[Mike Osbourne]

The trouble is nothing stays static, there is always someone waiting to take the crown as the top spot gets 40% of the first page's traffic. And SEO is expensive!

[derek west]

thank you barabara, constructive comments as always from you. think your right but i'll drop it for a few weeks and see how it goes, just had affordable cleaners seo'd so got to wait a few weeks before it climbs up the rankings. and ive got 2 more sites to develop, one i'm doing myself and i'll get mark at dpdesign to do the other.

mike
stupid stuff?
i prefer interesting and controversial, but if you want to to put it that way and belittle me some more then thats your perogative.

derek

[Mike Osbourne]

Carry on p1ssing your money away then, your loss, your house, your family.

[derek west]

not my house, its rented remember, keep up FFS.
and as for p1ssing my money away, i've been doing that ever since i could get into pubs. i aint gonna change now.

derek

[Mike Osbourne]

 

Anyway, regarding adwords if you want to do it proper like you would have to track all your keywords because what google gives you through their tool isn't accurate enough. You take that as a starting point and see which ones yeild positive, cut the por performers out and add in some new ones, rinse repeat. As well as that you have to split test your headline, subheading etc because some wil work far better than others.

The problem is Google Adwords is easy to get started on but very hard to start making it profitable or at least very labour intensive.

So if you like pouring over spreadsheets for two hours every night after a hard days graft and happy to throw £500 away on testing and optimisation I would not bother.

[Neil Williams]

at least very labour intensive.
So if you like pouring over spreadsheets for two hours every night after a hard days graft

As I'm finding out. Thanks to paying a small amount up front and a very kind gesture from another carpet cleaner who gave me a substantial 'voucher' I'm giving it one big throw, but yes it is very labour intensive and the manual (if you want to call the instructions) are at best left to the imagination as to what do to.
As for the comment about getting 10 times more enquiries through natural listings then I'm right in poo if that is the case, as I have 3 sites on the first page of 'carpet cleaning basingstoke, and the phone seems to not be working

[derek west]

at least very labour intensive.
So if you like pouring over spreadsheets for two hours every night after a hard days graft

As I'm finding out. Thanks to paying a small amount up front and a very kind gesture from another carpet cleaner who gave me a substantial 'voucher' I'm giving it one big throw, but yes it is very labour intensive and the manual (if you want to call the instructions) are at best left to the imagination as to what do to.
As for the comment about getting 10 times more enquiries through natural listings then I'm right in poo if that is the case, as I have 3 sites on the first page of 'carpet cleaning basingstoke, and the phone seems to not be working

number 1 on google for your search is a bit embarassing neil.

derek

[Mike Osbourne]

Neil

It's not all bad. If you are on page one every placement higher means far more traffic, it's not linear. So position one is going to get 40% of that page. Number 9 get next to bugger all, unless it has a thumbnail.

Google adwords gives you everything you need, they want you to keep on spending, but most can't be bothered to read it and implement it, if you are then you deserve success with it. Simplz. Oh hell I'm saying it now.

[Neil Williams]

number 1 on google for your search is a bit embarassing neil.

Yes exactly. Constantly have a battle with accessplace to stay at the top but surely for a town with a population of 130,000 the phone should be going almost red hot.
By the end of next week it will be a leaflet drop, something i haven't done for about 6 years, hence why I'm now playing with adwords as i hate walking the streets

[Mike Osbourne]

Neil

If you are no1 I would put a REALLY good offer on there for a while just to see if you have traffic but poor conversion.

[Neil Williams]

If you are no1 I would put a REALLY good offer on there for a while just to see if you have traffic but poor conversion.

Thanks for that idea Mike,
I've spent years stating these are my prices and that's just the way it is but I guess it's time to try something drastic.
I'll work on that idea tomorrow night and see what happens.

[Mike Osbourne]

Neil

Why don't you use the Google adwords tool to find out how many searches per month you would get for your primary key words. You would know then if it's worth putting energy into or working on something more productive. 

[mitch2810]

Derek, if you are using adwords you need to set up various campaigns with not too many key words in each. Try and be specific. Pick the areas you are not on the 1st page and use it to target those, rather than the ones where you are already showing.
It works better if you have a campaign for carpet cleaning chester and another for leather cleaning chester and another for upholstery cleaning chester etc...
Phil

[Mike Halliday]

why do people have such a huge belief in the Internet, like its some nirvana of work, I know 2 or 3 people who do really well from the internet, but I know loads more who don't get diddly-squat.

everyone is working really hard to make thier websites bring in work because internet marketing can be very cheap, But I think putting the same amount of time into other marketing will bring in a better return.

the problem is we get a few people on the forums who are telling us the are doing amazingly well ( like Doug) which is OK but we don't get the people who are getting nothing from the internet to balance it out.

time is money..... so web marketing is only free if you put no value on your own time

[derek west]

Derek, if you are using adwords you need to set up various campaigns with not too many key words in each. Try and be specific. Pick the areas you are not on the 1st page and use it to target those, rather than the ones where you are already showing.
It works better if you have a campaign for carpet cleaning chester and another for leather cleaning chester and another for upholstery cleaning chester etc...
Phil

cheers phil, never thought of it as a top up, doh!
i'm on it.

mike
i do a shed load of advertising but for me persoanlly, google wins hands down, just not sure if its adwords or generic, hence the post, but i think i'll do what phil said and use adwords for area's i'm not generically top of.

derek
derek

[Robert Watson]

Good post Mike.
I cant complain at all about the work my site brings in. (Edinburgh)
I watch the stats on other sites I`v put up like Leeds, Coventry and such like and
the hits are nothing like what I would have expected. So yeah I agree its only a small part of your marketing efforts, unless you get lucky and people in your area are searching like mad for a carpet cleaner.
Rab

[derek west]

number 1 on google for your search is a bit embarassing neil.

Yes exactly. Constantly have a battle with accessplace to stay at the top but surely for a town with a population of 130,000 the phone should be going almost red hot.
By the end of next week it will be a leaflet drop, something i haven't done for about 6 years, hence why I'm now playing with adwords as i hate walking the streets

neil
i was talking about the removal ruggers
these were number 1 when i searched.
http://basingstokecarpetcleaners.co.uk/index1.html

derek

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

I'm saying nothing and going down the pub

Cheers

Doug

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

The way to make the internet work is to have an integrated approach with several websites targetting different areas or putting your website on as many relevant sites as possible.

I have carpet cleaning, hot water extraction, dry carpet cleaning, sofa cleaning, chair cleaning, green carpet cleaning, truckmount carpet cleaning, organic carpet cleaning etc all as different angles.

I also target different areas, so that I can pick the sort of jobs I want to do.

Mike obviously sees the future of the internet as he has paid for a video, but at the moment other marketing is working much better for him.

He also likes to work within 100 meteres of his house

Cheers

Doug

[Barry Livingstone]

Is there away of checking where your in the territory the clicks are coming from