SEO question

[clare_agate]

Hi All,

I am very new to the world of running an online shop, so apologies if I ask daft questions, this is a very steep learning curve for me!

I have resigned mysself to the fact that I need some professional help to improve my search engine ranking, there are so many SEO companies making some impressive claims about how much they can improve your ranking, but I would rather get a recommendation from someone rather than take a gamble on chosing one myself.

Can anyone recommend a company that they hav used and got genuinely good resulst from?

Thanks

Clare

[roban]

I run an SEO company and guess who I'd recommend.

[marc77]

Before starting SEO, ensure that you have enough content, your website is in its final state and your business is ready to start.

However you should not expect too much from search engine optimization. If your business scheme simply does not work, then also the best SEO (which I guess roban does :-) cannot help.

Do you like to tell us a bit more about your business ?

[clare_agate]

Thanks for your replies!!! the site is up and running and is funkywrapping.com

I think the site pretty much says it all, we are getting between 50-100 unique hits per day, and have a steady few orders through but obviously would like to increase our traffic and with my limited knowlede feel it;s time to get some help from the professionals!! I have tried looking for some rough figures about how this is charged and how much budget I should allow!

Thanks

Clare

[skytopdesigns]

your site is very nice. Brick and mortar stores have advertising budgets, they find the right newspaper or flyers that would have the best ROI. Web sites do the same, think about a budget for advertising, check out some ppc advertising too, that is the best way to get customers. make sure you have relevant key words.

[veikoh]

SEO is for step process, covering following:
1. Keyword analysis to find most appropriate serach phrases having the best KEI (keyword efficency index) for your product/service.
2. Site technical implementation for meta tags, page titles, H, B, ALT tags, file and directory names, anchor texts, etc
3. Link building including online directories, article marketing, etc.
4. Monitoring and analytics.
So you should separate each step and ask the best quote from eLance.

[angie1313]

Before starting SEO, ensure that you have enough content, your website is in its final state and your business is ready to start.

However you should not expect too much from search engine optimization. If your business scheme simply does not work, then also the best SEO (which I guess roban does :-) cannot help.

Do you like to tell us a bit more about your business ?

Agreed..there is no point in paying a company to market your website and bring in traffic if it isn't even completed yet. You'll run the risk of being penalized by the search engines and worse yet the confidence of a customer.

[sofomor]

no point in paying a company to market your website and bring in traffic if it isn't even completed yet.

True. Its a common problem with clients wanting improve rankings but their websites not serving customer needs. Remember, search engines (esp Google) is about quality.

Thank you

[Mr Nice Guy]

If you do decide to hire someone, look around and compare companies. Some do a much better job than others. And some just don't do the job at all...

[Brian Mitchell]

Well, seo services shared in your thread are very interesting, I am glad going through all questions. Actually, I am surfing online for some seo professionals who can provide me services. Please suggest me some good seo expert.

[BrettRko]

Before hiring a company, I'd really get educated on how to read your SEO competition. If you try to compete with competitive keywords and your budget is not high enough, it'll be like running a race against a Ferrari using a tricycle. If you can at least understand this, you can stand a fighting chance at not getting ripped off because of no results.

Many bad SEO companies will try and charge you without ever sizing up the competition, for one low price. I think this is a clear sign they don't know what they're doing.

Hope this helps...