Point of a freelancers site

[ianm]

Originally Posted by Laura Lynne

Then you run the risk of falling behind freelancers and agencies that offer the full package, people generally don't want their site designed by one person and their print designed by someone else

1. i'm not a freelancer

2. if i'd of had the opportunity to design commercial sites i would do it, i haven't had the opportunity

[tommylogic]

Originally Posted by ianm

... if i'd of had the opportunity to design commercial sites i would do it...

Well, I'm sure when you're ready they will be lining up to get you... so easy to find and all.

[Laura Lynne]

I think that's exactly what the first post meant, so many people avoid SEO because either they don't understand it or just shrug it off as in they don't care.

But why have a site no-body can find without the actual URL?

[tommylogic]

Yep.. exactly. I didn't think it was a big deal at first, but the market is getting a lot more competative, certainly. I'm finding that on my personal site, I can drive prospects there, but the more i analyze it... the better it would be if I didn't spend so much time getting pointing people in the right direction.
It's a LOT more rewarding when they just find me. It would give me so much more time to design if i wasn't doing so many site drives..
So, I'm now paying the price and going ahead and working on the SEO in hopes to gain more productivity and less time on campaigning. I think I knew it all along, but it just seemed so daunting of a task, and maybe a bit lazy.. I find MOST people want that service for their site as well.

[Toon]

Google is the one to master the other are all a little easier. Pick the search terms you feel people will use, even if it's only on a local basis, (people tend to like to stay as local as possible even in this digital age).

Colour Printing Rotherham - 2 sites in the first page

Business Print Rotherham - 2 sites in the 12 results

Web Design Rotherham - 2 sites in 1st page and I'm not a web designer in any way I just offer it existing clients as part of our business package.

Graphic Design Rotherham - 1st page entry

Software Rotherham - 2nd in Google

Locally I've made sure we appear pretty much top. What you have to make sure is any above you don't look as good as you. I know 20-30 clients that would not click any further if faced with a load time.

Colour Printing Sheffield - 21st for the next town on!

As far as the forum goes it's pretty straight forward.

Graphic Design Forum - 7th for the keywords.

Also sites you do for clients can benefit you....

Colour Printing Durham - 1st for my site, 2nd for the clients.

So colour printing which is my main product is now topping other towns because of my SEO on a clients site.

Then make sure any speciality products are high not just loacally but nation wide.

Integrated Cards - 9th for google.co.uk

and use what is popular, that silly Flash Game (falling down stairs game) that appeared on here has already received 10 visitors since posting and has already been spidered by google putting us at 9th, not the sort of search term to get you business but like I've always said 70% of hits can come from spelling mistakes, now you can't have these mistakes in your copy especially on a business site, but there's no reason why your big terms can't have mispelt versions in your meta tags!!

I have to agree with alot of the points made here, SEO is the reason we only have 1 sales rep at Taylors because every day I get enquiries via the web which doesn't cost us a penny in wages or petrol or even printed adverts!

Sorry for any international users these results only come from google.co.uk results which doesn't bother me as most potential clients will be using this.

Out of interest if anyone wants to let me know the results from an international google post here it would be nice to see.

I have tried to turn off the local option in google but never figured it out.

[Mack]

Other then keywords, i do no optimization. I have pretty much 0 content on my site. But through forum posts etc you can see here in google:

Google: mckenziemedia
i am 1,2 and 5, 7. i have mopped the floor with the guy who wouldnt give up the .com
http://www.google.com/search?source=...=Google+Search

ill never try and come up as "mike mckenzie", cause well hes a player for the greenbay packers. I am sure if i tried hard enough, i could atleast show up on page 1.

[Toon]

and scarlett's making early steps into google stardom!

[Mack]

i know huh? thats is just sending her link out to my fam and friends... i did nothing for that one.


* edit: I just noticed my keywords still say Macromedia Flash, gotta up date that to Adobe!

[Toon]

But you see what you could achieve with blog.mckenziemedia.net, directory.mckenziemedia.net, forum.mckenziemedia.net etc.

Rather than having a site you then have a network. Blog keywords are very important.

1. You can make spelling mistakes and no-one will care.
2. You can write about anything loosely based around your site content.
3. You can use it for link exchanges without having to cover your main site with adverts.

You get the idea

[Mack]

I could rule the world!
if i wasnt so damn lazy!