SEO?????

[Lulu]

I got talked into paying an an SEO co. I paid for 2 months and it did not bring anymore traffic to my site. I am really feeling like I just wasted $150. Do I need to try another company? Or do I really not need to pay for SEO?

 

[lois]

SEO?????

I think SEO is a waste of time and money. Trying to trick the search engines in that way doesn't usually work out because the search engines are always changing what they're looking for. The best ways to increase traffic to your website are building inbound links from other sites, increasing the average time a visitor spends on your site and updating your site content regularly.

You can build inbound links to your site by writing some articles on eHow, Hubpages, Squidoo, Bukisa, Ezine Articles and other such sites and linking back to your website as a resource. You can also answer some questions on Yahoo Answers and link back to your site. When search engines see other sites linking to your site it gives your site more credibility in their eyes. Participating in forums and having your website in your signature also helps build links to your site.

Search engines try to judge the relevance of your site by seeing how long people stay on your site once they've found it. Having more information on your site possibly even having videos will get people who find your site to stay on it longer. Opening a You Tube account and making a couple videos about your services and putting those videos on your site would be a good idea. Not only will the videos increase the amount of time a visitor stay on your site, but you'll get people on You Tube who haven't even found your site watching those videos too. Put a link to your site in the video description and you've got another inbound link too.

Having a blog that is connected to your site will also help draw in more traffic. A blog is updated regularly. Search engines pay attention to that. There is already a thread about doing that here. http://www.massageplanet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=17496&p=143568#p143568

 

[businessman95]

SEO?????

I think SEO is a waste of time and money. Trying to trick the search engines in that way doesn't usually work out because the search engines are always changing what they're looking for. The best ways to increase traffic to your website are building inbound links from other sites, increasing the average time a visitor spends on your site and updating your site content regularly.

You can build inbound links to your site by writing some articles on eHow, Hubpages, Squidoo, Bukisa, Ezine Articles and other such sites and linking back to your website as a resource. You can also answer some questions on Yahoo Answers and link back to your site. When search engines see other sites linking to your site it gives your site more credibility in their eyes. Participating in forums and having your website in your signature also helps build links to your site.

Search engines try to judge the relevance of your site by seeing how long people stay on your site once they've found it. Having more information on your site possibly even having videos will get people who find your site to stay on it longer. Opening a You Tube account and making a couple videos about your services and putting those videos on your site would be a good idea. Not only will the videos increase the amount of time a visitor stay on your site, but you'll get people on You Tube who haven't even found your site watching those videos too. Put a link to your site in the video description and you've got another inbound link too.

Having a blog that is connected to your site will also help draw in more traffic. A blog is updated regularly. Search engines pay attention to that. There is already a thread about doing that here. http://www.massageplanet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=17496&p=143568#p143568

What a great post! I'm not the OP, but I thank you for this information. I've been working on our web site lately, and I'll keep this stuff in mind. Thank you!

 

[P4wn4g3]

SEO?????

So I take it, the best thing to do is to let the search engines find you on their own. The SEO co. I was using was making me feel like no one could find my site. Which is impossible bc I only post ads on the internet

 

[Antiman]

SEO?????

Yeah. I think that's the best thing to do. Don't bother with the SEO company. If you want to keyword your site a bit better you can do that yourself. Use Google Adword's free keyword tool to get some ideas, but generally when writing content for your site you'll naturally add appropriate keywords. Overuse of any one word is a red flag to search engines and will cause you to loose out in search engine rankings. For example, don't start every sentence with the word "Massage."

I'm glad to be of help. Let me know if you have any other questions about your website.

 

[Hypocorism]

SEO?????

This is very interesting to me bc the SEO co. was telling me I don't have the word massage used and my front page enough. I was told I needed to use "massage" at least 15 - 20 times bc all my competitors are use massage on their pages at least that much. So is that true statement?

 

[loz]

SEO?????

A good general rule of thumb is to use your keyword once every 100 words. If you're using a keyword so often that it sounds stupid when you read it aloud you've definitely used that word too much. If you search massage, you'll find that most sites that are high up in the search contain tons of information about massage. They don't necessarily use that keyword a 15 to 20 times on their homepage. Massage is a very general keyword with a lot of competition. It's better to try to rank for long tail keywords that have less competition. For example if you have a specific modality that you specialize in you should use that as your main keyword instead of just using massage. If someone is looking for a massage therapist in your area what would they search for online. Those words are the keywords you need on your site. If your site is to promote your business you need to be found by local people looking for a massage.

 

[j_ody]

SEO?????

part of SEO is pretty well everything that lovelynb says you should do. If a SEO company isn't talking about all of those topics (inbound links, blog, keyword density, how to keep people on your site longer, etc), if all they are doing is taking your money and 'doing SEO', be very dubious.

10 years ago, websites were the great mystery, people were charging huge amounts to make poor websites, now there are so many easy content management sytems and templates, the money isn't in websites, all the shonky website people don't do websites anymore, they do SEO, and still as shonky as before. SEO can be done well, but most of the time it is done poorly.

 

[Prince Vegeta]

SEO?????

A SEO rep called to sell me on the "tremendous value" of their services and "unique search site" :roll: . When he told me it was only $299/month, I started laughing and hung up. t005

 

[Rick420~57]

SEO?????

SEO is a joke! All these companies are doing are going into the code section of your website and changing some key words and phrases around to be picked up by google search! Your best bet is to use a reputable company to build your website, and ask that they include the SEO eforum.xxxs (and any good company would do this naturally!!!). You can also encourage clients to log on to your website, the more it is searched for, found, and clicked on, the better rating your page will have. Using specific phrases like "My City Specific Massage" (ie.. "new york prenatal massage") etc help bring in traffic too.

Using programs like facebook ads, groupon, and sending email blasts out (not recommend more than 1x a month! People delete annoying "spam") will also help drive traffic to your site.

I would even recommend a bumper sticker with your website name on your car, after all you do have to get to and from work somehow!

 

[hookah.]

SEO?????

Thank you all for you imput. I just did an add on Facebook, so we will see how that will go

 

[Maverick]

SEO?????

I just noticed Vista Print is offer SEO now for a very low fee. $4 a month I think. For that price I would think it maybe worth it. What do you think?