Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Brendan (chem2clean) on March 20, 2012, 10:46:02 pm
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hi
some times i wish yp and print was back as the main way to advertise,,google doin my head in.
i have been number two in my town for carpet cleaning and the name of my city plus other keywords.checked today im on the second page.Very frustrating.i know google doin a dance again right now
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There was talk that Google were going to reduce the relevancy of the actual web domain name in the ranking process and that could be what's starting to affect your site, along with a million other things they look at, but don't reveal what they're actually looking at.
At a presentation I went to someone said Google appear to recognise that just because your domain name is www.carpetcleanersdublin.ie does not mean the content on the site is more relevant than that on www.brandname.ie and therefore ON PAGE relevancy would become more important and the ranking value of the domain name would reduce.
Just a thought. Try refreshing your site content if it's not been changed for a while.
Al.
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hey allan,thanks for your reply,i blog once a week on my site,im getting some seo done from the states and was happy with my position,google just keeps changing the fecking rules,hate yp but a nice quarter page made the phone ring do you had to take out a small mortgage for the privilage,,,,google have to much power
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One day means nothing at all, don't stress. It may even mean you will come back as No1.
What is the keyword you are hoping to rank top for?
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Wynne's right it could just be a blip.
It's great blogging weekly but you also need to tweek your carpet cleaning page, or google wont read it every visit if it's not changed. Even if it's just hanging the Alt Tags on your images, or changing the image, or witching the text around a bit. But regular tweeking will help as it means they will read he page every time they visit if its changed.
Also try and put links to your pages fom the blog article, so when they read the blog they will be directed to the page.
Al.
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hey wayne,carpet cleaning dublin,i was 2 in the organic listings ,now 2nd page,also lost some ranking with strong key words,hope in is a blip.
thanks al,great info
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thanks al,great info
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No worries.
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You can also turn your search history off.
Simon
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simon turn my search history off???
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OK, so your site is carpetcleanersdublin and you want that to help you for carpet cleaning dublin? It won't help that much. To be honest you are up against some very stiff competition, especially the top two. If you are not 1 or 2 you will drop below the map entries too sending you to page two like you say.
You may be better off going for a few different keywords as blog post titles and backlinking to those. Speaking to a lot of people who seem to think backlinking is dead, it certainly isn't.
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hi wynne,thing is i was number 2,,but only for two months,could be the seo im getting boosts my ranking but only short term,im number one for carpetcleanersdublin,think you might be right about hitting say town names than main city name,thanks
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You can also turn your search history off.
Simon means you may not get a true indication of your position unless you turn off your search history....I think.
To overcome that, you can login to adwords, click tools analysis and go to: ''Ad preview and diagnosis'' and do your search there which will show your true position.
Also, go to your campaign eg ''Dublin'' then click the keywords tab. Sometimes it may indicate that there is a problem with the specific keyword eg ''carpet cleaning dublin''.
It may indicate that there is a problem with the bid or quality score. Hover over the balloon next to the wording in the status column if there is a problem.
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thanks carpet guy...ive deleted all browsing history...checked site on other lap tops and its where it is.
All i can think is i m getting a jump when my seo guys add more backlinks but when it settles down i drop to where i am now.
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I've just had a look and you do have backlinks but hardly any are geared towards the keywords you want. I would suggest to your SEO guy to use anchor text with some of his new backlinks
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great wynne thanks,i ll have a word with him so
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wynne thanks for your help.I m really just feeling around in the dark when it comes to all this seo stuff, you looked at my backlinks,do you think this guy doing a good job?If then he does use anchor text should i notice a big improvement,thanks again
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I've just had a look and you do have backlinks but hardly any are geared towards the keywords you want. I would suggest to your SEO guy to use anchor text with some of his new backlinks
Ditto.
How long have you been using the SEO company? Even with pinging, some links take a while to get indexed.
Has anyone noticed that Google Webmaster tools seems to be a lot less vague (than before) when reporting backlinks?
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hey gary,originally i was using a guy from truckmount forums,they build my site and done the seo,they out sourced there work now to a company called hubshout,to be fair they ve started on my site since feb
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do you not have a places page?, i just searched you were on the first page no 6.
have you considered blowing out your seo company and just spending the money on adwords? i know a few SEO companies that are trying to push ongoing seo (at a price)...... would be better to have total control and spend the money on adwords
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hi mike thanks for your input,,,tied into a contract now but yes i think adwords the way to go. yes i have google places and on some areas doing pretty well,working on citiations at the moment.thanks again
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i know a few SEO companies that are trying to push ongoing seo
That is the only way to do it properly, especially if (allegedly) search engines are tracking link building trends.
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I think someone mentioned earlier about google penalising domain names with keywords in them i.e. carpetcleaningyourtown.com.
These EMD's (exact match domains) were always a great way of getting good positions on google and the big boys didnt like this so things changed.
Yes they have penalised them I tested this to some extent, and some of the sites I built took a hit thats for sure. However, its not the end of the world some of mine still list No 1 so it is still worth doing them - but so long as you done 'expect' them to get somewhere.
Very hit and miss, I'm sure Garry would confirm this as he knows his onions too.
Kev
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Hi Kev
Yeah, it was me that posted about domains. I was at a presentation and Google are not penalising those domains, they will just be greatly reducing the relevance of them, definitely NOT penalising. Basically it was explained that if the rest of the site is great then the domain name is now just another tick in the box that helps, as oppose to been very important. It is indeed brands which have been pushing for a change as most brands use their company or brand name in their domain much like we do on our Chem-Dry sites.
Al.
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I cannot disagree with the above. If you can get EMD s then great. It won't hurt you but it will not do all the work on it's own.
It comes down to how many sites / pages are competing with you. If you are relying only on an EMD and have a lot of competition you may be disappointed.
Incidentally, it has not stopped some SEO companies from peddling the line that EMD s are all you need.
I spoke to a friend's sister who runs a small company. She said "You do web stuff don't you? Will you check mine? I think I've been ripped off"
She had dropped from page 1 to page 3 (from what I can see, it's down to increased competition over the last two years).
A search company cold called and offered her a "generic domain name" that was guaranteed to get her back to the top of page 1.... FOR £240.00! She paid up a month ago and heard nothing.
When I checked, the domain name was still available (they had not registered it) and we bought it for the princely sum of $ 6.49 (about four quid).
Her daughter, who is legally trained is now trying to recover the £ 240.00. They have asked me not to name the scumbag SEO firm until they have recovered the money.
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I've noticed the multiple home pages don't work to well anymore, eg.
www.goldcarpetcare.net/london
www.goldcarpetcare.net/cambridge
Etc.
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Hi Craig
Apparently that's true if the cambridge bit is the last page of the breadcrumb and everything about everything is on that page. However I'm led to believe if that /cambridge is supported by other pages it can beneficial. Hence /cambrige/carpetcleaning, cambridge/upholsterycleaning etc. If there is a pyramid of pages below that page supporting it i think you're okay.
Again it's to try and get away from the hundreds of single subpages off the homepage. You still have to watch the duplicate content on those pages, so don't just change the word london for cambridge on the page content.
Al.
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I don't use this technique myself, just an observation.
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If you can get EMD s then great. It won't hurt you but it will not do all the work on it's own.
It comes down to how many sites / pages are competing with you. If you are relying only on an EMD and have a lot of competition you may be disappointed.
Totally agree Garry.
Google are not penalising those domains, they will just be greatly reducing the relevance of them,
I think that is a form of penalisation Al. I think Google sugar coating it to say 'reducing relevance' sounds better doesnt it!
I've noticed the multiple home pages don't work to well anymore, eg.
www.goldcarpetcare.net/london
www.goldcarpetcare.net/cambridge
Etc.
Correct Craig. Although duplicate content has a big bearing on this too.
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Google are not penalising those domains, they will just be greatly reducing the relevance of them,
I think that is a form of penalisation Al. I think Google sugar coating it to say 'reducing relevance' sounds better doesnt it!
They were quite specific at a presentation "the domain name is now just another tick in the box that helps", Oh go on then, they've sugar coated it.
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There are major updates in the next 2 weeks, although mostly unheard of its called The Venice Update.
It seems to be quietly tucked away but it is a MAJOR change , and believe it or not I think it is good news for local businesses like carpet cleaners.
Basically Google are making the search results local, this is good news for tradesmen like carpet cleaners because if someone just types in "carpet cleaner" they will get local searches by default. Seems to me the trick is to get your town name in as often as you can which most people have done anyway.
You will no longer be competing with the heavily back linked and SEO'd national companies and directories. My thinking is those 'bigger players' with more money will have to find another way to advertise nationally and for that there is Adwords.
I think it is more important than ever to get a good ranking on Google Places, it makes sense that is where they will start to figure out who is local and who isn't.
One drawback..... the automatic location finder on Google is pretty awful and I have to reset mine more than once a week.
In short don't panic too much, those that have dropped like the original poster can get that ranking back and suggest they make it a priority. You say its been SEO'd? REALLY?? Who by? Ask for a refund!
"Carpet Cleaner Dublin" Google first page is littered with rubbish that Venice will hopefully eliminate and get you back up but the site does need a bit of work anyway.
The named domains won't do you any harm, I'm currently doing the SEO on a site that wants to rank for "Gates Hampshire", "Wooden Gates Hampshire" and "Electric Gates Hampshire", and its doing pretty well for a company that has only been in existence for 4 months, guess what that company is called?
For those of you on the fence about spending money on website promotion think about this..... EIGHTY per cent of your customers only use the top 3 places, the traffic drop off to 4th and 5th place is unbelievable, so you have to ask yourself is it worth the £100-150 per month to be in those places?
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[quote author=Garyj link=topic=149723.msg1239260#msg1239260 date=1332691598
One drawback..... the automatic location finder on Google is pretty awful and I have to reset mine more than once a week.
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Hi Gary what's the automatic location finder,and how do you check if it's set right?
I must admit I'm having a nightmare with google at the moment, i was in the top 3 for google places for my local area but i had to change my telephone number and google asked me to verify via pin which they would only send by mail which took two weeks, in the meantime my website dropped right off page 1 for google places. I verity it a couple of weeks ago and its still only on page 3. For some reason I am listed below the google places but it is still showing my old telephone number. So really not pleased with google at the moment.
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Can take up to six weeks to change a Google Place as it is done manually, yep its pretty dire. Google Places is still in the early stages of their 'take over' of YP, very soon there will be paid listings on Google Places which will be shown in blue rather than red. Nothing you can do about it I'm afraid, it's just the way it is right now, you can't even ask for a refund as its free.
While you wait for it to get back there are plenty of other things to do which will help it in the long run. Citations are very important, get yourself in as many directories as you can (and prepar for the onslaught of advertising calls that comes with it!), start to think of a way you can get your customers to leave a review, again that's very important. Add photos and add a video, make sure you are signed in to your account when you do this as (unbelievably) anyone can post a pic to your Page,so fill up all the spaces you can before someone does it for you.
When you are on Google there is an area on the left which tells you your location.... or where Google thinks you are, you can change it there.
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Quick Update
Go to Google, do a search and then it will show on the left. I just did that and right now it thinks I am in Sheffield! I changed it back to Andover just a few hours ago, my server is near Guildford. Its pretty useless at the moment.
Facebook is no better either, that is also using automatic place finder and I have noticed the last few weeks it is consistently wrong, according to Facebook on Friday night my 13 year old daughter was in Twickenham, thought I was in for a quiet night until she appeared 5 minutes later.
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Thanks Gary I'll just have to wait it out and hope I get back to where I was. With the paid for Google places, do you mean the new adwords express? which starts at £80 per month?
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Didn't realise it was already here, I knew it was coming. Yep, that's the one.
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I'm still No1 on google for carpet cleaning duck sellers in Wallop though ;D ;D ;D
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I'm still No1 on google for carpet cleaning duck sellers in Wallop though ;D ;D ;D
Not for much longer, planning on starting a business selling carpets and cleaning ducks, will knock you right off your perch in Over Wallop, might be greedy and corner the market in Neither Wallop too :-*
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150 to 200 quid to be in top 3 places, I wish!
My area you are looking at £500 a month to be top 3 and that's schedled ads,
Full time easy £800 a month.
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150 to 200 quid to be in top 3 places, I wish!
My area you are looking at £500 a month to be top 3 and that's schedled ads,
Full time easy £800 a month.
Thanks for that, I'll put my prices up.
I don't mean ads, I mean organic listing. I'm THAT good :-*
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But with ads my no. 1 is really 4 isnt it.
I also think there's a drop off after the ads.
So a 1 and 2 organic won't get as much as the ads above ime
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Gary
Forgot to mention with Google Express Adverts that i have given this a quick go and the advert does not appear along with the rest natural Google places but in the same locations as Google Adwords, they just have a blue place marker next to them.
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Richard, With express that where it's ment to be.
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Richard, With express that where it's ment to be.
Yes i know ;D I was replying to an earlier comment by Gary.
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hi garyj great info,,,you say my site carpetcleanersdublin needs some work,can you please tell me what you think i could do to improve,thanks
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Now they are talking about another "over optimisation" penalty.
Apparently it is to reward "high quality sites" with poor optimisation, to show up better in the results.
That will be fun to see how they apply that one. Maybe using social stuff only?