Please review proxy.al

[-EM-]

Hello
Can you please review my website: proxy.al
I'd like to know about the interface, site speed and efficiency,
Currently I get 1-2k visitors per day.

 

[iowadawg]

Nothing new, just like 1 million other proxy sites.
Interface is normal.
Site speed is normal.
Efficient? At what?

 

[-EM-]

Site speed is normal.

Normal? Glad to know the speed is normal.

Efficient? At what?

I wonder for what is a proxy used for?

 

[N-A]

Speed is quick, just as a proxy service should offer. However, for ranking purposes, you should work on getting your Page Speed up (https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=proxy.al - Mobile: 63/Desktop: 88). This is a metric that a lot of people overlook, don't follow or don't care to improve. I know we don't have to appease Google as there are other search engines out there; but let's face it, the majority use Google. So, follow their rules in order to rank higher in SERPs.

All my sites are 90+; prior to being in high 40's to low 50's, and I saw a drastic improvement in rankings by just following every nit-picking suggestion they threw at me. I have just now started an A/B test of running SSL to see if I do get other "lightweight boost(s)" (as conforming to Page Speed suggestions gave me an incredible edge), which will stick me where I hope as all other competitors don't utilize it at the moment. I currently have a couple sites with GD certs (I know... ) and a few without, hoping to claim a first page position in 1 or 2 of my niches which is highly competitive; but geo-targeted, in which I've been lingering on page 2 for the last six months to a year with proper on and off-site SEO techniques being applied (haven't tried as hard as I've been busy with school though).

As far as the design goes, it's very intrusive from the beginning with ad placement and can be more eye appealing utilizing "marketing colors" making it look better for a visitor to hit that bookmark or share button. In addition to that, it looks terrible on mobile as it's not responsive nor has a mobile design made. I would consider a redesign with different ad placement; because we need to make the bread, but we also don't want to turn off users with a churn and burn proxy service which just about anyone could start with a free/dirt cheap script.

You should be doing A/B testing as well to see which ad block is clicked more often and consider asking yourself the question, "why?". This can be easily answered by putting a heatmap up and tracking mouse movements. Are users just skipping them to get right to their site? You will need better ad placement then, so that one catches their eyes. At least 1 out of 100 U/V's.

You have very little SEO done to your website to get it ranking among the 1000000s of others offering free services. A lot of work needs to be put into this and it can make it without promotion, on auto-pilot.

In the future, you can ease down with paid memberships. I'd take $1/month-prepaid for 1 year and a discount-coming out to be $10/yr for a reliable proxy. Possibly more (don't know how much they go for these days) to have a dedicated IP address so I can stream Hulu and other stuff out here (provided you have unmetered bandwidth).

I like the name as it's self descriptive and people who know about proxies generally know that they're not always on the king (.com) as they're a tad bit more tech savvy. "Proxy" is pretty much fitting in any TLD that can be short and memorable to offer this service. However, you will see .info's and the like cluttering it up on free hosting to [maybe] make a buck as well.

With that being said though, there are a lot of other proxy.ccTLD's (and God forbid, so many gTLD's) that are available for registration and what I've given you tells you that you need to try something different. A name alone in this niche isn't going to cut it. It'll be the aesthetics of the website itself and what you can provide the user as opposed to just tossing ads in their face like every other proxy service.

As an additional note, it is a lot cleaner than most (by that, I mean all) other over-the-night proxy services.

Just got a few other suggestions that I can't think of at the moment... will be back if something springs in my head. Getting little loopy now, if you want me to look at it further... shoot me a PM.

Good luck,
-David

 

[-EM-]

Sir a "like" isn't enough for you!
Thanks
Will read your post carefully again!

 

[N-A]

No problem. Having a $49 SSL script may or may not give you a boost. I got a slight one as said on all sites I've switched over to "security everywhere“. However, I must still deliver content to hopefully stay above the competition.

Anyhoo, rereading what I wrote, your main page should be https (to rank) and a box to request info securely (keeping https) or dropping it as it's as tad slow and may not be required by the user (http).

Good luck!

* 49 is based on GoDaddy pricing without wild card support. Others are cheaper and some more expensive. One I believe is even free. However, some people actually check who the RA is (signed by).