[colin thomas]

i've been approached by someone to build me a web site with 4 or 5 pages fully optimised for '£350 ish, they sound professional and would show me some sites they have already done but is that the going rate? i know you can build your own but really don't want to do that,

colin

[Joe H]

 Its not so much the website, Colin, but getting the ranking on the search engines is important via search engines. That is worth money. Just check to see if its included or an extra at what cost?

[clinton]

Joe

Is that the seo

Prob for a beginer like i was last year might think its all in the deal.

[Joe H]

Yes Clinton.

Colin, its the search engine optimisation that is important and cost money - they have a talant and know it. Bit like a good carpet cleaner really.

[garry22]

Colin,

Without seeing their site(s), I cannot really comment (maybe you could put them up here minus the www. bit).

I have been doing SEO for a couple of companies for a while now and my first question would be "optimised for what?".

You see, although "on site" factors such as titles, descriptions, keywords and site structure are important, a search engine such as Google ranks a site predominantly on "offsite factors" ie.  how other sites relate to yours.

By this I mean things such as the number and quality of sites linking to yours (there are a lot of other factors but this is still the best long term solution).

This has to be achieved by you after the site is built and up and running.

Another common trick is to get ask you to type a search term into say, Google.

When the results come up, low and behold, there is one of their sites on the front page. The problem is that often, no-one actually searches for that term (so optimising for that is a waste of time).

If someone says "what would you like to rank for?" this should ring alarm bells. A decent SEO person should tell YOU what you should be ranking for, based on search term research.

At that price I would imagine they are using a template design, rather than design it from scratch.

Hope this helps,

Garry.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

Be careful, I have been contacted by Site somebody who claim to be authorised by NCCA to revamp oner of my sites.

I asked her for examples and while the sites are pretty they are invisible as far as the rankings go.

The woman rang me today but I was too busy to chat, tommorow maybe.

Ask them for examples, preferably CC, then search carpet cleaning whichever area they are in, if you can't find the site that is what you will get, a nice pretty site which nobdy sees 

Cheers

Doug

[derek west]

all though i agree with joe, that SEO is paramount, its no good if when the clients click on you in search they end up looking at the back end of a bus, the look and feel of your website is just as important as the seo. they both go hand in hand. for that amount of money, it will have ltd SEO at best,
colin
theres a few of us on here having new websites built by mark at dpdesign.
mike halliday, clinton and me. cost is £250 for 10 pages with a small amount of SEO to get us started, had a chat with him today and he's toying with the idea of adding sound, a women talking about good things and bad things to do with cc.
maybe you should give him a call to see what he can do for you, i know the £250 was an introductory price so it might be a bit more than that.
you can check out mike hallidays on one of the recent threads, and i'll be showing mine when its nearly done in about 2 weeks time.
just a thought anyhoo
derek

[garry22]

Derek,

I agree about the look.

I was taking it for granted that the site would look good. It'fairly easy nowadays to get a "professional look" (don't you just love that phrase?).

Garry

[clinton]

Derek

So what happens when the sites drop or when mark stops doing the seo etc

Dougs sites rank v good and pulls in enquerys

[derek west]

i'm getting someone else to do the SEO. don't know who yet!
just want a decent site first with a good url.
derek

[CARPET KNIGHTS]

Colin,

I'll do you one!


Cheers Goron

[Mike Halliday]

how much is pay per click? i was thinking of giving that a bit of a daddle.

[derek west]

as much or as little as you want it to be, your in total control of your spend, how much per day, which days you want it to run etc... the actual cost of each click is set by you, to get to the top everytime you have to set it high, mine is at £1 per click, but that doesn't mean it costs me a pound every time someone clicks, it costs me what ever the highest bid is when that perticular search term is searched for, for instance, my last click cost me 71pence even though i bid £1 for it, reason? the highest bid other than mine was 70 pence so i got the top for 71 pence.
i'm confusing myself now.
total spend is between £30 and £100 per month roughly for me. i get around 3 to 4 clicks per day. and i have a maximum spend of £5 per day so once thats gone i don't registar for the rest of the day.
hope this helps
derek

[garry22]

Derek,

Without giving any sensitive stuff away...

How many search terms are you bidding on?

Have you split tested the ad's? What were the results?

Garry

[derek west]

about 800 in total, google did all the work for free for me, but to be honest only about 10 get regular clicks. i leave the other running just in case.
derek

[Mike Osbourne]

I wouldn't bother just yet with adwords for two reasons.

The first is that it's a hell of a lot cheaper when your site is well ranked and you got your main keywords sorted.

The other is the learning curve of everything web is tough enough as it is, why complicate things. Most people dabble with adwords and end up spending too much money then say it's crap.

Another reason but perhaps isolated one is fraud! I had my account hijacked by someone selling ringtones with hundreds of clicks. To say I nearly had a heartattack is an understatement, especially when after 10 emails and a week later Google had not replied to my comms at all!

[derek west]

mike
best thing about adwords is when the money runs out it doesn't go in the red. as long as you only load it up with £30 at a time you can't get to fleeced from fraudsters.
it gets me work so i'm happy.
is it worth it?, only time will tell.

derek

[Robert Watson]

I'm surprised Mark Roberts is charging so little.
If thats all you guys are paying, your getting a serious bargain.
It`s like, free SEO.

[clinton]

Derek

That 100 pounds a month is a lot to pay

Least were geting good 10 page sites built for our money,so what happens after we get them do we get someone to get them high on google

Just sounds like were paying out all the time.

Il prob have a chat with doudg when mine is done and get some advice

[clinton]

Hi rabby

Its mark from dp design and print in hull