SEO comant are optimising my office furniture website

[posture]

After reading for months on end about SEO and implementing quite a bit myself, WE have taken the quantum leap and employed an SEO company that have been badgering us for a while to optimise our office furniture e-commerce website.

After moving up and down the Google rankings in seemingly random fashion this company have offered a money back guarantee that for £500 we will have 10 office furniture related keywords of my choosing on the first page of Google within a month.

They have been working on it for a week now.
I am presuming they are outsourcing the blog/forum links, article and press releases etc.

I won't name the company just yet - we will see how they get on.

In the meantime I a have stated a reception seating and reception desk website. Now I dont have a great deal of time and it is a semi automated e-commerce site, but there are opportunities for SEO so I am going to see which one fairs better.

This is not a blatant attempt at forum linking (note I have no links in my sig) but a genuine attempt to share this challenge with you and see if £500 of our hard earned profits is well spent.

You can view the ongoing results here...the office furniture website www.postureandofficeseating-dse.com (http://www.postureandofficeseating-dse.com)/ (http://www.shopcreator.com/mall/receptionseating/) and the reception seating and reception desk site is www.shopcreator.com/mall/receptionseating/ (http://www.shopcreator.com/mall/receptionseating/) - so you can make your own mind up.
Also the company http://www.shopcreator.com where the reception seating website was created I can highly recommend a very easy to use for an e-commerce website that looks very professional I think.

Here goes...

[1weekSEO]

Google page 1 - Adwords campaign?

[harryboon]

Can you give us an example of the 10 office related keywords?

I am going to enjoy watching to see how this goes.....

[harryboon]

Google page 1 - Adwords campaign?

Like I said I am going to enjoy this thread.....

[Ali-v-8]

I dont get you.
In the title you say SEO comant are optimising your website the say you wont name them. :eek::|:rolleyes:

Then you say they are optimising your website for 10 phrases for £500 :eek:

One word springs to mind RUNAWAY

I took a quick look.

You ain't seen optimisation on that website.

[mattsaw]

One quick question - what have you chosen to focus on keyword position rather than other metrics such as traffic or even sales or conatcts?

[harryboon]

http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=www.postureandofficeseating-dse.com&bwm=i&bwmo=d&bwmf=u

Your main site has around 46 very poor links - what is this SEO company doing for you?

[harryboon]

I dont get you.
In the title you say SEO comant are optimising your website the say you wont name them. :eek::|:rolleyes:

Then you say they are optimising your website for 10 phrases for £500 :eek:

One word springs to mind RUNAWAY

I took a quick look.

You ain't seen optimisation on that website.

Like I said Ali this should be a fun thread - £500 is a few hours work lol

[sirearl]

Afraid I have to agree even Sherlock Holmes would be hard pushed to find any SEO on those sites.

Are you paying for SEO or PPC.?

Earl

[fisicx]

As Ali subtly suggests, you are going to get burnt. It's £500 down the drain because they will deliver a useless set of results.

[Ali-v-8]

Ouch...
Matt he said £500 :rolleyes:
Dont really think he paid for SEO


One quick question - what have you chosen to focus on keyword position rather than other metrics such as traffic or even sales or conatcts?

[posture]

No it's not adwords, they have complete control over the website content keywords metatags etc except the actual products, although they can change titles etc.

An example of the keywords - I don't want to help our competitors too much so here's two for www.postureandofficeseating-dse.com (http://www.postureandofficeseating-dse.com)
office furniture
office chairs

[posture]

I dont get you.
In the title you say SEO comant are optimising your website the say you wont name them. :eek::|:rolleyes:

Then you say they are optimising your website for 10 phrases for £500 :eek:

One word springs to mind RUNAWAY

I took a quick look.

You ain't seen optimisation on that website.

This is true - there appears to be no change so far - they are based in Nottingham and so are we, and we know where they are...

[posture]

I am not naming them just yet - why should I give them free air time?

[posture]

Ouch...
Matt he said £500 :rolleyes:
Dont really think he paid for SEO

Yes ouch but time against money...

[craigc0302]

I dont get you.
In the title you say SEO comant are optimising your website the say you wont name them. :eek::|:rolleyes:

Then you say they are optimising your website for 10 phrases for £500 :eek:

One word springs to mind RUNAWAY

I took a quick look.

You ain't seen optimisation on that website.

No chance will you be top in a month

With regards to the amount your paying OP !
It does seem rather small considering your targeting a nich which is very very difficult , i also do seo for a site ( see sig ) for an office furniture company and its a very competitive phrase niche and £500 will not do it not anywhere near it infact not for the natural serps

Baring in mind i know that niche very well and rank very high for all the keywords my client asks for however its an ongoing battle at the top !

[posture]

One quick question - what have you chosen to focus on keyword position rather than other metrics such as traffic or even sales or conatcts?
I am focussing on sales and contacts, that's why we are paying them to focus on position.
Bear in mind this is a newish business I am not an SEO guru and just hoping to share this experience with you all..;)

[posture]

Ali there was a comment that the seo work has been done within a week , not we both know that its impossible for you to tell if theres any seo been done in that time !

So theres no point in planting that seed into someone who already doubts there seo as thats not fair.

With regards to the amount your paying OP !
It does seem rather small considering your targeting a nich which is very very difficult , i also do seo for a site ( see sig ) for an office furniture company and its a very competitive phrase niche and £500 will not do it IMHO .

Baring in mind i know that niche very well and rank very high for all the keywords my client asks for however its an ongoing battle at the top !

Agree with all that - thats why we thought we would give it a go - there is a money back guarantee.

Erm nowhere did I say the SEO was done in a week, I said they started a week ago...

[craigc0302]

I am focussing on sales and contacts, that's why we are paying them to focus on position.
Bear in mind this is a newish business I am not an SEO guru and just hoping to share this experience with you all..;)


A bit of advice someone who can get you top of the natural rankings in a month for 10 office furniture keyphrases is a FRAUD ,

Id give you £500 if they do it and maintain it ! ( so no black hat techniques )

Id be very wary of these people they can do more damage than good !

[harryboon]

Simply put and I think most will agree - £500 to rank you for 10 keywords in your market is just not going to happen.

I hate to be so blunt but it just won't work :(

[craigc0302]

Agree with all that - thats why we thought we would give it a go - there is a money back guarantee.

Erm nowhere did I say the SEO was done in a week, I said they started a week ago...


with regards to that i meant u cant see any seo benefit in a week.

However ive changed that post as i realised your seo said they will have you top in a month ,

I first thought Ali was having a go at an SEO after a weeks worth of work , however after i had a second glance at your post i realised Ali was right

RUNAWAY lol

[harryboon]

Drink a Red Bull and run as fast as you can my friend - great seo takes months until you start seeing great results.

Drives me mad these companies who offer unrealistic and simply mad promises :mad:

[directmarketingadvice]

I won't name the company just yet - we will see how they get on.

Good idea for a thread. I hope they deliver for you.

Either way, please post regular updates, I'll follow along with interest.

Steve

[posture]

A bit of advice someone who can get you top of the natural rankings in a month for 10 office furniture keyphrases is a FRAUD ,

Id give you £500 if they do it and maintain it ! ( so no black hat techniques )

Id be very wary of these people they can do more damage than good !

I take on board your comments and I have some reservations also.

They do say no black hat techniques and seem genuine and offer several sites on their website as referals- one of which I know the owner and webmaster.

[mattsaw]

Ouch...
Matt he said £500 :rolleyes:
Dont really think he paid for SEO

I read it as £500 p/m. I think you're right though.

We have two clients sites on the first two pages for 'office furniture' and they're paying a lot more than that each month. As others have said, it's a competitive market and it'll take a lot of work to challenge the established sites.

[Ali-v-8]

What can i say... IT hurts being soo good.
*ali colapses on floor after modesty attack* :p

I would like to point out the price is tooo low.
The must either be GEO targeting or just doing links.
£500 could be the cost of a plan of action without implementation or Im guessing that its only the start of more payments.

[posture]

Drink a Red Bull and run as fast as you can my friend - great seo takes months until you start seeing great results.

Drives me mad these companies who offer unrealistic and simply mad promises :mad:

We have been doing the SEO ourselves, we started in September last year with varying results. - I have read mountains on this stuff believe me - there is some very contradictory cr@p on SEO as you know and I'm glad to see some feathers being ruffled.

It is a highly competitive niche market the UK onli office furniture one, but it can be done... in time, we are in the top ten for several search terms in the UK... check out the keyword: mercury mh1

All comments hugely welcome ;)

[posture]

I read it as £500 p/m. I think you're right though.

We have two clients sites on the first two pages for 'office furniture' and they're paying a lot more than that each month. As others have said, it's a competitive market and it'll take a lot of work to challenge the established sites.

I agree totally matt... interesting times

[SFD]

It is a highly competitive niche market the UK onli office furniture one, but it can be done... in time, we are in the top ten for several search terms in the UK... check out the keyword: mercury mh1



You're 5th for a term nobody searches for.

Not only are you 5th though, you are 5th with a page which doesn't display properly in firefox, I can't purchase from, and doesn't have any images.

Good work, keep it up

Edit: sorry, that was pretty harsh, thought it needed pointing out though.

[posture]

You're 5th for a term nobody searches for.

Not only are you 5th though, you are 5th with a page which doesn't display properly in firefox, I can't purchase from, and doesn't have any images.

Good work, keep it up

Edit: sorry, that was pretty harsh, thought it needed pointing out though.

Be kind people, I am not a genius and we are learning...:rolleyes:
The mercury mh1 is in our top 10 sales list as is the aria ah1 so somebody is searching for it - although we do market it elsewhere.

How do I put the firefox problem right? - we are using zencart for the e-commerce.:|

[SFD]

Sorry, the point I was trying to make was don't be fooled into 'thinking' you have good results.

Are you able to see which keywords bring traffic and sales, such as google analytics?

[craigc0302]

I read it as £500 p/m. I think you're right though.

We have two clients sites on the first two pages for 'office furniture' and they're paying a lot more than that each month. As others have said, it's a competitive market and it'll take a lot of work to challenge the established sites.


This SEO claimed it would be top within a month ! lol

Very worrying times and we all know its impossible , the op said he knows a webmaster and competitor so this guy seems legit , however no white hat seo would ever get you top within a month for 10 terms in that niche !

I'm dying to see the progress on this .... as is everyone else :D

[harryboon]

Well Craig we both know it's not going to happen - wish he would post the companies details here lol ;)

[craigc0302]

Well Craig we both know it's not going to happen - wish he would post the companies details here lol ;)

Exactly Harry :P

I dont think the Op will post them though until he realises he's being scammed rotten.

Thats actually a large figure for a scam though , isnt it usually £199 these people claim will get you to the top on google for lol .

But then again Harry maybe all the SEO's ( inc me ) are not up to sacratch and we all overcharge or we are really slow at our jobs :P

[craigc0302]

Well Craig we both know it's not going to happen - wish he would post the companies details here lol ;)

Infact harry , ive done some digging around i know who the SEO company is :P

Shall i post it here ?

[posture]

Sorry, the point I was trying to make was don't be fooled into 'thinking' you have good results.

Are you able to see which keywords bring traffic and sales, such as google analytics?

Yes we have analytics, what also may be hampering us is we changed hosting server recently as we were not happy with the original company

[posture]

Infact harry , ive done some digging around i know who the SEO company is :P

Shall i post it here ?

Doesn't take much digging around lol

[harryboon]

I like being slow and so do my customers - its means they get real, long term, organic ranks.

I do hope he posts up the details - would make my day!

Exactly Harry :P

I dont think the Op will post them though until he realises he's being scammed rotten.

Thats actually a large figure for a scam though , isnt it usually £199 these people claim will get you to the top on google for lol .

But then again Harry maybe all the SEO's ( inc me ) are not up to sacratch and we all overcharge or we are really slow at our jobs :P

[craigc0302]

Doesn't take much digging around lol

Lol i know :D

www.dickturpin.co.uk (http://www.dickturpin.co.uk) is the company hehe !

I emailed your site " posture " as id like more info on the keywords etc as i want to follow these seo guys just for curiosity reasons hope you reply to that email it would be much appreciated .
Just for knowledge reasons for personal benefit :D

I have no intentions of spilling who they are or what they have done .
Just like to see who these people are as i have a load of sites in your industry that i manage ! :D

[Ali-v-8]

I think may be we need to understand what the other party have actually offered before we slate them.:)

May be they have only offered an initial report.
Maybe its local Geo targeted.
May be its sirloin steak with Jack Daniels sauce.

We shouldn't judge without all the facts.:)

Nah only kidding.

IMO: They have misled you in believing that you will get to page one for office furniture in 4 weeks. If you have emails to prove that or documentation then make sure you keep it for when you ask for a refund.

I bet that they put you on page one of google via adwords and say "you are on page one"

[harryboon]

May be its sirloin steak with Jack Daniels sauce.


Sirloin Steak and Jack Daniels sauce......yum yum - right I am off out to get lunch Ali you have made me hungry! :p

[craigc0302]

I think may be we need to understand what the other party have actually offered before we slate them.:)

May be they have only offered an initial report.
Maybe its local Geo targeted.
May be its sirloin steak with Jack Daniels sauce.

We shouldn't judge without all the facts.:)

Nah only kidding.

IMO: They have misled you in believing that you will get to page one for office furniture in 4 weeks. If you have emails to prove that or documentation then make sure you keep it for when you ask for a refund.

I bet that they put you on page one of google via adwords and say "you are on page one"

Exactly Ali

Ive saw that a million times before , they will take your £500 quid , use it on pay per click when you ask where your site is !

There terms and conditions usually state that it will be on the top page so many times per month blah blah blah and cover themselfs with ppc , which costs about 20 quid and they will pocket the rest lol !

Ps what you said about slagging them without the facts what going to be what i was going to say to you before i read the bit there getting the OP top in a month anyone who says that deserves all they get :D

[RedEvo]

I read the first three pages of this thread then jumped to the end so apologies if this has been stated already.

Why do normally sane business people think that for a few hundred quid they can propel a website to the top of a merit based (I know....) search engine. If it was possible to buy a #1 ranking it would it really cost only £500 when the rewards are potentially so high?

d

[mbc]

possibly because they were sweet talked by smooth salesman who used jargon to make himself sound important and better....unfortunately it's the way of the business world, people see the £ signs and lose their ability to think logically...

[directmarketingadvice]

I read the first three pages of this thread then jumped to the end so apologies if this has been stated already.

Why do normally sane business people think that for a few hundred quid they can propel a website to the top of a merit based (I know....) search engine. If it was possible to buy a #1 ranking it would it really cost only £500 when the rewards are potentially so high?

Because there are people saying they're great and they'd do it for that amount.

(For example, see Ali's thread.)

Of course, logically, if you could get a page to rank for those terms (office furniture keywords) with only 20 hours work, wouldn't you be better off doing your own site as an affiliate than charging £500?

(Though, to be fair, you could ask a similar question about most non-royalty based marketing services.)

Steve

[RedEvo]

Because there are people saying they're great and they'd do it for that amount.

But that's my point. If they were offered a genuine new Aston Martin for £500 would they just say yes please or might they stop and be a little suspicious.

d

[Ali-v-8]

If you want to see more comment on seo pricing (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=135174&highlight=seo+pricing) look here (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=135174&highlight=seo+pricing)

[directmarketingadvice]

But that's my point. If they were offered a genuine new Aston Martin for £500 would they just say yes please or might they stop and be a little suspicious.

The thing is, an Aston Martin has a priced that's well established in the market.

That's not the case with SEO.

Your argument seems to be that the value fixes the price. That's a reasonable argument (see my comment re. why not just put up an affiliate site instead of doing cheap SEO?).

If I were an SEO, I'd probably use that sort of argument in my pricing.

(Though I'd also offer a guarantee, but that's a different matter.)

However, it's not really how these things are priced. It's more like a tendering system where quotes are all over the place.

It's not just one person quoting low, it's lots of people... and lots of people quoting much higher.

There's no real efficiency in the market. Mainly, IMO, because (a) there's little transparency and (b) little understanding from the prospects.

Steve

[RedEvo]

The measures that make websites rank are well known, well understood and well documented. They mostly involve hard work and that's why idiots still get ripped off, they want a quick win. People only have their selves to blame IMHO. These tired old arguments about SEO being confusing etc are just so much hot air.

You see it over and over again in these forums.

"If I build another pisspoor website and link it to my main website will Google love me"

"If I spam the hell out of someone elses hard work will Google love me"

"I've spent £26.75 on a new website but it's not number 1 in Google I'm thinking of having my web developer hung drawn and quartered."

The list goes on.

Use words and phrases used by your target market, create something of value, give others something worth linking to and you've nailed it.

It's a point of view.

d

[eventdomain]

Problem is keywords are so intense, its a battle you cannot win.

£500 wont get you much, actually I dont think SEO is right for your products, as to do this thoroughly, its going to cost 1000's and you'll need more than 10 product keywords anyway. Each keyword will cost you £2.00 a click x 10 keywords, so yeah, £500 is only 250 clickthroughs, its not much when spread out over 10 keywords/products.

If you can offer Meeting products to the Event sector, my search engines can do great things for you by sending you direct traffic. The first one is

www.eventdomain.co.uk (http://www.eventdomain.co.uk)

and we have quite a few furniture clients already, some 70 clients that supply to the meetings sector, so we can do quite a bit for you. PM me if interested.

[I, Brian]

Posture, best of luck with this. :)

A couple of pointers in case of help:

1. If your website and domain are relatively new (ie, less than 18 months old min.) then you may find it quite difficult to target generic higher traffic keywords effectively. However, there are usually some nice longtail keywords you can tap into very effectively even at this early stage.

2. If your budget is £500/month then that sounds like a fair price for an ongoing campaign for on page and off page link building that is being effective. However, if it is just £500 lump sum, then you are effectively just talking about on-page SEO (ie, tweaking the website) which significantly reduces the chances of any generic keywords being achieved.

3. 1 month is far too short a time for results to come in - managing client expectations is important - even dedicated link work will take around 3 months for the effects to really come in (with new links impacting at around 5-6 weeks and then their impact building up). A one off fee and wait and see approach would not be an entirely bad strategy, though, but this was not intimated in your opening post.

4. TIP: Targeting local search can be a very effective longtail niche to get on top of quickly.

Overall, best of luck, and sincerely hopes this works out for you. :)

[eventdomain]

I read the first three pages of this thread then jumped to the end so apologies if this has been stated already.

Why do normally sane business people think that for a few hundred quid they can propel a website to the top of a merit based (I know....) search engine. If it was possible to buy a #1 ranking would it really cost only £500 when the rewards are potentially so high?

d


Exactly, and I'll eat my keyboard if any decent search provider offers the above. Oops, I better be careful when my search engine launches, not to make my prices too cheap or I'll be needing salt with that keyboard :)

[Ali-v-8]

Its not a search engine its a directory.

I dont understand you. One minute you say seo is expensive and you can so it for £250 guaranteed results or money back.
Now your saying £500 is not enough.
Make your mind up.

Problem is keywords are so intense, its a battle you cannot win.

£500 wont get you much, actually I dont think SEO is right for your products, as to do this thoroughly, its going to cost 1000's and you'll need more than 10 product keywords anyway. Each keyword will cost you £2.00 a click x 10 keywords, so yeah, £500 is only 250 clickthroughs, its not much when spread out over 10 keywords/products.

[eventdomain]

I dont understand you. One minute you say seo is expensive and you can so it for £250 guaranteed results or money back.
Now your saying £500 is not enough.
Make your mind up.


What I said was - I know a way of doing it that will make it free forever, and guess what, I do. Technology is a wonderful thing when you own it.


My company also owns a search engine, which is crawler based. So I know a great deal about search engines, which means I know more about this than you do.

People always think their smarter than the engines, you just need to look at the web's forum threads/blogs etc, about why they got sandboxed or penalised to know they dont know what their doing. Do you realise that search engines can block/delete any one single company forever? Well, they can! And thats just from the free results pages.

1. If SEO is done badly, it wont work

2. If its overdone, you'll just end up banned or so far down the results you'll never recover. Taking advantage of the SE's is a big mistake.


They aren't in the game to allow businesses a totally free ride, their in it to make money, and they know exactly what the SEO's are upto. The game is up - forget this crazy free-ride stuff, bcos it ended in 2006!

A £500 one-time fee won't get you much, bcos the SEO's will want that per month - so that's why it wont get you much. Come on Ali - I thought you knew these basics by now - how many posts on here are yours advising others?