Feedback on website?

[kiwi]

I created this website for my mom - OldGermanLetters.com. She's gotten reasonable traffic over the past years, but traffic and inquiries dropped off dramatically over the past few months.

I think that most of what happened is Google started downplaying sites that didn't have https. I fixed that recently, and am hoping she gets a bump in inquiries.

Any feedback welcome. It's created with the free version of Weebly.

[Miss Piggy]

What a cool service you offer!

Unfortunately, I don't need this service (as I suspect may be the crux of your issue). However, if I DID need a service like this, I would definitely not be "turned off" by your website. Sure, it's not the most modern-looking site on the web, but it does a nice job of communicating your service, showing fun examples, and describing how to contact you to get the process started. I can't imagine (no, I didn't research it) that you have a lot of competition; if that's the case, I think your website is fine.

Comparable example: I have a wool sweater that needs to be repaired. Moth holes. I did a web search, and there aren't a ton of businesses that offer re-weaving or wool sweater repair. The businesses that do offer this service don't have the most beautiful websites, but hey, that didn't stop me from wanting to use one of the businesses that's just one state away from me. The website was good enough to communicate the offer, show examples, and let me know next steps to get the job done. For something like that, I don't need an "Amazon quality" website. The service is more important than the website.

Others may differ.

[joonifloofeefloo]

I really, really, really like it!!!!

It's super clean, nicely laid out, easy to navigate, and interesting. It has all relevant info, and nothing extraneous. How to make contact is clear.

I would hope you don't change a thing. (If you wanted to get weirdly fussy, I'd make an old German letter the thumbnail icon in the site's tab for browsers.)

I know the need for this service. I wouldn't be surprised if I reach out down the line :)

[bluewater]

Like others here I don’t have a need for this service so I’ll comment just on the site itself. The first thing I usually search for on a site like this is an about me page. It aapears based on the contact page (pic, address, name) that anonymity isn’t an issue so I’d recommend setting up just an additional, dedicated about me page with a photo, name and a little background. Everything else looks good to me (viewing on an old iPhone 6).

[ToeInTheWater]

just one suggestion - on the "Samples" page, users should be able to zoom in on the pics of the old letters to see the originals better

b

[NearlyThere]

Are you able to add google analytics to the site within wix? If so this would be a great way to understand how people are finding the website and what they are doing when there.

Site is ranking 9 on page 1 for "German Letter Translation". By rights this wouldnt drive anywhere near the same traffic if you ranked number 1 for example. You may have originally been higher up in google and this lower position has resulted in the drop off. Google Analytics would show this and even if not currently installed, would be good for you to see over time.

The site is visually fine and in keeping with the service. It is however lacking depth of content that is keyword driven. If for example a keyword you are looking to rank for in google is "german letter translation" I would consider setting up a blog or pages on the site with this in the title and in the content and so on. This will add to the authority of the domain for this search term.

I would consider learning a little bit about search engine optimisation. https://yoast.com/seo-blog/ is a good start and putting some of the elements into practice. Again it comes back to knowing your search terms and this comes back to analytics. SEO is pretty in depth and I've purposely not gone into too much detail but if you do the research and have questions on that, I'll try to answer them.

[kiwi]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! Really appreciate it.

@NearlyThere  - Yes, I set up Google analytics on it. I'm not getting much out of the info, unfortunately. There's a site (auto-seo-service.com) doing what I think is called "referral spam", which is most of the traffic. You can't tell what keywords are being searched for on Google (all I get is "google / organic", which tells me nothing). Based on some research online, I don't think there's a way to actually figure out what people that came to the site actually searched for because Google changed their policy on this, unless you're paying for keyword advertising.

One more note - - the main focus is handwritten letters, usually written in the old German script. These are letters people have laying around from 50 or 100 years ago, which they now want to read. So it's not competing at all with standard German translation services. And that's a good thing, because automated translations is now quite good.

Any thoughts on marketing would be welcome as well!

[NearlyThere]

Hey Kiwi, you should be getting some keywords from Google. I'll assume this is because of low traffic volume and the current traffic being from the referral spam sites.

Ok so imho one of the best marketing at this business size is referrals. As part of my own "pitch" I always ask for referrals. Based on your service I'd suggest something like this. It can also be sent in email as well as said in person and works really well as your client base is so targeted.

"If you know anyone else who might have some letters requiring translation and you're happy with my service, could you please recommend me to someone else".

I love how the letters are posted on the site. Some narrative from your mom or yourself explaining the process of "translating handwritten letters from german to english" (note keywords) would help with your position on google for the right key terms. You do have this at the top of the page, but I expand that somewhat to 200+ words with more keywords.

Finally, be where your customers are. How did the first customers find you (always ask this question)? Do more of that!

Hopefully these help somewhat. :)

[kiwi]

Thanks @NearlyThere. I like the idea of expanding on the narrative...you're right, it would probably improve the search rankings. I haven't focused too much on referrals because the service of old German letter translation is something so few people need.

Now if I could figure out how to market to a genealogy oriented crowd - that would be great...

[joonifloofeefloo]

Have you contacted groups like this: https://www.ahsgr.org/default.aspx There are different ones.