Search Engine Optimisation and Google Ranks and all that stuff

[Matt]

This message has been deleted by kwilkinson. Reason: Spam killed by Spam Decimator Version 1.0

how dare you kyle?!?

he just wanted some search engine love like i do...

im never using the spaminator again

 

[Blackhood]

Originally Posted by bkstone

You can hire a seo company to do the work for you, but in my opinion it is not necessary and can be expensive. I guess it depends on how competitive your niche is whether you want to hire a seo company or not. A SEO company can not promise results, you have to be careful of who you hire, but anyone can learn to do SEO if you are willing to take the time.

This is very true, I've seen companies charging between £250 and £25,000 for SEO and in almost all cases it takes no more than 4 hours work. Its like the guys who were making websites back ion the 90's and charging like it was pure Columbian marching powder.

 

[HelloIDistance]

Great read so far! SEO has always been so complicated to me with the wealth of information out there. It's almost like information overload on the strategies you can implement to achieve better ranking. I agree with what was said about social networking. Starting a twitter, facebook, and linked in will help your ranking.

EDIT: Nevermind...just read on multiple sources that twitter links do not count as backlinks. Hmmm.

 

[whacked]

Matt, have you looked into outsourcing the dirty work? The local internet coding/hacking scene is pretty robust, there oughtta be a few IT students who would love to take on the project for a couple of bills. I'd check with your network of students and the company employees.

Originally Posted by Matt

ok so here is a thread that should attract spam like no other...

Awesome opening.

 

[Matt]

Yeah, I'm not unknown in digital marketing circles here, sit on a board and some organising committees, so I did ponder it, and I do have the contacts to make it happen.

In the end though, I don't think I am really that far off the mark. Given that a 15 year old firm from your hometown has 65 backlinks, and a 3 year old firm that is coming up top has 66, me with my little four is actually not all that bad given that we only launched the site in March. I can DIY it out using pretty legitimate means without having to get someone in to go on a rampage of the questionable.

Being a mod around here on constant spam busting duty makes me kind of hate that stuff on general principle. My opening wasn't a joke, when you kill it you see the email addresses of the spammers, and while most are random gmails (22.df.hsr@ kind of thing) a lot of them are like rsg.45@superseo or some crap like that. I don't think I could bring myself to pay to be part of the problem.

We will launch a couple of things in the next week or so that should help to drive it up....

 

[Matt]

Originally Posted by tj100

ILinks from very high traffic websites (i.e. major news organizations, or Fortune 100 companies) have a similar effect.

hmm - I comment on a bunch of things on news sites and never put my URL in the little box. I guess that little action alone would punch well above its weight then, huh?

 

[Mr_Incognito]

How frequently do you update your website and do you find your website to be easy to navigate or not?

 

[Matt]

pretty easy, and it gets updated 2-3 times a week with client news/press releases/images.

 

[Mr_Incognito]

Does someone write original content for your website or is it syndicated?

I would suggest that instead of relying completely on someone else, you should try to do things yourself and see which things work and which do not. No SEO guy would know your industry better than you or be as commited as you. You can compare it to developing your own style, it can be done either by youself by keeping in mind your tastes and preferences or you can hire a stylist. Now, if you try to save money in hiring a stylist you can imagine what would happen to your looks.

 

[whacked]

Gotcha. And since social media outreach is part of what you offer, DIY makes sense.

The website looks good. Images look okay if somewhat small on Chrome but when I use IE9, the proportions are distorted and only one corner of the (now supersized) pic would show up.

 

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Mr_Incognito

Does someone write original content for your website or is it syndicated?

we write it.

I would suggest that instead of relying completely on someone else, you should try to do things yourself and see which things work and which do not. No SEO guy would know your industry better than you or be as commited as you.

As per my previous post, I don't think we are going to hire an SEO firm...

 

[Matt]

Originally Posted by whacked

Gotcha. And since social media outreach is part of what you offer, DIY makes sense. The website looks good. Images look okay if somewhat small on Chrome but when I use IE9, the proportions are distorted and only one corner of the (now supersized) pic would show up.
thanks, I'm pretty happy with it. Still a few things to change. The front page images are kinda tourist generica, those will be changed for worky-in-action type shots once we have built up enough good ones to make it worthwhile. A couple of bugs as well that we are working on - front page calendar is looking like a pointless bell-and-whistle add on at the moment, but it is supposed to show client events on mouse-over on any given day. The image gallery is ******** me. Trying to get the CMS to allow us to put up tiny res thumbnails, low res preview shots, and high res downloadable images is not as easy as it should be - so we either end up with 3 meg thumbnails or tiny ass downloadables. Not ideal, but all part of the bug-shootin' process. Major bugs shot, then you start a-tweakin'. Never ends.... Fun and games man, fun and games...