Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#1

Post by eclipse31 » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 7:58 PM UTC

I started work on a restaurant finder website about 8 years ago (so the domain is that old), took my sweet time building it(!) and finally launched it properly with plenty of content around February 2016. The site is super-fast, follows loads of good best practices & SEO tricks and has over 500 restaurants on there now.

However, when I look at my Google Analytics, my stats are pretty poor... but improving! About 6 months ago I was getting 350ish users/month. This then grew to about 460 a couple of months ago and now I'm in the 500s/month (the site's based in Dublin, Ireland, population 1.5m). Obviously this is still tiny but does the growth point to better things to come?

One thing about the inbound traffic I am getting is that it's all for direct restaurant searches (e.g. "Johnny's Diner") rather than area searches (e.g. "Newtown restaurants"); the latter is where you see the site's true value, so everyone just bounces from the restaurant page.

I was beginning to get disheartened until this new upswing, so wondering if I should be hopeful? Also, surely a domain of that age must be worth something? Thanks

P.S. I specifically didn't give the site URL, as I didn't want to be seen promoting, but am happy to give it if there are comments requesting it.

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#2

Post by CM30 » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 8:24 PM UTC

Well, I'd love to know the site URL. Maybe that'd help people here give you a bit more feedback about why it might not be succeeding right now.

Still, how have you promoted it? Have you done some backlink building? Work with influencers to get the word out? Partnered with some media outlets/let them know you exist? Promoted the service via ads? Built up some active social media accounts?

Because for good or bad, its generally the offsite work you do that really makes your site or service popular now. Don't get me wrong, the on site stuff like site speed and page structure is important too, but it's important in a 'won't scare off/frustrate those that find the site' kind of way.

Hope that helps a bit.

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#3

Post by eclipse31 » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 8:33 PM UTC

CM30 wrote: post #2

Well, I'd love to know the site URL. Maybe that'd help people here give you a bit more feedback about why it might not be succeeding right now. Still, how have you promoted it? Have you done some backlink building? Work with influencers to get the word out? Partnered with some media outlets/let them know you exist? Promoted the service via ads? Built up some active social media accounts? Because for good or bad, its…

TBH, I originally thought SEO would be enough to get some eyeballs, but as you point out, that's totally not the case! I tried contacting a few local food blogs, but none of them ever got back to me. Other than that, I've just told literally everyone I know and tried using Twitter, by tweeting restaurants as I add them, in the hope they would retweet to their followers. I've thought of putting it on Reddit/r/Dublin, as a sponsored ad. I never looked into backlink building, good suggestion. In short though, I guess I do need to try harder :-) Thanks.

I was curious to see if anyone thought the upswing could be promising!

The site's https://www.menucosm.com since you asked!

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#4

Post by treis » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 8:43 PM UTC

It was probably time to give up 8 years ago. Between Yelp, Google, Facebook, Tripadvisor, and Google maps it's a saturated space. If you generate OC maybe you can differentiate yourself but for user generated reviews? Too many big fish in that sea.

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#5

Post by CM30 » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 8:48 PM UTC

eclipse31 wrote: post #3

CM30 wrote: post #2

Well, I'd love to know the site URL. Maybe that'd help people here give you a bit more feedback about why it might not be succeeding right now. Still, how have you promoted it? Have you done some backlink building? Work with influencers to get the word out? Partnered with some media outlets/let them know you exist? Promoted the service via ads? Built up some active social media accounts? Because for good or bad, its…

TBH, I originally thought SEO would be enough to get some eyeballs, but as you point out, that's totally not the case! I tried contacting a few local food blogs, but none of them ever got back to me. Other than that, I've just told literally everyone I know and tried using Twitter, by tweeting restaurants as I add them, in the hope they would retweet to their followers. I've thought of putting it on Reddit/r/Dublin,…

Thanks for the reply. Personally I think the site looks pretty good, though I'm probably the furthest thing in the world from a web designer or anyone with any aesthetic tastes.

That said, I think the biggest issue right now may be the question of why this site is useful, given that so many other companies are doing the same thing. At a glance, it seems like it's competing with the likes of Yelp, TripAdvisor and Google Maps, all of which have significantly more data, large communities behind them and more features overall.

Unfortunately, the features it does lack here are generally some of the ones that these sites got popular for in the first place. Such as being able to create an account to upload pictures, rate restaurants and leave reviews, or (for a restaurant owner) to manage the listing and add extra information/respond to feedback.

By not having these, there's not really much of a reason to come back to the service time after time. It lacks the stickiness required for any real user retention.

I know for sure that I'd be unlikely to return after visiting, simply because the other options would have more to draw me in.

So yeah, focus on those features, get some more backlinks and try out a few paid ads and see what happens from there.

P.S. Don't worry, you're not the only person to struggle with this sort of site. It's a tough market to succeed in, and a company I previously worked for tried to do the same thing with much the same results.

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#6

Post by eclipse31 » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 8:53 PM UTC

CM30 wrote: post #5

eclipse31 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBH, I originally thought SEO would be enough to get some eyeballs, but as you point out, that's totally not the case! I tried contacting a few local food blogs, but none of them ever got back to me. Other than that, I've just told literally everyone I know and tried using Twitter, by tweeting restaurants as I add them, in the hope they would retweet to their followers. I've thought of putting it on Reddit/r/Dublin,…

Thanks for the reply. Personally I think the site looks pretty good, though I'm probably the furthest thing in the world from a web designer or anyone with any aesthetic tastes. That said, I think the biggest issue right now may be the question of why this site is useful, given that so many other companies are doing the same thing. At a glance, it seems like it's competing with the likes of Yelp, TripAdvisor and Goog…

Cool, thanks so much for the encouragement.

In terms of functionality, yes, there's LOTS more I could build for sure, both from the regular user and the restaurant owner sides. I was trying to keep it quite minimal, but now that you point it out, it's obvious the site needs to be more engaging.

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#7

Post by eclipse31 » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 8:56 PM UTC

treis wrote: post #4

It was probably time to give up 8 years ago. Between Yelp, Google, Facebook, Tripadvisor, and Google maps it's a saturated space. If you generate OC maybe you can differentiate yourself but for user generated reviews? Too many big fish in that sea.

Yeah it was when I noticed that TripAdvisor listings for a given restaurant were featuring higher than the restaurant's ACTUAL webpage, that I thought I might be too late.

However, individual restaurant listings aren't my priority for traffic, it's the area listings. However, I now feel aiming for terms like "blackrock restaurants" was alsways going to be tough, due to it being quite generic

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#8

Post by davismwfl » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 9:27 PM UTC

I think you picked a hard thing to do given the market competition but that doesn't mean you should toss in the towel. You have some non-zero traffic level and there is value to that if you want to continue to see what it can do.

The problem is the site is competing against the large incumbents in the space like Google etc. So you have to differentiate IMO. For example, I assume you are local to many of these restaurants, what about doing interviews, back stories, historical building facts etc. Make it nice for locals and tourists alike to learn a little about the people behind the restaurant as well as the area and history.

My son traveled recently to Ireland and that was one of the things that he and his girlfriend loved, most bars and restaurants had stories or were in some historical building etc. As an American we think old is a building still standing from the late 1800's early 1900's, Europe in general has furniture still in use that is older than some of our buildings. Google isn't going to tell you that, only a hyperlocal search can help people with those cool facts.

That type/level of content I think would help drive additional traffic not to mention differentiate your site from the big players. But you have to be honest with yourself, that takes significant work to cultivate that level of content, and you have to make sure you have a monetization strategy, but I think there is market for that type of stuff.

Just some ideas, YMMV.

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#9

Post by eclipse31 » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 9:31 PM UTC

davismwfl wrote: post #8

I think you picked a hard thing to do given the market competition but that doesn't mean you should toss in the towel. You have some non-zero traffic level and there is value to that if you want to continue to see what it can do. The problem is the site is competing against the large incumbents in the space like Google etc. So you have to differentiate IMO. For example, I assume you are local to many of these restaur…

OMG, this is an amazing idea! Thank you so much. Something like this would get me the inbound links I need. It might involve some sort of a pivot, but definitely worth investigating.

I do have one unique feature in that the reviews are linked to proper professional critic's reviews in the natioanl newspapers, rather than anonymous commenters.

To be fair also, I have put in a signficiant amount of work, adding all that content for 500+ restaurants, their menus, reviews.

I also do have a monetization strategy but was trying to get eyeballs on the site first.

Re: Ask HN: After 2 years of content but low traffic, is it time to give up?

#10

Post by davismwfl » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 11:20 PM UTC

eclipse31 wrote: post #9

davismwfl wrote: post #8

I think you picked a hard thing to do given the market competition but that doesn't mean you should toss in the towel. You have some non-zero traffic level and there is value to that if you want to continue to see what it can do. The problem is the site is competing against the large incumbents in the space like Google etc. So you have to differentiate IMO. For example, I assume you are local to many of these restaur…

OMG, this is an amazing idea! Thank you so much. Something like this would get me the inbound links I need. It might involve some sort of a pivot, but definitely worth investigating. I do have one unique feature in that the reviews are linked to proper professional critic's reviews in the natioanl newspapers, rather than anonymous commenters. To be fair also, I have put in a signficiant amount of work, adding all tha…

I wish you the best, the ultimate is that you succeed as that is what we all want to do. If there is anything I can do to help you I am happy to do so. Good luck!