advertiseing ? does your business use a seo company? my perticular woes

[ziggy]

i've got a small biz i've made my living off of for the last 15 years. i always just did the yellow pages thing. it worked up untill this internet thing came by.
i've done my website thing. it's through go daddy. i have what they call a search engine optimizer that corrects me when i make errors in using proper internet keywords and phrases and the likes. well, i have a 95% rating with this tool. in other words, go daddy thinks i'm doing well with my web site however a search for my biz comes up pretty blank. mostly by google.

now the crux of my issue. google has dropped my biz name from a search of my kind of biz. my address was, and has been associated with my biz since day one. go daddy worked and i got up fairly high on page one or two. + i was on the maps.
in the last month or so, i've fell off the grid all together (why, i don't know). if ya google my biz name (which is not what the public will be doing) i come up and my biz name near my address. if ya google my address, i come up as only my biz address with no biz name associated with me. they do however list me as part of the local university here. university property touches my property, separated by an alley. google had me right for years. now all of a sudden, my biz don't exist + if ya do find me, it states i'm part of the university...

so have any other biz owners had success with these seo company's that say they can get you back on the grid? what kinds of fees am i looking at? any recommendations as to a company that works for you?

if i don't get something figured out soon, my guess is i'll be really unemployed. this is really making me crazy. i have a hard enough time keeping up with my trade, let alone now having to figure out how to get recognized now that the yellow pages are kinda a mute point....

any help or comments?

 

[salty87]

Re: advertiseing ? does your business use a seo company? my perticular woes

the seo thing is a moving target. the process of staying near the top of results never stops neither do the payments.

what industry are you in? is the internet the best place to be?

 

[ziggy]

Re: advertiseing ? does your business use a seo company? my perticular woes

the seo thing is a moving target. the process of staying near the top of results never stops

i understanding that.

do the payments.

i think i'm understanding this too. i've been slowly making my yellow pages presence less. imho, it's not working. the new thing is the internet. smart phones. i don't use the yellow pages either much any more. i search for a plumber on line. if i had a smart phone, i might search on it. my boy has one and that's what he usually searches on. i think this is the new norm.

is the internet the best place to be?

i think it is. my jobs are usually short and concise. i start with something that's broke, fix it, customer is happy, i get paid.

what industry are you in?

at this point i can't be precise. i think saying that may violate iboats rules. + if i say, between my signature/location on iboats and saying what i do, even though i'm not real searchable, right now, anyone would be able to put 2 and 2 together and come up with exactly who i am and were i live. i will say it's similar to a plumber, carpenter, electrician, heat and air, etc. a service business. some emergency work. meaning the customer needs help very soon.

 

[southkogs]

Re: advertiseing ? does your business use a seo company? my perticular woes

I don't own the place where I work, but close enough to the top that I can chime in some:

To hire someone for SEO, work in thousands of dollars per year but as salty said it'll vary. Here are some things you can do to help SEO by yourself before you hire someone:

1.) Start a Facebook page for your business, and drive traffic there. Link back to your website.
2.) Make sure any items (like photos) on your website are tagged so they show up in a web search. For example, if your business is truck tires, you want to name any photos things like "new truck tire" so search engines can pick them up.
3.) Start a LinkedIn profile and network out some, link back to your website
4.) Make sure your website is in your email signature to drive traffic
5.) Start a blog that will help your clients. Doesn't have to be every day, or all that big a deal, but by providing a reason for traffic to stop by you'll see an increase in visibility. This can also act as the posts you do for Facebook, and help drive traffic.
6.) Buy some domains that make sense and have them point to your webpage.
7.) Make sure you have some key words for searches present in your web page copy. If clients looking for you would do so by Googling, "who fixes Aristocrafts?" then you want the words, "fix Aristocraft" in the body of your copy (probably a few times).

I do have a company that we work with and I like the work they do. If you want the name, send me a PM.

 

[ziggy]

Re: advertiseing ? does your business use a seo company? my perticular woes

thanks for the comments/ideas southkogs. i have done some of the things you've suggested already. but not all.

1.) Start a Facebook page for your business, and drive traffic there. Link back to your website.

i did do this. i wasn't on facebook so i started a biz facebook page. don't know if it's gonna do any good though. it appears that ya gotta pay to have your biz on facebook, which i've not brought myself to, yet. i think my page has my website on it, but will go check. i've not made any friends yet. my gf tried to friend me, but i guess since my page is a biz page, that don't occur. unless ya pay for my page i guess.

2.) Make sure any items (like photos) on your website are tagged so they show up in a web search.

i'll have to check this out. i do have pics on my website. i think they're tagged, but not sure. i need to look into this.

3.) Start a LinkedIn profile and network out some

i'll check this out. i don't know what LinkedIn is, nor heard of it. i'll do some research there too.

4.) Make sure your website is in your email signature to drive traffic

i'm not sure how to do this. my normal email address kinda suggests my biz name, but not exactly. i do have a email address that is acquired when ya do the go daddy thing. it is my biz name but the times i've looked at it i have no mail. go daddy is my web site hosting service.

5.) Start a blog that will help your clients.

this, i don't know how to do. not even sure i know what a blog is. is it facebook?

6.) Buy some domains that make sense and have them point to your webpage.

this i don't understand either. i have a domain via go daddy. your saying buy other domains and have them linked back to my website. i thought ya just had your one domain for your biz. see, i need to learn more.

7.) Make sure you have some key words for searches present in your web page copy

this i think i've done. i have key words. go daddy has a search engine optimizer that lets you know where your website errors are. i have manipulated this to the point where go daddy seo thinks that i'm 95% good to go. but i'm not.

in general, i think i have kinda done what ya've suggested. my issue is with the fact that goggle has decided that i'm not longer my biz name at my address. they think i'm associated with UNL (university of nebraska lincoln). if ya search generically for my biz i don't appear on the goggle map. if ya search me by my biz name, goggle comes up with my biz name 'near' my address. if ya search my address it come up with, my address associated with unl. why goggle thinks this is beyond me. they had me right since the www got started. then in the last month + or - goggle has decided i'm not me any more, i'm unl. i'm not.
i've got to get goggle to understand that my biz and address are me, no unl. how i do this is at this point eluisive. i think it's taking me down since i don't appear on the map.

i think i would like to hear who you use for a seo. i'm in process of trying to find someone locally but not sure if it's gonna work out.

imho, i've got to figure out why goggle thinks i'm unl and not my biz... this is the crux of my problem i think. my problem is my phone don't ring where up untill a month ago, it did. i know i'm gonna loose some telephone calls, but i gotta get them to call me 1st or there's nothing to loose. ya can't loose any more than zero telephone calls.
thanks again for the help, ya've givin me food for thought.

hope my comments make sense. i got to type this all twice. when i tried to submit my reply the first time, for whatever reason. iboats had logged me off and i didn't copy my whole comments. this time i will prior to submit.

 

[southkogs]

Re: advertiseing ? does your business use a seo company? my perticular woes

Ziggy - I sent you a PM too covering some of your questions with links that I thought I shouldn't post in the forum:

...my normal email address kinda suggests my biz name, but not exactly.

What I mean by the email is two things: 1.) your email address should suggest your business name - ziggy@businessname.com if you can. But also, in your email signature you should have things to help direct people to view your web presence. For example:

Best Regards,

Southkogs
Business Name ? Businessname.com - get your free Articles of Incorporation! ? see my business tips on my blog: businessblog.com​

this i don't understand either. i have a domain via go daddy. your saying buy other domains and have them linked back to my website. i thought ya just had your one domain for your biz. see, i need to learn more.

If your business is www.ziggysgreenboat.com, you might want to purchase greenboat.com, www.ziggysboat.com, www.buildgreenboats.com or whatever domain people might use alternatively to search for your business. They can all redirect to your same web page, but this way you have a wider net of addresses to catch folks.

SEO is mainly working against search algorithms.

 

[southkogs]

Re: advertiseing ? does your business use a seo company? my perticular woes

^^^^ LOL all my "made up links" are being recognized as real links by the forum. Disclaimer: I have no clue as to what you'll find at the end of ANY of those rainbows

 

[salty87]

Re: advertiseing ? does your business use a seo company? my perticular woes

at least for the time being, the seo algorithms look at how many websites your site is referenced on. it's sort of a relative worth. if your website is listed or linked on many other websites your ranking is higher. if you purchase other domains and link to your main site, your ranking should go up. i'm sure google is on to this or will be soon. it's a never ending game of changing algorithms.

have you ever tried more traditional advertising?...print, radio, etc. that's why i asked about your industry earlier. depending on the demographics of your target customer, some avenues are better than others for advertising results. people will run to the internet for some things (ie electronics) but for other things the internet isn't the only answer (home improvement). your target customer's age also comes into play. if your customers tend to be older they aren't going to the internet as much as younger shoppers.