Bumbed...$10,000 on a pile of dung website

[Marc M]

I invested 10K on my website just to find out today that it's SEO capabilities are non existent.:(

[Scott Patterson]

I invested 10K on my website just to find out today that it's SEO capabilities are non existent.:(

Wow! Are your pages tied up in graphics that do not not show in the search engines?

What's your website address?

[Ted Menelly]

I invested 10K on my website just to find out today that it's SEO capabilities are non existent.:(

Ahhhhhhh, say what.....$10,000.00, sorry to hear it. SEO is pretty easy actually. Good sight, great site, bad site, you can still bring it up front relatively easy. You will initially need help pushing a new website out there just because it is new. The older the site the better it does even if it is not so great a site.

[Marc M]

You guys...I know nothing about this stuff, thats why I hired a professional (gee where have I heard that before?) Anyhow, these are some things that my new web guy found wrong with my current site. I have NO idea what any of it means..

your website has 18 Errors.
there is no proper alt tag and title tag in your website.
there are no h1, h2, h3 tags in your website.
pages names are not display on address bar.
your website contains many java script. its not good for seo, bcoz
robot leaves the page bcoz of java script and do not examine
the page.

[Ron Bibler]

As Scott stated what is the web address /

Best

Ron

[Paul Kondzich]

If your "new web guy" communicates with words such as "bcoz" I would get another new web guy.

[Ted Menelly]

You guys...I know nothing about this stuff, thats why I hired a professional (gee where have I heard that before?) Anyhow, these are some things that my new web guy found wrong with my current site. I have NO idea what any of it means..

your website has 18 Errors.
there is no proper alt tag and title tag in your website.
there are no h1, h2, h3 tags in your website.
pages names are not display on address bar.
your website contains many java script. its not good for seo, bcoz
robot leaves the page bcoz of java script and do not examine
the page.
Errors, H1, H2, H3 tags are not all that necessary, helpful but certainly not commanding unless they are serious errors where the spiders cannot follow the index and pertinent info throughout the pages and site.

To many graphics can hurt the pages unless there are alt tags in behind the pictures in the source code. Pictures act like barriers and dams so to speak unless there is some text behind them for the spiders to read. That text should be keyword rich but not rediculous.

Ifr you bring your website up go to the top of your browser. Click on view and then page source or view source code. You will basically see everything you site is made up of. It does take a little bit and hopefully you have a good control panel to get to your file manager and such.

I know it is getting deeper and you can screw things up. Pull up someone elses website. Look at there source code and you will see what I mean.

The title is very important and will be at the top of the source code. The description is second most important in the source code and then what use to be the most important but no longer is , is the keywords. Again, all of this is at the top of the source code.

Let us leave all that behind for the moment. If someone charged you $10,000.00 to build a website then they need to sleep with it until they get it right. Building a website is nothing. Most of these people use a website builder of some kind. Most do not just sit there and build it from scratch pumping in 1 and 0s.

$10,000.00 should get you some very, very, very serious Search Engine Optimization. That is why a website is paid for and built, to get serious search results. As far as the new web guy.......where is the old one and your money?

As Scott said. What is your web address?

[Vern Heiler]

Errors, H1, H2, H3 tags are not all that necessary, helpful but certainly not commanding unless they are serious errors where the spiders cannot follow the index and pertinent info throughout the pages and site.

To many graphics can hurt the pages unless there are alt tags in behind the pictures in the source code. Pictures act like barriers and dams so to speak unless there is some text behind them for the spiders to read. That text should be keyword rich but not rediculous.

Ifr you bring your website up go to the top of your browser. Click on view and then page source or view source code. You will basically see everything you site is made up of. It does take a little bit and hopefully you have a good control panel to get to your file manager and such.


I know it is getting deeper and you can screw things up. Pull up someone elses website. Look at there source code and you will see what I mean.

The title is very important and will be at the top of the source code. The description is second most important in the source code and then what use to be the most important but no longer is , is the keywords. Again, all of this is at the top of the source code.

Let us leave all that behind for the moment. If someone charged you $10,000.00 to build a website then they need to sleep with it until they get it right. Building a website is nothing. Most of these people use a website builder of some kind. Most do not just sit there and build it from scratch pumping in 1 and 0s.

$10,000.00 should get you some very, very, very serious Search Engine Optimization. That is why a website is paid for and built, to get serious search results. As far as the new web guy.......where is the old one and your money?

As Scott said. What is your web address?


Hey Ted, you can take a look at mine if Mark won't give you his.
www.1inspection.com (http://www.1inspection.com/)

[John Kogel]

What Ted and others said. Some of that spider stuff helps, but Any 2-bit website can be #1 with a bit of this and that. To check for your site - type in a search for home inspector your town. Check for my piece of craap website, search for a home inspector in Victoria BC Canada. I ended up ignoring half of the SEO stuff, too complex. I used Microsoft Front Page and cobbled that thing together. It costs $10 a month for hosting.

Go to Home Inspector Pro for SEO. Dominic M. is the most helpful web consultant for home inspectors that I know of.

I am amazed that your $ did not buy you top rating - that is what you paid for, IMO.

[Nick Ostrowski]

Vern, your HTML page has nothing in the title or description fields and it has no keywords. This is going to make it very difficult for anybody to find your site by typing in a general keyword phrase specific to your state or town. It's correctable but necessary if you want buyers to be able to find you with general internet searches for a home inspector.

Did you put your site together yourself or did you outsource it?

[CHARLIE VAN FLEET]

wow

10,000 on a web site???

how much do you make a year from the site???

i believe you can build your own just like roll your own for less. not being mean, but is that the going price for a web site and has everyone paid that ? where does it get you--top of the google or agent list.

i have never needed a web site but if i can make an additional 30k after spending 10k on a site let me know

to all -how much work do you get from your wb site

thanks

cvf

[Nick Ostrowski]

to all -how much work do you get from your wb site

thanks

cvf

My website is my bread and butter.

[CHARLIE VAN FLEET]

nick

great, but $10 k for a web site seems high but i don't have one. is that what you spent and how long did it take you to reap the rewards--from red to black

where i am now in business. to spend 10k and making 70k a year without, semi retired doing one inspection a day- seems like starting over, buying tools,insurance etc''thanks
cvf

[Ted Menelly]

Hey Ted, you can take a look at mine if Mark won't give you his.
www.1inspection.com (http://www.1inspection.com/)

Nothing in your title, description or keywords. Open it under view at the top of the page and click on view source and you will see what I mean. Like others havce said you need to go to your control panel and open up your file manager. Once you open the file manager you can open each page at a time. You are not familier with it so touch nothing but what is between

<title>OOOOOOO </title>
<meta name="description" content="OOOOOOO" />

That is where you put the title to the site and or page. You can have a different title for each page. Your description has to describe you site in a couple sentences all keyword rich but looking more like real sentences.
You also nee to add


<meta name="keywords" content="all your keywords" />

What ever is in you Title you should somewhat start your description and your keywords with something fairly similar and then on your front page you should somewhat match what the site/title/description/keywords are all about.

Then throughout each page you need to throw home inspector, home inspection along with the city/area you inspect in. By the way. Wahtever the largest metropolitan area is next to where you live should be the anker and the the surroundings cities added through the front page and site.

etc etc etc etc. A whole lot to it but it is really not as ominous as it sounds.

I repeat. Touch nothing in your source code with the exception of"title, keywords and description. If you mess with other areas thaey could and can have a detrimental affect to your entire site.

[Ted Menelly]

nick

great, but $10 k for a web site seems high but i don't have one. is that what you spent and how long did it take you to reap the rewards--from red to black

where i am now in business. to spend 10k and making 70k a year without, semi retired doing one inspection a day- seems like starting over, buying tools,insurance etc''thanks
cvf

You can go to different hosting companies and build your own site. I use Aplus.net and between my website builder, hosting and domain names I pay a couple hundred a year.

There are certain things you have to do once you get all your key words in place....like submitting your site and getting it listed. With my hosting company I can submit one site-map per day. I can also submit my site to countless search engines and such but the most important are Google, Yahoo, Bing maybe AOL, Ask and so on as often as I want but unwise to submit more than twice a month and once a month is healthier so it does not appear as spam to the search engines.

[Nick Ostrowski]

nick

great, but $10 k for a web site seems high but i don't have one. is that what you spent and how long did it take you to reap the rewards--from red to black

where i am now in business. to spend 10k and making 70k a year without, semi retired doing one inspection a day- seems like starting over, buying tools,insurance etc''thanks
cvf

I built my website myself Charlie so I really paid nothing. I never employed an SEO company and just did things on my own. Anybody can do it themselves by doing some internet searches and reading some articles about how to set up a website.

If you're doing fine without a website, then you have no reason to change.

[Vern Heiler]

Vern, your HTML page has nothing in the title or description fields and it has no keywords. This is going to make it very difficult for anybody to find your site by typing in a general keyword phrase specific to your state or town. It's correctable but necessary if you want buyers to be able to find you with general internet searches for a home inspector.

Did you put your site together yourself or did you outsource it?

It came with the co. when I bought it. Guess I should have someone look at it huh!

[Vern Heiler]

wow

10,000 on a web site???

how much do you make a year from the site???

i believe you can build your own just like roll your own for less. not being mean, but is that the going price for a web site and has everyone paid that ? where does it get you--top of the google or agent list.

i have never needed a web site but if i can make an additional 30k after spending 10k on a site let me know

to all -how much work do you get from your wb site

thanks

cvf

Uh, none! See previous post:( .

[CHARLIE VAN FLEET]

mark

so what i have heard back on 10K FOR A WEBSITE. really seems way high for me-- what is this all about and how long did it or will it take you to eat prime rib and potatoes from this overhead and again how much revenue do you get from the web

thanks
cvf

[Vern Heiler]

Thanks for looking at my site Ted.

As Charlie asked, is the web working for others?

[Ted Menelly]

Thanks for looking at my site Ted.

As Charlie asked, is the web working for others?

Google just changed things up recently. Now as you start typing the finds for what you are typing as you go along are already popping up. The reason this sucks is that all the work you did to be at the top such as a search for "Fort Worth Home Inspectors" or " Home Inspections Fort Worth" just came crashing down....unless they continue to type to get to the keys phrase that put you on top.

The web changes so much lately that it is hard to keep up with. I just lined up 4 inspections since this morning. 2 for tomorrow, one for Saturday and one for next Tuesday and they were all for the web search. These were 2 in Arlington, one in Keller and one in Frisco. Go figure. I am not optimized for Frisco but of course it depends what they typed in. It could have been a list thru a Home Inspectors listing site. You have to be spread everywhere and most of it does not cost to much.

If I had no website................well, I guess you know the answer to that. Instead of maybe 1,200. in my pocket....zero.

By the way. That semi obscured blurreb on the bottom of your front page may be considered spam from the spiders. To be almost obscurred is sometimes looked at as hidded and the spiders don't like that. It is visible but may nt be looked at even if not penalized . You can keep it small but the type should be somewhat typical to the rest of the page.

[John Kogel]

i believe you can build your own just like roll your own for less.
i have never needed a web site but if i can make an additional 30k after spending 10k on a site let me know

to all -how much work do you get from your web site
I don't get a lot of work from the website alone, but nowadays, people look for you on the web. If you have no website but your competitor has multiple jazzed up websites, You-Tube, links to news feeds and all kinds of flash, they will get the most attention naturally. Who gets the first e-mail?
A simple website is like a sign on your truck. You can do alright without it, but almost every legit business will have some signage and nowadays, a website.

Search around. For $1500 or less, you can probably get a decent 5 page website built for you. You'll need to submit pictures and some info.
For $150 or less, you can buy a simple template to start with, load your own.
Or get your nephew or a neighbor's kid to do it for you for a few bucks. Then get someone like Ted to tweak it for you.

[Marc M]

Hey sorry I actually had to work. We had the web guy pull it to make a few changes that will hopefully help. I'll post it as soon as its back up. I love the site, but I just want to be top 5 in my area, not last five pages.

[Ted Menelly]

Hey sorry I actually had to work. We had the web guy pull it to make a few changes that will hopefully help. I'll post it as soon as its back up. I love the site, but I just want to be top 5 in my area, not last five pages.

Not sure why he pulled it. You can work on a website with it being live. The only thing that will not show is the stuff fixed or optimized until you hit the save button.

[CHARLIE VAN FLEET]

john

almost every LEGIT BUSINEES NEEDS A SIGNAGE OR WEBSITE ??

WHat the heck

i have not needed a web site to gain what i need --so don't suggest that is the way to go

to each their own--what ever works DO IT

MY BUSINESS IS LEGIT AND VERY PROFITABLE WITHOUT A WEB SITE or signage

maybe you misquoted

cvf

[Ken Rowe]

I use Domain Names & Web Hosting : 1&1 Internet Inc. (http://www.1and1.com) for my website. They always have great deals going on. First 3 months free then $9.99 a month after that. They gave me three domain names and provided all the software for free to build my own site.

Since the first of the month (4 days) I've had 21 new visitors to my site with 71 individual page views. People can download a sample report, see my qualifications and even order an inspection online or view their inspection report. When we run specials I can post them on the site then direct potential clients to the site through other means of marketing, ie; brochures, business cards, direct mailing, email and the easiest of all Facebook and Twitter.

On average I'll get 8 to 10 inspections per month directly from my website. In fact, since the first of the month I've already booked three directly from the website.

As others have said the title, meta name and meta keywords are extremely important, as are bot directives. Bot directives basically tell the search engines how often to come to your site to look at it. But, once you have a working website, that's only half the battle. After that you have to submit your website to the search engines. Most of the big ones; google, bing, etc won't let you submit them through a program and they must be done manually. Another way to get your submission rated higher is to submit them to google and bing maps. These need to be validated through the mail or sometimes a text to your listed phone number.

There's a real art to building websites and having them rank high in search engines. But, it's not worth $10,000.

[Marc M]

Not sure why he pulled it. You can work on a website with it being live. The only thing that will not show is the stuff fixed or optimized until you hit the save button.

I'll ask..good question. I wish I knew more about this sort of stuff. I now have more empathy for my clients when they say "I have no idea what i'm looking at".

[John Kogel]

john

almost every LEGIT BUSINESS NEEDS A SIGNAGE OR WEBSITE ??

WHat the heck

i have not needed a web site to gain what i need --so don't suggest that is the way to go

to each their own--what ever works DO IT

MY BUSINESS IS LEGIT AND VERY PROFITABLE WITHOUT A WEB SITE or signage

maybe you misquoted

cvfCharlie, read what I said. "A simple website is like a sign on your truck. You can do alright without it, but almost every legit business will have some signage and nowadays, a website".

I don't make this stuff up. Talk to the experts. You were asking "should I have a website?", and I say "Yes, but do whatever you like". :cool:

[Ted Williams]

Wow. 10 grand is a lot for a web site. Fifteen years ago I found a college kid to build one for me for a couple hundred bucks, but that was before templates. I use Go Daddy now to build my own, and it only cost about 10 bucks a month.

[CHARLIE VAN FLEET]

john

i did not ask about a website, don't use one because i don't need one with the business i get-- reread. but the word legit just didn't sit right.

cvf

[John Kogel]

john

i did not ask about a website, don't use one because i don't need one with the business i get-- reread. but the word legit just didn't sit right.

cvfSorry, Charlie. I know you're legit by your presence here, and successful as well by what you say. You asked if a website could add $30K to your annual income and I can't say it will.

But if I am looking at a list of 10 HI's and know none of them, I will look at their websites. If only 7 of them have websites, those are the ones I'll look at. Period. And I grew up with a crank on the side of the phone. :D The younger generation home buyers are not going to pick up a copy of the Yellow Pages, when they've got the iPad in their hand. They will search for websites.

I just did a google search for a Westminster Colorado HI. The NAHI list for the Denver area comes up near the top of search results. You are there on the list, and there appear to be 21 HI's with websites and 15 without. I could phone you or send you an e-mail, but I've got 21 websites to look at right now.

[CHARLIE VAN FLEET]

john

no problem. but i find that most would be clients who use the yellow pages or a website are looking for the lowest price and if you don't quote your price on your web, they will go till they find one that does. and not many inspectors put prices in web, thay say call for price. at least around here

i only do one inspection a day sometimes two--semi retired. and i get 95% of my referrals from real estate agents. and alot from friends of former clients, and believe me my agents know i don't shelter them or cater to them.

maybe if i wanted to work me butt off and wanted 12 a week, i might consider a website, but to each their own

thanks and hope the holidays are joyous

charlie