Page 1 of google ,,,,

Morning everybody ...

I thought I'd get some feedback from my fellow 4Networkers .... I'm looking into the best way of improving my Google search optimisation (?!). I have considered signing up to an on-line mag in Bounemouth who have plenty of traffic that would help my website etc .... or I could use my current or local website designer on a monthly basis....

Suggestions anyone ?!

Cheers,

Cath :)

Usually a website designer is not an SEO expert - I would look for someone who specialises in SEO (who may also be a designer) and go down that route.

Re the on-line mag, I have never found these useful - they may have lots of traffic but lots of traffic does not equate to lots of customers (for them or you) and often you pay for something which despite promises delivers nothing. Ask around and see if others have had success with them before parting with your money.

You should not use other websites to try and enhance your own unless you are sure of getting quality backlinks to your own website. Invariably these sites enhance their own standing at the expense of yours so unless they are there strictly to promote you, then it will not be of any direct benefit.

We do our own SEO on our Joomla clientbase but, it is perhaps just as easy for your web designer/developer to do this for you so long as what Jason says is true. Make sure they actually know what they are doing.

Much of what you need to do can be done by you and there are plenty of tutorials online to give you a good start. Then when you do decide to employ a professional you will a] know what they are talking about b] can evaluate their results and c] know when someone is dicking you around.

Hope that helps

Hi Catherine,

I'd agree agree with Jason to a certain extent here, although any good web designer should have a solid understanding of SEO as the foundations are really build on solid code and best practices.

There have been a couple of really good posts on SEO over the last couple of weeks on the forum which I'm not too sure if you've seen:

http://www.4networking.biz/forum/12/68854.htm#p563196

http://www.4networking.biz/forum/8/68663.htm?Page=1

They might answer allot of questions or create a few more! Anyway I'm sure I can help and offer some advice so I'll drop you a PM,

Speak to Zoe Stray at SEO Traffic Solutions - heard some very good things about them and Zoe is lovely

I'd agree with Les. Given some tips from a pro you can do a huge amount yourself to up your keyword density, get page titles right, sort out meta tags etc. If you are looking for a pretty local client base some targeted Google Adwords would probably pay dividends too.

Hi Catherine

My company specialises in SEO and we'd love to give you all the advise you need!

Let me know when it's convenient to talk and I'll give you a call if you want to, of course

I look forward to hearing from you.

Zoe

Catherine you have a wordpress site build by a company who profess to be SEO experts. Results from a site will depend on a partnership between yourself and that company. They may well have provided the tools for you to do well in terms of SEO but you need to use them to build up a list of what terms you expect to be found under and then make sure you support those terms.

If you have the stats access for your site then check if you are being found regularly for your chosen terms and if so does the impact of your site convert those visitors into enquiries?

Personally I feel you need much mare material on your site and for that to include testimonials and images of work done.

keep the site fresh and up to date and keep it expanding.

Catherine, SEO is not rocket science - but it is tedious and laborious.

Do it yourself if you are time rich but cash poor. If your time is more valuable then outsource it to someone who knows what they are doing.

Either way you would want to read up some basics about SEO .... as at least it would help you steer away from the "snake oil sellers".

One of the better starter guides is from Big G themselves:

http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en//webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

You need to first think why you want to be top of google, what will happen if you get the traffic and how will you cope with the influx.

Then look at the many other options besides the obvious.

You guys are speedy!!

That's great, thanks for the advice. I'll get on the case ...

Cath :)

Hi Catherine

In our experience, the majority of websites don't optimise properly because of the content, but before you start spending money on it, it's a good idea to try and find out what the problem is. I'll send you a message!

Regulary contributing on this forum should help with Google ranking Cath.
Otherwise what they all said!

Cath,

I won't go into a big SEO blurb, it's to big a subject, here's a good article for understanding the basics of SEO though, should help you understand and perhaps see what you can do yourself to improve your sights rankings.

http://www.interspire.com/content/2005/12/07/google-seo-basics-for-beginners/

William

Hello Cath,

You are correct to be looking at other ways to drive traffic to your website apart from just using "on-site" SEO which involves using the appropriate keywords in the title tags, meta description, H1 tags and in the Copy on each page of your website. As has been already mentioned, your Web Developer/Designer should have already done this - assuming that he/she/you researched the phrases people use when they are searching for a service like you provide.

Other things you could do would be:

• Create some YouTube videos - Google loves them and will often show them on page one faster than a website. Make sure you put the link to your website first in the Description of the video.
• Join Gardening Forum(s) and provide helpful tips and advice so that you are seen as an expert in your field. There will obviously be a link back to your website in your signature!
• I'm sure you have your business listed in the Google Local listings?
• Make sure you're listed on all the relevant Business Directories. As well as generating leads for you they help your ranking in the Google Local listings.
• Have you joined any Gardening Group(s) to become an expert and distribute "bumf" promoting your website?
• You could organise a online/offline Press Release.

Hope this has helped a little...

Elaine