Recommending an SEO company

[Fabtans]

Tearing my hair out trying to find an SEO company that actually knows what they are doing. There are so many inadequate companies out there, this is one tricky task.
Can anyone help?
Ideally located in the Wiltshire, Brisol, Somerset regions, so one to ones can be arranged.
Website all done, just need an SEO company who doesnt take the mickey out of numptys like me on the net!!
Thanks in advance...:irked:

 

[Lash N Load]

Hiya,

Sorry I don't have a company to recommend, but I do recommend doing the seo work yourself.

I didn't have a clue about seo. Have had my website about 2 months and am on the bottom / middle of page 1 in google when you type in "eyelash extensions Brighton"

I'm Eyelash extensions, waxing & nails in Brighton | Lash N Load

I haven't done a huge amount of seo. Keep meaning to do more but haven't got round to it.

Are you trying to rank highly for "spray tanning Trowbridge?"

It's not a very competitive term so you could easily get to a top spot by yourself. I'm happy to help.

I've tried looking at your website and I can't. It important to get it online ASAP. The sooner it's up the sooner you can start being present on google. Don't worry if it's not 100% done. I read a website should never be done as google likes fresh content on websites. So tweaking it is good.

I've got some simple tips. You could try them, see how highly you rank then get professional seo if you still feel you need it

 

[Jack Dunn]

You can do all of it yourself and save a few thousand pounds..

Most SEO companies charge lots of money to do what you can do. It takes a bit of time but its easy once you get started.

Most SEO claim they can get you on the top of Google/Bing but the process they use to do this you cab do this yourself.

Using backlinks, having good relevant keywords on your site, using the free business directories and creating a google places listing.

Also with the new Google Localisation coming soon , when people type into the search bar for the topic the most local ones will appear first then those people who have signed up to SEO will not be shown at the top any more.

There have been some great threads on here before about doing your own stuff so maybe take a look through these.

Good Luck Jack

 

[Jack1102]

Jack is right

SEO isn't a minimum wage paid job. A SEO company will charge ££££s per week/month, and offer you the chance of top spot, and tbh, im not 100% sure they will get you where they say they will

Its certainly not a overnight job, but an on-going process and something you can do with a little thought and time.

Submit your website to Google Analytics, and keep an eye on the sort of keywords people are using to find/access your website, and then change your metatags (keywords) on your own website

HTH
Jacks

 

[Danielle90]

I work for a national digital marketing company and we do seo - it's a fantastic product and all of our customers see a 60% increase in traffic to their site. Do you want me to give you a call on Monday when I'm in the office? We have a team in Bristol so I'm sure I could send someone out to you xx

 

[MelanieUP]

Hello all,

I've just registered to give you some advice (I work in SEO). As others have said, you may be able to do this yourself if you are only targeting a small local area and can commit some time every week/month.

This is if you are only targeting a small area though, shorter tail terms such as 'eyelash extensions' without any locality, or even 'eyelash extensions london' will obviously be a lot more competitive and require a lot more knowledge and time commitment than, say, 'eyelash extensions stoke on trent'!

IF you do decide to do this yourself, I can give you some advice;
- On site is really important. Your site needs to appeal to search engines. This means plenty of keyword rich content (rich.. but not stuffed!!). Dynamic content (such as a blog or news page) is also important as it shows that your site is updated with fresh content on a regular basis, which Google loves.
- Other important on site elements, after content, are your title tags, meta keywords/description, sitemap, robots.txt (ask if you have any questions about these)
- Off site: I could go on forever here but the key thing is to keep it natural. Write articles, guest blog, contribute on related forums (like this one!). Don't spam, especially now since Google rolled out its most recent update 'Penguin'

On another note, do you have a google places listing? It may be worth while. These are the local listings that appear when you type in a keyword plus locality.

If you do decide to hire an SEO company, avoid ones who make promises 'page one in x weeks' or ones who say 'we will build 100 links and post 3 articles a month!' as these scream scams.

Look for one who will offer you the whole package. A good SEO company will not only care about your rankings, but how well you are doing - is your website bringing in lots of customers? If not, why not and what can they do about it? It's great having good rankings and traffic but whats the point if they aren't bringing in extra sales. Conversion is important.

If you want to read more about the company I work for, visit UPSearch. I hope this has helped you whether you decide to go it alone or for your search for an SEO company.

Mel

 

[Fabtans]

Hi all
thanks very much for your time to reply, all taken on board. Sadly I just dont have time or the brains to attempt this myself...its for my other business designerchristenings.co.uk not tanning sorry to confuse. The market is huge and loads of competition, so I feel an professional seo company would be the best option again. I just feel the one im using is taking a lot of money every month and I just dont see any results, as the other geek mentioned, its all very well traffic increasing etc....but its orders that show the proof! Ive been doing the gowns for 15 yrs they have always sold so well via ebay etc...im just trying to get 'with it' had a new site built and want to now organise the seo side of things properly without being ripped off!
thanks a lot

 

[j8yba]

Hi, i think ill throw my tuppenies worth in! I do SEO for a living, and myself and my wife opened a salon 4 months ago. And yes it is at position #1 on page 1 of Google for hair salon "town". Dont want to add that as im not advertising myself here.

The factors are split between on site SEO and off site SEO, your site needs to be 100% optimised on-site first before the off-site, link building and all the other factors should take place.

You do need to know a good detail about how to perform SEO. But yes there are some companies who'll just take your money and think that throwing 1000's of spammy links to your site will work. In some cases yes, but thats only until Google catches it out or rolls out another update and "zip" your gone off first page.

Also dont forget about the "Google Dance" the process of your site appearing in top positions initially, and then settling down to its actual position, usually not on first page.

If your search competition is not high, ie. if your put your desired search phrase into Google and less than 750,000 results are shown, this is low competition so really an ongoing SEO plan for £00's a month forever, isnt neccessary.

Just having some good onsite SEO, including page titles, meta tags, H1 tags etc and some modest backlinking will set you up good for a good 6 - 9 (maybe 12 months)

One thing you can all do, and its free, is set up "citation" backlinks. Add your site to directories like Yell, city-visitor, hotfrog, qype, scoot, etc...

Hope this helps. If you want more info, message me, but im not sure if im allowed to give much more details.

Rgds

Jay

 

[elliebee]

There is a geek on here called SEO (ironically enough)

He works with Ruth who does a lot of web stuff for geeks.

He did some SEO on my site. He was excellent. I don't think I can say on here how much he charged but lets just say I only needed one client appointment to pay for it.

My rankings have improved dramatically and business has really increased.

He also explains things really well so I didnt feel like a complete numpty.

He did in one week what I had been trying (and failing) to understand for 2 years!

 

[Danielle90]

Are you still interested in seo? I can get a colleague to come out and see you at your convenience xx