I created a website with Vistaprint and can always see how many views I have received each day but I hardly ever get any queries or anyone getting back to me. Please note I am still a beginner and don't have hundreds of wedding cakes to put in my gallery. Please could someone give me any tips? My website is www.dreamycakesbyalev.co.uk

First your cakes look lovely

but a search of google doesnt bring you up unless you put in herts and not hertfordshire, your also not on yell.com.

These are the two everyday searches I perfom when looking for something i want to purchase, I dont think your site is the problem I think your not advertising your geographical location well enough.

I would make your area clear on more pages an invest in some yell and google advertising, you can get it pretty cheap.

I'm trying to remember how I got my site listed on Google. It was dead simple. Try that - also, I find if I post on other people' s websites and leave my site in my signature, I get a fair number of clicks based on that. The website looks great (as do your cakes!). Also, it took me a solid month or more to get a unique visitor! It's slow, but then all of a sudden, I landed a 100 unique people in a month!

I am not on yell.com as I think that you have to have a registered business which I don't yet. I typed my post code in and it didn't recognise it. Secondly, the only adveriting I have heard about from google puts you on the first page for a year and it costs £250 which I wasn't prepared to invest.

I wouldn't worry too much about "number of visits" compared to "number of inquiries" at this point. Think about your own web browsing. How many sites do you go into each and every day and yet you don't call, order or make an inquiry? Internet browising is like window shopping...... you look and look and look and when you're ready to buy, you've built a point of reference on where you want to spend the money and what items you want to buy.

It's not an instant process. My grandchildren both have birthdays in May. I'm already thinking about what those cakes will be. If I were a cake civilian, that means I'd be scouring lots of cake sites to get ideas, but I wouldn't actually order it until April or May.

are you looking for tips on your site (ie. Critique) or tips on how to get more business?

on my site

Adding some meta tags to your page headings in the html would help with the search engine problem. Meta tags are just short words meant to be picked up by search engines such as Google and Yahoo... stuff like "cake" "wedding cakes" "Hert"... you get the point.

You can add it to Google UK here:
http://www.google.co.uk/addurl/

You can add it to Google here:
http://www.google.com/addurl/

Btw... you come up 2nd on Google UK search for "Dreamy Cakes" and 6th on Google for "Dreamy Cakes". I searched the UK since that is where you are and most likely where people will be looking from.

Consider installing a "lightbox' type picture viewer so that potential customers don't have to leave the page they are on or turn off the 'Pop-Up Blocker' just to view your pictures. You can have them open in the same page by changing the target from "blank", but a 'lightbox' feature would look more professional.

Consider increasing the size of your menu font, with thetype and size you have now it is hard to read. Also having the page title (such as Introduction) looks great in the blue that matches the background, however having paragraphgs written in the same color are hard to read. Consider changing color of the "Thank you" paragraph on the bottom of the first page.

Your cakes look really good, and as Indydebi said, don't be frustrated if you gets a lot of views and little orders. They may be window shopping. Having the high traffic is good as they may refer you to a friend that is looking.

Thanks Darthburn for your comments. I am not good at techcology at all but I will go on the links you have suggested. Also a bride is more likely to serach for 'wedding cakes' not dreamy cakes so I am very far from the first page on google. My website was from a template usuing Vistaprint and I cannot change the font size of the menu. When I increase the number of the pages, the headings get smaller. It will aonly get larger if I delete some pages which I don't want to do. Also, what do you mean by adding some mega tags to page headings? Do you have to do this on every page?

Hi there! I too have my site from VistaPrint (www.acakewalk.net). I would suggest less verbage and maybe more pictures. I also think that your address and contact information need to be near the top. I had to scroll down to see that information.

Also, I would maybe research the actual flavors that you might like to offer. Having just a few items and saying what you use most seems a little indecicive or unorganized.

Also, there is an option on VistaPrint to enlarge your photos if the consumer clicks on them. And, if you really doll up the descriptions on your cake examples, you are more likely to be found on any search engine - most especially Google.

If you need any other help, I am happy to help you with your site since we are using the same company to host. I am on yahoo messenger.

I think your cakes are lovely and you have a great product to offer!!!

It's a good starter website, but honestly...your site is always going to be a constant work in progress.

I think I am on my 4th website redesign in 3 years. It's how I stay competitive and separate myself from the competition since I'm the "new kid on the block". I don't have 30 yrs under my belt because I haven't even been alive for that long yet.

Thanks tomswife for your suggestions. I have made some changes as you said but as its a vistapring website, I don't think you can move your address / map up and I think it will change the layout of the top page. Dathburn, I went ont hose links as you said and I registered myself on google but the secong link where it wants you to add in your data feed really confused me. I didn't understand it so i didn't complete it.

Is it worth me paying for extra advertising with google and spend £250 so they can put me on the first page for a year?

I have another question. For over a month now I have signed up with a wedding website that gives me leads of potential customers who have done a search. I get these leads every sunday evening. Has anyone tried this and is it worth it? I pay about £30 a month.. I am thinking of cancelling it. I have only received a couple of messages so far.

You can use Google Adwords where you have complete control over how much you spend each month rather than spending £250 up front. I'd suggest not using it though until you have a few more cakes on your website.

I really like your layout & the colours you've used. There are few typos so I'd suggest spending some time going over your content again. E.g. -

on your Order, Payment, Delivery plage "refundable" is not spelled correctly

on your Pricing page "wedding cake's start..." - there should not be an apostrophe.

Thanks, I've done the spelling corrections. How do you use adwords?

Hi MissCakeCrazy! The website looks great so far! I love the colours and theme!

Although, I do have some suggestions some of which have already been said;
- see if there is an option for the user to be able hover over a picture and be able to click on it to zoom in rather than opening a new page which is time consuming and annoying if you're looking at quite a few cakes (example is like on Pink Cake Box's site - http://blog.pinkcakebox.com/category/pastry-images/celebration-cakes ).
- perhaps increase the side menu and title fonts just a little to make them more noticeable.
- on the side menu, maybe move "prices" and "flavors" to underneath "other cakes" rather than being the first options on the list (personally, when I look at cake sites I want to have a look at their cakes and flavours first before I even think about their pricing).
- maybe move your contact address and map that you have on your "introduction" page to the "contact" page as it looks a bit out of place like it was just thrown in there.

I hope I haven't been too critical or come across as rude - just my two cents...

Candycu, my photo's show up exactly like the ones on that website. You click on them and the picture gets enlarged.

It's difficult, time consuming and sometimes quite frustrating to get established, and a website is so important. I think I would spend my money on getting a web designer rather than paying for advertising. Can I ask who you are paying the £30 a month too, if that's not too cheeky!
We had our site designed professionally but they wanted an extraordinary amount to optimise it, so we ensured they coded it so we could alter things in Adobe Dreamweaver. We have learnt a LOT, and now when you type in certain keywords into a search engine, we come out top. It does take time, and a bit of imagination but we have not paid anything to google etc and are by no means techies.
Keep writing lists of words that people might use when looking for your product and creatively add them to your descriptions making sure those keywords are used a lot but that the sentences are different. Search engines like things to be relevant to your site too.

P.S. Your cakes are great!

Thanks. The website I subscribed on was wednetwork.co.uk

Try not to use the same cake multiple times on one page. Have you thought of investing in some good quality "fake cake" layers and fleshing out your gallery? You can decorate them over and over....

What do you mean? All the tiered cakes are dummies. How would I flesh out my gallery?

For example...the 3 tier with the red roses. You used it several times and just added another deco to it. I understand the desire to have lots of cake pix, but what comes across is that you only make 3-4 different cake styles. IMO all the cakes in the gallery need to be totally different. Not trying to be mean but when you post in the business section it implies you are asking for honest replies to better whatever you are trying to do.

I understand what you say but I have only started this summer and I have had to juggle with a baby too. These are the only designs I have been able to make so far.

No problem sweetie...was not trying to hurt your feelings at all. Just my opinion...not my job to school you.

Thats Ok, I always view critisizm positively

Great attitude! Personally I go into the bathroom, lock the door and cry.

I love it! Love the colors and the feel of it....

Jen

In addition to ensuring strong metatags are in place, make sure you update your content, even a small change or addition, frequently. That way when the search engines "crawl" your site, they will see current activity. This will also help you maintain a higher placement in search engine return lists.