Ideas for my Geo website

[SF]

Hi Guys,

I run my local website for our town, but my main competition is the council who run there own site with help from an i.t guy.

They are number 1 on google, and i am number 2.

They have just set up a couple of webcams which are located on the high street in a shop window.

I am really wanting to add something equally cool, so i can attract some visitors,

Does anybody have any fresh cool new ideas that i can use? Can be anything willing to try anything that will attract visitors to the site.

oh i have the .co.uk and the .com but the council use .net.

I can pay paypal for any ideas i use?

Thanks guys
DB

 

[Blossom]

It's not really 'new', but have you tried getting some local businesses on board? E.g. offering 'limited time only' deals and vouchers as a co-promotion? I can imagine lots of food places in particular would try something like that out. You could also go halves with a company for a promo ad in the local paper to get your link in there.

I don't know what your site is like or where the town is based but if there are events happening then can you get down there and take photos (or request that events organisers send you pics? They usually will to push their next event). Proud parents and pet owners and so on love passing on those kinds of pics/links.

There's the potential to hold some kind of contest around photos as well, for example you could ask people to send in their best pics of the local area and have a poll. They will ask other people to vote for them & you'll get more visitors that way.

 

[Systreg]

Stand in front of the webcam holding a banner with your site url on it

 

[SF]

LOL thats fantastic made me chuckle that,

I have just pm you the website, and anyone who replies - i dont want to post in the thread,

 

[Blossom]

Stand in front of the webcam holding a banner with your site url on it

Lol!



DB, I just visited the site. Do you keep track of page load times in Google Webmaster Tools? Just asking because it took quite a long time for the page to load and this may be having an impact for both visitors and SEO. May be your redirect causing the issue, I didn't check.

 

[SF]

I had the site built by a guy on here, but he told me my imiages are to big causing it to load slowly, plus all the plugins, i really need someone to over haul it for me

 

[retired_member13]

Stand in front of the webcam holding a banner with your site url on it

Lol - where's that "like" button gone?

A few ideas:
- Focus on the providing information / news / review / video interviews that match the exact match searches that feature your town name, I've just taken a look and the following phrases get decent searches:
[Gxxxxxxx Golf Club] 1,300
[Gxxxxxxx FC] 1,000
[Gxxxxxxx High School] 880
[Elite Motors Gxxxxxx] 590
[Gxxxxxxx Marina] 260
[Gxxxxxxx RUFC] 260
[Gxxxxxxx Cricket Club] 170
etc etc
- Free advertising & links for local businesses on the site in return for a small poster in their windows and a money off offer if site users print out a voucher.
- Free email for businesses or local people - [email protected] etc.
- Free basic template website on a subdomain for businesses without a web presence - businessname.townname.co.uk - this can be done pretty easily in a semi automated fashion in wordpress 3.x.
- Free classified ads.
- Set up something similar to freecycle within your town.
- Go to local pubs and clubs and take pictures of people on their nights out which you put on the site with a logo burned in and hand out cards - people love posting / linking that sort of thing on their Facebook pages.
- Set up your own Facebook page as a venue to post the above - makes it even easier for people to link to.

I know most of the above are you offering stuff "free" but I think that that's potentially a USP in terms of getting established, and some of those things promote the address automatically.

You can have the ideas "free" too

 

[springer]

Maybe add some social elements to the site such as:

- blogs from local people on topic of interest
- forum
- I see you already have a facebook page, but can't see a twitter account?

 

[SF]

Thank you Ty, you already know the website. I think your ideas are great.

 

[bensd]

Not related but I just checked out your site and it seems to be hosted on the .co.uk however, you use .com in the logo!

Stand in front of the webcam holding a banner with your site url on it

Thats quality

 

[SF]

Some great ideas Ty just what i was looking for what happened to the like button on here?

I liked" it

 

[BREWSTERS]

How about a competition with prizes donated by local businesses - and get those businesses to promote the comp, and therefore your site.

Something drawn out over a while so you get plenty of coverage. Maybe an online treasure hunt.

 

[SF]

Hi brewsters,

Yes thats a good idea, and your just round the corner so you could take part lol.

I did giveway a few free bits and bobs but only had one person answer and he got it right so he won

 

[bensd]

Not related but I just checked out your site and it seems to be hosted on the .co.uk however, you use .com in the logo!

Further to my comment; it looks like google have indexed the homepage of .com which is displaying as #2.

The rest of your site is indexed under .co.uk. Might be why your not beating the council website if google think yours is only a one page website.

 

[Systreg]

I can pay paypal for any ideas i use?

Cool, just sent you my PayPal addy, glad you liked my bestest idea, that will be £27.50, please.

- Free advertising & links for local businesses on the site in return for a small poster in their windows and a money off offer if site users print out a voucher.
- Free email for businesses or local people - [email protected] etc.
- Free basic template website on a subdomain for businesses without a web presence - businessname.townname.co.uk - this can be done pretty easily in a semi automated fashion in wordpress 3.x.
- Free classified ads.

All good ideas those, Ty, and several of which I'm planning to implement on my geo sites when I finally get round to working on them again, didn't think about asking for a poster in shop windows, or the email addresses, might have a think about those got more important stuff to do first before I do more on the geo sites.

How about a competition with prizes donated by local businesses - and get those businesses to promote the comp, and therefore your site.

This is something else I thought about offering on my site, something along the lines of win a free meal for 2, except that I'll pay the restaurant for the meal, and then hopefully get other businesses interested in sponsoring other prizes when they see others doing it.

I like your treasure hunt idea , especially with summer on the way, you know what kids are like, they'll be posting it all over the place saying they did a treasure hunt in their area.

 

[Ashton]

You should choose either the .com or .co.uk and redirect to whichever it is. Google has picked up content from both variations.

I am not to keen on the design - I think with a better design that could give you the lead.

Offline marketing is pretty key with GEOs, I live in Chichester and Chichester.co.uk is owned by the leading local newspaper - Nothing quite compares to that. Seek as much affiliation with local business' as possible (Ty's suggestions are great)

 

[Sussexite]

A. Approach the council and offer to take over the running of their site for them. Their site only has 259 pages indexed at the moment, so should be a doddle.

This will save the Council money in these cash conscious times.

You can then guide the council site towards council type stuff and guide your site towards more commercial stuff (which the council shouldn't really be doing anyway). You can also get a great one way link from them to you, which should nudge you ahead.

B. Try to replicate the top 20 links in term of pr they have
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=garstang.net&bwm=i&bwmf=s&bwmo=&fr2=seo-rd-se
They only have 260 incomings in total. The rest don't really matter.

C. Go after long tail phrases that the council won't ever touch.

 

[suzi]

Stand in front of the webcam holding a banner with your site url on it

^^^Like ;-)

 

[Darren]

Stand in front of the webcam holding a banner with your site url on it

Go find all the cameras and as you said there in a shop window, tape paper on the glass with your URL on, then run a competition online to vote on how long they will last there before being removed.

 

[julian]

'pm sent boyo..