[Dean Wilson]

Links away from the page will NOT reduce SEO, Tony.   Links IN to the website will greatly enhance SEO over directly entered URLs.

Agree that template (or temaplete whatever that is) sites fare worse than original HTML content.

You do always have a certain attitude of "I know more than you!" about you Tony. Insecurity perhaps. Have a bit more modesty and manners and people may just listen too what you're saying when you DO know what your ranting about.

Dean

[garry22]

The only time the search engines dislike templates is for identical "thin" afilliate sites where the only change is people cut and pasting their afilliates links. They do not see providing a whole page of almost identical sites as good search service.

Google seems to like Templates. They even provide their own for people to use...

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/templates-now-available-in-google-sites.html

If they did penalise templates, they would hit thousands or millions of Wordpress, Joomla and other CMS sites. As wordpress sites represent a whole spectrum of users (and more importantly, encourage two way interaction) they are not going to do that.

Dean, just a small point...

Links away from the page will NOT reduce SEO

Maybe it would if the link was to dodgy site like porn or gambling. Don't think Karl is doing this though 

[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

"You do always have a certain attitude of "I know more than you!" about you Tony".

You mean he's cocky and arrogant. 

[Neil Williams]

Google seems to like Templates. They even provide their own for people to use...

I don't know if they actually like them but it hasn't done any of mine any harm.
All of mine are templates because I don't have the time or inclanation to learn a 'new' language, and I like to be able to sit here and change anything I want within minutes, (not waiting in a que of website owners waiting the website expert to change things).
Whilst on the subject off identical sites, I've done that too with some of my minor ones, and again it didn't have any effect on positioning.
Then there's the subject of SEO. I've used various on-line SEO checks and none of them have said the same thing about any particular given site, hence why I think that no-one knows the secret of how google ranks sites. I've compared mine against some competitors in the same area, using the same tool. Theirs will show 'infringements' but will be one or two places above mine.....work that one out!
The only guarentee of getting right at the top is to do google adwords and put something like £4 against each click.

[garry22]

I had a message in the dashboard of one of my wordpress sites today. It said so far, since the end of July, there have been over 11 million downloads of Wordpress 3.0.1.

I would imagine that the vast majority of wordpress sites use either free themes (effectively templates) or even the bog standard blue default one.

Google seems to love wordpress based sites. I can't see your joomla site being a problem either Karl.

[Mike Halliday]

mark asked me to do these photos for him ( I must be the most viewed person on the web) he hired a professional photographer and paid for a venue.

the reason he did this was carpet cleaners were supplying him with really crap photos which they had taken themselves, they made their websites look home made.

unless you are a keen photographer don't take your own photos, do you think Tescos or ASDA  use their checkout staff to take thier promotional photos?      of course not. they hire a professional

take a picture of yourself but use (if given the option) the photos offered, the customer don't care someone else 2oo miles away uses the same photos, they will never see them anyway.


don't forget in the end what you want is the 1st page of google you can have a all singing & dancing website, but if it on page 9 no one will see it.

[happy mondays]

Yea, Mikes right about photos, and its the same for website layouts, themes and design, just because we see the same cc pics and similar txt and layouts on cc websites (we are bound to its a cleaning forum)  Its never going to concern the customer, because someone in Northwich isnt going to search for a cc in Newcastle. Even if they did see two similar sites, do you think they would lose any sleep over it       

[Carpet Dawg]

Hello Deano! 

And who are you then?? a troll that lerks in the background maybe, pintchin ideas without contributing? or someone hiding thier identity? How do you know so much about me? from my forum posts? ha

Things can easly be misinterpreted on forums like these, but for your information yes i am cocky and arrogant  but i also have a caring side and helped people out when and where i can!! on here and other forums....

Sometimes my replys on here are short or whatever, so what! The vast majority are helpful comments! I've not got time to dewell on my reply before hitting "post" as i'm a busy guy! I've got 17 websites to run (all doing very nicely in the serps ) aswell as a busy, thriving carpet cleaning business!  Here, maybe that what makes me arrogent! Damn, my bad...

AND, incase you didn't read what i wrote in a post in this thread. LINKS AWAY FROM ANY WEBPAGE WILL LOWER THE PR OF THAT WEBSITE! and in turn will have a direct impact on serps! simples  honestly i'm right about that.. and yes, you did state the obvious by saying that links in to a site  will enhace seo. My granny could tell you that too

But i'll be honest now.... that wee link on that site probably wont do any harm to Cannons site! as compition for his keywords are minimal. There i said it! I just dont like cookie cutter templetes where you pay a so called "web designer" £200 for him to fill out a form!

And i do know full well what i am talking about thank you very much.

Keyplus, is that prochem disagreement we had a months ago still buring inside??? have a word....

[jasonl]

Well I have one of those cookie cutter sites.  Doing nicely thanks .


I asked if I could have the passwords to edit some of the text.  It is much more than filling in a form , I would need to read a book first  in order to edit it . I would rather pay someone, because I can earn more simply working whilst the web designer edits it.

[garry22]

I'm with Tony on this bit.

There is a huge difference between a web designer and a web marketer.

I would never let a web designer anywhere near my internet marketing stuff.

The web marketer is the architect, the web designer is the bricky (no offence to brickys intended).

[cannon]

Ive just gettin a book jason, its called joomla for dummys lol. Its another language! This internet website stuff is mind boggling.

Im very happy with the site aswel its ranking nicely and has paid for itself allready. I was just after views on the content as theres people on here who know alot more than me on what works etc.

Im trying to monitor visitors to my site and how many calls i get from it. what sort of response rate should i be getting. Hope this makes sense someone should know what i mean.

[Carpet Dawg]

Hi Jason

I dont mean to be a pest as you seem a nice chap who's posts i always always enjoy reading and look out for

But your a perfect case and point! Example, search for the keywords you'd really want i.e. carpet cleaners bournemouth and carpet cleaning bournemouth. Your not even on page one, your at the bottom of page 2! With your domain name thats shocking! A website with proper structure and built with seo inmind should be atleats top 8 without any links!
I've had a look at your competitors  and put thier site through some software and you should easly be dominationing! In fact, I recon i could get number one spot in a matter of weeks! ooops there's me being big headed again  

[cannon]

Tony

im in a similar position for the keywords CARPET CLEANERS SUNDERLAND and CARPET CLEANING SUNDERLAND im about half way down page 2. The site hasnt been up long, about 5 weeks, so i was hoping it would rise with time or is this not the case, has it reached its potential and needs some additional work?

[Carpet Dawg]

After five weeks it should be well indexed so its "probably" reached its potential mate.... IF nothing else is done with it!

You've already got a good domain name, so on site and off site seo is needed. I.e. work on the site and getting links to the site!

p.s. your doing well in the local business listings

[happy mondays]

Tony, I wouldnt mind seeing and would look forward to seeing a few examples of the 17 websites you have stated you run, or have built/designed.  

[Mike Halliday]

what happens when everything you need to do to get on the first page of google is already being done by the companies already occupying those places?

with more companies getting websites at some point it must become impossible to get that allusive first page ranking.

[Neil Williams]

im in a similar position for the keywords CARPET CLEANERS SUNDERLAND and CARPET CLEANING SUNDERLAND im about half way down page 2.

This is off your page script
  <base href="http://www.carpetcleaners-sunderland.co.uk/" />
  <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
  <meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />
  <meta name="keywords" content="" />
 
  <meta name="author" content="Administrator" />
  <meta name="description" content="Sunderlands Leading Family Owned Carpet, Upholstery, Leather Cleaners- Sunderland Based" />

As far as I can make out you need to get your SEO sorted.
Description is fine
Author you can get some key words in there like Sunderland Carpet Cleaner
Keywords, well there aren't any and that's where the problem is

These things can be changed in the control panel

[cannon]

Thanks Neil

think ill give mark a ring or have a good couple of reads of my book JOOMLA FOR DUMMYS first before i start tampering.

[John Higgins]

Key Words?  does google give a monkeys fig about the keyword meta tag
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/keywords-meta-tag-in-web-search/

Follow this link the guy isnt a carpet cleaner he works for google

[jasonl]

Hi Jason

I dont mean to be a pest as you seem a nice chap who's posts i always always enjoy reading and look out for

But your a perfect case and point! Example, search for the keywords you'd really want i.e. carpet cleaners bournemouth and carpet cleaning bournemouth. Your not even on page one, your at the bottom of page 2! With your domain name thats shocking! A website with proper structure and built with seo inmind should be atleats top 8 without any links!
I've had a look at your competitors  and put thier site through some software and you should easly be dominationing! In fact, I recon i could get number one spot in a matter of weeks! ooops there's me being big headed again  

Feel free ! , I am getting 3 or 4 calls a day from the site now , would love to be first page though.