Your Website is Invisible

[Alpha]

I'm not kidding. It probably is. Have you ever tried looking up your website on Google? I don't mean typing in your name. I mean doing a search for, say, photographers in your area. Chances are, it may not have shown up. Of if it did, it isn't ranking all that well. If your site is built using Flash, I can guarantee with nearly 100% certainty that it's more or less invisible. (Just ask Google. Their developer site explains that their search engine has no idea how to read Flash pages).

A few misconceptions:
1) Having a site doesn't mean that people can find it. Most "Web Designers" literally have no idea how to make a site rank well on search engines. Your site isn't generating any business (or at the very least not nearly as much as it could) if nobody can find it.
2) But my hosting company said that they submitted my site to search engines. NewsFlash! Search engines will find your site if it shows up somewhere on the web anyway. Getting it to rank well is a whole 'nother story.
3) I'm just gonna build the site now and worry about search engines later. Bad idea. There are a lot of important techniques that need to be incorporated into the structure of a website, from the ground up, in order for it to rank well. Trying to do this retroactively is a) expensive, and b) a headache

My forte is search engine optimization. I ran an optimization company for a while, before deciding that I didn't want to sit in front of a computer for the rest of my life. So basically what I do is help websites to show up higher in search engine results for particular keywords. Translation: You'll get more visitors, which in turn will generate more business. So I shut down the company, but have sort of gotten back into it (after having recently launched a few websites that are ranking extremely well on Google, it renewed my excitement). So I am going to be doing some freelance work. I thought I'd offer my services here to you kind folks, who put up with my terrorizing of the critique section.

I always do free evaluations. So if you have a website and want to know if it's ranking well or if it could be ranking better, just shoot me a PM. Costs are usually pretty low unless you have an enormous site, and normally don't exceed what you'd pay someone to build one. It's a question of return on your investment. You paid a bunch of money to have some site built, and you pay a hosting company every month/year. But your website really isn't serving its function if you aren't getting visitors.

Mods, feel free to move this to the web section, but I didn't post it there because nobody ever reads there. There are just tons of 0 reply threads.

 

[castrol]

Can you recommend someone who can build an entire website for a medium
sized company? I am in charge of getting our website re-done and I am trying
to find someone creative...

Just wondering.

 

[Hair Bear]

Castrol, how do you feel about working with a UK company?

 

[Lol999]

I can reccommend this guy http://www.sitebunny.com he has experience of remote managed projects and for quite a while was head honcho of his own software house. he also happens to be my brother in law, but I wouldn't reccommend him if his stuff wasn't good. For all the retro games nerds out there do a search for Raff Cecco, that's the guy.

Cheers, Lol

 

[Alpha]

Castrol,

My biggest piece of advice would be to find someone local. There are lots of competent web designers and companies out there who could do a respectable job with a site overhaul. But being able to actually sit down with someone and go over the nitty gritty is so much better. It also tends to give you more control.

 

[morydd]

Before hiring anyone, take a look at the sites they've done recently. Not just what you see when you load the page normally... look at their code. Find someone who knows code to tell you if it's clean and maintainable. My wife's company just got their page redone (I did the previous version) and the new one is a code nightmare.

I suggest loading any page you're responsible for in lynx just to see if it functions. Of course you won't get pictures, but you should at least be able to find the important information. (It's also a lot closer to what search engines "see".)

 

[Forsh]

I was explaining this very thing to a PPA Certified Master Photographer (one of five in our region) whom I helped to launch his website. I told him to type in a couple of sets of words in Google and he saw that I showed up #1 or close to the top for several sets of words. My level of photography is nowhere near what he can do, but people can find me. You're nobody if people can't find you.

 

[Alpha]

Exactamundo. It's kind of sad, really. Well I should say disappointing, actually, to a lot of new clients. You just spent a bunch of money developing a website, and now you have to shell out again? That is a bit of a pain. But this is all a game of return on investment. Like Forsh said, that site isn't doing you any good if nobody can find it.

 

[PNA]

Hey Max, I've appreciated reading your directness.....just a passing thought.