SEO Plan

[richwizard]

Hi All
I have an ongoing SEO plan & paying over $400 per month, and have been for 2yrs+. I do attract online enquiries but I just wonder what I'm actually paying for? I receive a monthly report showing my stats, but do they just put my keywords out there at the beginning of the plan and then just charge the monthly fee?

I guess i'm trying to ensure i'm getting value? can someone clarify please.

Richie.

[King]

I would respectfully suggest you are being ripped off.

If you don't know what you are paying for then stop paying it.

SEO is NOT rocket science and you can learn how to do it yourself effectively without too much trouble.

[david.pagotto]

Hello Richie,

What is the domain name you are paying SEO services for?

I will have a look and let you know if you are paying for something worth while.

If they are keeping you at the top of google searches for highly competitive keywords, than $400 a month is very reasonable.

[richwizard]

Originally Posted by david.pagotto

Hello Richie,

What is the domain name you are paying SEO services for?

I will have a look and let you know if you are paying for something worth while.

If they are keeping you at the top of google searches for highly competitive keywords, than $400 a month is very reasonable.

david, it is www.holidaywizard.com.au

[mexham]

Hi Richie, you should really ask for a detailed invoice and fee breakdown, so you know exactly where your money is going. $400 a month seems a heap, have you not questioned them previously on exactly what service they are providing? Are they doing adwords advertising for you or similar?

I had a quick search in google for what I guess would be your target keywords words,
'holiday' and 'holiday packages' but got up to page 5 on both and still couldn't find your website. Is first if you search for 'holiday wizard', but how many people search that phrase?

Anyway hopefully someone with more experience here can help you out.

[david.pagotto]

Hello Richie,

To sum it up, it does not appear you are getting any value for money here, and I would strongly suggest finding another SEO company.

Your keywords are:

Holiday Wizard Latest Holiday Package Offers,
Airfare Search,
Hotel Specials,
Car Hire specials,
Travel Insurance,
Holiday Specials,
Thailand Specials,
Phuket Specials,
Bali Specials

You do not seem to be showing up in google for any of your keywords except the first.

In my opinion this list of keywords needs to be refined. All the keywords except the first are VERY VERY high competition and you will probably never see the first page of google with them.

I would still be very interested to see what this company claims they do for you, If you would like to send me a detailed report I can have a further look. (david.pagotto@abforum.org).

There are a lot more inexpensive ways to gain quality search engine ranking. I will give you a few to work on.

1. Refine those keywords using the google keyword tool.
Try to find keywords with a high search level, but with low competition.

2. Keep your content updated regularly.

3. Backlinks, Backlinks, Backlinks!
Try to gain as many quality backlinks to your site as possible.

A good company for seo is submitedge.com, get one of there packages for about 300USD and work on it from there yourself,

Hope this helps,

Regards, David Pagotto

[Jexley]

Hey Richie,
You may or may not remember me, but I used to work for your web designers a few years ago. I not only know their inner-workings, but those of the SEO company as well, and I've had my own rapidly-growing SEO company here in Perth for a couple of years as well, so I reckon I'm one of the most qualified to tell you how you're going.

It's good to see you on here mate! I'll PM you some more of my thoughts.

[Mick_Alocasia]

Hi Rich,

We do some work with SEO, however in today's environment I am scared to even suggest to clients or advertise that we do. There is just too many unscrupulous operators out there and I would hate to be tarred with the same brush.

I would suggest you re-think your investment, SEO can be coupled effectively with other activities like Customer Service, Web Development and Social Media Marketing for instance. Certainly being in the travel industry there is a wealth of opportunity in the social media space.

What a lot of SEO's are doing is 'link building', increasing the presence of the url to your website on the internet. This is all good and well however it is only one piece of the puzzle. (Fact is I cannot even see a lot of evidence of that they are doing that for you.) The other part is relevance, if you are a leader in package holidays is your site appearing high on the search engines. If not why are you paying these guys? That being said Package Holidays would be a hard one to crack. In order to be relevant you have to look back at your own website. Is the content really there?

Perhaps you should take a step back and think about your web marketing strategy, what are you trying to achieve? What is your niche market? Then using the web how is the best way to reach it. SEO is a small part, of an overall strategy and its not the most important. In fact it could be a legitimate strategy to avoid SEO and invest marketing dollars elsewhere. Personally I think the sponsorship of Squash Works is a better investment than your SEO activities so far.

So;
Step 1. Save yourself $400 a month.
Step 2. Re-evaluate your market and product. Today at least, it's certainly not Honeymoons in the Maldives to young German newlyweds.
Step 3. Then invest your budget wisely in targeting the right market and using the right medium.

BTW, I'd love to get a look at your google analytic's reports spanning the time before and after your engagement of the SEO. The academic in me has just got to know. I hope your monitoring it yourself. If not at the very least someone has set that up for you.

Good luck, I just love the travel industry don't know why I'm not more involved. I guess its because its a really tough market.

[nuthin]

Hi Richie,

Long time no speak. I was the initial person who undertook an SEO strategy quite a few years back now for you at WF. Are you still with them?

I left there at the start of 2007 to start my own ventures. I remember delivering you solid results back then with first page positions for "holiday packages", "cheap holidays" (you seemed to of slipped right back now) and your destination pages eg: "Phuket holiday packages, cheap Phuket holidays" etc.

Some of your destination pages still do pretty good. Alot still need to be modified and tweaked accordingly though. If your still on Clue's CMS, I remember it being quite easy to do.

Anyway feel free to touch base with me if you wish. It will be good to chat again.

David Hobbs