First Search Consultancy?

[Poppy Design]

Hello

Does anyone have any experience using this SEO company http://www.firstsearchconsultancy.co.uk/search-engineering.htm?

I seem to be getting more and more SEO company calls every day selling their services for my wedding stationery website.

I have very good natural high google listings for my local city and county (ie page 1 position 1 and 2) but would like get on page 1 for some national search terms. I am a designer and already run 2 companies so don't have the time or the inclination to do the seo myself!

This company has made me a proposal and sometimes you have to try a company before determining if they are good

Thanks
Joanne

 

[petera]

Someone needs to explain to them what a comma is and how it should be used.
Never heard of them personally. Ask them to show you some examples of rankings they have achieved for clients from scratch.

 

[LianneF]

I haven't heard of them either and I've researched a lot of seo companies! but they seem to be targeting broadband quite a bit at the bottom of the site and also are using words like search engineering and search marketing which I wouldn't search for if looking for an seo company so doubt they are very competitive keywords, but might be wrong? and they don't really give a lot of information on what they actually do. I would definitely ask more about what they will do to your site and speak to clients and see what keywords they have worked on.

 

[Poppy Design]

I haven't heard of them either and I've researched a lot of seo companies! but they seem to be targeting broadband quite a bit at the bottom of the site and also are using words like search engineering and search marketing which I wouldn't search for if looking for an seo company so doubt they are very competitive keywords, but might be wrong? and they don't really give a lot of information on what they actually do. I would definitely ask more about what they will do to your site and speak to clients and see what keywords they have worked on.

Hi

Yes I asked for examples and the ones they gave are all town or city specific not national - will ask them this!

Have you used an SEO company for your site?

Thanks

Joanne

 

[eventdomain]

I have very good natural high google listings for my local city and county (ie page 1 position 1 and 2) but would like get on page 1 for some national search terms.

Wow, boy! have you just joined the ranks of one of the most competitive industries going. The market for wedding services is saturated so much, I doubt you will rank highly for any wedding keywords, I know this sector very well and operate the Uk's No1 portal for this activity.

The event suppliers I speak to including: Gift sites, Marquee services, caterers, Wedding specialists etc are panicking over SEO, and is why they search for niche portals like they do - they know how tough it is to stand out for the main wedding keywords, and I hear this frustration all the time, hence why they use Eventdomain to get them exposure!

This crazy ranking battle is partly why Eventdomain exists, to aid the promotion of hard working Event professionals, and make it easier to be found. The major search engines control the promotion activities, by limiting the number of sites on the key pages eg: 1-10, so anyone ranked below 10th page is basically stuffed, as from our research people won't search past 3 to 5 pages deep - they get fed up and look for other options.

You won't beat the top companies eg: haymarket, Reed, Caterer.com - so don't blow cash or time on trying. Suggest using a good title, and create content pages that will attract related one-way links, and do this naturally. Buying your way to the top will be very expensive, one quite famous site tried this and got penalised by the G for mass link buying.

Link swapping works and is free. You should find a ton of eager event services begging for links right now.

 

[Poppy Design]

Wow, boy! have you just joined the ranks of one of the most competitive industries going. The market for wedding services is saturated so much, I doubt you will rank highly for any wedding keywords, I know this sector very well and operate the Uk's No1 portal for this activity.

The event suppliers I speak to including: Gift sites, Marquee services, caterers, Wedding specialists etc are panicking over SEO, and is why they search for niche portals like they do - they know how tough it is to stand out for the main wedding keywords, and I hear this frustration all the time, hence why they use Eventdomain to get them exposure!

This crazy ranking battle is partly why Eventdomain exists, to aid the promotion of hard working Event professionals, and make it easier to be found. The major search engines control the promotion activities, by limiting the number of sites on the key pages eg: 1-10, so anyone ranked below 10th page is basically stuffed, as from our research people won't search past 3 to 5 pages deep - they get fed up and look for other options.

You won't beat the top companies eg: haymarket, Reed, Caterer.com - so don't blow cash or time on trying. Suggest using a good title, and create content pages that will attract related one-way links, and do this naturally. Buying your way to the top will be very expensive, one quite famous site tried this and got penalised by the G for mass link buying.

Link swapping works and is free. You should find a ton of eager event services begging for links right now.

It is only a add-on service to my existing business so not critical - however all new business is nice!

It is very much bespoke so it is the high end of the market I am aiming for

Thanks
Joanne

 

[LianneF]

Hi Poppy
The keywords with city / town names are probably the easiest ones to get and depending on what industry you are in don't get many hits. i.e gift shops oxford doesn't get hardly any and ppc companies always ring with there pay £100 per month and we will keep you at the top, which is a rip off because i can do that myself if i wanted for probably £5 per month so don't get talked in to doing something like that. I have contacted lots of seo companies and did go with 1 last year but they didn't do anything i didn't already know myself, it's easier to do it yourself, there's loads of info on the web and you have control on what is done to your site. I couldn't see you anywhere in the first 15 pages for wedding stationery so would probably take a while to get to pay one. maybe try and target long tail keywords, like personalised wedding stationery, custom wedding stationery etc, you will know what these are better than me, use the adwords tool to get an idea of the best ones and maybe even use adwords if you don't already. As you know my sister does cakes and there are lots of sites you can swap links with like cake sites, photography etc, local wedding directories, magazines etc, which might help you more than spending a fortune on try to get to no. 1 for wedding stationery.
Hope this help abit
Lianne

 

[LianneF]

have you thought about adding a sort of portfolio showing the stationery you've done as you have to go quite deep into the site to see the better examples and you might have lost people before they get there

 

[Poppy Design]

have you thought about adding a sort of portfolio showing the stationery you've done as you have to go quite deep into the site to see the better examples and you might have lost people before they get there

hi Lianne

Thanks for this tip.

I just started this add on service in Jan this year so building up the service and portfolio as a lot of the images are from the suppliers range so will def be getting a professional photographer to take my own design range in the next month or 2 and have a clearer gallery with prices

Joanne

 

[Poppy Design]

Hi Poppy
The keywords with city / town names are probably the easiest ones to get and depending on what industry you are in don't get many hits. i.e gift shops oxford doesn't get hardly any and ppc companies always ring with there pay £100 per month and we will keep you at the top, which is a rip off because i can do that myself if i wanted for probably £5 per month so don't get talked in to doing something like that. I have contacted lots of seo companies and did go with 1 last year but they didn't do anything i didn't already know myself, it's easier to do it yourself, there's loads of info on the web and you have control on what is done to your site. I couldn't see you anywhere in the first 15 pages for wedding stationery so would probably take a while to get to pay one. maybe try and target long tail keywords, like personalised wedding stationery, custom wedding stationery etc, you will know what these are better than me, use the adwords tool to get an idea of the best ones and maybe even use adwords if you don't already. As you know my sister does cakes and there are lots of sites you can swap links with like cake sites, photography etc, local wedding directories, magazines etc, which might help you more than spending a fortune on try to get to no. 1 for wedding stationery.
Hope this help abit
Lianne

Hi Lianne

Yes getting listed for your town/city is quite easy (unless perhaps London!). The wedding stationery market is saturated and I am offering a high end product to a particular local market so probably paying to get listed for national results would be a waste of money!
Best for me to focus on my county for this particular service.

I am however 1st on Google for "corporate event stationery" which just happened - though I don't get that many enquiries so perhaps not very searched for!

Thanks for your post - has clarified my direction! These pesty cold calling sales people are becoming a right pain ... I just want to design and they keep calling!

Joanne

 

[LianneF]

Hi
I get people ringing nearly every day trying to sell me some seo scam, they are always too good to be true, i just hang up now. Never go with anyone who rings as the good people are too busy to cold call and get business from recommendations. if you want to target your local area maybe try specialist mags, directories, bridal fairs, yellow pages? etc
Best of luck
Lianne

 

[timtav]

I would say always check the SEO companies track record with testimonials. Then create a list of the top few and get prices, terms of business etc.

 

[patricia.mcbride1@ntlworl]

I am in conflict with this company at the moment who after several months and much communication tell me that they cannot connect to my website as is was made on a MAC. They did not ask me how it was made when they sold me the service.

They have offered me 'as a goodwill gesture" (!) a very, very poor three page website instead.

 

[Ali-v-8]

I'm confused as to why that would matter.
Unless of course its one of the template programmes that feed off your mac website

I am in conflict with this company at the moment who after several months and much communication tell me that they cannot connect to my website as is was made on a MAC. They did not ask me how it was made when they sold me the service.

They have offered me 'as a goodwill gesture" (!) a very, very poor three page website instead.

 

[karen Train Your K9]

Just joined as I am have in the same boat. Not used to these forums so give me time!!! I have posted something already so hopefully you will have a chance to read where I am up to. If not let me know and I will fll you in.

 

[sbruton]

Hi, I too have been ripped off by first search consultancy. I paid £170 a year ago to get our driving school on google and a year later it is still nowhere to be seen. They promise you the keyword you want, i.e in our case 'driving schools norwich' and then say you can have a few other keywords as well. I gave them some others i wasn't really bothered about and one of these ranked on google therefore they feel they have fulfilled their contract. The customers services manager Barbara has never returned any of my calls or emails. The supervisor is very helpful but seems powerless to do anything. I would urge anyone who has been ripped off to email the bbc consumer program 'Dont get done get dom' as I have, and if enough of do they might investigate them.

 

[karen Train Your K9]

Have to say I had all but gven up, trading Standards appear to have wiped their hands of it and I had put it down to experience...However I will do what you suggest and email 'don't get done...' It certainly can't do any harm!! Thanks!

 

[karen Train Your K9]

Big appology to fast host! I meant first search....sorry!

 

[polishedmedia]

Avoid this comapny like the plague. They were formed by a sales person, a sales person who doesn't actually have any techncial knowledge.

If you take a look at some of the site they do "SEO" for, all they actually do is add spammy text all over the place. I also know of someone who paid them to do the SEO and in doing so they gave them thier FTP details causing all sorts of problems when they wanted to leave.

My advise is and always has been, never trust a company who cold calls or pesters you like first search consultancy do.

Seriously they really do not know what they are doing in regards to SEO!