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I own a website that sells for example art. I didnt know a thing about websites before so I hired a web designer and invested a significant amount into the site. After a year the site as promised was only receiving hits that I had personally refered "offline" and random scattered ones I personally found from "adwords, reciprocal links, directories and blogs." My site was never found even on the first 40 pages of google.
I had a second web designer review the site and said the site needed to be redone as google would never be able to find the site because of excessive html, tables, poor keywords etc.
I then paid for a second designer and improved the site. However the promises the designer stated never happened again the site lapsed and was very hard to find against the significant competition I face.
This time I made a small website myself to learn. read up on SEO, keywords, joined webmasterworld.com etc So i have a better idea of what exactly i need and realized that with the appropriate knowledge you can make your site successful.
My website is currently up and running and besides the need for design revamp making some additions and addition of content etc I really think I need someone who really knows how to make a site SEEN in the search engines, has innovative ideas on how to get hits (traffic), does this morally and ethically and not through spamming as my last web designer suggested.
My goal is like everyones (who has an ecommerce site), to obviously get my site ranked as high as possible and generate sales. I unfortunately know limited amount and am on the hunt for someone who knows a "lot" and has a successful track record to prove it.
I have met several designers and none seem to have any sites in their portfolio that are very highly ranked or are able to brag about the seo website successes.
Am I concentrating on the wrong thing just seo? I think so much of what I need to do or what is wrong with my site and I have so many (too many) unanswered questions. the more i read the more i research the more confused i get!
Basically does anyone have any advice of what I should ask the web designer I interview so i can find the best designer/programmer/seo specialist to help advance my site?
sorry for such a crazy question guys but if anyone can help me even give me one piece of "SOUND ADVICE" it would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
David
Perhaps I should say, sites rank high and keep their rankings over time because they deserve to ;)
Any SEO that tells you otherwise will not be worth much, IMHO.
Too many put up a brochure site or a templated E-Store and then expect traffic. When that doesn't happen they begin throwing money at SEO's.
It is all doomed to failure.
Build a site that deserves top rankings instead. Follow Brett's 26 steps. Go after as many minor search terms as you can scarf up. Don't even try to compete with the bifg boys, at least at first. Instead, look for ways to leverage their marketing to your own advantage. (I compete in a field where two large competitors run TV ad campaigns. For one of them, I am #3 and 4 in G for a common mis-input of their domain name.)
Three years ago I could count my monthly page views on my fingers and toes. Today, thanks to WW, I have hundreds of top ten search terms, and I compete in the main, single word SERPs on equal terms with all competitors, not having dropped below #5 in over a year.
I operate in a relatively small, but competitive niche, so your time to success may vary. However, I know that one of my competitors is paying in excess of $12k a year to an SEO firm, and my site has far more top rankings than they have generated for him.
The web is a wonderful place, and success is still a real potential for all involved.
Long winded reply that never really answered your question I guess...
WBF
IMO, it's still possible for sites to rank well even in relatively competitive areas. But it takes more time and effort than it used to, and the SE's are forever getting better at filtering out sites that use overt manipulation to get ahead.
Spam is one path that some choose, but in today's environment, you almost need to be a professional spammer to make any serious money at it.
If you want your site to thrive and have staying power, then you need to do it the old fasioned way:
The term "SEO" has become to closely associated with spam, in part because many SEO companies do spam to a degree, sometimes without telling their clients. Some will run short term tricks that keep the client's site performing better only as long as the SEO remains engaged by the client. Some simply hang out a shingle without knowing what they are doing. I can't tell you how many times I've personally stepped into a situation that needed to begin with cleaning up messes left by others who were as far as I could tell essentially "practicing" on client sites. But I stray.
You should look for SEO firms or consultants that focus on clean strategies, and who don't mind telling more or less exactly what they are up to. There are as many kinds of SEO firms and consultants out there as there are candies in a candy store. Find the ones that provide direct answers to direct questions, and aren't afraid to educate their clients, and you'll be headed in the right direction.
IMO, it's worth talking to a number of different firms and/or consultants. The investigative and interviewing process can be very enlightening.
Questions I might ask include:
My 2 cents worth anyway. Others will have their own 2 cents worth. ;-)
Hope that helps.
At the end of the day, after the many discussions and debates that people have about the topic, there is only one really important factor .... common sense.
I agree entirely with the points above. Concentrate on creating a good web site with a good strategy, and not a quick fix.
Make sure you develop a site that deserves to be at the top and you will get your just rewards. Using "dodgy" techniques will work at first, but will ultimately lead to more hassle than they are worth with ongoing SE updates and developments.
We currently pay an SEO "expert" ... although his companies services were hired before I started here. He has offered very little information more than I already new or that I could've found just by reading this and various other sites. It really isn't rocket science ..... but too many people these days are falsely led to beleive that it is.
Concentrate on basics at first. There is no point aiming for "bigger" techniques if the absolute fundamentals are not in place - all of which are discussed in Brett 26.
Look at titles, meta tags and content of each page. Make the titles and meta information relevant to the page they are on.
Develop common sense links through your site to each page. How many links should you have? If in your own mind you think you are going to far ... you probably are. It's really trial and error.
Once you have the basics of your site in place - clean code, good titles and meta information, good quality, keyword rich content, then start looking at getting traffic to your site.
Submit press releases online on regular occassions (there are many free PR sites online). Write articles and submit them to article web sites. Keep your site up to date and fresh. Create a Google sitemap. Submit to directories etc. Use other techniques i.e. banner advertising campaigns. Collect contactable details from the customers you already have and email them regularly.
Encourage customers to sign up. It's great getting new customers, but even better if you can retain existing customers.
Anyway, I am beginning to rant ... apologies!
Sorry if this reply is waffly.
There are really just two answers for beinners: Hire an SEO, or DIY and focus entirely on the basics. That's why I so often start people off with Brett's classic post. It covers most of the basics, or suggests at least what else needs to be understood and attended to.
If the average site owner spent just one week learning about the basics that help sites with search engines, the SERP's would look very different than they do now. Why? Because there's so much great content out there that is NOT ranking, but easily could, with just better basics.
When I talk with prospective clients, one of the first things I do is sort out where the client's site is in the food chain. Some can be helped with only short term efforts; some need ongoing help. If the site is a good one, meaning good content, but has really missed the boat on SEO, the site can often be helped dramatically with just a week or two week's of work (though it may take between weeks and months to begin to see the results). It's the already SEO-knowledgeable players in tougher categories, or those who've pushed the basics to the limit, that need ongoing help, IMO. So, having a sense for where you are in the food chain may also help you ask the right questions of a potential SEO partner.
As an example, one of the sites our consultant "expert" was hired to work on really wasn't coming up anywhere in in SE. He was talking about postng PR, creating articles, growing the site etc ... all of which are ways to help - as long as the basics are in place first.
However, with all of these, the site didn't really move anywhere.
I started, and a big part of my job is SEO (I have lots of experience from previous job). I did nothing but basic SEO to what was essentially a good web site.
It just needed a good going over.
Within a couple of weeks of making these very basic changes (and by basic I mean titles, meta info, and tidying up page content - nothing else) the site was being found in the top 3 pages for phrases that previously weren't listed at all.
Granted, our site did already have a lot of links to it - which helped hugely. But it was ONLY making BASIC changes that caused the dramatic difference.
I am now at a stage of working to get site from page 2-3 to page 1 on a phrase with 10's of millions of results when searched for.
To backup cavemans comment about sometimes waiting weeks for results. I made similar changes to another of our sites. It has now had the same effect, but it took almost 5 weeks to be picked up.
The good news though is that now that the site is appearing in SE's for several phrases and words, it now appears to be getting crawled much much more! it took 4-5 weeks to recognise the changes, now it seems to be getting recognised every 1-2 days!
If the average site owner spent just one week learning about the basics that help sites with search engines, the SERP's would look very different than they do now. Why? Because there's so much great content out there that is NOT ranking, but easily could, with just better basics.
Yes. I can't count the times that I have come across wonderful sites, full of relevant information, but buried or non-existant in the serps because of:
1. No <title> tags
2. Flash and other eye candy
3. JS rollover buttons hiding the internal link structure
4. Poor document structure/markup
5. Irrelevant anchor text
7. etc.
I have many of these bookmarked for reference since I will never find them in the SERPs again.
WBF
CAVEMAN: great do you have the link to BRETTS CLASSIC POST? Also my place in the food chain as you say is visual art for sale. Arts & Entertainment as many directories have categorized me. But when you say "place in the food chain" in the website what exactly should I be doing other then having my keywords, titles,, article directory, PR and other basic stuff that will be obviously directed toward my niched clientel, am I missing out on what you said?
WEBBOY1: yes it all makes great sense. So since I'm having my site redone from beginning I want to do as you say, really have the web designer concentrate on building the site from ground up so it has all these basics like you say so this 'BRETTS CLASSIC POST' will have all of the basics listed?
WILLYBFRIENDLY: I agree! i wanted so much eye candy on my site. it makes sense now,, i am looking at amazon, ebay etc and their sites are so free of all that garbage. no more candy for me lol. THANK YOU! ALSO I have a question about reciprocal linking (off the topic a bit) but when you link with me and I link with you, how can I tell if you are going to be honest and keep it there other then having to run down my list of links (could be in the hundreds) only then to have to search and find my link and click on it. Is there a faster way? Again I just want to minimize my mistakes and make sure that when my web designer is building my site the appropriate tools are implemented!
Brett's 26 steps - Timeless. This is a wonderful synopsis of how to build a site that deserves to rank. First seek to understand why, then follow it. Traffic will gradually increase over time.
Don't expect any overnight miracles. You are running a marathon, not a sprint.
WBF
Food chain: In other words, how "SEO savvy" are those doing SEO on your site? If you're still in the beginning stages of learning SEO, then very often something between a few hours and a few weeks may be all you'll need to really jump start things. If you're further along, and a lot of basic optimizing has been done (and done well), and your site is still having trouble living up to its potential, then a more ongoing SEO relationship may be called for. Understanding where you are in this process may really help you zero in on the specific questions you would be asking an SEO consultant or firm.
SEO is best done at the design stage, but without casting aspersions on any designer members here, I'd have my doubts on how up to speed in SEO many would be.
