Google SEO

[Efbe]

My wife runs a small events management company.

I have setup a website for this, using wordpress, and integrating an events management addon.

Currently the majority of her sales of new customers come through Facebook. This makes for quite a lot of manual work for her, posting adverts etc.
We would like to get it to the point where the majority of new sales come through google, and so we need to get to the front page.

I have tried as well as I can to optimise the website for google. keyword density, titles, content, backlinks, etc. But I can only get the website onto the front page of google for the keywords + location names. For the keywords alone we are way down in page 5+. having carried out research on this from our customers we know that people only search for the keywords, so we don't get enough traffic.

So I think we need professional help.

Can anyone recommend me a company to do this, or give a guideline of how much one should expect to pay for an SEO service.

[Craikeybaby]

Have you read this? http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.goog...

SEO isn't an instant thing.

[Efbe]

two year old website. thanks for the link though

was hoping there maybe someone on here touting for business

[miniman]

Have you installed Yoast SEO plugin?

What keyword(s) are you trying to rank for?

How much content do you have?

[Efbe]

miniman said:

Have you installed Yoast SEO plugin?

What keyword(s) are you trying to rank for?

How much content do you have?

1) Yes Yoast is on there
2)"ghost hunting uk" - I should explain this is just one of the event types, but it has it's own website, (I would rather not link here)
3) Lots and lots of articles and content on there.

[thebraketester]

http://www.google.com/adwords/

[Efbe]

thebraketester said:

http://www.google.com/adwords/

didn't do a thing. have pumped a few hundred into it, whilst the equivalent facebook credits pulled in quite a few people, but nowhere near as much as manual event listing/posting/advertising etc.

It's also money spent and gone, whereas a decent SEO will keep people coming back to the site with no expenditure.

[timlongs]

Drop me a line if you want, I'm an SEO Specialist for a Digital Web Agency. A link to your current site would be helpful!

[Hoofy]

Efbe said:

It's also money spent and gone, whereas a decent SEO will keep people coming back to the site with no expenditure.

Until Google change their algorithms.

[Penelope Stopit]

Its time you opened your eyes to the real world
What makes you think that your website/keywords etc should be ranked above others
There are millions of websites and if they all used the best SEO procedures then your websites may never get above Google page 11111111.....
Its all about hard work and even a bit of luck......Plus as an above poster pointed out......Google keep changing
Some people think Google is GOD yet they dont even know what direction they are going in

Think about Microsoft......They built an OS that doesnt work properly due to its structure.......If you dont install updates every day you are not good to go

Good luck

[Dave_ST220]

Adwords lines the pocket of Google. Google have changed a LOT over the past few years. They don't give a st about giving the best results anymore, it's all about the highest payer (or Amazon & eBay). Google is STILL built on LINKS despite what they want you to believe with all their bullst algo's (Panda, Penguin etc). Links take them out of the equation.

[Efbe]

Dave_ST220 said:

Adwords lines the pocket of Google. Google have changed a LOT over the past few years. They don't give a st about giving the best results anymore, it's all about the highest payer (or Amazon & eBay). Google is STILL built on LINKS despite what they want you to believe with all their bullst algo's (Panda, Penguin etc). Links take them out of the equation.

tbh looking at the site at the top, I can see they have just used link building services to get there. so much for google looking for quality of content and links!

[otherman]

Hoofy said:

Efbe said:

It's also money spent and gone, whereas a decent SEO will keep people coming back to the site with no expenditure.

Until Google change their algorithms.

Only if you try to target the rules. If you work with process, and focus on good content, the algorithms work for you. That's what they're there for - to bring good info to the top and push down spam with 'clever' SEO.

[Efbe]

otherman said:

Hoofy said:

Efbe said:

It's also money spent and gone, whereas a decent SEO will keep people coming back to the site with no expenditure.

Until Google change their algorithms.

Only if you try to target the rules. If you work with process, and focus on good content, the algorithms work for you. That's what they're there for - to bring good info to the top and push down spam with 'clever' SEO.

unfortunately this doesn't seem to work.

The site is an event management one, so focused on the events, the same as every other one in this category. In addition it also has large quantities of high quality, original articles/content. These have been linked to the respective social media sites for the company sites, but link bulding is certainly not something I have a great deal of knowledge about.

The sites above us in the rankings are mostly poor quality, badly made events sites with little or no other content. When I run SEO checks on them, ours scores higher in every category but links. When I look at the links of these sites, they are obviously from "link building" sites, and not of any quality.

This is why I now need help, it's beyond my knowledge/expertise.

[Dave_ST220]

otherman said:

Only if you try to target the rules. If you work with process, and focus on good content, the algorithms work for you. That's what they're there for - to bring good info to the top and push down spam with 'clever' SEO.

Sorry but bullst! Plenty of webmasters have found that out. We've jumped the Google hoops for years and if anything following their so called rules gets you no where (as many others have found out too, check out the various webmaster forums). They make money from ads, they don't want organic results hammering paid traffic. What's really needed is regulation, Google became the self appointed internet police and answer to no one.

[Dave_ST220]

Efbe said:

The sites above us in the rankings are mostly poor quality, badly made events sites with little or no other content. When I run SEO checks on them, ours scores higher in every category but links. When I look at the links of these sites, they are obviously from "link building" sites, and not of any quality.

This is why I now need help, it's beyond my knowledge/expertise.

You've answered your own question, like I said it's all about the links. I'd go far as saying if Google say do X then do Y! stty sites aren't ranking as a coincidence. Are there Adwords companies above you?

[Efbe]

Dave_ST220 said:

You've answered your own question, like I said it's all about the links. I'd go far as saying if Google say do X then do Y! stty sites aren't ranking as a coincidence. Are there Adwords companies above you?

there are, but there are many that are not.

We are showing on page 6 of a search term I am pretty sure we should be able to get to the first or second page for.

I think either there is something drastically wrong with the site that SEO checking websites have not picked up on, or I just need to spam the site on "Link Building" sites.

this could go badly wrong though!

[Hoofy]

You could try listing your business on free directories such as on mumsnet if you cater for children's events.

[Efbe]

it's hard to know what sites are good for linking and what aren't.

From google's own guidance, you need to go for sites with a closer relationship to .gov ones. Not exactly sure how that works though!

have been making plenty more changes to the site, whilst also going out to tender for some SEO services.

so far heard $200 a month from one company, and £65 an hour from another. No idea if this is good or not though

[Hoofy]

Efbe said:

it's hard to know what sites are good for linking and what aren't.

From google's own guidance, you need to go for sites with a closer relationship to .gov ones. Not exactly sure how that works though!

have been making plenty more changes to the site, whilst also going out to tender for some SEO services.

so far heard $200 a month from one company, and £65 an hour from another. No idea if this is good or not though

I read somewhere that the more visited, the better. So linking from Mumsnet or Trustatrader (depending on your business type!) helps.

Creating your own directory with just your business on it and 1 visitor a day is a waste of time.