous projects (which were all meant to look neat rather than genrate a lot of traffic), I focussed on high keyword density, lot of unique text content and spent vast amounts of time on linkbuilding and content writing; all very well and following the exciting new things I had learned from my friend and WW.
However, despite the site being the most extensive source of information of its kind currently online, despite of having decent links and despite of many evenings already invested since last October/November, it still attracts as little as 40 visitors on average a day. It makes only about a dollar a day on google ads, which will perfectly justify the amount of work I have invested into it - in about 10 years time.
So what is the problem? I have chosen my keywords fairly well according to overture and other tools, and since the content is of fairly high quality (a very relative term, after all), it wasn't too hard to get good links even from major travelguides (except one particular person who might read this - hint).
Nevertheless, there are hardly any key phrases on which I rank highly on google, and this is mostly because of the freaking dense competition. Tourism seems to be among the most consolidated businesses online and it is extremely hard to find a niche that is worth any effort - you compete with publishing companies (guides), hotel chains (accommodation), tour operators and government organisations (general and historic content). All big money, no individuals like me.
It's well worth working on it if you work as a tour guide, sell souvenirs or alike - if you just try to make you humble 10 bucks a day (my personal aim), don't tackle this branch. It is possible, no doubt about that, but in most cases tourism is probably not worth the effort. There are other branches in which your time is more efficently spent.
SO: WHAT HAVE I LEARNED FROM THIS?
A.) If you want to do a website for the learning experience, don't worry about the topic - I am still glad I did the project, because it was great fun and I have learned a lot about website development and my city.
B.) If a project makes problems, don't let it spark your sportive spirit - there are branches that are not worth the effort and others just waiting to be explored. It's not the right time to get obsessive.
C.) Finally...the moral of the story: Think of a website as a start-up company that needs to be balanced between the famous 3 Cs:
Company: What topic will I chose? What do I know about this, what do I have to outsouce? Which costs will I have and how will I monetize the site (if at all)? Will I enjoy working on this topic?
Customers: How many people need the content/widgets provided through my website? Are there strong seasonal fluctuations? Check overture and other keyword tools. Check classic marketing reports, statistics, personal experience...
Competition: The point I totally neglected. A well-chosen keyword won't take you anywhere if you rank on 100000000 on G. Check competitors, make a list of your keywords and do "allinurl" and "allintitle" for them, as this will give you an estimate for the degree of SEOed sites around. Others generally don't matter anyways. Check the link popularity of your top-competitors and - if necessary - refine your niche.
Oi, that was a long post - hope I didn't sound too desperate. I still hope that eventually I will be released from all the sandboxes around and gain some traffic eventually. Spring is coming!
And now you go on, share your biggest mistakes!
Set up a site about a popular European destination about a year ago, a destination about which there are already many, many sites. It's doing pretty well, with AdSense, some affiliate programmes (hotel/car rental etc) and other smaller lines of income it is well on the way to producing a 4 figure sum monthly and gets 1200-1600 uniques a day.
So, my advice is that if you are entering a competitive area like travel, find a new angle, something that the competition is not doing. There is no point in churning out a site that is like a gazillion others and expecting to beat the incumbants, but there is always room for a site that takes a different approach.
In my case I spent little or no time thinking about keywords, ranking, links or any of that (though links have come) - I just focused on making it genuinely useful to people, with the particular angle of making it VERY personal. Travel advice for an area from a person in the know, a local telling it warts and all, good and bad, in a conversational style. The site never was 'sandboxed', traffic from major SE's has just steadily improved all the time.
There is always a new angle, it's just a matter of finding it.
