Rankings Up - Business Down

As I have written about many times before I have been working hard behind the scenes to improve my natural search ranking for ACE Computer Services, through Yahoo, Google, etc. The hard work has certainly paid off. My ranking are at the highest point I have seen with several searches placing my on the first page output in Google.

That is all well and good but business is down. Traffic to my pages is up, traffic to the ads I run is up and yet business is down. Maybe its just a slow period but it concerns me. After a busy summer I cooled off in late August and have been ice cold in September. I cannot help but think something in the design or content of the website is turning away potential customers.

That said I made a host of changes today, in some ways rolling back some of the additions of the last few months - eliminating a few pages, tightening up content and information all with the hope of getting my information out in clear, concise manner to prospective customers. Hopefully this will generate some biz again.

One thing I also did was submit my site for review over at StartupNation. It is an excellent resource for business owners with an active exchange of ideas, suggestions and assistance. I received some great comments for the site, some of which I factored in right away and a few ideas I have tucked away for a possible revamp of the site design.

I am also considering a big change in the ACE Computer Services Blog. As it is now, the blog is hosted outside my main site and the differences may be too dramatic. I need to integrate the two better to draw traffic between each site. Ultimately I may look to create/host my own blog that allows more consistent design for the entire site.

Thanks for reading.

Rates too low?

I had a discussion with a good friend last night about service rates. The conversation related to his wife's tutoring business and how he felt her rate was too low compared to others. She wants to come in lower but he felt the lower rate may make her look bad to some potential customers. I have been wrestling with the same issue for a while now.

In starting my business, ACE Computer Services (http://www.acecomputernj.com) I wanted to provide affordable services. That was one of the motivating factors in starting this venture. I also wanted my service rates to be clear and easy to find on the website, which would be my "store". I get a lot of calls and questions about the rate - most people cannot believe I am that much lower than other computer repair/service options.

I cannot help but wonder if I am losing business because my rate is low. I know that sounds crazy but I receive a lot more traffic to my website than business generated, so something is not adding up. Any thoughts from readers?

Web Updates

I made some significant changes to the ACE Computer Services website today but I did fall short of a complete update of the style. I have eliminated all the affiliate links, as I had wrote about before. I added in the Protexx Reseller links and an information page about the Protexx Software, along with the ACE Blog widgets.

The style changes may appear minimal but I hope the layout is easier to read and navigate. A big change is moving the Google search box from every page to its own dedicated page, which opened up a lot of space on each page.

Thanks for reading!

ACE Computer Services now a Protexx Reseller

ACE Computer Services is now a Protexx reseller. Protexx ensures your privacy when using Wi-Fi hotspots, Wireless, Cable, and Network connections by keeping your personal information safe and anonymous from hackers. It provides the highest level of encryption (up to 2048 bit) due to the recent security breaches cracking SSL, DES, 3DES, CDMA, WEP, WPA. Protexx automatically encrypts all your inbound and outbound Internet traffic (emails, HTTP, FTP, Web, IM and VoIP calls, etc.) and provides Identity Management as “Protexx knows you are who you say you are” by the issuance of PKI Digital Certificates”. It also provides a personal firewall to block Wi-Fi, Wireless, Network and Cable hackers from using your connection to gain access to your computer and stealing confidential files or infecting your computer with viruses. Free trial available.

ACE Blog Widget

I created a quick widget over at Widgetbox to promote the ACE Computer Services Blog and post recent blogs on the main ACE Computer Services page. Check it out:

End of the Summer Update

As Labor Day marks the unofficial end to a great summer I had a few minor updates related ACE Computer Services. In reality I have been trying to enjoy every last bit of summer I could (beach, pool, no school for my kids, etc.). I have not done much to the business website and have made few changes recently.

That is not to say I don't have a lot of things I would like to change and update. Hopefully I will have time in the next two weeks to usher in a bunch of changes to the web and design of the site. I also have some new advertising avenues to explore.

I will likely be dropping the affiliate links that are spread out through my site. I have been using Commission Junction (www.cj.com) and it has not been a successful venture. It is no fault of Commission Junction - rather I had never fully incorporated the links into my site, etc. I've always felt that a glutton of ads cheapens the site, or would cheapen my site, so I have always held back on using the affiliate links. Finding appropriate spots to create the links proved more difficult than I expected. I don't want to be in sell mode all the time and would rather the site be more informational than commercial. So with that the CJ ads will soon disappear. I did not live up to the agreement in terms of sales generated so they will be kicking me out as well soon too.

I took a peak today at the Google Webmaster tools and saw a ton of new links I am getting credit for. My ranking using "NJ Computer Repair" improved again. I have used that search as a benchmark to track site ranking progress. I zoomed all the way up near the top of page two on the search before tumbling back to the bottom of page three this summer. I am back up to page two. What does amaze me though is some of the jokers ranked ahead of me. The sites are outdated and I can find no discernible links to the sites, so how are they ahead of me?

That is all for now - more to come in the next two weeks as some big changes arrive. Thanks for reading!