SEO for Newbies

[Tom1uk]

Hi all,

I own a garage in Warrington, and I am looking at how customers find me in my immediate area. I know that the majority of people will Google the local services in the area, I want to ensure I come up in the listings. I am currently paying for Google add words but I don't feel this is generating me enough footfall, as I know from when I use Google that I stay away from the sponsored links. I have recently had some companies in talking to me about SEO, and while I have a general idea of what it does, I was wondering if people could let me know the experiences they've had with companies running their SEO campaigns? Has it increased their website traffic? And is their a clear advantage in using this compared to add words? I have read alot of threads on here but I never seem to come out from reading them feeling any more confident about these SEO companies than I did from the start.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[webgeek]

Pick an SEO company via whatever method (random or otherwise), look at their testimonials and call one of them, or ask for a referral or two, and call them.

Find out what kind of results they've had, then ask what kind of results are guaranteed, if any.

Just about any SEO firm worth their salt can come up with some stellar reviews. Alternatively, just about everyone in the business community knows of one or more people who have had a bad experience (particularly after the Penguin update).

If you still aren't feeling comfortable, try a 'pay on results' or 'pay for performance' SEO company. No results = no payment...

 

[Ali-v-8]

Garages are easy to get to page one for any SEO worth his salt - but firstly i would recommend you create a Google+ account and add yourself to places and see where this puts you. Your website when optimised will merge with this listing.
If you have any reservations ask the SEO company to explain - If they are legit they will. If you are unsure about anything - ASK AGAIN. Dont assume.

 

[fairestcape]

Garages are easy to get to page one for any SEO worth his salt - but firstly i would recommend you create a Google+ account and add yourself to places and see where this puts you. Your website when optimised will merge with this listing.
If you have any reservations ask the SEO company to explain - If they are legit they will. If you are unsure about anything - ASK AGAIN. Dont assume.

Of all those who posted so far, this is the only post with any practical and useful advice.#

GOOGLE PLACES... Go research it... and get set up on it.

Basically, it is a mechanism through which Google will return results to people who search for something, based on their GEOGRAPHICAL PROXIMITY to websites that offer what they are looking for.

SO... if I own a garage, and set up GOOGLE PLACES, and indicate that my "sphere of influence" is 20 miles from my postcode. People within that 20 mile radius searching on google for "Garage and Car Servicing" will probably see my website result in the top 5 search results...

 

[Ali-v-8]

Google has listed 8 maps, but depending on SEO'd site will merge or plant them between the maps.
Search rubbish clearance london - A friends website is in the map listing - this is also his website listing to.
Because of Google system in place it take a small investment and time to gain valuable traffic for free.

 

[ColourKraft]

You could always hire a reputable SEO company. But in reality the #1 way to quickly rank your website high in Google is to provide lots of high quality content to your users. The rankings will naturally follow.

 

[Marketing Oxford]

Long run SEO if done right is a lot more cost effective! Say if you paid £2 per click and wanted 200 clicks, that would cost you £400/mo ongoing as long as you wanted visitors.
SEO time frame I know does vary depending on keywords but if it's local term can't see it being too competitive. So if you ranked #1 in 2-3 months, all traffic you receive after that would be free. Every now and then you may need to pay your SEO agency a small fee to send some new links and add new content to the site to maintain rankings.

 

[HectorSanchez]

Garages are easy to get to page one for any SEO worth his salt - but firstly i would recommend you create a Google+ account and add yourself to places and see where this puts you. Your website when optimised will merge with this listing.
If you have any reservations ask the SEO company to explain - If they are legit they will. If you are unsure about anything - ASK AGAIN. Dont assume.

You could always hire a reputable SEO company. But in reality the #1 way to quickly rank your website high in Google is to provide lots of high quality content to your users. The rankings will naturally follow.

I'd say pay attention to these 2 recommendations! Google+ Local will give your local business a big push

Also, instead of paying for adwords, I'd recommend you to try to leave some time to write something that will be interesting for your potential customers, give them something to look forward to on your website, and do it regularly. If you post regular news or blog posts then your site is always fresh, and Google will start rewarding you with a higher ranking.

 

[cogo]

Hi all,

I own a garage in Warrington, and I am looking at how customers find me in my immediate area. I know that the majority of people will Google the local services in the area, I want to ensure I come up in the listings. I am currently paying for Google add words but I don't feel this is generating me enough footfall, as I know from when I use Google that I stay away from the sponsored links. I have recently had some companies in talking to me about SEO, and while I have a general idea of what it does, I was wondering if people could let me know the experiences they've had with companies running their SEO campaigns? Has it increased their website traffic? And is their a clear advantage in using this compared to add words? I have read alot of threads on here but I never seem to come out from reading them feeling any more confident about these SEO companies than I did from the start.

Any advice appreciated.

The thing with SEO is there's so many different levels and costs. For a garage in Warrington you'd want to concentrate on the site itself making sure you have good content/keywords and some offsite social and link building (from good sources).

I know there's people around selling SEO dirt cheap, but it's reflective of the quality you're getting. A good well written article will cost you quite a bit. Getting that listed on a high quality authority site will cost you too. Not to mention you need to build links from a wide variety of sources (think social/blogs/forums).

Going to cheap normally means spam, and you're not going to get away with that for long.

 

[Latebloomer]

Just register in directories such as google, yahoo, yell, etc... anything that you can put your site into.
It will be helpful if you can write articles and post in forums and blogs.
There is a lot of things out there but you need to spend quite a few time to be familiarized with SEO. I will suggest spend time now reading about SEO and doing it before you actually choose a SEO company as you may find it unaffordable for a the long time.
If you hire SEO too quickly, many are likely to do things that you can do anyway. Do the easy things first yourself and leave the difficult one to SEO companies rather than the other way around.

 

[jeffreydominic]

The thing You can do to your website is SEO strategies. SEO can be done in two ways. On-page SEO, Off-page SEO. On-page SEO helps a little. But Off-page SEO helps alot in a website.

 

[Ali-v-8]

big mistake to think that.

The thing You can do to your website is SEO strategies. SEO can be done in two ways. On-page SEO, Off-page SEO. On-page SEO helps a little. But Off-page SEO helps alot in a website.

 

[LJSL2010]

if you need help with SEO, UK US Marketing have made 3 articles which can help beginners, intermediate and advanced SEO strategies there are also lists to article sites etc.. where you can sign up and should help build traffic to your site.
Seo can be really time consuming if you are in a competitive industry, but a little everyday can make a big difference, and cheaper than hiring a company to do it for you.