why do they do this???

[Mwebb]

Ok people of knowledge.

I have been keeping up to date with the competition, watching their tactics etc....

I have noticed that if you do a very specific search for cars for sale like, "cars for sale in colchester" Instead of just bringing up the main page of the industry big boys, they bring up pages like the following.

http://www.desperateseller.co.uk/make/towns/colchester/colchester.html

Is this all SEO stuff??
Or why do they do it?


michael :roll:

[DuaneJackson]

Yes, it's SEO stuff.

In the eyes of the search engine that page is highly relevant to the serch term.

[mattk]

Welcome to the world of seo. It's how a small time site can rate higher than, as you say, the industry big boys.

Do a "view source" and look at how often the term "cars for sale in colchester" appear on that page, either as a whole phrase or as indiviual words.

As a side note - why would anyone sell their car on a site called Desparate Seller?

[Mwebb]

Because they are the industries second largest site.
Never heard of them? neither had I until i started my market research. (Approx high teens% of the market) Unfotunately they are not a small time site. They are a big business site. But i will steal their seo ideas!

they are second to autotrader,(50+% of the market) and have a much bigger market share than fish4 cars.

But mattk, lets hope more people have your opinions on the site name.

[insert shmaeless plug]
I a week or so, they can then just pop over to justcarsonline!! :D
[/shamelessness over]

[mattk]

Fair play, I didn't know that. I'd never heard of them before you posted that link. Their site is awful, I'd never put my P&J on there! Same for Fish4.

What share do eBay have in the car sales market then? That's where I bought my car from!

[Mwebb]

They fall into the section of about 10% of the market that is taken up by literally hundereds/thousands of sites.

What we will be offering is the chance for individuals to list a URL, unlike others who only give this to dealers, that means they can sell on ebay, and send traffic to their listing via our site.

Ebay have the issue that it is an auction, so you don't actually know what you will end up with for the car. Also people are very wary of buying or selling cars on ebay.
You can list your car, and sell it. But who buys a car without a test drive??? So when they turn up to collect it, it drives like sh*t and they turn down the sale! Or was not quite as described: ebay rules tie you to that sale, but you'd never pay, so it makes for an awkward sales process.

This was not the case with everyone i spoke to, but the majority most definitely.

[mattk]

That is true - I didn't actually "buy" my car on eBay, I found it on there, went to see it, had a test drive and then waited for the auction to finish (bit of a risk, as it could have sold) and did a deal with the bloke.

I think you have to treat buying cars on eBay in the same way as you would buying any car privately. And I don't think you'll find that you are "tied" to the sale, I know alot of people who have walked away because the car wasn't exactly as described.

Your site sounds like a good idea though - have you looked at something like Pistonheads? Their classified section is very good indeed and the site is complimented with a very likely and reliable forum.

[Mwebb]

My site will be launching in a couple of weeks, been under development since december!

Will check pistonheads out, thanks for the tip.

Michael

[mattk]

I'll keep an eye out for your offering too. Always on the look out for sites that I can waste away my days on!

[JustOneUK]

<OT>

nice VW Matt :)

[billhilton]

I'm not an SEO super expert, but I'd say one reason that site did well, at least on Google, is that the filename of the page (colchester.html) was the same as one of the search terms. That, as far as I understand it, earns brownie PageRank.

The "Big Boys" will all have heavily database-driven sites, which are easier for staff to maintain, manage and update, but not as friendly to search engines as bog-standard HTML.

SEO experts: am I right, or am I talking out of my bum?

[mattk]

<OT>

nice VW Matt :)
Unfortunately it's not mine I'm afriad :(

Just helping out a mate promote his site. But yes, it is a very nice VW indeed!

[mattk]

SEO experts: am I right, or am I talking out of my bum?
I think it's a common belief that having well named files and folder does help your ranking. It is certainly more user friendly than an ID that alot of data driven sites have. I think it's also perpetuated by the fact that Google bold any search terms that appear in the url.

However, I did read an article that claimed there was no noticeable advantage of having keywords in your url. I can't for the life of me find the link, but as Bill said, you're better off with well named files than you are with querystrings and database IDs.

So, in answer to your question - I don't know!