Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Seo Matrix What Am I Missing

Posted by Anonymous on 10/1/2010 at 11:22 AM ET 250 Points
We are an outsourced IT support company based in Phoenix Az. our website www.pc-cops.com has been up for 2 years now. We have paid several companies to advertise and optimize the site it self all with no results so far. We are still on page 8/9 of google search for phoenix computer repair. However I see several comapanies who just started a few months ago and they are being ranked on first and 2nd page. I actually reviewed their source code and they have no meta data or any of the search terms on their site. One site actually only has a contact form as their website. How are they achieving such a high rank with no relevant content. Any ideas suggestions would be appreciated.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by chet.dalzell on 10/1/2010 at 12:41 PM Member
    One of my clients is The Agency Inside Harte-Hanks. I checked with one of its digital experts, and here's what she observed after seeing your Google listing:

    "He [your SEO provider] is spamming. He has fake links on his page, spamming his meta tags, doesn’t use 'Phoenix' naturally in his content at all. And Google knows it – Zero Google PageRank - he’s lucky to have positioning for his name."






  • Posted by chet.dalzell on 10/1/2010 at 1:03 PM Member
    The key is to check to make sure that whoever your SEO provider is -- please make sure they are knowledgeable of search engine marketing codes of behavior that will protect your brand's reputation online. To do so otherwise will certainly lower your rankings.
  • Posted on 10/1/2010 at 6:57 PM Author
    Chet Thank for your response the feedback is appreciated.
    Could you please clarify what is meant by "He has fake links on his page, spamming his meta tags" I am not aware of any fake links on the site. And we like to think we are a very ethical company and would want to have that corrected right away.

    As far as the content not having Phoenix in the content itself. well that is true and we will rewrite some of the content. We had focused more on the type of service we offered instead.
    However my bewilderment and my original question there are sites ranked on the first page which have no content. I of course do not want to call out any specifics. But I believe if you search "computer repair phoenix" on Google you will see what I am referring to.

    Mario
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 10/2/2010 at 8:26 AM Accepted
    You're missing looking at backlinks. Your competitor that's listed as #1 for "computer repair phoenix" is listed in local.yahoo.com (which has pagerank of 8), bbb.org (also 8), yellowpages.com, etc. Keywords/tags are just one piece of the puzzle, Mario.
  • Posted on 10/2/2010 at 10:59 AM Accepted
    Look at the bottom of your homepage. See all those phrases at the bottom that look like keywords separated by pipes (example: Computer Repair Phoenix | Computer Repair Scottsdale | ...)?

    Those look like the keywords you'd use in a meta-tag, repeated at the bottom of the page for no reason other than to have the words appear as text, with no real relevance to what you're trying to communicate on the page, and without meaningful links (even though they look like they could be links).

    The Google bots probably see those and think you're gaming their system, and they "punish" you for that by giving you a lower/poorer ranking in search results.
  • Posted on 10/5/2010 at 3:10 AM Accepted
    Again the expert advice from my mentors and colleagues are spot on . Think of content and back links as Batman and Robin of SEO(Content is Batman IMO) . You have to build content that should reflect the keyword you are trying to target and reinforce that with contextual backlinks from High PR sites. The Pack 7(local map) also is a great ranking vertical for Google so dvogel's insight is essential for success on the localized long tail organic searches.

    Those footers at the bottom of your page should be linked to pages specifically written to reflect that "anchor text" if you want them to work for you and not get a penalty.

    Your meta description is a little long and meta keywords should be reduced. (possible penalty for keyword stuffing)

    Some of your links come from unrelated sites which really don't offer much compared to the other sites ranking on the 1st page.

    Please make sure you sign up for Google webmaster tools and utilize it as this will provide valuable information about your site and is your only avenue for reconsideration if you are getting penalized.

    P.S. If I contracted a SEO freelancer or agency and they didn't deliver on their promises I'd strongly request for a refund or at the least an explanation.

    Hope this helps. BTW, this forum is the best place to get great insight and solutions to your marketing concerns.



  • Posted on 10/8/2010 at 7:06 PM Author
    Thank you all for the excellent feed back. It is really appreciated. I am personally taking an interest in this at this point and have been doing the research. dvogel thank you for the links I have submitted to the directories. Also the dmoz but they still have not listed us in the dmoz. I guess I was not able to fine a good enough category will try that again.

    And yes we have been burned by several companies but of course the answers are always SEO does not come with any guarantees.

    And this is an awesome forum thanks Folks for all the tips.
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