Positive SEO Company results?

[ChrisCurriePhotography]

Hello!

New to the forum so forgive me if I am covering old ground.

I just wondering if anyone has had a positive experiences with an SEO company?

We are a new wedding photography company looking to get noticed!


Any help would be much appreciated,

Gillian

 

[Annoying Donkey]

The site displays badly in firefox 3.6.3 under linux with scripts off.

Need decent headings.
URLs need work ('/?/page/4952/portfolio/25/' does nothing for your SEO).

I suspect you'll need a healthy budget to compete in wedding photography...

I'll try and take a closer look later.

 

[Alicatt]

I suspect you'll need a healthy budget to compete in wedding photography...

You will want to focus on the areas you actually cover, so instead of looking to rank highly for "Wedding Photography" start with "Wedding photography Dundee" etc - still quite a bit of competition however!

If you do hire an SEO expert, look for someone who has multiple recommendations and do a bit of homework first. If you at least understand the jargon it will make hiring the right person less of a gamble.

I've written a short piece about SEO for wedding businesses here:
http://www.weddingbusinesssuccess.com/articles/technology/58-wedding-seo-tips.html

I've not used an SEO company myself, so can't recommend anyone, but there are a few people on here who get good reviews.

Hope this helps

Alison

 

[fisicx]

If you want to get notice by the search engines then you don't need SEO you need a new site!

It's all flash so it's almost invisible to the search engines. There is nothing for them to index so they will just pass you by.

 

[S-Marketing]

If you want to get notice by the search engines then you don't need SEO you need a new site!

It's all flash so it's almost invisible to the search engines. There is nothing for them to index so they will just pass you by.

What he said.

 

[maxh]

If you want to get notice by the search engines then you don't need SEO you need a new site!

It's all flash so it's almost invisible to the search engines. There is nothing for them to index so they will just pass you by.

Agreed, at least I would suggest having each image as a standalone piece of content, with title and a 1-2 paragraph keyword rich description.

Then you could pull those together onto a dynamic area on your homepage (so it would look the same)

Other than that social and local are you best bets.

So if you live in London, target "Hire wedding photographer London" keywords.

If you DO build a new site I would suggest getting a URL along the lines of weddingphotographylondon.com or something.

 

[paulmobba]

Yes having your keywords in the title helps also because of the anchor text people will use to link to your site

 

[Annoying Donkey]

If you want to get notice by the search engines then you don't need SEO you need a new site!

It's all flash so it's almost invisible to the search engines. There is nothing for them to index so they will just pass you by.

Not true, 112 pages index

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sour...=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=b882049fcbaf9a3d

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Site reviews are not allowed.

 

I suspect you'll need a healthy budget to compete in wedding photography...

Disagree I would think most wedding stuff is geo targeted.

Earl

 

[OldWelshGuy]

wedding photography youtown isn't that tough at all.

If it is wedding photography london then tough, but other than that not a big deal really.

Good onsite, decent offsite, trade links with other wedding businesses and Robert is your mothers brother (as they say in Henley)

 

[fisicx]

Not true, 112 pages index

...of which 99% are 404 pages (from the old site).

 

[amarath]

Id agree, youd be looking to get a localised search campaign targetting specific areas. It will take time depending on the competition in the areas you are targetting so dont expect results over night.


Cheers

 

[S-Marketing]

Call me old fashioned but I think this is the type of business that could do just as well with just a basic website to act as a portfolio and no other web trickery at all. These types of businesses are so easy to market in the traditional styles, and do very well from recommendation and local popularity. If you live in a smallish town you could easily get yourself known as 'the photographer'. In a large city there is still much more need for offline than online marketing.

I think we can sometimes get carried away with sites, SEO and attracting traffic. My guess would be that more work could be gained by putting a card in the local bridalwear shops window.

 

[Annoying Donkey]

wedding photography youtown isn't that tough at all.

If it is wedding photography london then tough, but other than that not a big deal really.

Good onsite, decent offsite, trade links with other wedding businesses and Robert is your mothers brother (as they say in Henley)

Disagree.

1. OP hasn't said he is only dealing with local traffic. One of our local wedding photographers travels a lot, not only in UK.
2. If you search 'wedding photographers glasgow' you get lots of websites, as opposed to directories, indicating possible competition.
3. My statement was qualified with 'I Suspect'.

...of which 99% are 404 pages (from the old site).

I didn't check that close, however, I believe Matt Cutts, hero to all on this forum, has stated that google can read flash. Personally I dislike flash and tend to walk away.

Tend to agree with Stretchy, teaming up with bridal wear shop or similar is cost effective...

 

[lauralhampton]

There are so many resources available via the internet and conferences for you to learn the basics of SEO, which can be really useful for helping you to do things such as altering your URLs to be more search engine friendly, how to design your sitemap and how to think about keywords.

Essentially, though, your online marketing campaign as a whole should come from a focus on and understanding of your end user or target audience, and ensuring you appeal to them and engage them. Your content should be aimed at your target audience and include keywords that reflect this, and by creating useful, engaging and relevant content on a regular basis, you will also be having a positive effect on your SEO.

Remember, link building is hugely important in SEO, and that you want inbound links from relevant and reputable sources. So, by being engaging, relevant and useful, you will be more likely to be seen as useful resource and therefore linked to from other sites.

Sites such as **removed** are great because they allow you to gain a new website and ongoing online marketing and support, which takes the burden off you and allows you to get on with running your business.

There's also loads of help available on forums such as this one. Hope this helps, and good luck!

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I didn't check that close, however, I believe Matt Cutts, hero to all on this forum, has stated that google can read flash. Personally I dislike flash and tend to walk away.

Tend to agree with Stretchy, teaming up with bridal wear shop or similar is cost effective...

You disagreed with my statement of fact because you suspect that isn't what the OP was asking? Ok but I still don't get it. Are you saying that my statement is wrong? What are you disagreeing with?

Regarding flash, lets get it all out in the open.

Google can
1. pull some text from flash (depending how it is built as there are different ways of using text in flash.

Google can pull urls out (again depending on the above), but ONLY for url discovery alone.

Google can NOT paginate flash as it is one single movie, it does not have pages.

Google can NOT pass page rank/link juice through flash as it can not parse links. Because of this, you can not have a hierachal strucxture to a flah movie.

Flash elements on a html site are fine as long as your crucial text content and your navigation is not part of the movie.

Noscript can help a bit, but again it is a lot of work and will not really get you the same results from an SEO pOV.

 

[Annoying Donkey]

I was responding to your cheap shot...

Just because you can't play rugby, jeez

At least the info about flash might be usful to OP.

 

I was responding to your cheap shot...

Just because you can't play rugby, jeez

At least the info about flash might be usful to OP.

You leave old people out of it.:|

We ain't flash.

Earl

 

[matth]

Hi Gillian,

As others (with more SEO knowledge than me) have mentioned, it's not that difficult to get onto pg 1 Google into your local area.

I'm a wedding photographer myself, and I'm targeting my local area with some success on Google, although I've still got a way to go for the more competitive keywords, but I am currently #1 for my very local area, and now my aim is to expand into wider areas.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like to swap ideas, since you're not local to me I don't mind sharing

Oh, and of course, Google isn't the be all and end all for wedding photographers, I'm starting trying to network with other local wedding companies, trying (if I can get into any) wedding fairs and the like.

Still some way to go, but I'm moving in the right direction.

 

[ChrisCurriePhotography]

A lot to read through there! Thank you to everyone who has replied.

We are actively spreading the word about out business in lots of other ways offline and looking to target specific regions. (Mainly those with little competition at the moment such as - Dundee or Fife in general)

The site was created by a template and is controlled via. a dashboard so I have little access to the coding.

Apparently we have SEO integrated? Here is the snapshot (title) of what is offered. There is also a "submit sitemap to search engine button" and the option to add captions to each image (display and hide).

Do you think we need to scrap this and go for a new site altogether or battle it out??


G

 

[fisicx]

Do you think we need to scrap this and go for a new site altogether or battle it out??

Go get a new HTML site. Even better put the old one back up as it was well indexed.

It's not SEO integrated for anything, submitting a sitemap is pointless as is adding the captions (google still can't 'read' the content).

 

[amarath]

Dont make decisions based on simple replies on this (or any other) forum.

Deciding whether to revamp or entirely replace your site is a big decision to make, particularly if you are thinking of doing it to increase rankings through the engines.

Get a few companies to analyse your existing site and go with what sounds like common sense.

SEO and Online is just common sense afterall, so do that first and then decide what to do with the site and promotion thereafter.

 

[SEO Traffic Solutions]

Go get a new HTML site. Even better put the old one back up as it was well indexed.

I agree that the flash should be ditched. If you just want a brochure site for someone to go to when they see your business card - then flash is OK.

But I wouldn't put the old site back up just because it was indexed. With a couple of well placed backlinks we often get client's sites indexed (or re indexed) in less than 24 hours.

Tip for getting indexed quickly: throw a bit of (unique) content up on good.is with a keyword rich anchor text link back to your site