electricblue
Senior Member
- Location
- Largo, Florida
- Occupation
- EC
Has anyone used a seo company for their website to get first page landings? How great is this? I'm hearing this costs upwards of 10 grand.
First page of Google
- Thread starter electricblue
- Start date
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LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
I've been approached (read: flooded with phone calls and email spam) about guaranteed first-page search-engine result placements, but never taken the bite.
K8MHZ
Senior Member
- Occupation
- Electrician
I believe Google's search engine is user responsive and spots can't be purchased like they can on other search engines.
Try doing a search for a subject on your computer, then go to a different one and do the same search. I think you will see different results.
Try doing a search for a subject on your computer, then go to a different one and do the same search. I think you will see different results.
al hildenbrand
Senior Member
- Location
- Minnesota
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor, Electrical Consultant, Electrical Engineer
Boy Howdy!
Ain't it the truth!
P T Barnum ain't got nothin' on these hucksters.
(A sucker is born every minute.)
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
From what I've heard in some tech circles these things are a waste of money. I would do some more research before I would give them a cent.
K8MHZ
Senior Member
- Occupation
- Electrician
Actually, the concept itself defies logic. Everybody can't be first and only a few can even be on the first page. What if there are more paying customers than the handful of spots on the first page?
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
I've asked that exact question, and they've never been able to answer it satisfactorily.
Tiger Electrical
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern Illinois
I know someone with a large corporation that uses an SEO company successfully. I think he pays $10k per month for the service. I believe he said they have monthly meeting to review results and targets. He is going for good national results on something generic like "computer hardware". If you want good results for "electrician hometown" it shouldn't be too difficult.
electricblue
Senior Member
- Location
- Largo, Florida
- Occupation
- EC
Agreed. I want to hear from someone her or some place else that has been there done that...
teco
Senior Member
- Location
- Mass north shore
I don't know, my website guy didn't promise me 1st page but he has me there in my area consistently. I didn't pay anywhere near the money talked about here. Its all about content and what you want to be found for.
dbuckley
Senior Member
- Location
- Canterbury, New Zealand
I have a website that (today) is the 4th hit listed on page one of google for a specific search term, of a total of 446,000 hits. I did nothing specific to get it there, but I think it helps that the site has the topic of interest and thus the search term as the domain name, and has been around a long while. Sometimes I'm even the #1 hit, depends how google is feeling, but today Wikipedia is at the top.
I don't beliece that SEO will magically get you up the top unless you have a very unique offering in the marketplace, and if you do, google will have twigged that already.
Just as an example, I googled for detroit electrician, and the site at the top is detroitelectrician.com. I google for maine electrician, and get a government site, and maineelectrician.com is nowhere to be seen. Why? I dont know, but what is odd is that both sites are domains for sale...
I don't beliece that SEO will magically get you up the top unless you have a very unique offering in the marketplace, and if you do, google will have twigged that already.
Just as an example, I googled for detroit electrician, and the site at the top is detroitelectrician.com. I google for maine electrician, and get a government site, and maineelectrician.com is nowhere to be seen. Why? I dont know, but what is odd is that both sites are domains for sale...
teco
Senior Member
- Location
- Mass north shore
Its content. I google commercial electrician in my area today and I'm right there 1st page on Google, Yahoo, and Bing engines. Sometimes 2nd page but mostly first. I don't do any resi so I don't want the calls. Its knowing how you want to be found and gearing the content to match that and you have to keep up with it and change it around. I'm no expert but this is what I have found works.
Its not just content. Visit the first links on a search, or if you have something like gmail where you get context sensed "sponsored' links on the right... visit those. Once you're on the linked page, right click on a no-link area and choose "View Source" from the local menu. What you will see is the html coding of the web page. Now look at what is called meta-tags near the top, usually right after the header. That is what will get you listed closer to first than others...
GUNNING
Senior Member
- Location
- Gainesville, Florida
HI! Im Jim Jones electric calling to tell you about a fantastic offer...
HI! Im Jim Jones electric calling to tell you about a fantastic offer...
You get what you pay for, unless you can afford a bunch more. The adds on the right side will get you placement. You buy that from google. You can also get placement by including the right text search terms. If I was to research this more I would go to the horses mouth. Google advertising.
They get you right where you need to be in your geographical area and it only costs pennies per hit. Now think Millions of hits. Now think maybe a fraction of a percent turn into calls and a fraction of them into leads and a fraction of them into work.
Better off direct mail.
HI! Im Jim Jones electric calling to tell you about a fantastic offer...
You get what you pay for, unless you can afford a bunch more. The adds on the right side will get you placement. You buy that from google. You can also get placement by including the right text search terms. If I was to research this more I would go to the horses mouth. Google advertising.
They get you right where you need to be in your geographical area and it only costs pennies per hit. Now think Millions of hits. Now think maybe a fraction of a percent turn into calls and a fraction of them into leads and a fraction of them into work.
Better off direct mail.
teco
Senior Member
- Location
- Mass north shore
Its also not the meta tags. That is the trap everyone falls in. Road to nowhere. I'm sure there is something to what your saying but my site is where I want it to be because I finally listen to the right guy, and it worked.
I can't argue with the results.
- Location
- Simi Valley, CA
Heck for only $5K, I'll put your business card first in my card file.
Electrical Student
Member
- Location
- North East Philadelphia
Well the first two or three search results are usually "sponsored links". Which I am sure are not search generated or free. I believe you can purchsae a first page position by zipcode. In that case you would be on the first page only after someone clicks the "Local business results for residential electrician near Philadelphia, PA(or your home town)" link. But if it sounds to good to be true...:roll:
dmagyar
Senior Member
- Location
- Rocklin, Ca.
I'm on the first page for much less
I'm on the first page for much less
I just checked google for my company and found that we're on the first page of google. I'm spending under $100/month through a local web advertising firm. That's all that I would spend, and I couldn't justify spending any more to move to the top of the page. 10 grand a month is ludicris, if you had money laying around and did this, the next year it will be more and seems to me some of the "Emperors new clothes" logic.
P.S. Not matter how many hits, how many people visit your site it doesn't equate to work.
I'm on the first page for much less
I just checked google for my company and found that we're on the first page of google. I'm spending under $100/month through a local web advertising firm. That's all that I would spend, and I couldn't justify spending any more to move to the top of the page. 10 grand a month is ludicris, if you had money laying around and did this, the next year it will be more and seems to me some of the "Emperors new clothes" logic.
P.S. Not matter how many hits, how many people visit your site it doesn't equate to work.
teco
Senior Member
- Location
- Mass north shore
I just checked mine again. Number one spot in my area. One time payment of 1300.00 dollars for the whole website. 150.00 per year to host it. Thats it. Has already paid for itself and more.
KentAT
Senior Member
- Location
- Northeastern PA
From reading several responses about being listed on the first page in your area, I wonder if there is some background identification going on to give you local results - like Google knowing who your ISP is by your address and returning localized results first??
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