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Recommending web developers


daddyalfie

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A few years back I did a website for an Inn in North Carolina and the client was well pleased with it.

 

He recently called me and complained that traffic on his site had seemed to be dropping off. I did a bit of research and found that he indeed did not have a high visibility on the net.

 

Since I am really an amateur at this I am thinking of recommending a more professional developer than me.

 

What are the ethics involved in recommending one of you experts? Any one interested?

 

Please IM me at daddyalfie@bellsouth.net

 

Thanks!

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Before hiring someone, (as Andres suggested), post your site here and maybe we can assist you in resolving the or at least make some sense as to why you are having a problem. You weren't very clear as to what you did on your end to make the client unhappy with the site's search results. Did you make any recent changes? If not, did you notice if someone else might have made some changes? etc.

 

Keep in mind that Ben(?) mentioned something about Google changing the way they index pages just a few days ago.

 

If you do need to hire someone you might just need to hire a SEO professional and not a web developer. In any case, both can analyze your code to see if it's at least SEO ready.

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OK! HERE is the site in question. I have not made any changes to it in nearly three years. One concern I had was that the e-mail address in the form-mail may have changed. I sent a test message via the form but have yet to receive an answer.

 

There are of course several things I would change if I were to do it again such as increasing the width of the container and eliminating that stupid "Navigation Links" blurb.

 

However, the real problem is that there is not enough traffic to his site. I tried google and yahoo searches and his visibility is indeed low!

 

How do I find an SEO expert?

 

Thanks!

 

Alfie

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The code seems SEO ready which means it looks good.

 

There are several SEO 'experts' out there. The question is what is the client willing to pay? Someone on this forum may be able to provide some good SEO work for a reasonable price but it may not be their niche or specialty but it will more than likely be affordable.

 

On the other hand, hiring an SEO professional that does nothing but SEO work may take a bite out of the client's wallet. However, the results may or may not be better than if you were to go with someone more affordable.

 

In the end, SEO work does not provide guaranteed results but in most cases results are at least satisfactory. If your client is not budgeting anything for marketing the website then how else is he expected to get good results? It's not the 90's anymore where websites were so few compared to today.

 

One way that is helpful that you can do now is FRESH CONTENT with very good keywords within the content! For example, an Alaska fishing charter site's keyword may be "Fishing Charter" but that's a very broad phrase. To make it better you can use "Alaska Fishing Charter", "Sitka Alaska Fishing Charter", "Alaskan Salmon Fishing", etc.

 

In order to compete with his competitor he must either spend a little or work on it himself.

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Thanks so much to both of you!

 

I have e-mailed my client twice, once through the website form and once through the address I have on file. I have yet to receive a response other than the courtesy reply from the form-mail program. Perhaps his e-mail address has changed??? That would certainly explain his problem!

 

I have now telephoned him and left a message. Hope the problem is that simple!

 

Keeping my fingers and toes crossed! (Not easy!)

 

Alfie

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I agree that fresh content would help. Also, I would suggest perhaps adding WordPress to the mix. It would not be hard at all to create a custom WordPress theme to match the current design. In my experience, Google seems to love WordPress. Plus, it would make it so your client can update the text/photos on their own.

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@Susie (and all!)

 

Thank you Susie, but I am totally NOOB about wordpress, although I have seen a bit about it here in the forum. What the hey is it and what does it do? I have even looked at their website and still do not get what it is!

 

Also, what do you mean by "Fresh Content"? My client intimated that he might like to include some "seasonal" subjects like Christmas, New Year, Valentines Day etc., and I think that is a great idea! That's what you mean? Or do you mean a revamp of the whole thing?

 

Thanks to all for your caring and expertise!

 

Alfie

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Wordpress is a blog but can also be used as a Content Management System (CMS). It allows users to add their own content without really knowing any html or css. No new pages are really created but instead it is dynamically created via using a template. New (and existing) content are kept in a database in which when a user views a certain page the content is extracted from the database.

 

As for fresh content...take a newspaper for example: how many people would buy and read an copy of the news that is dated weeks ago? Probably not many. I'm not saying that you need fresh content on a daily basis but at least a few times a month. Your client wanting to add seasonal stuff throughout the year is a good start. There are many opportunities to take advantage of holidays or special days.

 

New Year's

President's Day

Valentine's Day

Martin Luther King's Day?

Saint Patrick's Day?

 

...and so on.

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Eddie is correct. I like to use WordPress as a CMS (content management system) for all the sites I develop because it's so easy for clients to use when they want to update their text and photos. It's easier on me, too, because I don't have to go through file after file when changes need to be made to the design or code. There are several of us here that you could hire to integrate WordPress into the design.

Edited by Susie
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