> I'm the management, so the only one I have to convince is myself.
> Visit www.auctionweb.com, and you'll see what it is that we do.
>
> We represent "conventional" or "traditional" auction firms on the Web ...
> we don't conduct auctions ourselves. And we don't yet conduct online
> auctions, though with our new partnership with Auction Universe that
> should change fairly quickly.
The site looks ok esthetically. Nothing leaping out at one, though.
BUT... You are attracting that subset of the population which goes
to auctions, and takes "pot luck" of what is there.
You are not attracting the people who are seeking SPECIFIC things.
Your site is not at all built to draw the far larger number of people who
want the categories or sub-categories of things that are being sold at
auction.
If I am interested in say, buses, and looking for buses for
conversion to a motor home, I will never see your pages come up in my
search. Nor would I, if I am seeking Tiffany lamps. But some of your
competitor's pages WILL show up on those searches. Why? Because they list
specifics, not just the main categories as you do. And you put all the
categories in one page... diluting the strength of that page in any one
category, and you don't even mention sub-categories. People don't
generally search the web by major categories; they search the web for
specifics. That is how they find the odd little add in the Trenton
Tattler for water buffalo horns, or a bus.
Sure, going to category and sub-category pages means more pages; but
more pages mean more traffic. That is, if the pages are optimized with
search words and phrases used to find the items in the sub-categories. And
since you are going to have to go to (static) database generated pages....
adding a bit for keyword phrases wouldn't be that hard. In fact... that
can be automated as a web-app to scan our database for current most
popular phraseology to embed in the meta tags, and to assist the human
operators as they generate a preliminary page via database engine. (On
account, with good volume, it wouldn't cost more than a buck or two a
page.) Or the reverse, to toss the URL to our analyzer, and get a
suitable meta tag. The results? Very high placement for each page in the
search engines. Even better if you are able to take bids via the web!
And we could handle the submission of the pages for you, without a lot
less of the crap spam that some of the "free" "submission" engines spawn!
> Meanwhile, though, what we need to build up is (a) our ability to put up
> production-line web pages quickly, and (b) our ability to sign up more
> "conventional/traditional" auctioneers to host their websites with us and
> list their auctions on our listing pages.
It means running a lot of that site off a database. Input some of
the words form a brochure or cover for a specific auction, and generate a
static sub-category page listing the specific auctions having things in
that sub-category; hand optimized if you wish. Or let us add some AI
gimcrack sprinkler for select pages.
> If you think you can contribute to this effort from 3000 miles away then,
> as Ross Perot once said, I'm all ears...
My recent work is with search engine phraseology, measuring the use
of specific keywords and phrases for a growing number of clients. I've
done a lot with databases as well. These are things which may help you in
creating a more robust site.
So we have category and sub-category pages optimized for the kinds of
items they index.
And then, for each auction, if individual item pages are not to be
used, I would expect to see more of a brochure type approach for each of
the auctions listed, than what I find now.
Granted, having a live web auction in sync with a traditional gavel
banger isn't that easy; (though not impossible with an auctioneer's
assistant monitoring the site real-time. A less favorable option would be
to freeze the web bids before the real item is auctioned, either on the
morning of the auction, or on an item by item basis. Or, as is common in
more expensive auctions, allow phone-in bids.
But the key to any site, is to get more qualified traffic. And for
that, you need more pages, each optimized for a specific audience that
wants that very thing that is upon that page. Pictures and graphics may
do a lot once the people get to your page, building confidence, etc.; but
the key to getting them there in the first place, is using the very words
and phrases they use when searching the web for those things you are
selling. As my sig line says:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
----------------------- IMAGINEERING --------------------------
----------------- Every mouse click, a Vote -------------------
---------- Do they vote For, or Against your pages? -----------
----- What people want: http://www.mall-net.com/se_report/ ----
---------------------------------------------------------------
--- Have you analyzed your viewer's footprints in the logs? ---
--- Webmaster's Resources: http://www.mall-net.com/webcons/ ---
--- Web Imagineering -- Architecture to Programming CGI-BIN ---
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