OT - Google

[The Medway Handyman]

Could anyone help me with some info about rankings with Google?

Probably best to contact me off group [e-mail]

Thanks

[Doki]

I did a bit of reading about it, and the AFAICS the best way to do it is simply to get people to link to your site. There are various bits and bobs you can do to make it spider navigable etc. but google try pretty hard to avoid "artificial" enhancement of how high you go up the rankings. You could try adwords though...

[Grunff]

This is very true - lots of inbound links, from sites with good PageRank, will always result in better results.

It depends - there is a lot of optimisation which you can do which will improve how google (and other search engines) rates a particular page for a particular search term. This is perfectly legitimate, and in fact recommended practice.

Adwords can work, but they can also be an incredibly effective way of burning through large wads of cash very quickly. I would leave adwords until you are certain your site is as well optimised as possible, and that you have large numbers of links pointing to it.

[Lurch]

On Sun, 27 May 2007 17:10:36 +0100, "Doki" mused:

They don't avoid it in so much as they don't use it solely as the means to rank your page with. If you have loads of links but a crap site it still ends up at the bottom of a 20 page results list.

I wouldn't.

[nightjar]

Google have good advice about it on their site. At the most basic, you need lots of organic links, i.e. NOT the one people will sell you, but the ones that grow naturally, and around 200 words of natural text on each page that has been optimised towards the search criteria you want.

However, getting people to your site is only the first stage. Keeping them there once they arrive is just as important and, as I have mentioned before, your site could do with a serious overhaul to improve its look. I spend about £2k per annum on a site to have professionals work on search engine optimisation, submissions to search engines, analysis of site structure, linking, competitor analysis, marketing data, site layout, visitor conversion, accessibility, usability, customer retention and probably a few other things I have forgotten they do.

Colin Bignell

[Grunff]

nightjar Adwords need to be used with extreme caution and a very good idea of their

We're running a campaign that that has very similar numbers at the moment. We have had situations where adwords have been fruitful, but in most cases the only winner is google (a bit like gambling - only the house ever wins).

[nightjar]

Adwords need to be used with extreme caution and a very good idea of their cost benefit. I am currently running a trial on one of my sites and conversions typically costs me £18-£22 each, on a product that normally brings in around £5 profit. That is only going to be of value if the conversions become loyal repeat customers. I've not been running the trial long enough to gather evidence on that, but I view it as improbable that I win in the long term.

Colin Bignell

[Steve Walker]

Couldn't resist having a look - you came up no 1 for 'Medway Handyman' in Google.co.uk via Firefox, but sneaky kent-handyman.co.uk buys the paid space at the top. Also, medway.handymanhome.co.uk seem to be parking on your lawn. Similar outcomes for "Handyman Medway".

Seems to me that you need to maintain a competitive edge Dave, and the opportunity I see there is photos & testimonials for completed jobs. Everyone uses the same sort of clip-art, and everyone subliminally recognises it as chaff - you might break the mould if you post a real, recent job photo on each page.

Very good luck

[The Medway Handyman]

I'd like to thank John Rumm & Grunff publicly for some absolutely excellent advice on the subject.

I appeciate the help.

[nightjar]

Nice to know someone else has similar experiences. I do know someone who likes them, but he sells relatively low competition high value products.

Colin Bignell

[The Medway Handyman]

Bunch of bandits if you ask me. I've had a long running dispute with them, albeit only for around £50. Had my (magician) site in completely the wrong category as regards to key words, then sent comletely false stats when I complained about no leads whatsoever. Never paid them and they had no answers to my questions, so they eventually gave up asking for the money.

[Grunff]

nightjar Nice to know someone else has similar experiences. I do know someone who

We have run some very successful campaigns, but they have been for very high value products, like tropical holidays. For small-margin products it only works if you can get users to buy more, either as part of the same order or at a later date.