Anyone know search engine optimization?

[thefed]

If you dont know what that means, you can likely move on

I have a local guy trying to sell me 1 yrs worth of SEO for $1k. It seems a bit steep to me, but it did pique my interest.

I have an air duct cleaning business, and I get about 5 jobs/month from yahoo and google targeted marketing. Obviously the web is helping me a lot.

SO how do I get my page at the top of the major search engine results without paying for it? Any help would be appreciated....

 

[larry]

No expert here but I do believe that involves submissions to the various engines, links to other "crawled" pages ( and I do believe that most engines don't crawl more than 1-2 pages deep) and wordage, i.e. mentioning a website in an actively crawled forum (like this one perhaps). Oh, web page headers get alot of attention from google I guess.

Remember the brownie batter blizzard from dairy queen? I know a guy who had his web site pulled up whenever anyone typed that phrase into google. Site had nothing to do with Dairy Queen. He did say it was quite a bit of work as google constantly changes the search algorithm and was getting harder to fool.

 

[larry]

Sorry, but I forgot specific phrases. Where as "air duct cleaning" might return millions of pages of hits, "sam's quality air duct cleaning" will narrow it down to put you first possibly. Mispellings also will help, "air duck" cleaning might get you a #1 ranking immediately. It will take alot of effort to narrow down phrases that would work for you. Remember, this also requires someone searching for air duct cleaning to type in that specific phrase.

 

[eriter]

SO how do I get my page at the top of the major search engine results without paying for it?  Any help would be appreciated....

You are in competition with about 100,000,000,000 other people trying to do the same thing--get at the top of the SE results pages without paying.  Today there are so many variables in the SE algorithms, and they change so often, that I doubt anyone really can get you there for $1,000, or for that matter any price.

I suggest that you consider instead Adwords--"pay per click" advertising with Google.  I have been using it for my construction business for several years with great success.  In your business you could probably get the top sponsored ad for a couple of dollars a click, or less.  Plus, you can start your ad immediately—you don’t have to wait months and months trying to optimize your website for the search engines.

You can target Adwords campaigns to a local area by connecting dots on a map to include, or exclude, any neighborhoods for your trade territory.  If you use this feature you won't be getting people clicking on your ad that are not potential customers.  Or you can just set your target area at "x" miles from your location. (If you are nationwide you can do that also).

If you haven't done it before it may take a while to familiar with all the ins and outs of the Adwords system, but it isn't too complicated and it is much more likely to get you business than trying to use SEO techniques.

 

[TromboneAl]

I've been involved with this for years.  If you google "time and billing" you'll see my (ex) company's page, www.ResponsiveSoftware.com, in the #3 spot.

Your competition isn't too bad (maybe 10 companies) if you consider that your target searchers will probably search for something like this:

"duct cleaning yourtown, yourstate"

for example:

"duct cleaning cleveland ohio"

With a little time and effort, you should be able to get good at SEO.  There will be some trial and error learning, and unfortunately, it takes time to see how changes to your page will affect your ranking. 

The process involves learning all the tricks for getting high rankings, modifying your page, and comparing it with competitor's pages that rank above you.  You only care about the top 10 search engine sites.

Here's a recommendation: spend a few days learning about SEO and then decide.  Webposition.com is a good place to start, and that's a product that I've used and I recommend.  They include a lot of tips with the product. 

You can probably do as good a job as the consultant.  Can you hire him for just a month, have him modify your site, and then learn enough to take over?

Hope that helps (and sorry about the beaver's B.O. joke)!

 

[TromboneAl]

P.S. when I googled duct cleaning in your area, I saw your very effective sponsored link at the top, and not much competition. You probably don't need the consultant.

 

[thefed]

You are in competition with about 100,000,000,000 other people trying to do the same thing--get at the top of the SE results pages without paying. Today there are so many variables in the SE algorithms, and they change so often, that I doubt anyone really can get you there for $1,000, or for that matter any price.

I suggest that you consider instead Adwords--"pay per click" advertising with Google. I have been using it for my construction business for several years with great success. In your business you could probably get the top sponsored ad for a couple of dollars a click, or less. Plus, you can start your ad immediately—you don’t have to wait months and months trying to optimize your website for the search engines.

You can target Adwords campaigns to a local area by connecting dots on a map to include, or exclude, any neighborhoods for your trade territory. If you use this feature you won't be getting people clicking on your ad that are not potential customers. Or you can just set your target area at "x" miles from your location. (If you are nationwide you can do that also).

If you haven't done it before it may take a while to familiar with all the ins and outs of the Adwords system, but it isn't too complicated and it is much more likely to get you business than trying to use SEO techniques.

I already do use Adwords. I also use Yahoo's target marketing system.

But I know I personally 'block out' those ads and go for the actual search results....so I think some SEO would help.

But youre right, the targeted marketing rocks for our type of business.

 

[thefed]

P.S. when I googled duct cleaning in your area, I saw your very effective sponsored link at the top, and not much competition. You probably don't need the consultant.

Thanks for noticing

I do have to say though, as I just mentioned in the previous post, that when I am searching on google/yahoo, I mentally block out those ads. Maybe its just me? dont think so

I think being in the top 3 search results could double my internet exposure (and thus double my income...as most of my leads are coming from the net lately)

 

[Arif]

I do have to say though, as I just mentioned in the previous post, that when I am searching on google/yahoo, I mentally block out those ads. Maybe its just me? dont think so

I think being in the top 3 search results could double my internet exposure (and thus double my income...as most of my leads are coming from the net lately)

I do the same thing and just click on the top three or four sites. The ads usually isn't what I am looking for anyway or they want you to pay when I am looking for a free source.

 

[jimnjana]

the fed,

Just wondering, have you tried servicemasters? A cleaning lady we used told us that her business picked up significantly after listing with them, don't know what their deal is but I think the contractor gives them a referral amount for each customer.

I was checking the threads on website search engine optimization, did you use the google small business ad, and their webmaster tools?

Jim

 

[thefed]

the fed,

Just wondering, have you tried servicemasters? A cleaning lady we used told us that her business picked up significantly after listing with them, don't know what their deal is but I think the contractor gives them a referral amount for each customer.

I was checking the threads on website search engine optimization, did you use the google small business ad, and their webmaster tools?

Jim

yes, and i could write a novel on what a scam that company is. we DID get a lot more business, but they send a lot of bogus leads and force you to pay regardless so it got annoying. they went from frequent, high quality leads to crap gradually over a year

 

[jimnjana]

yes, and i could write a novel on what a scam that company is. we DID get a lot more business, but they send a lot of bogus leads and force you to pay regardless so it got annoying. they went from frequent, high quality leads to crap gradually over a year

I see... that's a shame. Any luck with SEO? Lessons Learned?

Jim