SEO on my existing site

[jamesbiggin]

Hi fellow forum folk!
I am currently doing a redesign on our existing domain <url removed>- hoping to have this live in the next couple of weeks.
I am very cautious of using a company for my SEO after a bad experience that nearly cost me a lot of money, so I am not really looking for companies to pitch.

I dont think I can achieve a great deal in our industry on the web, vs the competition that is out there, but I want to tickle things along. Therefore I am now thinking of tackling some basics internally and I would greatly appreciate some help on the following from anyone willing to assist :

1. What is the best book that I should consider buying for an established domain to get as many elements of the "on site" recipe correct?

2. Would someone be willing to give me a definitive check list of things to do "on site" instead?

3. The "offsite" recipe is mind blowing, but I know it has to be done right, are there any good (all white hat) ways of building this (again a checklist).

I know I might be asking a lot, but fingers have been burned and I would need to build significant trust again. That could be through someone that helps me with this and keeps in touch - if things I end up doing work, that trust might be gained over time. It might then make work further down the line easier and show better results?

Hope you are willing to help..

 

[OldWelshGuy]

To be honest, that shopping list ius so long I doubt you will get anyone to reply to it. I could reply to one or two, but what youa re askign for is essentially a complete 'how to' guide, without paying a penny

 

[fisicx]

Is it SEO you want or more business?

Rather than go througt the whole ranking rigmarole would it not be better to concentrate of improving conversions?

You don't need a redesign, you just need to re-organise your content and tweak the stylesheet.

 

[jamesbiggin]

OldWelshGuy,
I know I am asking a lot.. it was putting it out there and being honest! I know people will be put off, but there is also a chance to get work once I have established trust.
If I dont get replies, I understand, but if I do, bonus.
Cheers

 

[OldWelshGuy]

OldWelshGuy,
I know I am asking a lot.. it was putting it out there and being honest! I know people will be put off, but there is also a chance to get work once I have established trust.
If I dont get replies, I understand, but if I do, bonus.
Cheers

I understand that, but can't help thinking you would have got more help if the post had been split. Also the carrot of 'lots of work if this works out' is one that to be honest makes many run a mile, as it is a nightmare promise in most cases.

 

[RevaxMedia]

OldWelshGuy,
I know I am asking a lot.. it was putting it out there and being honest! I know people will be put off, but there is also a chance to get work once I have established trust.
If I dont get replies, I understand, but if I do, bonus.
Cheers

James, a guy called Rand Fishkin who owns SEOmoz has done a video on some of the thing you can address when creating a new website, it's also for novice webmasters - May be worth a look: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-seomoz-internal-seo-prelaunch-checklist-whiteboard-friday

I know that video is not Rand however he has some other videos on there too.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Pretty much all that Rand says is OK, but watch out for the smokescreening. Aaron Wall (SEOBook) is also hot on marketing, I have know both these guys since they pretty much started way back when.

There really isn't much difference between SEO for a new site, old site etc. There are certaiun things that need to be done, but beyond having your keyphrases covered directly and through semantic use, having good titles, well structured pages and asite navigation/folder structure, onpage is pretty much sorted.

The rest is about offpage link building when again the whole world is the answer. It can be summed up by saying that all links are links, some are worth less than others, the best link is an on topic link, with the correct anchor text, from a high page rank page. Work backwards from there

 

[jamesbiggin]

Thanks Revax, and apologies to forum users that can see I have posted too much. Also, I feel it was wrong of me to do the "promise of work" type hints. Please ignore those.
If you have just 1 point you would like to make a quick contribution on, I would be most grateful, but I understand if I have gone OTT.
I will leave it in your hands!

 

[damatt]

Hi Jamesbiggin,

I know what you mean about getting ripped off, I had the same problem, promised I would be listed on first couple of pages on Google. I know that it is difficult to get listed on page one in my field with the big boys spending thousands on SEO, but after 6 months we did not even list on top 10 pages and it just go to a stage when he did not return my calls.

Following his work, the number of visits dropped by 50% so I read up and did some work myself and then the numbers rose but they will never be brilliant, I am now 50% up on the visits when he started, but an expert could get me even better.

Dave

 

[OldWelshGuy]

james one of the things you have to be mindful of is that with such a long shoippojng list, you might end up with information overload. Or vague replies like mine above

 

[terryuk]

I would start on reading seobook.com ten times

then maybe.......