I haven't had time to really look at your site yet, but I had a question
or two. Where do you find most of your web design business coming from -
Local businesses, personal pages a certain industry? I would really give
that some thought and then see if 1.) there is more room to grow that
market how you can push for more or 2.) is that the market you really
want to appeal to - if not what is and how can you better target them?

With as many web designers out there as there are - offering all the
same services, I think it is really important to target the potential
clients too. Based on your copy, meta tags, etc. I think you are
marketing the services but maybe not targeting your message as much as
you could. I would pick an industry or area or something and then build
a site that will appeal to them, then target them directly through an
industry association or something. 

Lori
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hwg-critique(at)hwg.org [mailto:owner-hwg-critique(at)hwg.org] On
Behalf Of Lorrie Eldridge
Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 12:18 PM
To: hwg-critique(at)hwg.org
Subject: critique please


Hi All,

I am a web designer trying to stay afloat since Sept 11, 01 and not
getting enough business to survive and was wondering if some of you
folks could critique my site and let me know if you see anything wrong
with what I offer on my site. 

I focus on small businesses and personal pages. My major focus is on
designing sites so they are search engine and browser friendly so I try
to keep them simple without a lot of wing-dings. My prices are at rock
bottom. I have a low overhead because I write all my code by hand (no
expensive programs to purchase and update). I have an English degree, am
an artist and have some graphic skills (Photoshop and Fireworks). I also
use a Mac.

Some of the sites I design are getting 2400 hits per month but my web
design site only gets about 230. I can't afford to pay for listing in
major engines but I get top rankings in Google for my major keywords but
most of my hits are coming from people looking for graphics and not web
designers. I am listed in about 7 web design directories as well as most
major engines/directories that don't require a fee. My site ranks at
about 5 on Google's toolbar last time I checked it on a friend's PC (I
have a Mac so don't have access to their toolbar.)

http://www.loriswebs.com/
this is a professional site

I would appreciate any tips you can give me to improve hits and draw
customers.

thanks
Lori

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