Discussion
Started a new thread on this,
From my other thread you will know I wasn't happy with the results I was getting from last guy, and also still very puzzled by the lottery that is SEO.
Anyway, Im now actively looking for a new SEO company to work with me on a monthly basis.
So, What better place to find the number one SEO company in my area than google them?
So I find the number one company, contact them and have a chat, they promise me the world as per usual. Now my last SEO guy would emphasise the importance of this site "gtmetrix.com" and how we should get all green marks on the site. he worked towards that and brought the page from grade D to A. Great.
I enter the first two companies who rank on google into GTmetrix and the results are terrible. Page graded D, both of them. Is there no logic at all to SEO?
What should I look out for when recruiting a new company ? Im getting conflicting advice from almost everyone I speak to. Latest company suggest changing site to wordpress, last guy said wordpress was bad.
I was spending £500 per month on SEO which was suggested on here was a low budget. One of the top ranking companies in my area has offered to do our SEO for £200pm .....confused. Should add our search terms have very low competition.
Help. Im in Glasgow, recommendations welcome, immediate start as Ive sacked last guy.
Would this be better move to the computing forum ?
From my other thread you will know I wasn't happy with the results I was getting from last guy, and also still very puzzled by the lottery that is SEO.
Anyway, Im now actively looking for a new SEO company to work with me on a monthly basis.
So, What better place to find the number one SEO company in my area than google them?
So I find the number one company, contact them and have a chat, they promise me the world as per usual. Now my last SEO guy would emphasise the importance of this site "gtmetrix.com" and how we should get all green marks on the site. he worked towards that and brought the page from grade D to A. Great.
I enter the first two companies who rank on google into GTmetrix and the results are terrible. Page graded D, both of them. Is there no logic at all to SEO?
What should I look out for when recruiting a new company ? Im getting conflicting advice from almost everyone I speak to. Latest company suggest changing site to wordpress, last guy said wordpress was bad.
I was spending £500 per month on SEO which was suggested on here was a low budget. One of the top ranking companies in my area has offered to do our SEO for £200pm .....confused. Should add our search terms have very low competition.
Help. Im in Glasgow, recommendations welcome, immediate start as Ive sacked last guy.
Would this be better move to the computing forum ?
That site rates website speed not SEO. There are quite a lot of ratings websites, which are by and large little more than gimmicks. There are a few that can be useful if you know how to interpret the results. In your shoes your first step should probably be use the free & easy Google webmaster tools to understand and base line your organic search results.
Only then will be able to property evaluation what improvement if any these 'consultants' are giving you. Many of them over promise and under deliver and some will even make the situation worse and get you blacklisted, for example by using bots to to spam forum links.
There are a set of basic skills you can learn from a text books that should put you in a position to get the best out of what you already have and understand when you are being sold snake oil.
You need to understand that once you've done the simple stuff and reached that plateau good organic SEO is difficult and expensive in time and resources. A good SEO consultant will help you develop a proper strategy with multiple approaches and improve your knowledge at the same time because SEO is not something you can just hand over and get good results. If the web is an important channel for you then you need to make it _your_ business.
Depending on your business model you may well get better results from pay per click which is a whole new set of challenges and requires you to learn proper analytics.
Only then will be able to property evaluation what improvement if any these 'consultants' are giving you. Many of them over promise and under deliver and some will even make the situation worse and get you blacklisted, for example by using bots to to spam forum links.
There are a set of basic skills you can learn from a text books that should put you in a position to get the best out of what you already have and understand when you are being sold snake oil.
You need to understand that once you've done the simple stuff and reached that plateau good organic SEO is difficult and expensive in time and resources. A good SEO consultant will help you develop a proper strategy with multiple approaches and improve your knowledge at the same time because SEO is not something you can just hand over and get good results. If the web is an important channel for you then you need to make it _your_ business.
Depending on your business model you may well get better results from pay per click which is a whole new set of challenges and requires you to learn proper analytics.
Edited by Martin4x4 on Sunday 18th January 21:35
Thanks for the offer mate,
The issue I have is time, I don't have the ability to spend much time on this area now which Is why I need someone to manage it. Id really prefer to do it on my own, as in all honesty I don't trust half the folk Im speaking to about it, but in reality i need to concentrate on other sides of the business.
Whats getting me is the low competition. I have maybe 3-4 other companies competing for the same keywords I do, in my area. I know some of my "competitors" and I know they put little effort into web design or SEO, yet still make page 1. Meanwhile Im spending far more and getting just similar results.
I have another website, which actually ranks well with basic wordpress SEO pluggins, and not much effort. Should I consider changing this new site to wordpress ?
Each person is giving conflicting advice, Ive now had 2 completely different opinions tonight on whether a responsive site is required. Makes me doubt the whole industry.
The issue I have is time, I don't have the ability to spend much time on this area now which Is why I need someone to manage it. Id really prefer to do it on my own, as in all honesty I don't trust half the folk Im speaking to about it, but in reality i need to concentrate on other sides of the business.
Whats getting me is the low competition. I have maybe 3-4 other companies competing for the same keywords I do, in my area. I know some of my "competitors" and I know they put little effort into web design or SEO, yet still make page 1. Meanwhile Im spending far more and getting just similar results.
I have another website, which actually ranks well with basic wordpress SEO pluggins, and not much effort. Should I consider changing this new site to wordpress ?
Each person is giving conflicting advice, Ive now had 2 completely different opinions tonight on whether a responsive site is required. Makes me doubt the whole industry.
Edited by Jamster123 on Sunday 18th January 21:32
It does not make a difference if it is in PHP or word press Word press is a platform which a lot of none skilled web developers use and do not have the ability to code a website from scratch. Skilled developers also use word press depending on the requirements of the website. e.g on wordpress you can mock up a simple word press site in a day where a coded website from scratch would take a week.
Theres multiple area's which effect your SEO such as links, domain authority of those links, content, blogs, social...etc
PPC is also a avenue worth considering depending on your key words and the cost associated.
Our seo was very difficult as we had to rank for over 200+ key words it took us the past part of 1.5 years to start ranking on page one for our selected keywords which were very competitive.
You may only have a few key words, but it could also take you just as long depending on the competition.
Theres multiple area's which effect your SEO such as links, domain authority of those links, content, blogs, social...etc
PPC is also a avenue worth considering depending on your key words and the cost associated.
Our seo was very difficult as we had to rank for over 200+ key words it took us the past part of 1.5 years to start ranking on page one for our selected keywords which were very competitive.
You may only have a few key words, but it could also take you just as long depending on the competition.
Edited by juggers on Sunday 18th January 21:55
Edited by juggers on Sunday 18th January 21:57
Are you sure you want to go down the SEO route? We have grown all our clients' businesses through PPC. It's quick and manageable and you'll have instant results. I can't remember what market you are in but if I assume a cost of £1 per click for example you'll have 500 new visitors to your site in a month for your budget. Will SEO get you that?
jonamv8 said:
We do this. Your budget is reasonable. Pm me your number and we can discuss in more detail if you'd like
I'm not sure you are going to get much for your budget, perhaps an OK freelancer and for that sort of money I think you would get a bit more value for money with a freelancer rather than dealing with an agency. In the first instance I would maybe take a couple of calls with the best rated guys on https://clarity.fm/ to get some independent advice.
I would stay well away from anyone who suggests link building as your budget simply does not come close to what you need to do that aspect of SEO safely or well.
Thanks for input.
Im truly pissed with the SEO thing at the minute, how can so many people in the same industry give much different advice !?
Example, The top two companies in my area have quoted to do my monthly SEO.....One is £200 a month, the other almost 2k a month. wtf.
I NEED a responsive site, No I actually I don't.
My Mobile site is terrible, No actually the mobile site is very good.
Your Mobile site needs more content.....No actually it doesnt as the main site handles all the search results ....
We are an Electrical Contractor/Home improvement specialist. Competition is very low as our main avenue is specialising in "electrical rewiring"
Anyway, Im thinking a new approach today,
Im adding more content (text) to the site, Im in talks with a copywriter who will do this and also providing cost is ok, Im having her do a weekly blog from now on.
Ill also start up my adword campaigns again, at least I know what Im getting with that.
Good idea ?
Im truly pissed with the SEO thing at the minute, how can so many people in the same industry give much different advice !?
Example, The top two companies in my area have quoted to do my monthly SEO.....One is £200 a month, the other almost 2k a month. wtf.
I NEED a responsive site, No I actually I don't.
My Mobile site is terrible, No actually the mobile site is very good.
Your Mobile site needs more content.....No actually it doesnt as the main site handles all the search results ....
We are an Electrical Contractor/Home improvement specialist. Competition is very low as our main avenue is specialising in "electrical rewiring"
Anyway, Im thinking a new approach today,
Im adding more content (text) to the site, Im in talks with a copywriter who will do this and also providing cost is ok, Im having her do a weekly blog from now on.
Ill also start up my adword campaigns again, at least I know what Im getting with that.
Good idea ?
I don't know another industry where there seem to be so many cowboys. It is so easy to set up as an SEO consultant, even if you have only read up on the subject and outsource everything to 3rd parties offshore, you can seem knowledgeable to most prospects.
As one of our clients said to us, in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king, which I thought was very apt for many SEO companies.
One of our lead generation clients had just started a link building campaign, paying a few hundred per month, only for the agency to outsource this to a 3rd party in India charging about £20 to spam forums & sites etc. The original SEO company didn't even have the ability to track or monitor the links, they had to ask us.
As has been said above SEO needs to be a long term strategy that can take a lot of time and effort to get results.
As one of our clients said to us, in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king, which I thought was very apt for many SEO companies.
One of our lead generation clients had just started a link building campaign, paying a few hundred per month, only for the agency to outsource this to a 3rd party in India charging about £20 to spam forums & sites etc. The original SEO company didn't even have the ability to track or monitor the links, they had to ask us.
As has been said above SEO needs to be a long term strategy that can take a lot of time and effort to get results.
Yeh thats a good start.
Weekly blogs will help you the more relevant content you have on your site the better. Adwords is great however to get the most from it you really need to know how to set up and refine a adwords campaign which will take at least a month to collect the data required.
Have you got your social sites set up? Facebook, Instagram, twitter etc this will also have a impact and is a great way to generate business and brand awareness.
Weekly blogs will help you the more relevant content you have on your site the better. Adwords is great however to get the most from it you really need to know how to set up and refine a adwords campaign which will take at least a month to collect the data required.
Have you got your social sites set up? Facebook, Instagram, twitter etc this will also have a impact and is a great way to generate business and brand awareness.
Jamster123 said:
Example, The top two companies in my area have quoted to do my monthly SEO.....One is £200 a month, the other almost 2k a month. wtf.
I NEED a responsive site, No I actually I don't.
My Mobile site is terrible, No actually the mobile site is very good.
Your Mobile site needs more content.....No actually it doesnt as the main site handles all the search results ....
We are an Electrical Contractor/Home improvement specialist. Competition is very low as our main avenue is specialising in "electrical rewiring"
Anyway, Im thinking a new approach today,
Im adding more content (text) to the site, Im in talks with a copywriter who will do this and also providing cost is ok, Im having her do a weekly blog from now on.
Ill also start up my adword campaigns again, at least I know what Im getting with that.
Good idea ?
So you have a mobile site and a desktop site? Things have moved on and few companies have this set up. All new sites are responsive and this is VITAL these days because, in many cases, the majority of visits are from mobile devices.I NEED a responsive site, No I actually I don't.
My Mobile site is terrible, No actually the mobile site is very good.
Your Mobile site needs more content.....No actually it doesnt as the main site handles all the search results ....
We are an Electrical Contractor/Home improvement specialist. Competition is very low as our main avenue is specialising in "electrical rewiring"
Anyway, Im thinking a new approach today,
Im adding more content (text) to the site, Im in talks with a copywriter who will do this and also providing cost is ok, Im having her do a weekly blog from now on.
Ill also start up my adword campaigns again, at least I know what Im getting with that.
Good idea ?
i'd take issue with you 'very low competition'. Unless you are a real specialist/niche competition in what you appear to do will be high. How many searches take place in your area for your key search terms?
I really wouldn't bother with SEO, use PPC. I don't know any businesses which have grown significantly using SEO but all our client have doen so with our PPC, one of them by a massive 700%!
A responsive site is not necessary if it is a niche market that caters for B2B if however you do get a lot of traffic from users on mobile devices then having your site rebuilt in a responsive design is a must. He can run PPC, but SEO should be the long term goal.
Edited by juggers on Monday 19th January 16:52
Jamster123 said:
Thanks for input.
Im truly pissed with the SEO thing at the minute, how can so many people in the same industry give much different advice !?
Example, The top two companies in my area have quoted to do my monthly SEO.....One is £200 a month, the other almost 2k a month. wtf.
I NEED a responsive site, No I actually I don't.
My Mobile site is terrible, No actually the mobile site is very good.
Your Mobile site needs more content.....No actually it doesnt as the main site handles all the search results ....
We are an Electrical Contractor/Home improvement specialist. Competition is very low as our main avenue is specialising in "electrical rewiring"
Anyway, Im thinking a new approach today,
Im adding more content (text) to the site, Im in talks with a copywriter who will do this and also providing cost is ok, Im having her do a weekly blog from now on.
Ill also start up my adword campaigns again, at least I know what Im getting with that.
Good idea ?
A weekly blog is a great idea, share it on the relevant social media channels.Im truly pissed with the SEO thing at the minute, how can so many people in the same industry give much different advice !?
Example, The top two companies in my area have quoted to do my monthly SEO.....One is £200 a month, the other almost 2k a month. wtf.
I NEED a responsive site, No I actually I don't.
My Mobile site is terrible, No actually the mobile site is very good.
Your Mobile site needs more content.....No actually it doesnt as the main site handles all the search results ....
We are an Electrical Contractor/Home improvement specialist. Competition is very low as our main avenue is specialising in "electrical rewiring"
Anyway, Im thinking a new approach today,
Im adding more content (text) to the site, Im in talks with a copywriter who will do this and also providing cost is ok, Im having her do a weekly blog from now on.
Ill also start up my adword campaigns again, at least I know what Im getting with that.
Good idea ?
And seeing as my industry is doing itself a disservice, drop me a PM and I will get you pointing in the right direction.
I'm not touting for your business as I am in-house for a major tech start-up but I'll give you some advice and help you along the right way. I question whether you actually need an SEO company.
Cheers
juggers said:
A responsive site is not necessary if it is a niche market that caters for B2B if however you do get a lot of traffic from users on mobile devices then having your site rebuilt in a responsive design is a must. He can run PPC, but SEO should be the long term goal.
Responsive is absolutely necessary for ANY site now. Mobile access has and is rocketing. We've seen sites that we'd expect to be largely desktop accessed but found that even these are now predominantly mobile accessed. See stats here:Edited by juggers on Monday 19th January 16:52
http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobi...
SEO can work for some businesses with high value clients or in a niche for example but it can be a long and time consuming road. PPC makes so much more sense.
Frimley111R said:
Responsive is absolutely necessary for ANY site now. Mobile access has and is rocketing. We've seen sites that we'd expect to be largely desktop accessed but found that even these are now predominantly mobile accessed. See stats here:
http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobi...
SEO can work for some businesses with high value clients or in a niche for example but it can be a long and time consuming road. PPC makes so much more sense.
I'd agree with the above, we've seen up to 70% of users view on a tablet and mobile devices now, which even compared to last year is a huge shift. http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobi...
SEO can work for some businesses with high value clients or in a niche for example but it can be a long and time consuming road. PPC makes so much more sense.
What is your website? I had a look in the profile but couldn't see it - but if you send it to me I will take a quick look and give you some advice.
We can do the SEO / PPC marketing for you - please take a look at http://pulseight.com - we usually would split the budget up between a few channels so you're not just pumping money into a "SEO optimisation" pot without any real results.
Thanks again for input,
Since we are getting into detail I may as well give the full picture here, I didn't intend to go down this route but if anyone is willing to advise Id really appreciate that.
We are primarily an electrical contractor. I have 2 related sites at the minute www.jrcrewiring.co.uk and www.jrcpropertysolutions.com
We specialise in domestic rewiring, and list ourselves often as a "rewiring specialist". There are a few others around my area branding them self with the same tag, but no one can really touch us for quality of work or speed, so we do pretty well in this field and this is our main avenue of business.
I always intended to develop my company into something bigger so rather than name it "JRC Electrical Contractors" I named it JRC Property Solutions and created www.jrcpropertysolutions.com (which now needs a little overhaul) I focused all the content on "Electrical rewiring" with only a small bit about our multitrade service.
We rank really well for most terms related such as "rewiring glasgow". Infact we are number 1 on google.
Fast forward 2 years and the business has grown to 10 staff and we are now completing a variety of multitrade jobs.
The plan - I want to resign property solutions.com to reflect the other sides of our business (kitchens/bathrooms etc) but Im worried that changing the content on there will see us slip rank for our rewiring terms.
I then created www.jrcrewiring.co.uk which is solely devoted to rewiring. Im looking to push this site to the top of google before I start changing property solutions.com
Is this such a bad plan ? Can anyone see any obvious flaws ? Is there an issue with both my sites being top of google ?
Edit - Responsive sites , whats the definitive answer then ? There just doesn't seem to be a right or wrong answer for any aspect of SEO
Ive also started another site www.jrcbathrooms.co.uk
Since we are getting into detail I may as well give the full picture here, I didn't intend to go down this route but if anyone is willing to advise Id really appreciate that.
We are primarily an electrical contractor. I have 2 related sites at the minute www.jrcrewiring.co.uk and www.jrcpropertysolutions.com
We specialise in domestic rewiring, and list ourselves often as a "rewiring specialist". There are a few others around my area branding them self with the same tag, but no one can really touch us for quality of work or speed, so we do pretty well in this field and this is our main avenue of business.
I always intended to develop my company into something bigger so rather than name it "JRC Electrical Contractors" I named it JRC Property Solutions and created www.jrcpropertysolutions.com (which now needs a little overhaul) I focused all the content on "Electrical rewiring" with only a small bit about our multitrade service.
We rank really well for most terms related such as "rewiring glasgow". Infact we are number 1 on google.
Fast forward 2 years and the business has grown to 10 staff and we are now completing a variety of multitrade jobs.
The plan - I want to resign property solutions.com to reflect the other sides of our business (kitchens/bathrooms etc) but Im worried that changing the content on there will see us slip rank for our rewiring terms.
I then created www.jrcrewiring.co.uk which is solely devoted to rewiring. Im looking to push this site to the top of google before I start changing property solutions.com
Is this such a bad plan ? Can anyone see any obvious flaws ? Is there an issue with both my sites being top of google ?
Edit - Responsive sites , whats the definitive answer then ? There just doesn't seem to be a right or wrong answer for any aspect of SEO
Ive also started another site www.jrcbathrooms.co.uk
Edited by Jamster123 on Monday 19th January 18:51
Edited by Jamster123 on Monday 19th January 19:01
Another thing,
Ive had a lot of emails from people offering SEO over last few days....Call me particular, but to me this is common sense..
A fair few of the people mailing me have no form of email signature or footer text on their email, just "Thanks Joe Blogg" and defo not sent from iPhone etc.
Surely someone running an SEO company with some degree of computer literature would have the ability to create a signature of some sort ?
It may sound silly, but that dismissed them from my thoughts immediately. The emails don't look professional, Im sorry but to me thats common business sense, particularly if you work with computers!
Im I wrong to think this way ?
Ive had a lot of emails from people offering SEO over last few days....Call me particular, but to me this is common sense..
A fair few of the people mailing me have no form of email signature or footer text on their email, just "Thanks Joe Blogg" and defo not sent from iPhone etc.
Surely someone running an SEO company with some degree of computer literature would have the ability to create a signature of some sort ?
It may sound silly, but that dismissed them from my thoughts immediately. The emails don't look professional, Im sorry but to me thats common business sense, particularly if you work with computers!
Im I wrong to think this way ?
Jamster123 said:
Another thing,
Ive had a lot of emails from people offering SEO over last few days....Call me particular, but to me this is common sense..
A fair few of the people mailing me have no form of email signature or footer text on their email, just "Thanks Joe Blogg" and defo not sent from iPhone etc.
Surely someone running an SEO company with some degree of computer literature would have the ability to create a signature of some sort ?
It may sound silly, but that dismissed them from my thoughts immediately. The emails don't look professional, Im sorry but to me thats common business sense, particularly if you work with computers!
Im I wrong to think this way ?
Your spot on! you have to be a ambassador of the services supplied, but I would imagine if people have contacted you via pistonheads they will be using their personal email address Ive had a lot of emails from people offering SEO over last few days....Call me particular, but to me this is common sense..
A fair few of the people mailing me have no form of email signature or footer text on their email, just "Thanks Joe Blogg" and defo not sent from iPhone etc.
Surely someone running an SEO company with some degree of computer literature would have the ability to create a signature of some sort ?
It may sound silly, but that dismissed them from my thoughts immediately. The emails don't look professional, Im sorry but to me thats common business sense, particularly if you work with computers!
Im I wrong to think this way ?
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