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(Continued) The Rank for $ales Monthly Newsletter, Apr. 26, 2008. Page 18
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 
SEO Pet Peeves...I've been in this business for almost 12 years now and I still love it as much as the first day I started. This industry is filled with a lot of excitement and challenges. There's nothing I appreciate more than a client coming to our offices to thank me personally for a job well done, and to let us know how great it is to be at the top of the SERPs. Of course, and like any other job, there's always a thing or two that an SEO simply dosen't like and dosen't appreciate. One of them is the story you are about to read. (All names have been withheld, of course.) It all started in January of this year. A potentially new customer calls up our offices and asks us to set a meeting for him, his Web developer and his accountant (why his accountant you ask? I don't have a clue!)  The meeting goes as it usually does. We make our presentation, there's a short Q&A at the end, they ask us for a rough cost estimate and the business owner asks when would the project be completed... etc. So far, so good. And oh yes, at one point during the meeting, the Web developer looks at me straight in the eye and asks if we can optimize the site just with the 'meta tags' and without changing anything in the body of the text! AAAARRRRGGHHHHHH!!!!!! That's when I had a hunch that maybe we shouldn't take that project at all... but we did, nevertheless. That last question is a sure tell-tale sign that they simply don't understand or CARE to understand anything about professional SEO... I've answered what I always do with a question like that, by saying that Rank for $ales only abides to our strict code of SEO ethics and that if they want just meta tags optimized they can go and see another company... At any rate, two weeks later we start the SEO on their 120-page site. About six weeks down the road the project is 95% completed and we start uploading the optimized pages to the server. Before we started the project the average page was about only 100 to 125 words in lenght per page, which is a lot less than what they should be, and it happens to be one of the major reasons why the site didn't rank very high before we took it under our wings. Now most of the pages are between 500 to 600 words in lenght, and I'm strongly convinced it will do a lot better in the SERPs.  Amazing graphics, dazzling presentation... About three weeks after we uploaded the newly-created pages and all the ones we've optimized, I started to see the site go up in the rankings. Before we took this project, the site was sitting between the 5th and the 9th page in Google and Yahoo for about 20 of their 25 keywords. Now it's between page 1 and 2 of Google, and on page 1 of Yahoo for about 17 keywords. Not bad, right? The next week the owner and CEO of the company calls me and says he's very disappointed in the new site! He asks for a meeting and I accept it for the next day. I could tell he wasn't too happy but I didn't know why yet. He started by saying that they were getting negative comments about the remake of the new site. When I asked him what kind of negative comments, he said: "People used to love our site for its simplicity and great professional look. Now they tell us there's too much text, too many links, they tell us there's stuff there that's almost useless." Before answering this, I took a small pause as to prepare myself for a valid answer. I started by asking him: "Aren't you happy that you're doing a lot better now in the SERPs? You came to us because your site was simply impossible to find on Google and Yahoo. Now your site can easily be found using your keywords, and your overall traffic and relevancy has increased by about 80% in a matter of just a few weeks."  I could tell he didn't understand much about any of that, so I asked: "How are sales from your site coming along?" His answer: "Oh our sales are up about 60% since you've optimized our site. We've even had one large order that literally paid all of your SEO invoice in one shot!" Then he told me bluntly that he simply dosen't like to see so much new text on his site, and that now he feels the site isn't as 'clean' as it used to be before the SEO remake. That's when I told him that the fact the site now is a lot higher in the SERPs and that it's bringing in a lot more sales is a valid proof that the work we did is working fine, and that the text we added is helping a lot to bring in more relevant traffic and sales to the site! But he still wasn't convinced. I suggested to him to let another three weeks go by, and that I would visit him at his office at the end of the month so that we can take a second look at the whole thing and see if there isn't anything we can do about his observations. He accepted. Two days before that meeting, I had spent about an hour retyping all his keywords, in both Google, Yahoo and even MSN. I was really happy when I saw that about 95% of all his keywords were on Google's page 1, and the same for Yahoo and MSN, although results weren't as relevant in MSN, but then so it is with most of the research we do with MSN Live anyway... I took some notes about all of that and placed the results of my findings on a spreadsheet so I could show them to him at our meeting. I showed up at the meeting and he greeted me at the reception area. Sitting inside the conference room was his accountant that I had met a few months before. I could tell my client was a lot happier that day than at our last meeting. He started by saying: "Serge, I'm happy to report that our online sales and our conversions are up a staggering 340% and I think we owe a lot of it to you and your great team." Needless to say, I was blown away at how the whole situation turned 180 degrees on its own dime and in such a short time!  Obviously, numbers DON'T lie and that's what his accountant had been telling him all week. He then told me: "Please, DO NOT touch our site! Everything is PERFECT and I ask that you don't do a thing more." He added "Of course I was probably misinformed the other day and I think I jumped the gun on you, and for that I apologize." I accepted his apologies and told him there was no harm done. We've since had lunch together and I think we have since become friends. The whole situation goes to prove that sometimes it takes a bit more time to see results happen, and it also tells us that sometimes people misinterpret how a site should "look and feel". After all, the ultimate goal of a site is two fold: help users find the information they need, and sell the products you offer. Of course you simply cannot prevent situations such as the one depicted above from happening. This isn't the first I've seen like that, and it certainly won't be the last either. But yes, it's a small Pet Peeves nevertheless... Well, that's it for now. Have a pleasant and relaxing weekend, and I will see you all Saturday, May 31, 2008. Serge Thibodeau, Please note that I am available for SEO consultative work or to help you optimize your website for the major search engines. Feel free to contact me for an honest and fair assessment. Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors on this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the companies mentioned on any of these pages. All logos, trade marks and service marks on this newsletter are the exclusive property of their respective owners. Note: Although I always try my best to answer each individual question that I receive, there are times when it's just impossible for me to answer every one I get, as the amount of emails sent to me keeps increasing all the time. Also, please note that, for confidentiality reasons, the names of people writing to us are never disclosed. Please send all your questions, comments or general enquiries to: questions@rankforsales.com Subscribe to the free Rank for Sales Bi-Weekly Newsletter <<< Previous page Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18  Bookmark the RFS Newsletter by simply clicking here. Search engine industry news corner: About Rank for $ales Rank for $ales can be reached via email at info@rankforsales.com or you can call from anywhere in the US or Canada, via our toll free number at 1-800-631-3221. Our offices are located near Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Visit our web site at www.rankforsales.com About Serge Thibodeau Pagina+™ is offered by Rank for $ale's parent company: GCIS Inc. Besides serving as editor and CEO of Rank for $ales, Serge Thibodeau currently writes professional search engine optimization articles in some of the following publications: 
SEO Today (www.seotoday.com) Additionally, Serge Thibodeau has successfully developed and deployed Global Business Listing, a powerful and flexible 'paid inclusion' search engine that will further increase any company's rankings and visibility in the major search engines. On the Web, at: www.globalbusinesslisting.com Bookmark the Rank for $ales newsletter by simply clicking here. Legal Notice This newsletter is sponsored by Rank for Sales, a professional SEO firm in business since 1997. We suggest you bookmark our newsletter and place it in the list of your favorite websites by clicking here. Feel free to contact us if you need to have your website optimized by a professional SEO firm, or if you have any question on the subject of search engines. Efficiently hosted by Avantex, the industry leader in reliable hosting services. |
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