SEO Help

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Aniston

Aniston

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Feb 18, 2008
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I've been in the Real Estate business for over 8 years and never optimized my site...I didn't know...stupid, stupid, stupid! Anyway, now I am, and I hired a company to do it for me. It's been over 1 month, and we are not even listed in the first 10 pages of the search engines. Is this typical? I am paying a monthly fee for 45 terms. My business is tanking hard and ppc has become a killer for us, plus with all the competition, we are paying an arm and a leg for hardly any leads. So if the seo doesn't happen, I would have to file bankruptcy...I am that desperate! I don't know what to do. I thought you all could give me some advice, or a hard kick in the rear.

Thanks for your help.
 


Did you sign a contract?

What's the URL?

To answer your immediate question, there is no 'quick fix' when it comes to ranking.... especially in the real estate market. Not in it myself, but I hear it's extremely competitive.

What's the URL of the company that's doing it for you?
 
Ok...thanks guys...for helping me. I will pm you the site, and the company I hired is linkworth.com. We are supposed to pay $1145 a month for 45 terms (I think that is too much the more I learn. Plus can I really get enough business for those terms? I mean I have over 10K terms in Yahoo PPC and I don't get enough leads, so I am really freaking out. My husband and I own this business, and this is our only source of income. My affiliate marketing is new and not profitable yet.

Really I can't thank you enough for your help!
 
Sure hit me up with a PM and we will take a look.

Some terms might also be of help.

::emp::
 
Also:

End the contract if they can not provide proof they did anything and that it has helped.
Cut down on the PPC keywords, they should be able to provide tracking which ones are converting.

::emp::
 
emp said:
Also:

End the contract if they can not provide proof they did anything and that it has helped.
Cut down on the PPC keywords, they should be able to provide tracking which ones are converting.

::emp::
Click to expand...

Ok...Linkworth sent me an email yesterday:

Everything is going great with your campaign and is up and running. We will be running ranking reports all day tomorrow and will send that to you once it's complete. Over the course of the next few months you will begin to notice the websites increased rankings. We will make the adjustments to the campaign as needed.

Shouldn't I see results by now? They promised me, I would be ranking within in 2-3 weeks and it's been about 6+ weeks. My Alexa ranking has gone down, and through Alexa, I don't see any new backlinks created since I hired them. The big kicker is we have no leads and we are not listed on the search engines. I handle our ppc, so they don't have anything to do with that. Should I go ahead and fire them?


 
Alexa doesn't matter / mean anything so don't go off that. But, you should ask for a report of new links they have acquired. Have they done anything on page? I looked at your site and the link structure is crap, I can tell that without even knowing your keywords.

About your links. The site has ~412 links, which is total shit. Most seem to come from one domain too :( You could get more links paying $65 to someone here for 1,000 directory submissions. That many links could be good for local real estate terms, but they don't seem to be of quality or targeted. You need to quit working with them and find someone new.

I'm no SEO guru, but I have outranked pages with millions of links. I'm just assuming things, their links may not be indexed yet. But ask them for a report on what they have done, ask yourself if that's worth what you're paying, then go from there.

PS: if you send me your search terms I'll gauge the competition and maybe give you some more info.
 
Aniston said:
Ok...I have an email from yesterday:

Everything is going great with your campaign and is up and running. We will be running ranking reports all day tomorrow and will send that to you once it's complete. Over the course of the next few months you will begin to notice the websites increased rankings. We will make the adjustments to the campaign as needed.

Shouldn't I see results by now? They promised me, I would be ranking within in 2-3 weeks and it's been about 6+ weeks. My Alexa ranking has gone down, and through Alexa, I don't see any new backlinks created since I hired them. The big kicker is we have no leads and we are not listed on the search engines. I handle our ppc, so they don't have anything to do with that. Should I go ahead and fire them?
Click to expand...

SEO takes time and I wouldn't expect much for results in just over a month no matter what terms you are trying to rank for. There are waaaay too many unknown factors here to help out without knowing the exact keyword phrases you are targeting and what the competition looks like.

If you PM your URL and keyword terms I can take a quick look.
 
ok....my opinion....I can't vouch for the SEO job here. I'm not sure what terms you are trying to optimize for. You're main page doesnt even have the state or city in the title tag. You have virtually no links to your site.

1) Optimize your title tags
2) Get links
3) Fire your SEO company. If they are ok with the title tags you have they suck balls.
4) Your PPC sucks too, so get on that.

You are missing out on tons of traffic on PPC terms that should be obvious. PPC clicks should not be costing more then a buck or 2 for those types of terms. If your getting slaughtered on the PPC it might also be because your landing pages suck. They are busy and amaturish and your asking for too much info on your form.

Theres the kick in the ass you need.

If you have questions you can PM me, i do local search for a living.
 
Aniston--

PM me your URL and (if you're willing) some of the 45 terms. $1145/mo isn't bad for organic seo... most charge $1500+, but it really depends. There's a big difference between a company that goes out and builds you links, and a company that just does some article marketing and social bookmarking or directory submissions.

Edit: I'm just going to look through and let you know if you're getting taken for a ride, I'm not trying to steal your business from them. I do local search specifically in real estate markets though so I know what I'm looking at.
 
RuDeDoGg said:
Alexa doesn't matter / mean anything so don't go off that. But, you should ask for a report of new links they have acquired. Have they done anything on page? I looked at your site and the link structure is crap, I can tell that without even knowing your keywords.

About your links. The site has ~412 links, which is total shit. Most seem to come from one domain too :( You could get more links paying $65 to someone here for 1,000 directory submissions. That many links could be good for local real estate terms, but they don't seem to be of quality or targeted. You need to quit working with them and find someone new.

I'm no SEO guru, but I have outranked pages with millions of links. I'm just assuming things, their links may not be indexed yet. But ask them for a report on what they have done, ask yourself if that's worth what you're paying, then go from there.

PS: if you send me your search terms I'll gauge the competition and maybe give you some more info.
Click to expand...

WOW...How did you find the 412 links? I thought I had 4, but yea...that's crap! I just sent you a pm with the terms...thanks!
 
I took a quick peak at linkworth, and the first thing I noticed was that they don't even have a meta description tag.

Though, it has little effect on ranking in some engines.... it's just plain common sense to use it, imo.

Second, it looks like a company that you buy links from, and they have all these nifty sources. Problem with these services, is the fact that it wouldn't take a whole lot of effort on Google's part, to just swing in there every once-in-a-while and see who's selling links. Which then leads to link devaluation.

A year from now, when the smoke clears, every single penny you spent on this SEO company is going to be a complete waste.
 
Looked at your keywords, there are a lot :o I would decide to only work on organic SEO for a few. Have the SEO firm choose them, going for the easiest to rank for, and the highest number of searches. Definitely choose a new company though, they will look at it more and give you better advice. All you need to worry about is finding someone experienced. Know them, trust them, and let them do it.

Judging by your past posts you should basically request this from the new company:
Tell them the real estate markets you are after (city names), let them choose what keywords to optimize for, and bid on. Tell them about your business and how it works.
Ask for a monthly report on what they are doing, I would guess that most provide this anyway.

Don't take what I say as fact, that's just how I would do it. These large firms probably have more resources than me, and will end up doing a better job :)
 
wish I could delete my last post, but here:
Top Five Ways to Choose an SEO Consulting Firm

Just do that, hang out and read a bit around here and understand what they are doing with your money. Choose a good firm, analyze everything they do and focus on your end of the business.

Good luck, I need some sleep (ignore my rambling posts):sleep:
 
Ok, after checking out your site I have to agree with narsticle and RuDeDoGg on their comments.

Definitely fire them if they told you they optimized your site. You need to at least have the city names in your title page if you want to rank at all. Also, that is a ton of keyword phrases to go after. The 2 word terms are going to be more difficult than the rest of the longer tail due to the competition from a few big names.

I'd suggest a lot more content for the site and re-do the site structure. Three of the four main links at the top aren't even working.

As far as links pointing to your site, you have very few and most of them are coming from one site. The one positive in all this is your domain/site is nicely aged at almost 8 yrs old and should start to rank pretty well once you make the necessary changes.

Like I mentioned in my other post above, I'd start contacting a few of the SEO firms from the SEOmoz recommendation list... ASAP!
 
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