Heath is so right in saying that SEO is very, very important if you want to use your website to promote your business.
You can have the most ‘professional looking’ website on the internet, but only you (and your designer if you use one) will know about it unless it is search engine friendly.
To be honest, I wouldn’t use Bravenet myself to host a website (but Heath’s seems to work fine I will admit), but neither would I pay ?60 for the ‘priviledge’ of using my own domain name on someone else’s hosting account.
And toneloc, although I agree with a lot of your claims about having a website which looks professional when you are using this as a business, I would have put the argument the other way around - SEO first before design.
And I have to say this… if you are an SEO expert, why does ‘Home’ show up as the very first thing anyone sees in your title tag?
I would have put the argument the other way around - SEO first before design.
It should be BOTH. Great website AND SEO.
Great website without SEO and no one will find you. Great SEO and bad website and you will most likely lose customer too(read post with links).
And I have to say this… if you are an SEO expert, why does ‘Home’ show up as the very first thing anyone sees in your title tag?
Maybe you didn’t read my post on it. It was set up shortly before I moved to Spain as a way for my ex-coworkers and friends to refer their clients to me so they can see the breakdown of what I offer. Only referrals.
It was not meant for all of Los Angeles, as most potential clients (who happen to stumble on the site and are new to the website world) would most likely freak out if they knew that their website or SEO would be done from someone in another country.
Once I finish with a few current projects, a more current Spain site will come up.
‘Home’ has been removed though, if that makes you happy.
Great website without SEO and no one will find you. Great SEO and bad website and you will most likely lose customer too(read post with links).
To be perfectly honest, I have probably read (and continue to read) more about SEO than anyone else on this board.
toneloc - 29 June 2009 04:44 PM
Maybe you didn’t read my post on it. It was set up shortly before I moved to Spain as a way for my ex-coworkers and friends to refer their clients to me so they can see the breakdown of what I offer. Only referrals.
It was not meant for all of Los Angeles, as most potential clients (who happen to stumble on the site and are new to the website world) would most likely freak out if they knew that their website or SEO would be done from someone in another country.
Once I finish with a few current projects, a more current Spain site will come up.
‘Home’ has been removed though, if that makes you happy.
Nothing to do with making me happy.
I do take your point, but…
It simply appeared to me that if you were promoting your services via the website you linked to, you would want to get it looking as efficient as possible, in terms of design, navigation and SEO.
No hard words here..
I’m looking forward to seeing your Spain site and hope to see it here. From the posts on this and other forums, there are many people searching for good web designers and for advice on how to get their website noticed by the big G.
So I do wish you luck.
If you can conquer the design and SEO market for Spain, then kudos to you.
To be perfectly honest, I have probably read (and continue to read) more about SEO than anyone else on this board.
Well, I don’t know anybody on here so I can’t make such a claim myself. However, I have been studying and more importantly implementing SEO for almost 8 years, though building sites for longer than that. SEMPO and Google Adwords certified. Not because i wanted to, but because my old company made it mandatory for all internet specialists to pass and paid for everyone, companywide, to take them and pass them.
I have a site that I built 4 1/2 months ago that will make just shy of $1,000 in Google Adsense this month and when I started it, it made nothing. The last 3 months my Adsense revenue has doubled each month as momentum is building.
All I do is add content daily and optimize the crap out it from head to toe. Has a PR3 and barely any backlinks at this point. All organic traffic. No PPC, no SEM, and hardly any SMM. Been also capturing emails for back end sales, but that’s another topic.
Makes me wish that I had done this full time the past few years.
Anyone interested in getting a serious education in SEO should take both of those tests as over half of of the study material is strictly and thoroughly about SEO from top to bottom. Some stuff that can’t be readily found online. Been at this for almost 8 yrs, so I can confirm that.
I have a site that I built 4 1/2 months ago that will make just shy of $1,000 in Google Adsense this month and when I started it, it made nothing. The last 3 months my Adsense revenue has doubled each month as momentum is building.
All I do is add content daily and optimize the crap out it from head to toe. Has a PR3 and barely any backlinks at this point. All organic traffic. No PPC, no SEM, and hardly any SMM. Been also capturing emails for back end sales, but that’s another topic.
Makes me wish that I had done this full time the past few years.
Anyone interested in getting a serious education in SEO should take both of those tests as over half of of the study material is strictly and thoroughly about SEO from top to bottom. Some stuff that can’t be readily found online. Been at this for almost 8 yrs, so I can confirm that.
Organic traffic is the best.
Sounds good.
But I’m just wondering here…
Why do update the site daily?
When by now you could have gained some backlinks to let it tick over, while you build more sites the same way and are multiplying the profits.
I have a site that I built 4 1/2 months ago that will make just shy of $1,000 in Google Adsense this month and when I started it, it made nothing. The last 3 months my Adsense revenue has doubled each month as momentum is building.
All I do is add content daily and optimize the crap out it from head to toe. Has a PR3 and barely any backlinks at this point. All organic traffic. No PPC, no SEM, and hardly any SMM. Been also capturing emails for back end sales, but that’s another topic.
Makes me wish that I had done this full time the past few years.
Anyone interested in getting a serious education in SEO should take both of those tests as over half of of the study material is strictly and thoroughly about SEO from top to bottom. Some stuff that can’t be readily found online. Been at this for almost 8 yrs, so I can confirm that.
Organic traffic is the best.
Sounds good.
But I’m just wondering here…
Why do update the site daily?
When by now you could have gained some backlinks to let it tick over, while you build more sites the same way and are multiplying the profits.
The site has a long way to go still and in this particular industry, I need to add more pages to it. It’s just how it is and there is no other way around it. It’s not updating. The user actually wants and needs more pages in this type of industry. It’s not on one topic and very unique to this industry which is why it has been building quickly. If I were to disclose the site or the industry, you would understand. I’ll just say that it is not a blog with a bunch of updates with my ramblings.
Backlinks are coming, but haven’t pursued them intensely, yet. I will be linking them from a couple of my PR5 sites.
I do have other sites that I also run from financial, to mortgages, to one page sales letters, to a very busy travel forum with over 10,000 members, tons of backlinks, and a bunch of affiliate programs that have brought in some nice revenue over the years. That runs on auto-pilot. Passive income…
Have several other projects in the works for myself and for clients that include copywriting, SEO, online marketing, and blogging, so I keep myself busy.
How about you? Got any websites you want to show all the readers as to what kind of work you’ve done for yourself or for others?
I have, but I think posting websites is frowned upon in these forums. I like this theme but wonder if SEO is for me? Just type in (google) the first two words of my company’s name and I am all over the screen like a rash - a nice rash :o
I have, but I think posting websites is frowned upon in these forums.
There is a whole forum for Business Services to promote your business or site. I think for this particular topic, posting a URL for a website is not for promotion but for case study. Based on the flow of this thread, I’m sure it would be allowable.
I like this theme but wonder if SEO is for me? Just type in (google) the first two words of my company’s name and I am all over the screen like a rash - a nice rash
I understand what you are saying, but when people search online, they use “product and location” and rarely by company name(when they search using company names, those are mostly coming from clients or referrals).
Going after “new business” you’ll need to optimize your site based on the products or services you offer AND location.
For example, “used cars, los angeles” “guitars, barcelona” “appliance repair, miami”
To see who actually is getting all of your potential clients, Google “your product/service and your location” following the example above.
The businesses that pop up organically on the left side of the first page results are getting most of the business- without paying to be there (SEO’d).
When you see a bunch of adword sponsors on the right side and the very top of your results, you’ll know if you’ve hit a popular search term for your city and all of the business vying for the business of the actual user who typed it in. Those businesses pay a pretty penny per click. Whether they get business or not, they still pay to be there.
Most likely, no one is bidding on adwords for their business to show up when some one actually types in your company name. Unless you are a big popular company.
Thanks for that. I love professionalism and as I said in an earlier comment, I like the expert advice you get here .. it gets one thinking. Okay! I am in the business of selling properties abroad. My approach ticks every box going - the service and portfolio cannot be equalled.
You have a point; of course Southern Comfit is easy-peasy for those looking for southern comfitr. What of those who tap in to google: ‘properties in Spain’. I am not likely to infest the screen then am I? Point taken. So, where do I go from her. It sounds like hard work. Will it benefit me?
Thanks for that. I love professionalism and as I said in an earlier comment, I like the expert advice you get here .. it gets one thinking. Okay! I am in the business of selling properties abroad. My approach ticks every box going - the service and portfolio cannot be equalled.
You have a point; of course Southern Comfit is easy-peasy for those looking for southern comfitr. What of those who tap in to google: ‘properties in Spain’. I am not likely to infest the screen then am I? Point taken. So, where do I go from her. It sounds like hard work. Will it benefit me?
Mike,
Yes it will benefit you, but there is a lot of competition already way ahead of the ball game. See it as a long term 401k plan.
If you Google properties in spain (without quotes) you’ll find 8 million results and two pages of businesses paying for adwords. It’s pretty popular.
Google “properties in spain” (with quotes and there are 450,000 results with that exact phrase and about a page of adwords sponsors.
Did you build the site yourself? Do you know any html or at least work within the html code using Dreamweaver or Frontpage?
If you do, it will be easier to help you by pointing you in the right direction.
If someone else built it, then you may have to have a third party go in and optimize it for you.
Easy/hard, it’s all relevant depending on who’s doing it. It can be very time consuming, though.
The site has a long way to go still and in this particular industry, I need to add more pages to it. It’s just how it is and there is no other way around it. It’s not updating. The user actually wants and needs more pages in this type of industry. It’s not on one topic and very unique to this industry which is why it has been building quickly. If I were to disclose the site or the industry, you would understand. I’ll just say that it is not a blog with a bunch of updates with my ramblings.
Backlinks are coming, but haven’t pursued them intensely, yet. I will be linking them from a couple of my PR5 sites.
I do have other sites that I also run from financial, to mortgages, to one page sales letters, to a very busy travel forum with over 10,000 members, tons of backlinks, and a bunch of affiliate programs that have brought in some nice revenue over the years. That runs on auto-pilot. Passive income…
Have several other projects in the works for myself and for clients that include copywriting, SEO, online marketing, and blogging, so I keep myself busy.
How about you? Got any websites you want to show all the readers as to what kind of work you’ve done for yourself or for others?
I have a few…
And no doubt you have already tried to find them 😊
As Heath and a couple of others on this forum know, I don’t publish my websites here. Two reasons:
a) As Mike Walsh says, it’s not really accepted on most forums to keep posting links to your websites. Seems like spamming (even though in your case, you provided helpful information as well, so to my mind, that’s ok).
b) The websites I actually make money on are not the type you would advertise on a general forum…
And the ones which actually make money for me are all private whois for the same reasons as (b) above 😊
The site has a long way to go still and in this particular industry, I need to add more pages to it. It’s just how it is and there is no other way around it. It’s not updating. The user actually wants and needs more pages in this type of industry. It’s not on one topic and very unique to this industry which is why it has been building quickly. If I were to disclose the site or the industry, you would understand. I’ll just say that it is not a blog with a bunch of updates with my ramblings.
Backlinks are coming, but haven’t pursued them intensely, yet. I will be linking them from a couple of my PR5 sites.
I do have other sites that I also run from financial, to mortgages, to one page sales letters, to a very busy travel forum with over 10,000 members, tons of backlinks, and a bunch of affiliate programs that have brought in some nice revenue over the years. That runs on auto-pilot. Passive income…
Have several other projects in the works for myself and for clients that include copywriting, SEO, online marketing, and blogging, so I keep myself busy.
How about you? Got any websites you want to show all the readers as to what kind of work you’ve done for yourself or for others?
I have a few…
And no doubt you have already tried to find them 😊
As Heath and a couple of others on this forum know, I don’t publish my websites here. Two reasons:
a) As Mike Walsh says, it’s not really accepted on most forums to keep posting links to your websites. Seems like spamming (even though in your case, you provided helpful information as well, so to my mind, that’s ok).
b) The websites I actually make money on are not the type you would advertise on a general forum…
And the ones which actually make money for me are all private whois for the same reasons as (b) above 😊
No worries. I found a bunch of them and see your point. You might want to double check the whois privacy on a few of your sites.
Thanks for that. I love professionalism and as I said in an earlier comment, I like the expert advice you get here .. it gets one thinking. Okay! I am in the business of selling properties abroad. My approach ticks every box going - the service and portfolio cannot be equalled.
You have a point; of course Southern Comfit is easy-peasy for those looking for southern comfitr. What of those who tap in to google: ‘properties in Spain’. I am not likely to infest the screen then am I? Point taken. So, where do I go from her. It sounds like hard work. Will it benefit me?
Mike,
Yes it will benefit you, but there is a lot of competition already way ahead of the ball game. See it as a long term 401k plan.
If you Google properties in spain (without quotes) you’ll find 8 million results and two pages of businesses paying for adwords. It’s pretty popular.
Google “properties in spain” (with quotes and there are 450,000 results with that exact phrase and about a page of adwords sponsors.
Did you build the site yourself? Do you know any html or at least work within the html code using Dreamweaver or Frontpage?
If you do, it will be easier to help you by pointing you in the right direction.
If someone else built it, then you may have to have a third party go in and optimize it for you.
Easy/hard, it’s all relevant depending on who’s doing it. It can be very time consuming, though.
It’s funny really, because there’s (or was before the “crisis”) stacks of estate agents in Granada province, yet if you Google “Granada property”, my website ranks #10 and I don’t sell properties. Thing is though, I undertake work on properties, so felt that a little SEO work on my site, an additional page and some information for property buyers, couldn’t do any harm. Simply put, I was aiming at a target audience of people who are looking to buy “Granada property”, who would also be likely to require work on their property after purchase, or advice beforehand.
It’s mainly about focusing on your target audience, with keywords they’re likely to use when they use the search engines. Some more examples with my website:
kitchen fitter granada = #1 on Google and others.
kitchen installer granada = #1 on Google, first page & highest ranked in Granada, Spain for Yahoo.
kitchen designer granada = #6 on Google (but #2 in Granada, Spain) #2 on Yahoo (but #1 in Granada, Spain)
The point here is that I’ve still a little work to do to strengthen my rankings, though for all the appropriate keywords, my site ranks #1 worldwide in many cases and is always usually first page or first five amongst the search returns on a number of search engines. The thing I’m happy with is at the moment, apart from “kitchen designer granada”, my website ranks the highest above everyone else in Granada, Spain. As toneloc rightly points out, the vast majority of potential clients will often search for the service they require (in my case) plus the location.
It’s actually much easier than I originally thought it would be, given my sole point for research on SEO’s was the internet itself. It can take a little while to set them up though, plus it’s always worth keeping an eye on the search engines, just in case they need improving. Mine still do in a few areas, but when I have a few free hours to sort them out, I will.
Much of the work on my SEO’s were common sense. I thought in detail about what potential clients would type into a search engine to find me. Use those appropriately amongst the text of your website and your halfway there. Have a read through my site and you’ll see clearly that i’ve incorporated many keywords amongst the paragraphs and sentences I’ve written. Location of such keywords within pages is also important, but thats where it gets a little bit more technical in understanding a bit about how search engines look for keywords. I’m sure toneloc or zania can explain this in more detail than I can.
Some clever backlinks are also quite important. They can boost your rankings incredibly, especially if they’re sites that are also highly ranked within the search engines. For example, you’ll notice my forum signature features my website link, plus I’ve also posted a listing in the “Business Services” section of this website. SpainExpat ranks amongst, if not the highest expat forums and websited listed by the search engines, but it’s not the only website that I’ve backlinked from. I look for sites that are appropriate in content to the services I offer and exposure to potential clients is high. I was amazed at how many “suitable” sites I could link to and from, that increased my search engine rankings. Again, a little borowsing on the web will show you how to approach doing this in an appropriate manner.
