9 replies to this topic

[balz]

First off I'm not a SEO professional by any stretch of the imagination. I've read articles, bought a book, and have been lurking in this forum for awhile soaking up some great advice. I'm more of an SEO groupie. I'm writing this to show my fellow lurkers and budding SEO'ers that this "stuff" really does work.

The website that I'm currently working on, is probably one of the worst types for search engine optimization. Almost every page is graphic heavy and html light to non-existant.

Taking all the information I've gathered, I first segmented the website into different "tiers" of importance. This way I just had discreet mini-projects to do rather than being overwhelmed by sheer size of the entire site.

First Tier: Homepage
Second Tier: Section Page 1, Section Page 2, Search Page, Sitmap
Third Tier: Rest of company pages
Fourth Tier: Topic Pages, Product Pages

I then went in and re-did the pages to have more html copy and optimized the pages with keyword content, meta tags, titles, links; all the stuff I learned here and elsewhere.

I've only finished the second tier last week and here are my google stats:
(of course with 10 data centers the ranking moves + or - 2)

08/08/03- Fri (just before we began to upload the optimized pages)
- currently #32 on google using search term "stock footage"
- currently #191 on google using search term "royalty free stock footage"
- currently #583 on google using search term "public domain films"
- currently #27 on google using search term "public domain stock footage"
- currently NOT LISTED on google using search term "public domain movies"
- currently NOT LISTED on google using search term "stock video clips"

08/26/03- Tues (today's ranking)
- currently #25 on google using search term "stock footage"
- currently #4 on google using search term "royalty free stock footage"
- currently #1 on google using search term "public domain films"
- currently #1 on google using search term "public domain stock footage"
- currently #4 on google using search term "public domain movies"
- currently #18 on google using search term "stock video clips"

As you can see from the stats we're having trouble moving up on our primary search term "stock footage" as all the big players use this term as well, and we are also fighting their advantage in link popularity. But in all the other search terms we have made some dramatic improvements. As I continue to optimize the tiers and increase our link popularity I hope to contine to improve our stats. And I still haven't gotten to directories yet. (insert smiley emoticon here)

To all my fellow lurkers- SEO really does work!

Thanks to everybody in this forum and I hope to contribute more to future discussions.

b.

[Haystack]

Excellent work, balz, and great approach to breaking down the work. Congrats.

[Jill]

Hey, balz, that's great news!

But more importantly, how's your traffic and sales? Rankings are one thing. They look cool and all, but if they don't bring traffic and sales they're not worth much.

Unfortunately for us old timer SEO-ers, it's not as easy as it used to be when we could simply show ranking reports and be done with it. I sure do wish for those days again...sigh Now I have to hire all kinds of experts after the fact to measure traffic and conversions and usability and all that other good stuff.

A good time to specialize in those things, that's for sure!

Jill

[deborah2002]

Wow, Balz! For someone who doesn't consider themselves an SEO, you sure did a good job.....congratulations!



deb

[balz]

Traffic? Sales???? I just knew we were forgetting something... (insert smiley emoticon here)

We're implementing all this in tandem (quite the job, let me tell you) plus getting new product selections up as well. I soon hope to feel as confident of our tracking abilities and converting traffic into sales as I am about our rankings.

b.

[dragonlady7]

Well... at least rankings are a good start. I'm in the same boat-- I just got them rankings. Now it's up to our sales staff. Now if we can't make any sales, at least we know we've covered all the obvious bases!
ROI is easy to measure in our industry. A single sale is multiple tens of thousands. And we haven't had a single sale (to a new customer) in three years. So.... at least that's pretty transparent! We can just ask them. If there's anyone to ask.

[Cruise Planner]

Congrats balz! It's encouraging to hear such a great success story!

[Haystack]

For businesses who are using their sites to generate leads, I strongly suggest using a call to action at the bottom of each services/products page of the site directing people to your contact form.

If they've just read all the way through the page, they're definitely warm - get them to the form and give them an incentive to fill it out.


Until you get that name your sales team has nothing to work with. I'm sure they'd love a few warm leads to break up the cold calling and trade show trips.

[Scottie]

Congrats Balz!

Do let us know when you start tracking all that traffic into real sales- that is the fun part!

[Searchaware]

Good work Balz - and again shows that Google is really speeding up on keeping its listings fresh and up to date.

I particularly agree with your approach of breaking the optimisation down into mini optimisation projects - this is a useful technique to analyse your success on an ongoing basis.

Of course I concur with the points raised regards tracking - it really is essential to show long term success.

Well done!

Simon