[Simon Payne]

We have spent heavily into SEO on our website and I think gradually it is working, anyone out there have any input to how important SEO has been for your company growth.

[Alan McTernan]

Hi Simon,

I'm in the process of paying a fair few quid to have my website redone so will be interested on the replies

Regards
Alan

[BDCS]

SEO - I wish I had a tenner for every phone call I get offering to make me a millionaire by getting me to spend a fortune on their seo services - they managed to find my phone number easily enough so customers must be able to as well. I mention this to them and offer to invoice them for my time. Buy SEO for dummies as a start, google moves the goal posts so it can only be trial and error which if you do it yourself is free, obviously if you've spent heavily then you will see it differently and feel you have invested correctly and see my view as incorrect  

[jaespray]

  i to have spent a load of money on SEO for little return
  i think if your "unit" selling price is HIGH seo might show a return
  but if your "unit" selling price is low the small guy has not got a chance
 seo does not cater for the low "unit" & low volume seller   in my opinion
regards john

[Alan McTernan]

SEO - I wish I had a tenner for every phone call I get offering to make me a millionaire by getting me to spend a fortune on their seo services - they managed to find my phone number easily enough so customers must be able to as well. I mention this to them and offer to invoice them for my time. Buy SEO for dummies as a start, google moves the goal posts so it can only be trial and error which if you do it yourself is free, obviously if you've spent heavily then you will see it differently and feel you have invested correctly and see my view as incorrect  

Even though i am spending a few quid i agree with what you say Carl, i am using a local company who i contacted after seeing some of there other sites and if it works it will be cheaper than a certain magazine i advertised in last year to only get my money back :

[Blast Away]

Do it all myself. Built and maintain the site myself too. Straight forward. never spent a penny.

They ring me every day. I ask how they found me and they always say something like you come up on page 23 of Google. To which I say by typing in what?
Their answer 'Blast Away'.

Idiots.

If somebody is searching for a service they don't type in the company name, they're not gonna know it 99% of the time until they actually find a site for the specific work they want doing.

It's terms like 'Driveway Cleaning Bolton' and 'Roof Cleaning Manchester' etc that are what people use.

Besides 'Blast Away' is first page anyway.

[rah]

Guess I'm quite lucky working for the largest SEO company going Mind, I don't have a web site yet!

Rob.

[BDCS]

If you work for "the largest SEO company going" why do you come on here ? Do me a favour - blacklist me please !

[APWS]

Do it all myself. Built and maintain the site myself too. Straight forward. never spent a penny.

They ring me every day. I ask how they found me and they always say something like you come up on page 23 of Google. To which I say by typing in what?
Their answer 'Blast Away'.

Idiots.

If somebody is searching for a service they don't type in the company name, they're not gonna know it 99% of the time until they actually find a site for the specific work they want doing.

It's terms like 'Driveway Cleaning Bolton' and 'Roof Cleaning Manchester' etc that are what people use.

Besides 'Blast Away' is first page anyway.

could not have put it better myself

[Kenny83]

I started off advertising in papers for a couple of months, then decided to have a website built, a cheap 1 oin a budget, cost me £100, then ongoing pay as you go SEO at £25 a month, I wrote most the content for it and it is still under construction to be honest, but I have not advertised in the paper since October/November, due to the bulk of my work being drive cleans, but even so I have had some big jobs just solely form my site, so much so I am considering not advertising in the papers at all this year.
Although if I did pressure washing fulltime then I would definitely consider doing adwords campaigns to broden the area I serve.

[Blast Away]

Spent 1600 on Yell.com and Yellow Pages last year and half that amount the year before. Never again. Waste of money. I ask each customer where they found us and I've not made that 1600 back. Roughly 1000 but everything else is Google 95% and word of mouth the rest.

[BDCS]

1 call through yell.com this year - we're pulling out of all paper advertising this year except the parish magazine. We will save about £3k after we've spent a bit more on websites - the turnover will be down and the bottom line up I hope

[Kenny83]

Yelll.com.... heard they are going bust, not suprised, tried a 1 month, heavyweight ad with them - £75.... 1 phone calll!!!! stay away from yelll, and all other phone call that say... 'I noticed your not on the 1st page for **** key phrase....' Hang up, it's all about keywords/phrases/content, and if your in the driveway game then there is nont much competition if you localise your phrases, there is enough work out there for everyone, get a cheap website, list a few google places, see the resultse after a few months...

[Kenny83]

Spent 1600 on Yell.com and Yellow Pages last year and half that amount the year before. Never again. Waste of money. I ask each customer where they found us and I've not made that 1600 back. Roughly 1000 but everything else is Google 95% and word of mouth the rest.

Moral of these stories is.... always ask when  you get a call.... where did you see my ad?