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3 Messages

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92 Points

Wednesday, January 19th, 2022 9:13 PM

Close to jumping ship...

I'm looking for help from the company & I can't get anybody to assist me (I need to 'Post' a question?). Where the heck is a customer service link ? ? ?

So here's the main issue: One of my customers Googled directly my exact business name and he said that I USED TO BE in the 1st page of google; it always had my direct 'Homestead' website in that 1st page. I get a lot of hits on my website and have for many years; I'm as busy as ever. But at present, it doesn't appear anywhere (1st 2nd or 3rd page, no where). For about a year or so, my Homestead account 'Dashboard' page has continuously been showing "No visitors in last 7 days" -  & if I click on the "View Stats" button, I can see the visits per day (20 per day average). So why does my exact business name/Homestead website not appear in a Google search ? Well everything else shows up (BBB, mentions in forums and blogger's websites etc.) ! 

Now, If I can't receive some kind of response or remedy, I'm gone...

As we ALL know from the heavily advertised competitors out there, those folks will be more than happy to receive my monthly payments...

Finally, I do have the old style website (since approx. 2010), and maybe that's an issue. But my business is so busy I don't need to fancy up my web presence. I just want my customers to be able to have Google as their resource to simplify the complex .homestead suffix in the rather long website address etc. 

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608 Messages

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6.3K Points

1 year ago

HELP
Hours of Operation for Live Support
Sales: 1-800-986-0958 (Support can also be contacted via this number)
Support: 1-800-710-1998 (To close your Account)
FREE SEO Consultation: 1-888-412-9962
Mon-Fri: 6:00am - 5:00pm MST(No DST)
Site location Link:
https://www.homestead.com/~site/Scripts_GenericForm/GenericForm.dll?CMD=CMDForm&V1=support_form_newmember_out
Sat-Sun: Closed

92 Messages

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6.9K Points

1 year ago

What is your business name, what is the URL of the site? Let us check into it for you.

(edited)

295 Messages

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9.5K Points

1 year ago

Homestead's customer support is 800-710-1998 available M-F until 6pm PST I believe.  It's great that you "don't need the business" because whatever else you are doing is working for you.  However, the reason that your site is lost in the Google shuffle is because of your OLD style site.  Google's algorithms have been changing for the past several years and it is almost exclusively mobile based and using keyword searches that are more like "conversational" phrases like "I want to buy 4 1/4" nails near me" rather than "nails" "my city name" etc.  Updating your keywords may help, but if you don't have a mobile friendly site (not just a regular webpage showing up on a mobile device" you are not being seen by Google....at all.   I know you don't want to update to Website Builder, but it's worth it to solve all the problems you noted.  If you are too busy to do that, consider hiring someone to transfer all the info on your pages into the new format.  (They can't be copied and pasted directly, but it's not hard to get it done--just takes time)  Hope this info helps you.

92 Messages

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6.9K Points

@lynn1286​ That is not true whatsoever. I have one site that was built on the old original site-builder that ranks on page one, very top 100%. It gets around 1,000 unique visitors per day.

I suspect this fella has other problems, if we knew the URL of his site and/or the name of the business that would help.

295 Messages

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9.5K Points

Could be true. (I did like Site Builder, although WB is a lot prettier)  I found that it impacted some of my other client sites and that all changed for the better when I moved them over to Website Builder.  And I agree that we can't help much if we can't see what he is talking about.  

Brand User

8.4K Messages

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123.8K Points

1 year ago

Hello, 

I see that you mentioned the ".homestead.com" suffix and unfortunately, those site names are no longer indexed. You do have a domain attached to your site, though, so that shouldn't be an issue. I do see that you have the Home page of your website password protected. Pages that are password-protected will not be accessible to the search engines. That is likely another reason for this change. Lastly, Lynn is correct that your website being built through Sitebuilder Plus, meaning it is not mobile-friendly or secure, is a detriment to your SEO. 

92 Messages

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6.9K Points

@elyzabethv​ I am afraid he has already stepped overboard? Regardless, that is true about not being secure, however, if you ramp up the font size on an old site Google will index it as mobile friendly. It is actually pretty simple.

For instance (see link below), it may not look modern but is a working site our customers and fans love.

http://www.customautosbytim.com/index.html

Page Views Unique Visits First Time Visits Returning Visits
Total 10,268 6,732 6,441 291
Thur, 20 Jan 2022 457 304 292 12
Wed, 19 Jan 2022 1,666 1,058 1,009 49
Tues, 18 Jan 2022 1,276 765 718 47
Mon, 17 Jan 2022 1,115 761 728 33
Sun, 16 Jan 2022 1,486 1,048 1,010 38
Sat, 15 Jan 2022 1,697 1,139 1,105 34
Fri, 14 Jan 2022 1,214 772 732 40
Thur, 13 Jan 2022 1,357 885 847 38