How many hits should I be getting? [Archive]

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ivebeenstiffed

8th July 2009, 14:21

Ali-v-8

8th July 2009, 15:05

its difficult because of who you are targeting.
What is the search really going to be?
example. How much is taxi to...?
More like people will search taxi fares,taxi numbers, taxi offices.

Just a thought.

ivebeenstiffed

8th July 2009, 19:53

Exactly. Thats the tricky part.

For what it does, it ranks highly. Its a taxi fare calculator. And the traffic i am getting is focused and good quality.

But if only 300 people in the uk a day want to calculate the cost of a taxi fare im suprised. But that's what the stats are telling me.

I wrote this system because getting a taxi is like russian roulette. you never know what it's going to cost you. where its going to go and if its reputable...

The whole system could be improved no end. but there is no point me spending more time on this if its going to peak at 301 people a day...

Sorry to sound like im ranting.. im just a little frustrated at the moment... looking for some inspiration...

Back to the initial question. Are people looking for what does taxiroute does? I think they are but only 300 are finding it.

I tried to use google adwords tools to find what they thought this could generate but must admit taxi related tests resulted in huge variances. the word taxi obviously results in millions of hits...but to try and drill down into what type of taxi they are looking is tricky.

i use google analytics and although its great at showing what's hit you its not obvious what's missed.

i will try google adwords tools again. there must be something in there for me to gauge traffic. im sure it can give a daily budget so it must be able to show traffic...

here goes!

trev
taxiroute

Place of design

8th July 2009, 20:11

Hi,

I know the question may seem strange but I am trying to find out how many hits I could/should get to my site....

At the moment I am top of google for "taxi fare calculator" and high up for quite a few other taxi related search terms.

This ranking is currently getting me about 300 unique hits a day. I have a bounce rate of 18%. 80% of people stay for more than 3 mins. About 40k page views a month.

I have tried to use Google Adwords to find out what might be achievable for this site but cannot seem to get any straight answers....

Can anyone help?

Have i hit the ceiling with 300 hits a day i am wondering?

Thanks

Trev
www.taxiroute.co.uk (http://www.taxiroute.co.uk)

INteresting idea - dont have a clue about the hits.. but using the site seems counter intuative.. you put in a location to start, then a location to finish, then it asks you what local authoritory you are in...

1. I might not know (Im round my mates place)
2. I just imput the location i want to start, you tell me who the local authoritory is

I think if you joined forces with the taxi cab firms, and then noted that when my start journey was NG14 (nottingham) you then intellegently offered adverts like £40.00 to manchester airport form the local cab company you could be onto a winner

your site is doing a few things it doesnt need to - I dont need a text route planner for a driver - i am hiring a cab etc. etc

Neat idea, concentrate on getting it to serve the 2 audiences - taxi firms and people wanting a cab

consider "ring me" buttons for the cab companies etc..

ivebeenstiffed

8th July 2009, 20:29

bang on.

yes, asking you your start and end and then asking you your local authority is crap. I should be able to work it out shouldnt I??

But, and i didnt know this. The Ordinance Survey people own the IP on LA boundaries and to use an api that allows me to throw a lat/long at and it returns a LA is VERY expensive. With my current budget thats out. But its priority 1. Trust me, i know how to do it but its a pay per search price and this is open to the public. im scared what it could cost.

It should also default to a tariff based on the time of day you are asking the question with simple drop downs to offer alternative tariffs.

What you are seeing seemed like phase 1 last year now it seems more like a proof of concept.

i also agree on your point about 2 audiences. cant get my head around it. Need some help with that. looking for a good copy writer....

anway... onwards and upwards

trev
taxiroute

sjr4x4

8th July 2009, 21:09

Hi Trev

It does feel like a proof of concept. Assume by "hits" you mean actual visitors.

To get round the local authority issue, couldn't you create a database and match postcodes to LA's so that field is filled in, or gives a choice of 2 if there is an overlap. Postcode info is public domain, so can't see there being an IP issue.

But ref your original post, have you hit a ceiling, doing a UK search for the actual phrase "taxi fare calculator" on google shows Results 1 - 10 of about 383

Of these, some are trip adviser posts, and also old UKBF posts from yourself http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/archive/index.php/t-98066.html

So it looks like its not a particularly popular search term, and quite niche.

Personally, as the previous poster suggested, look at ways of offering targeted advert fares by collaborating with cab firms, and maybe use the taxi fare calculator as a gimmick on your site, which will keep your page views up, and maybe a bit of discreet affilaite or adsense, and monetize that traffic.

fisicx

9th July 2009, 09:21

I recall commenting some time ago on the site the poor usability - I've just tried to check the cost and that huuuuuuge local authority list doesn't help as the journey I want to make is at the other end of the country. So I guessed and then had this very complicated tariff table. I guessed again and got a critical error.

If you aren't getting many more visitors maybe it's because you aren't offering a service that people want. Of those 300 visitors, How many actually used the calculator? It took me over 3 minutes to just get the thing to work.

ivebeenstiffed

9th July 2009, 10:26

Hi,

As mentioned in my posts last night I am in no way defending the usability as it stands. The LA choice can be got rid of but as explained this is too expensive at the moment.

Eventually it will be just

Enter your start point.
Enter your end point.

The system will then work out the LA based on your start point and default to the daytime tariff. Giving options to change tariff and reverse calculate if it would be cheaper to get a taxi from where you are going or where you are going to...(If a route crosses LA boundaries sometimes it can be cheaper to get a taxi from where you are going to and not where you are coming from)

Are people using the calculator, yes, they are. Its used about 500 times a day at the moment.

Google Analytics seems to supports this as well.

66% of people who visit the site stay longer than 60 seconds.
33% of people who visit the site stay longer than 180 seconds.
Bounce rate is low at 18%
Average page views is hovering just above 6 pages.
18% of visitors are return visitors.
Traffic is increasing at 25% per month

So, in summary, yes, it's clunky at the moment but it does work. Lots more to do but whenever i sit down to spend time and money on it the question "is it going to pay back" always crops up...

Which is why i was trying to find some tool that might be able to help me guage how much traffic I could get in the future....

Maybe there isn't an answer and I will just have to do the work and then suck it and see....

Trev
taxiroute

fisicx

9th July 2009, 12:05

Well that's some pretty good stats. Is there a geographical preference? Maybe you could just do the post code thing in the major conurbations?

Have you spoken to Ian Hendry (wecando.biz) as they have a distance calculator based on post codes?

Chris Power

9th July 2009, 12:28

Concierge, which is owned by the Black Cab companies, offers a similar service in London. They take details of route, and offer it out to local cab companies. The cab companies then bid for the job, and the cheapest, or fastest, gets it. It’s for account holders only.
I guess you could do something similar, but present the bids to the passenger on the net.
Chris

JayZee

9th July 2009, 13:51

To calculate the possible number of hits, use the google adwords keyword tool to estimate the number of searches per months (use exact match - that's people who were actually looking for that term). The top 3 spots on google serps will get around 40% of those hots - it gets a lot less the lower you are down the page - at around position 5 it's down to about 5%

Ali-v-8

10th July 2009, 12:05

I'll say it again.
Where is the money.

I would target airport transfers because those are what people will look into.

ivebeenstiffed

10th July 2009, 12:53

The money comes from taxi companies advertising on the site. When they do, they appear in the calculation results?

Yes, I could focus on just airports and ignore the rest of the uk but why?

:|

webpromoterservice

10th July 2009, 15:51

try using a keyword research tool to see how many people are searching for your targeted terms.that should give you an idea of how many clicks you should be getting