[Jamie Lindsay]

carpet cleaning is easy there nothing to it you know it and I know it... some people are structural engineers architects etc now thats what you call a profession... I am asking about SEO not carpet cleaning... not putting carpet cleaning down for a second or else I would be on this forum asking questions... There are cleaners on here with 15-20 years experience in  carpet cleaning I bet dont know a thing about SEO... its a learning curve for everyone on here  

[Jamie Lindsay]

dont even know them??? but if there at the top all i can do is applaud them 

[ianharper]

jamie

unless you have keywords other that ones that included your town name the only SEO you need is PPC.

because of the changes in google placement of its maps all SEO that relates to a town is a waste of money and effort. this one change wiped me out over night. I am now doing PPC and very please the results.

Get your google map listing and then put as much info video etc as you can, then link to it, yes link to a google page from articles sites.

Good Luck

Respect

Ian Harper

[stu_thomson]

I had a firm build me a new website this year which i am happy with the way it looks but it aint doing alot, few pages down, now they are saying to get it up there with them doing SEO on a regular basis, it will cost me £50 + the vat per month

Is this a fair amount to pay? As ive not shopped around at all, just going with the firm who built the site

would appriciate any input

stu

[urlhttp://www.apollocleaners.co.uk/][/url]

[Matt Seymour]

Just out of interest Stu, how much did that site cost if you don't mind me asking?

I am considering getting one professionally built and would like to get some idea of what you get for your money.

Don't take this personally, but I could build a basic site like that myself.

[wynne jones]

I had a firm build me a new website this year which i am happy with the way it looks but it aint doing alot, few pages down, now they are saying to get it up there with them doing SEO on a regular basis, it will cost me £50 + the vat per month

Is this a fair amount to pay? As ive not shopped around at all, just going with the firm who built the site

would appriciate any input

stu

[urlhttp://www.apollocleaners.co.uk/][/url]

Stu it would be very reasonable. However it's expensive by the tune of £50 if you are not getting results. What is happening with your ranking, is it moving up? If so you may just need to be more patient. If it's high and you are not getting calls it could be there is not much traffic or your site isn't compelling people to ring.

My top tip would be spend a SMALL amount on your site and put the rest toward rankings. The rationale is you can have a fancy glossy site but it's useless if no one sees it. A basic 'getting the phone to ring' basic site in position one will be far better in my opinion.   

Ask companies if you can speak to some of their ongoing Clients about their SEO. The response you get to the question in itself usually reveals who delivers over time.

[Matt Seymour]

I see what you mean Stu.

I just googled "carpet cleaner Norwich" and you are way down on page 7.

To be honest I would be a bit miffed if I coughed up for a professional site and it only managed page 7. Hopefully it might climb the rankings with time.

£50 a month seems a bit strong for SEO to me.

[richy27]

last year i payed £100 fr a local company to do some seo work on my site instantly got first page   www.ruralwebsites.com if you call them mention me i might get some brownie point

[Mike Halliday]

I don't know anything about seo but I would buy the domain name "www.norwichcarpetcleaner.co.uk and use that.

looking at the sites that are listed above you I can't see how this company  has done any Seo on your website, perhaps they are waiting for you to start lining their pockets with that £50 a month

[richy27]

£50 a month for seo is steep   i payed to have a boost done on my site and then i managed to learn how to manage mine myself

[JandS]

Get one at Vista Print, they give you the template and
you design it yourself. It's a bit like a word document
layout when your doing it but they look good when finished.
You can add pictures and things as well.
Oh the price, one month free trial then for the 2nd of the 3 size
options about £8 per month - and they submit you to Google.

John

[garry22]

When talking about "SEO", most people are talking about on page factors (Ian & Wynne, bear with me here).

There is only so much you can do "on site", particularly on small (number of pages) sites like cleaning sites.

When these pages are published then indexed, they rank in a certain position, for a certain search term. This is determined by the COMPETITION for that term.

Most carpet cleaning sites have very little competition so do very well using on page factors alone. This is why some people appear to be a genius after just a little work and tweaking on a site. This may have happened with Richard's site and may well happen with Stu's if someone tweaks it.

With something like "carpet cleaning (name of village)", then having this as a domain name, as Mike suggested may be enough on it's own. having it as a page title as well may get you to no.1

If it's something like "buy viagra online", then the best on page SEO in the world will not get you seen.

So... once a page has found it's level, that's it. There is no slow rise up the rankings unless something happens. That something is someone linking to it. Getting those links can vary from half an hour's work to full time. Again, it depends on how much competition there is.

Now as Wynne says above, if it ain't ranked, it does not matter how glossy or beautiful it is. Nobody will care.

As for £ 50 a month. it will totally depend on what work they are going to do.

[Vernon Purcell]

Can anyone give me the basics of seo... not asking for a class just the basice off how you get to page 1

If you want seo advice go to an seo expert, you are going to get so much conflicting advice here, as most here clean carpets for a living.

[Vernon Purcell]

A friend of mine reckon SEO is a waste of time for tradesmen.

People are reading stuff online about SEO that relates to getting your site high in google globally and then there's the guy who hasn't even got a website and he is the first entry because of the way he's on the Google maps. What do you have to say to that SEO guys?

Wynne did your friend advise you on your signature link

[stu_thomson]

Cheers for all replys guys, certainly food for thought
I paid £500 for that site to be built from a company i was reccomenden to
however i like the site and it was approved my me, but like someone said you ned to get traffic to it for it to be any good, which i thought i was going to get, now they say they want £50 a month which as you all say is abit steep

Will ask some locals and get some more advise and different quotes before moving forward

thanks for advise guys
stu

[derek west]

£50 a month aint expensive. is there a tie in? i would get them in for 5 or 6 months and see where you get too, chances are you'll be number one quite quickly any way as long as they know what there doing. i paid £400 quid one off payment that worked well for me. theres guys on here that would tweak your site for a one'r. lots of options so get on with it, your losing money if you don't do something asap.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

I own www.norwichcarpetcleaning.co.uk !

I am thinking of selling some of my domain names as I have lots of good ones but just don't have the time to manage them all and with the changes to Google maps a local address is very useful

Age of a site is an important ranking factor as Google see older ones as having more clout.

In terms of SEO you can certainly do it yourself, I have,  it is time consuming but getting a few things right will give you a good ranking and as Mike has said having the right url is very important as it makes life much easier. As Garry says there is quite a lot you can do which is quick and this will get most sites onto p.1 for local searches and then it gets harder.

I  have more number 1's than most including a lot of generic sites such as  dry carpet cleaning etc.

Cheers

Doug

[wynne jones]

I've been reading a lot of threads about websites and SEO on here and my general impression is everyone wants to do it on the cheap. Either DIY or pay for 'SEO' as if it's a one time thing. Yet many happily pay out £300-£500 a month on other forms of marketing.

I think there are two reasons for this. The main one is fear of spending money on something they don't understand and therefore could get ripped off (which is understandable). The other is some SEO is DIYable (just like carpet cleaning  ) but there's a big difference between someone who thinks they know what they are doing and someone who actually does....ie RESULTS.

Why on earth would you spend your time learning SEO, doing what you think is 'SEO' when you can be cleaning carpets at £50-£100 an hour? Is it because you haven't got a full diary and messing around on the computer looks a far better option than trudging the streets in the cold? What if 2-3 months down the line what you were doing was wrong and you don't know why it hasn't worked?

If you are going to invest time learning, learn how to find someone who will deliver RESULTS for you, pay them and let them get on with it.

Options

Lease a site that's already high ranking - safe bet, but costs, the site is not your asset.

Buy a high ranking site for your area - obvious benefits but costly and if you get the transition wrong you may lose authority and ranking.

Pay someone to do your Google Maps PROPERLY - this is probably the cheapest and most bang for your buck option - the problem is this idea that you can do it for nothing. Of course any monkey can fill in the boxes, so why then are you still not on the map, or why has someone come in above you from nowhere.

[garry22]

How many minutes of SEO work (per month) would someone expect for £ 50.00?
Would you expect to pay as much per hour as for carpet cleaning?
How fast would you expect to see results?

I've just looked at two lots of statistics for a site that I own. Roughly seven months of site promotion work before it got any traffic. The traffic to the site suddenly rocketed, almost to the day (Sept 17th) when it first appeared in the top ten. Had I been working for someone else and got nothing for seven months, I bet I would have got the sack.

[stu_thomson]

They told me to give it about 3 months before it goes to 1st page but i dont want to spend that money for 3 months and still not be there and to be then told it may take alittle longer and longer untill ive spent £££££ before i sack them and be no further forward.

I guess i just dont trust this particular company to come up with the goods after being abit let down in the 1st place

Guess i just dont understand how these things work which is annoying

With a plumber or carpet cleaner coming to your house you know what you are getting and how much work he has done to earn his buck but with seo i just dont know what work has to be done for the £50

stu