Discussion
A little help from any of you who specialise in SEO. When we formed my company five years ago our then SEO provider fairly quickly got us good rankings on Google (always top 3 for any searches for our services, leather restoration, in our areas)
Relations soured, and these rankings dropped. We moved to someone else, and they haven't improved. Searching typical search terms suggests things aren't great. Also we used to receive daily 'enquiry from website' emails, this is now rarer and rarer. I have given him 3 months notice to improve, which is up Sept 1st, nothing has improved.
Now I know nothing about SEO, this is why I outsource it. Anyone selling such services will say their good, but many evidently aren't.
I need a company who can really turn things around, how, I care not. To a degree, how much it costs I care not - if someone needs £300 a month to return me £4000 a month of business then great!
I did find, through another forum recommendation a company that seemed very impressive, and contacted them to discuss.
This was their reply:
To be completely honest with you, I'm very reluctant to take this on. It's not that I don't see what we can do, but I'm concerned that it might take a long time to see results.
For instance there are only 12 domains linking to you right now.
Also your incoming links have dropped dramatically:
We only take on clients where we feel there's a high chance of success, but as it stands, I can't see you getting good results within a reasonable time frame.
None of this means a great deal to me, but I was a little surprised. Surely anyone great at their job does what is needed to get a result? As I say though, the language he uses or what is required is not what I understand.
So, what I'm asking is can anyone give any pointers as to what I need look for to ensure we get an SEO provider that gives results. OR (and I hope this doesn't break advertising rules.....) does anyone work for an SEO provider (doesn't need to be local) who is confident that they can get me results?
Things must improve, this is costing the company business.
PS, my company particulars are in my profile.
Thanks in advance.
Relations soured, and these rankings dropped. We moved to someone else, and they haven't improved. Searching typical search terms suggests things aren't great. Also we used to receive daily 'enquiry from website' emails, this is now rarer and rarer. I have given him 3 months notice to improve, which is up Sept 1st, nothing has improved.
Now I know nothing about SEO, this is why I outsource it. Anyone selling such services will say their good, but many evidently aren't.
I need a company who can really turn things around, how, I care not. To a degree, how much it costs I care not - if someone needs £300 a month to return me £4000 a month of business then great!
I did find, through another forum recommendation a company that seemed very impressive, and contacted them to discuss.
This was their reply:
To be completely honest with you, I'm very reluctant to take this on. It's not that I don't see what we can do, but I'm concerned that it might take a long time to see results.
For instance there are only 12 domains linking to you right now.
Also your incoming links have dropped dramatically:
We only take on clients where we feel there's a high chance of success, but as it stands, I can't see you getting good results within a reasonable time frame.
None of this means a great deal to me, but I was a little surprised. Surely anyone great at their job does what is needed to get a result? As I say though, the language he uses or what is required is not what I understand.
So, what I'm asking is can anyone give any pointers as to what I need look for to ensure we get an SEO provider that gives results. OR (and I hope this doesn't break advertising rules.....) does anyone work for an SEO provider (doesn't need to be local) who is confident that they can get me results?
Things must improve, this is costing the company business.
PS, my company particulars are in my profile.
Thanks in advance.
The SEO side is just one aspect of it. You've likely fallen foul of a few Google changes, and things dont appear to have gone well from it.
The guy who's knocked you back has probably done the sensible thing if they just do SEO. It's not just that you need, and if he'd gone ahead and taken your money, he'll have you on his back after 3 months asking why things havent changed. They wont change unless you spend time time or money (or both) in reworking parts of your site. He probably knows the people you need to speak with first before you speak with him by the way.
The links to your site might not have particularly good authority scores, might be s
tty purchased links, might need disavowing because they're spam sites, might need your site to be better known. Speak with SEO guy again and ask him if a developer would be a good idea and if he's got any other advice.
The guy who's knocked you back has probably done the sensible thing if they just do SEO. It's not just that you need, and if he'd gone ahead and taken your money, he'll have you on his back after 3 months asking why things havent changed. They wont change unless you spend time time or money (or both) in reworking parts of your site. He probably knows the people you need to speak with first before you speak with him by the way.
The links to your site might not have particularly good authority scores, might be s
tty purchased links, might need disavowing because they're spam sites, might need your site to be better known. Speak with SEO guy again and ask him if a developer would be a good idea and if he's got any other advice. janesmith1950 said:
Do you have the budget for some PPC campaigns to bolster things whilst you work on SEO?
The budget, whilst not open ended, is fairly flexible. My logic is that if the CORRECT work provides a number of times return on the investment then why would we not want to do it. We are a one person business, so I when I say the budget P/M is not open ended I am talking one of hundreds, not thousands, with hopefully this being a start up cost, which then reduces.
I'm not 100% sure PPC is the way I want to go, as our business is niche. Someone searching for us (or an anyone to do our type of work) knows what they need doing quite specifically. I'm no expert on PPC though, so I'm happy to be educated.
The guy who said he was not keen to take you on sounds like a genuine, honnest SEO. 99% of people that promise you results in the seo work are liars or using very damaging tactics to get you temporary results that will fk your domain forever.
I would recommend looking at your search engine rankings over time to understand the likely loss of traffic and also why the number of backlinks has dropped.
SEO is a very complex game and £300 a month in all honesty is not enough money to attract anyone decent for more than a few hours.
k your domain forever.I would recommend looking at your search engine rankings over time to understand the likely loss of traffic and also why the number of backlinks has dropped.
SEO is a very complex game and £300 a month in all honesty is not enough money to attract anyone decent for more than a few hours.
cat with a hat said:
SEO is a very complex game and £300 a month in all honesty is not enough money to attract anyone decent for more than a few hours.
Problem is I could charge £600 a month and people might think I know my SEO st back to front. 
What I mean is that I know enough SEO to confuse a non-technical business owner into thinking I was a pro but not enough to make a big difference hence I don't do SEO consultancy.
Whats your website, Ill take a look. PM me if you wish.
If you want immediate wins, Id run some PPC. Personally I suspect your backlink profile is full of spam and you have been caught out on Blackhat techniques from back when they worked, you could easily be sat under a Google penalty too. Id need to see your site before I can comment further.
£300 a month only buys you a few hours, it could take hundreds to straighten your site out depending on whats gone on. Maybe the competition have just sharpened up
If you want immediate wins, Id run some PPC. Personally I suspect your backlink profile is full of spam and you have been caught out on Blackhat techniques from back when they worked, you could easily be sat under a Google penalty too. Id need to see your site before I can comment further.
£300 a month only buys you a few hours, it could take hundreds to straighten your site out depending on whats gone on. Maybe the competition have just sharpened up
Re read your post, found your site.
http://seositecheckup.com/seo-audit/leatherbetter....
Have you got GA access and webmaster tools access? Has there been a big change in clicks / impressions. Webmaster tools should tell you if you are under a penalty etc.Sorry its search console now: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en
http://seositecheckup.com/seo-audit/leatherbetter....
Have you got GA access and webmaster tools access? Has there been a big change in clicks / impressions. Webmaster tools should tell you if you are under a penalty etc.Sorry its search console now: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en
cat with a hat said:
The guy who said he was not keen to take you on sounds like a genuine, honnest SEO. 99% of people that promise you results in the seo work are liars or using very damaging tactics to get you temporary results that will fk your domain forever.
I would recommend looking at your search engine rankings over time to understand the likely loss of traffic and also why the number of backlinks has dropped.
SEO is a very complex game and £300 a month in all honesty is not enough money to attract anyone decent for more than a few hours.
I agree with this. £300 a month would get you less than a day for most decent SEO guys - how much of an improvement would you expect in 6 months with a weeks worth of work?k your domain forever.I would recommend looking at your search engine rankings over time to understand the likely loss of traffic and also why the number of backlinks has dropped.
SEO is a very complex game and £300 a month in all honesty is not enough money to attract anyone decent for more than a few hours.
Also, it's not as easy as saying the CORRECT work will produce X amount of return. SEO has such a bad rep because no one can guarantee what traffic will result from the work they are doing for you. You might find someone who really is good and improves the site and backlinks, etc, etc, but if your competitors are also always improving then it could look like relatively you are standing still or even going backwards all because your competitors SEO guy is slightly better than yours!
My advice to anyone who comes to me and asks about SEO is just to get the basics right. Make sure the content on your website converts well and is well written and original, preferably by a copywriter. Look at marketing activities you can do with other companies/websites that will result in traffic to your site. Do social media well if it's relevant. Build a brand. Search rankings will follow.
jammy_basturd said:
Make sure the content on your website converts well and is well written and original, preferably by a copywriter. Look at marketing activities you can do with other companies/websites that will result in traffic to your site. Do social media well if it's relevant. Build a brand. Search rankings will follow.
I'd echo that and go further. It's dangerous to rely on one source for a big chunk of your business, as it can be affected by events outwith your control. I'd be working on offline approaches you can control better. For example speaking to classic car clubs or forums, or leafleting big old houses where there's a high chance of older furniture and older people more likely to repair than replace.And there's plenty you could do to improve your site. I'd have a big before and after pic on the home page. I'd look at the copy, the layout and the style, it's very bland. And I'd change the email address. Might be a small thing but that is asking to be misspelled- if someone does that they'll think you haven't responded and they'll go elsewhere.
From what you've said here it would seem the first SEO company yo used has employed some quick result 'black hat' techniques, which whilst may have had short term benefits have now fallen foul of Google's algorithm and have been punished.
Do you know how far your search terms have fallen, ie from page 1 to page 5?
I would agree with that your second SEO guy said and that it will take a while to fix the damage and bring the website back up the rankings. SEO isn't something that happens overnight. It's taken my website 3 years to reach the top.
Do you know how far your search terms have fallen, ie from page 1 to page 5?
I would agree with that your second SEO guy said and that it will take a while to fix the damage and bring the website back up the rankings. SEO isn't something that happens overnight. It's taken my website 3 years to reach the top.
Some sensible advice coming out. £100 an hour at any good agency so the PH option is working out well as a starting point!
Assume youve seen this - think your image came from it
https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/overview/v2/subdo...
Assume youve seen this - think your image came from it
https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/overview/v2/subdo...
Looking at this, I reckon youve lost a load of links from Evo
https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/backlinks/v6/lost...
On its own, I cant see it killing your rankings. How are you measuring them anyway? What keywords are you looking to rank for and how are you monitoring this?
https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/backlinks/v6/lost...
On its own, I cant see it killing your rankings. How are you measuring them anyway? What keywords are you looking to rank for and how are you monitoring this?
8-P said:
Looking at this, I reckon youve lost a load of links from Evo
https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/backlinks/v6/lost...
On its own, I cant see it killing your rankings. How are you measuring them anyway? What keywords are you looking to rank for and how are you monitoring this?
Without seeing his link profile I reckon the first SEO guy has submitted his website to a whole load of spammy links which he will need to get rid of.https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/backlinks/v6/lost...
On its own, I cant see it killing your rankings. How are you measuring them anyway? What keywords are you looking to rank for and how are you monitoring this?
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