First Page on Google - First Search Consultancy [Archive]

Subbynet

4th January 2009, 10:49

Hi,

I'm always wary of SEO companies which make guarantees. Nothing is guaranteed.

£200 isn't going to buy you many hours of anyone's time. Lets say they have no overheads and are paying themselves just £5 an hour (Thats under the National Minimum Wage), your £200 would buy just 40 hours. (1 week)

That means you'll be lucky to have anyone working on your site for 3 hours a month over the course of a year.

Now, all this is immaterial because £5 an hour just isn't a realistic wage, no one will work for that. Then you have overheads, so you can easily see that your £200 will ultimately buy around a day or two (max) of time with a proper SEO expert. Those 3 hours might easily be cut to under an hour a month.

If this was me, I'd rather save my money...

Just my 2 cents...

cycloneuk

4th January 2009, 10:53

It would be quite easy to rank if the keyword had a county added on for example, childrens disco kent, you could do that yourself imo with very little seo knowledge, any place that offers guarantees i would avoid.

redrob

4th January 2009, 11:06

I also agree with everyone else I would stay well clear from that company I spoke to an SEO company myself face to face and they quoted me £5,000 these days most of the time you can do the work yourself.

360interactive

4th January 2009, 11:07

I agree with Cyclone, getting those keywords for specific counties will not be hard, and with a few hours reading up online you could do it yourself. £200 is not a lot of money when it comes to SEO, this should be an indication of how little time and effort it would take.

milo

4th January 2009, 11:07

360interactive

4th January 2009, 11:10

But it’s not just a county – It’s any town, village or area within the county.

Well then that would make it even easier to obtain the rankings, the more specific you become, the easier it will be.

It's only £200, and if you have a good feeling about them, go for it. Just make sure they don't try and sign you up to some sort of recurring payment, or a 5 year deal or something of that sort. I've been mis-sold in the past and been tied into a monthly £200 payment (I went legal and got out of it) so just be wary.

seasonsonline

4th January 2009, 11:15

From what I've heard from my web designers & other business associates, paying to get to the top of Googles ranking pages is a myth! These so called SEO companies can only really do what you can do yourself with a little research/hardwork, determination & patience!

Take a look here http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769 Google have not so long ago published info (it took them a long time to do it) showing how to make a website as SEO friendly as possible! These things can be done either by yourself or your web designer. If your site is being put together by web designers they should know this.

The only thing you can pay Google to do is put you in the "sponsored links" for relevent key words, usually based on a "pay per click" set up.

Finally, there is some great ways to self promote your site which can be found on this very forum. Here:- http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=32162

I'm not saying I'm some kind of expert on this matter as I've only had my own site for a couple of months now, but I'm pretty sure what I've learnt and been told is reliable.

Good luck!

360interactive

4th January 2009, 11:20

Finally, there is some great ways to self promote your site which can be found on this very forum. Here:- http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=32162

Fantastic, I never even knew that existed.

I think we have to keep in mind though that for small projects and niche sectors, people can have a go themselves.

I know for one if I wanted to come up top in Google for 'Holiday Rentals' I would need help, and that's where these SEO companies come in.

It's just a shame they're so hard to find amongst the cowboys.

Subbynet

4th January 2009, 11:23

UKSEOAgency

4th January 2009, 11:23

please - what ever you decide to do - ensure they follow these guidelines

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291

So many people buy without first checking any of this - in the third one it states:

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.

mymymy

5th January 2009, 12:40

Stay Clear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mkLINK

26th January 2009, 09:44

I think that if a company can afford to train someone, they could do worse than do their SEO in-house.
Then work on it a little and often.

mk

bcmedia

28th January 2009, 17:47

I spoke to the FSC today and grilled their head of tech for about 30 minutes. He was able to answer all my questions and I was nearly impressed. However I decided to call up some of the companies that they claimed to SEO.
Two companies given to me as examples of work done by FSC had never heard of FSC and the third said the service he received from them was terrible. 9 months to do a small website, with a re-occurring yearly fee of £1600. Once they had his money, no-one contacted him until the following year, to renew his hosting (for £1600 :O )
Avoid like the plague!

magicfairywings

28th January 2009, 18:05

A business aquaintance i know said they can get on page 1 of google thru a company dunno which and i know they mentioned county.

anyhow the company wanted to do their web design etc. before would do the seo stuff.

cardinalblack

30th April 2009, 11:57

***************** AVOID FIRST SEARCH CONSULTANCY *****************

I was MIS-SOLD a FIRST SEARCH CONSULTANCY package by a salesman who LIED down the phone to me.

This company have decided not to honour the promises he made verbally and by email despite my repeated efforts.

I have paid the best part of £400 for NOTHING.

PLEASE DO NOT FALL INTO THE SAME TRAP.

Best wishes,
An extremely enraged First Search Consultancy 'Customer'.

***************** AVOID FIRST SEARCH CONSULTANCY *****************

sirearl

30th April 2009, 14:22

sirearl

30th April 2009, 14:27

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings,.

Of course you can its a mathmatical equation.

Not bleeding rocket science.:rolleyes:

Earl

OldWelshGuy

30th April 2009, 14:35

sirearl

30th April 2009, 14:43

getting to number 1 is a race, and while you can't guarantee to win, if you know your PB is 11.0 and the best of the others in the race PB's is 12.5, then it is fair to 'assume' (not guarantee) you will win the race.

Whats a PB.? and how much for 2 dozen.?:|

If you examine the competitions site's .Then make sure you have a stronger mix.

Then its pretty sure you will win ,not absolutely guaranteed as one may have to call the AA at the first fence.

As there's always the possibility of some old nag no one fancied doing the business on yer.:rolleyes:

Earl

SalesDNA

30th April 2009, 14:48

1- Make sure the guarantee is in writing and with dates

2 - It is relatively easy to do your self but takes a lot of time and effort.

3 - The price seems ridculously cheap but if they guarantee it. My suspicion is they won't. Pay on arriving at your agreed spot ie breaking the front page.

4 - Being on the front page is meaningless. It's inquiries and business. Nothing else counts.

I would disagree the Title Meta Tag is the most important thing you can do for SEO other than links.

OldWelshGuy

30th April 2009, 14:50

Whats a PB.? and how much for 2 dozen.?:|

If you examine the competitions site's .Then make sure you have a stronger mix.

Then its pretty sure you will win ,not absolutely guaranteed as one may have to call the AA at the first fence.

As there's always the possibility of some old nag no one fancied doing the business on yer.:rolleyes:

Earl

Sorry Earl, I forgot how old you are, and how it slows your reading speed down, so I am typing this bit slower ;)

PB = personal best. In other words, if you know how good you are, and have evaluated the opposition, then you can guarantee to yourself to be #1 .

And as for guaranteeing the #1 spot, not even Google can do that ;) http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GPTB_en-GBGB290GB290&q=search+engine

sirearl

30th April 2009, 18:02

Sorry Earl, I forgot how old you are, and how it slows your reading speed down, so I am typing this bit slower ;)

PB = personal best. In other words, if you know how good you are, and have evaluated the opposition, then you can guarantee to yourself to be #1 .

And as for guaranteeing the #1 spot, not even Google can do that ;) http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GPTB_en-GBGB290GB290&q=search+engine

you do not seriously think google would put themseves first on there own search engine.:D

One has to have a bit of decorum.:rolleyes:

Don't worry to much about me age just been riding a Can am spyder at our demonstration day.

http://www.atvquadshop.co.uk/spyder-images.htm

A mean machine not for the feint hearted.

Does wonders for the bowels.:eek:

Earl

The Printed Bag Shop

30th April 2009, 20:37

I pay £250 per month and im in the top 3 for nearly all my keywords. I have also just got authority status for 4main keywords.

seasonsonline

2nd May 2009, 15:16

Great stuff ,so why are you not No1 for "costume jewellery" or "fine jewellery".?:|

Earl

I just noticed this reply, so even though its been a while I thought I should give a response.

There are certain keywords and terms such as "costume jewellery" & "fine jewellery" that are very very competitve and google base a lot of empthasis on the age of the site and respect etc. Our site is still relatively new but we are seeing ever improving results, based solely on hard work!

I dare say if we had money to burn (and throw away) then we could pay to get pretty close to the top through (some) SEO companies that use dodgy links on multiple sites.- This could eventually bite us in the bum, and ultimately risk getting us removed from googles results all together.

Since our launch, we have seen great results from just following good honest advice and doing the tips suggested by others, as I mentioned earlier in this thread.

Actually, If you do a UK google search for sparkly costume jewellery, sparkly jewellery, ethnic costume jewellery and wedding & prom jewellery then we're in the top10. For other search terms like prom jewellery etc we rank pretty high. Not a bad result for a few months online!

sirearl

2nd May 2009, 15:36

I just noticed this reply, so even though its been a while I thought I should give a response.

There are certain keywords and terms such as "costume jewellery" & "fine jewellery" that are very very competitve and google base a lot of empthasis on the age of the site and respect etc. Our site is still relatively new but we are seeing ever improving results, based solely on hard work!

I dare say if we had money to burn (and throw away) then we could pay to get pretty close to the top through (some) SEO companies that use dodgy links on multiple sites.- This could eventually bite us in the bum, and ultimately risk getting us removed from googles results all together.

Since our launch, we have seen great results from just following good honest advice and doing the tips suggested by others, as I mentioned earlier in this thread.

Actually, If you do a UK google search for sparkly costume jewellery, sparkly jewellery, ethnic costume jewellery and wedding & prom jewellery then we're in the top10. For other search terms like prom jewellery etc we rank pretty high. Not a bad result for a few months online!

You would be well advised to pay one of these SEO shysters
As having rankings for keyword terms that no one searches for will not do you a lot of good IMHO.

Although your approach of targeting keywords related to your products in line with the current strength of your site is correct.

Earl

seasonsonline

2nd May 2009, 16:12

You would be well advised to pay one of these SEO shysters
As having rankings for keyword terms that no one searches for will not do you a lot of good IMHO.

Although your approach of targeting keywords related to your products in line with the current strength of your site is correct.

Earl

Cool!:cool: . So you think that no one searches sparkly jewellery, ethnic jewellery, wedding & prom jewellery???- You're definitely wrong.

4little1s

2nd May 2009, 16:28

I am always wary of SEO companies which make guarantees, from experience, save your money man....

seasonsonline

2nd May 2009, 16:30

I am always wary of SEO companies which make guarantees, from experience, save your money man....

Here here! Exactly. I wont ever rule out ALL SEO companies but I'll always to extra careful that I choose a reputable one that aint gonna drop me in it when I don't meet the demands.

sirearl

2nd May 2009, 17:49

Cool!:cool: . So you think that no one searches sparkly jewellery, ethnic jewellery, wedding & prom jewellery???- You're definitely wrong.

I may be wrong but if you have more than 20 searches a day for those terms I will eat yet another one of me hats.?:)

Earl

seasonsonline

2nd May 2009, 18:16

I may be wrong but if you have more than 20 searches a day for those terms I will eat yet another one of me hats.?:)

Earl

Ok, well let's say we got 20 search terms for that and 20 more for Big fashion earrings, big costume earrings, sparkly earrings, prom jewellery, cheap wedding & prom jewellery etc etc etc.

Oh, and let's throw in summer fashion 2009 (ok, so we're only 10th but out of 18,000,000)......

We have great SEO for product keywords as well. E.g, large brown flower ring, value pack hair slides etc etc

Combined with our ever improving conversion rate (see previous thread),- without wanting to blow the old trumpet I think we're ticking along pretty well for a new site.

As far as good SEO is concerned, patience is definitely a virtue and writing "Good honest content" helps. As said before, yes for sure I've no doubt that by paying an SEO company you can undoubtedly improve page rank. However, there are many companies that will use any method necessary to secure their monthly payments, getting you to the top of the list, but at the same time jeopardizing your business in the long run. That's all I'm saying,- it's what I've learned from numerous different sources.

GreeceMonkey

25th May 2009, 13:40

Has anyone ever used or heard of a company called First Search Consultancy? They charge £200.00/year and guarantee first page Google result for 7 phases (or list of key words) within an entire county. For example if anyone searches Google for children’s entertainer, disco, party venue etc in any town or village in Kent such as Mobile Disco Ashford – I’m guaranteed to come up on the first page.

They want my log in details for my hosting account o do all the meta tags etc. Is this normal?

It seems like a good deal tome – what do you think?

Dont do it, I used to make this mistake, It is a waste of money - Give me you URL now, and I can have it at the top of google for FREE this afternoon.

GreeceMonkey

25th May 2009, 14:24

I cannot type the URL as I don't have the 15 posts but its buyfromtheuk.co.uk with the bits in front. Thank you very much for your help.

I was kind of hoping to be able to find enough unique comibnations of words on your site to search on them words and find one of you URL at the top of google.

I had a good look at your site for about 20 mins, it is going to need a lot of work, it is not really at the SEO stage - you could probally get better results with more work on the site.

You need more content not links a description of each page and category, proper meta and content information.

You have also used categorys and sub categorys in the URL which does delay things a lot. For example firewood belongs to the timber category for the menu, but this does not mean it has to be like that in real life. Why not have /firewood and /timber - just that the menu says top > timber > firewood.

I would plan the design of the site a bit better, for the menu structure and the URL structure, and they tie that in with the meta and content information.

If it was possible to actually find one of your pages from google, when you get there, then you dont actually have a logo on that page so it is not clear where you are.

This is my advice, dont worry about SEO for a while plan the site and try and have a better navigation system

buyfromtheuk

25th May 2009, 14:39

Thanks for the excellent advice.

Country Services

25th May 2009, 18:51

My company had a telephone call last week from a person looking for a company to design their Marshal Arts website.

The person phoning us, spoke to my customer services assistant and asked her if it was true that First Search Consultancy had designed our website. First Seach Consultancy had given my business as an example of their work.

A somewhat curious claim since our website was designed inhouse, in Front page, has awful code, and is badly in need of a complete overhaul. Whilst somewhat flattered that someone might wish to use us as an example, I can only conclude that either the person phoning was completely unhinged, or, First Search Consultancy are

1. Dishonest
2. Unable to recognise a well coded website.

Pippa

buyfromtheuk

25th May 2009, 19:11

Can someone please explain what the 'meta' content is a where do I find/add it?

GreeceMonkey

26th May 2009, 01:41

Can someone please explain what the 'meta' content is a where do I find/add it?

If you use this website as an example, click on the edit > view source in the browser menu, you will see the HTML source for this page. There are 100's of meta values but the ones we are mainly refering to is keywords and description. They are on lines 8 and 9 of the view source for this site.

I think the value of the meta information is now a lot less than it was 5 years ago, but it does still serve a good SEO purpose. The other major tag though not strictly meta tag is the title tag the words inclosed in the <title></title> in the html.

The description will mostly be printed as the description when your website is displayed in google and yahoo. It also enables the description and keywords to be used a a weight in the search query.

Though I still do this, I am not that convinced that google and yahoo consider it that important now adays. I concentrate more on the actual content of the pages, which in the end is what google and yahoo should be measuring.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GZAZ_en-GBGB261GB261&q=malia

I am top in google click the link above and note the description in google. and below is my meta tag for that page

<meta name= "description" content= "GreeceMonkey:- Malia. Crete Malia is one of the wildest resorts in the whole of Greece, it is visited by all of europes young people. With well over 140 clubs and bars, this is not a place to missed for the young and not so young party people.">

I think if you are going to do the meta tags properly, then I would definalty recommend you do them differently for each page, either manually or using a database.

Hope that helps a bit, message me back if you want to know any more

G

Kay

26th May 2009, 02:14

Aaargh, I'm amazed that people will believe these kind of guarantees. Google could change its algo tomorrow. Nothing is certain. It's simply not true, or ethical, to make promises which you can't keep. Oh, and another thing - if someone advertises a guarantee that you'll be in the top ten, what happens if they get eleven customers?

buyfromtheuk

29th May 2009, 19:55

Thanks for the meta tag information.
I used to travel a lot and I spent a few seasons in Sitia (Crete) just down the road from Malia. Website building should hopefully be eaiser than picking olives!

wise

30th May 2009, 08:14

One of the best things you can do, and is overlooked by most, is to simply register your business with google maps / directory.

At this point they let you put in key words which then get tied against your address. We have several companies that appear before the google search results , with a nice address, tel number and map to find your business.

At this point then you can start to build your links, SEO and content.

buyfromtheuk

12th July 2009, 16:53

Place of design

12th July 2009, 16:59

I am near the top for 'great british business directory' but nowhere for 'uk business directory' yet I have used 'UK' more than 'great british' can you make any suggests to keep the 'the great british' ranking but move up on the 'uk' rank?

1. learn how people search
2. want to be top for a RANGE of search terms - especially what people are searching for

it is very easy for somne to promote a search for an obscure phrase... e.g. I am P4 for "pinpoint marketing with microsites" and I only wrote the page 4 days ago.. nuff said

bcmedia

12th July 2009, 17:50

Without blowing my own trumpet (too hard), one of my sites has generated around £8 Million worth of leads thanks to the SEO work done by myself in the past 3 months - that's not to say the company in question has secured this business but the website generated the enquiries and put forward an image successful enough to make the potential customer contact them and ask for a tender. I have another site thats turning over 6000 visitors a month for online sales, which is good too.

However, it took me over a year of work to be able to successfully implement SEO...My point being is that asking the odd question here or there really isn't going to get you anywhere (re: buyfromtheuk)...You need to invest time & effort into research via books or specialists OR hire someone.

Also, dependant on the competitiveness of industry, you may find SEO is not even the best route - I won't touch certain industries, instead passing the work up to a more skilled, full time SEO pro. As with anything though, the better work you want, the more you have to pay!

buyfromtheuk

12th July 2009, 18:16

Everything I do is free, so paying for SEO is not an option. I made the website because I really care about the UK business and how it affects all of our futures. I don't want to make any profit but I would like the site to become more accessible to the general public.

The reason I ask you guys the odd question is because most offer you offer excellent free advice. Your advice has got me from zero to at least showing on some random search phrases. Keep the help coming please.

bcmedia

12th July 2009, 19:12

Grab a copy of this - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Get-Top-Google-Techniques-There/dp/1857885023....Probably the best tenner I spent in a while.

It covers a lot of areas & from there you can ask more targeted questions which wouldn't take a week to answer concisely :)

Cartoon Logos

12th July 2009, 22:30

I recently gave someone advice that got their free ads to

front page of Google in under 24hrs for key phrases relating to their area.

Read my article here for details of how to achieve this result FREE

http://searchwarp.com/swa437772-How-To-Advertise-On-The-Front-Page-Of-Google-Free.htm

I am on Googles front page

1,4,5,6 spot

for

'copywriter dunstable'

and many more phrases besides using this system

BUT, this phrase and ones like it aren't that helpful to a business like mine, but they are great for businesses who rely 100% on local trade and the locals on them

ie cleaners, gardeners, plumbers, electricians, pet sitters and so on.

Good luck

Leah

bcmedia

12th July 2009, 23:35

The girls got style - in many uncompetitive fields you can get a first page ranking by utilising basic white hat SEO - I've just done this for a Chiropractor & it works.

Cartoon Logos

12th July 2009, 23:40

The girls got style - in many uncompetitive fields you can get a first page ranking by utilising basic white hat SEO - I've just done this for a Chiropractor & it works.

Is this me?

If so thanks

If not...

I wasn't here........;)

buyfromtheuk

2nd August 2009, 19:22

I applied to join all of the free UK business directories. It did help move me up the rankings but it seems that some of them don't like your tip as some of them have removed the adverts.

Rolypig

2nd August 2009, 21:07

Milo, read it up yourself. I asked my website designer/expert of many years, just the same question. Keep away from them. Be very aware of slimey T&C which can tie you in to paying for the service. Learn all about adwords, its time well spent.

Cartoon Logos

3rd August 2009, 11:28

I applied to join all of the free UK business directories. It did help move me up the rankings but it seems that some of them don't like your tip as some of them have removed the adverts.

If this post relates to me and my ads

I don't renew all my ads weekly (some require renewal every week) as I am not looking for new business presently, also I just don't get around to it. But the ads remain on your account if you want to reactivate them depending on the didrectory. They're all a bit different.

Ads aren't removed unless you breach their terms

Duplicate ads are removed.

wcjohnston

23rd October 2009, 14:04

bcmedia

27th November 2009, 13:44

Dear all with regards to seo i went with a company called town pages and i have to say that im very impressed with the results im constantly on the 1st page for my building firm in the sponsored links so it means im at the top i would recommend them all day to anyone who asked.

Sponsored listings isn't SEO its adwords - that means your paying for every time a user clicks on your advert (hence the name).

The fact your advisor hasn't informed you off the difference is worrying IMO!

dappa000

28th December 2009, 21:05

This company is a complete con please stay clear and save your money PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stay clear all I've had is complete ignorance, they promise you the world but don't deliver the promise you ask for a refund and you get no reply then they make you feel as though they dont exist anymore, I wish I had gone with my instinct's in the first place, please stay clear of this company who are now called UNITEL but still operate under the name of First Search Consultancy, they also sign you into a automatic yearly renewal fee without telling you, for the last time please stay clear I would hate for anyone to go through what I've had to.

God Bless
Sunny

goz83

29th December 2009, 16:27

First Search Consultancy are not a good company. I signed up two of my websites about 10 weeks apart. On both websites, they keyword stuffed in the description and keyword sections of meta tags. This is frowned upon by search engines. After many phone calls, emails and second, third, fourth, fifth chances...I eventually gave up and learned how to optimise my own sites.

I sent a registered letter to FSC to refuse them access to my credit card for renewing my contract. I contacted my credit card company to inform them that FSC was under no circumstances to draw funds from my account.

My contract for my first website ended in October 2009. The second site is due to expire shortly. FSC claim to destroy ftp details and passwords after initial optimisation. This doesn't make sense if they also claim to update your website regularly. They never did update my websites after the initial optimisation, but they did log into my first website without my consent and delete all optimisation. All the optimisation work was my own as I had removed the shabby work FSC had completed. They not only took my money and ruined my websites, but they had the cheek to illegally remove my own optimisation work and say nothing about it. I just found out today. Luckily I had a back up from September which I was able to utilise and the second website was untouched because the contract is still in place. I have changed the passwords on all my sites so good luck to FSC. I will let everyone know about their illegal/unprofessional activity. I can also confirm that they cold called me and claimed to be Google. First time I learned any different was when they took the money and I received the contract.

Cartoon Logos

1st January 2010, 18:13

For example if anyone searches Google for children’s entertainer, disco, party venue etc in any town or village in Kent such as Mobile Disco Ashford – I’m guaranteed to come up on the first page.

You can do this yourself

See my tips page and page down to 'how to get to front page of Google with a free ad' article.

http://www.painfreemarketing.co.uk/Tips.html

To have your site come up, include the type of business you're in with the area in headings, titles and of course in small text at bottom of site. Have as many related phrases and relevant locations as you can think of listed.

If you look at top sites on Google searches they have this type of thing in tiny font often at base of their website pages. The info is there so search engines identify the site when users search using those same phrases rather than to be read by readers on the site.

I'm shortly going to help a pal get his business to first page of Google for local searches (he trades locally). I won't charge anything but if I was to charge £200 sounds more than reasonable given the time and the results. Assuming that is the phrases they aim for are the best ones for your business.

quikshop

1st January 2010, 23:45

This company is a complete con please stay clear and save your money PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stay clear, Sunny

Well done Sunny (Jim?)... and what line of business are you in? Oh wait, let me guess :D:rolleyes:

Cartoon Logos

2nd January 2010, 12:23

I just had a call from them... all sounds too good to be true, so probably is.

The sales woman said I would have first page listing and gave a couple of sites as an example. But the key phrases used were so underused that Google had no data on the number of searches done for these words.

That is normal for local search phrases

If you have a business that can only trade with people in a certain area there is no advanatge to having your site seen by the entire world. People looking for local services similarly don't use search terms that will provide results from service providers the other side of the world. They'll use

service + area as their search phrase.

The amount of people who do this may be small, but they still make up your entire target audience that is using the web to find your service. If that number is small it won't get bigger by anything you do.

Those that do not use the Internet to find local services can not be influenced to do so by your highly paid seo expert.

Tis logic captain ;)

Duke Fame

26th January 2010, 16:04

First search also provide a credit rating product called creditsafe, they are a con. The initial hook is a great deal but before you know it, yo are in a contract costing 4 x the intro offer.

They are welsh i think, the boiler who called me was like a dog with a bone and the offer price fell from £1,000 to £150 in a blink of an eye. No mount of "I'm busy" would get rid of her.

jacksons

6th May 2010, 15:52

always be very wary with SEO companies which promise or guarantee 1st page results. Organically it is not possible in a short space of time to get on first page results unless nobody at all is targetting your keywords (very unlikely).

however i have looked into First Search Consultancy and they do it a bit different, by using a page on their very optimised website which acts as your splash page. This is the domain which will be in the results not your actual domain. It seems a bit fishy and something unethical is going on but not entirely sure.

If Google does find some bad practice conducted by this company and your website is linked to it, it may damage your credibility with the major search engines.

However if you don't mind their domain being the one which is on the first page then go for it, its cheap enough!!

Cartoon Logos

6th May 2010, 16:18

If you want to do this youself this is how you do it

(bear in mind this will take you some time and if your time is worth more than £200 then nothing to lose letting someone else do it for you)

This is an article/blog post I wrote re this very topic, pasted here for your benefit.

"
How To Generate New Business with Free Ads On The Internet

Today, more and more consumers search for services in their local area via the Internet and if you don’t have an Internet presence they won’t know you exist.

The Good News is that you can advertise on the Internet for FREE

There are tons of great classified Ad directories on the Internet that you can place a free Ad.
Many allow website links, text, pictures and other details all completely free.

Here are my top places for placing Free Ads.

My FreeIndex (http://www.freeindex.co.uk/signup.htm?ref=R170022) – great site, allows you to add lots of information
Gumtree.com (http://www.gumtree.com/)
Yell.com (http://www.yell.com/)
VivaStreet UK Ads (http://www.vivastreet.co.uk/) FREE to search & to advertise on Vivastreet 10/10
This is my fav as you can add pics, links and lots of text, all free.

Craigslist Classifieds (http://www.craigslist.org/) – Currently #8 on Alexa’s ranking for the most visited websites.
Ablewise Free Classifieds (http://www.thmg.com/free/ablewise.html) Provides free online classifieds in 10 Countries (US, UK, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong & China)
UK classifieds (http://www.ukclassifieds.co.uk/)

If you service clients in a small geographical area, with appropriate content
you can most likely get your FREE AD to the front page of Google.
You can do this for keyword phrases that cover your service and local area.

Front Page of Google?

If you have a business that sells to local consumers then learning how to get on Google’s front page with a free ad might interest you as well as save you a fortune in advertising.
Small businesses who can benefit from this information include:
Retail shops, cleaners, gardeners, pet sitters,electricians, plumbers, car sales, taxi companies, hair salons and so on.

First, you need to:

1.Google the product or service that you offer followed by your location

2. See what’s on the front page of Google.

Are there any classified business directories listed?
Are they showing you results for one service they have listed on their directory?
Do they offer free ads on their directory?

3. Register with the top listed directories as per your search (try a few using different keyword phrases that you know are popular for your product/service)

Important!

In your Ad title – no point listing your ambiguous business name that no one will be Googling. Instead write the name of the service and the location.

Within your Ad include all keywords that Googlers might use and of course your business name can appear.

Publish and let Google do the rest.

Ensure your website link is the first thing you add to your free ads content.
Join as many free sites as you can and add your link to as many sites as you can. This all increases your chances of a good result.

————————————

no copying without my permission.

jocel

10th May 2010, 11:54

hi everyone, i just wondering if any of you guys can explain to me,

ho many day on average SEO will show significant affection to our site?

thanks in advance

buyfromtheuk

29th May 2010, 05:59

"Join as many free sites as you can and add your link to as many sites as you can. This all increases your chances of a good result."

Good advice.

Also make sure that you join www.buyfromtheuk.co.uk (http://www.buyfromtheuk.co.uk) it's free and if you are a good UK company then I will do lots of promotional work for you (Facebook, Twitter etc).

Gem26

2nd July 2010, 15:37

[quote=360interactive;728875]
There are good and bad seo companys out there.
My tip search for what those companys do, is they come top you're are generally onto a winner.

They are typically known as 'search engine consultants'.

Google it, and see what you get.

muffaletta

23rd February 2011, 12:53

My experience is very negative - Certainly don't trust them. As well as not getting the ratings promised I had unwanted and malicious links posted on to my homepage 1 day after releasing the ftp password to them. Their customer service is non existent -Stay away:mad:

Local SEO

21st February 2012, 08:30

I'm afraid to say that I've had so many clients report badly on these guys. The whole SEO world is so big it's easy for anyone to get in on the act. While there are quick ways of making an impact in Google (and other search engines) it really is about longevity. No one just wants to appear high in the rankings for a month, they want to be there forever!

It is possible but it's down to two things, hard (manual) work and budgeting for ongoing support of it.

I wish there was an easy magic formula but unfortunately there isn't. Each industry carries it's own challenges and while we have had great success for the large majority of our clients there is always the odd one that requires more time than others. This is something we have to absorb as a company and put it down to experience as it's not fair to pass the charge back to the client.

sla3

21st February 2012, 12:36

But it’s not just a county – It’s any town, village or area within the county.

I can’t find any bad reviews and they don’t look like a Disney company, so I’m going to give it a shot I think. I should imagine they only have to do the initial work on the meta tags etc and they probably have software to do auto submissions for the search engines so they shouldn’t have to spend too much time on it.

You are throwing away £200 for work you can do yourself.

Look: how many "Children's Entertainers" ARE there in Chipping Snodgras? *I* could get you 1st place on Google for that, and I only know what I read on Google and learned from a couple of free tools which analyse your site.

The more unique your service / location the easier it is to get 1st page ranking. I made a website for an acquaintance who provided - cough - fairly unique services in a fairly competetive and well-populated market place and kept between 1st and 4th place on gooogle for a 'locale-specific' search (East Midlands being the broadest) and kept it there for all the time I was interested in doing it - about a year.

It is NOT rocket science at that level: actually it's pretty much a doddle if you can follow a list of "things to do", have the time and patience to do the research, and have a few spare hours a week to keep on top of it. Without a geographic (or similar) limiter? For a commonplace service or product for wide search terms? I wouldn't even have bothered trying.