Web Sites

[neilf]

i need to find out how to get more hits on a web site. the site is up and running but very few lookers.

i am trying to help a friend with this problem. it is a property rental/sales site

does it have to be google and pay them a lot----------friend has heard about spiders etc.

any help appreciated thanks

[joncl]

google SEF and start doing it yourself, it takes some time but works.

[innerspace]

A lot of hard work!

As joncl said you can do it yourself, but be warned, there are a lot of different strategies and a lot to learn.

Even after spending days weeks or months learning different tricks, you have to continue applying them to maintain the benefits. Its a non-stop job.

You really have 2 choices for increasing visitors.

Paid advertising (PPC or pay per click) can be kept to your budget, provides very quick results but stops the moment you stop paying

Search engine optimisation (or SEO) takes a LOT longer and a LOT more work but once established costs little to maintain and has long term results.

The best strategies are a combination of the two.

I run a web development and marketing company and we have several staff working all day every day to improve rankings for several sites.

If you or your friend feel that the amount of effort required is more than you are willing to put in then contact me and we can discuss your needs.

With property business's your return on investment from PPC and SEO is generally quite high and makes the costs worthwhile.

[w11guy]

You think that can be explained in a forum reply? It's very hard work and takes months, if not years, to learn. And the learning never ends. There are lots of methods and for a serious business this could be a full-time job. As someone else said, PPC is the quickest option, but costs money.

[welo]

Post a link to the website on thaivisa... NOT!

[d0ndela]

Post a link to the website on thaivisa... NOT!

LInks on the thaivisa forum gives nothing for your google rankings. All outgoing links are sent through thaivisa.com/forum/redirect.php so no direct links can be made from the forum to your sites. If they did not do this they would get penalized for all links people posted to google blacklisted websites.

[siamect]

... but once established costs little to maintain and has long term results.

Is it like that really?...

Don't the search engine guys try to apply new, changing ideas to what give high scores so that these optimizations get outdated quite quickly? I mean they have their way of looking at things and the rest of us just want to be listed as number one... All of us at the same time...

I don't have any experience at all with this, so please just see it as simple question. The only time I have checked the search engine results for any of my websites, the page I created ended up on the first page for one specific search word but after a week it was not like that any longer... Now i guess you cannot even find it even by typing the exact URL...

Do you think this is due to the lost news value giving pages high score when they are "New" or if they are being updated. Or is this due to changed, more clever scoring methods?

Does anybody have any opinion on what clean URLs can do for the scores?

I have a few websites, some with clean URLs and one with dirty URLs like ending with ?jadjada=morejadajada and so on...

As I understand it, the search engines do not go into dirty URLs but they go into the clean URLs. Is that correct?

Does the amount of data they harvest this way affect the scores and is more better?

Martin

[kmj]

( Website keywords * Time ) / Budget = Rating

It depends if you want to get getting

snow_ploughs_in_thailand,com or ThaiHotels,com

to the top of the ratings...

Website ratings are dependent on the criteria of the search engine, They all have their own rules.

[siamect]

( Website keywords * Time ) / Budget = Rating

Ok I have an almost zero budget... this would give me excellent rating

Martin

[uptownbob]

the main thing you have to be careful of is not to get sucked into online marketeers offering you a solution to your google rankings and then using what google calls " black hat' techniques such as linking you to directory" farms" etc...if google blacklists you for questionable techniques which maynot be your fault from trusting turkeys, it will cripple your website forever...and you may as well pack up and go home in that instance.

blogging, google adwords CPC on $2 a day budget,article posting...all ' white hat' techniques that take longer but get you there eventually....the more times your website is mentioned in any shape or form online the more Google robots pick it up and slowly index you up.

[phuket Mike]

Do a Google search for Brad Callen, he has a very good reputation for attaining high Google ranking for his sites. If you find his site he does a free email course on SEO & SEM and from what I have seen it is very clear and easy to follow. Of course his system will also try to sell you something, but you can just ignore it.

[TravelerEastWest]

There are no easy - free solutions.

With that said if you or your friend have writing skills just start writing articles on your subject with your keywords on your website.

If you can get other websites to publish the articles you are going to do even better.

Your rankings will go up and up without paying any money at all.

For the first six months or so use Google paid ads until you rank well then gradually phase out the paid ads.

We have a business that always ranks on the first page of Google for key phrases and we never advertise but we do write.

Paying for SEO work is only for very busy people with lots of money it is not needed at all if you can write and do a few simple things to help your site - after studying a bit.

[innerspace]

... but once established costs little to maintain and has long term results.

Is it like that really?...

Don't the search engine guys try to apply new, changing ideas to what give high scores so that these optimizations get outdated quite quickly? I mean they have their way of looking at things and the rest of us just want to be listed as number one... All of us at the same time...

I don't have any experience at all with this, so please just see it as simple question. The only time I have checked the search engine results for any of my websites, the page I created ended up on the first page for one specific search word but after a week it was not like that any longer... Now i guess you cannot even find it even by typing the exact URL...

Do you think this is due to the lost news value giving pages high score when they are "New" or if they are being updated. Or is this due to changed, more clever scoring methods?

Does anybody have any opinion on what clean URLs can do for the scores?

I have a few websites, some with clean URLs and one with dirty URLs like ending with ?jadjada=morejadajada and so on...

As I understand it, the search engines do not go into dirty URLs but they go into the clean URLs. Is that correct?

Does the amount of data they harvest this way affect the scores and is more better?

Martin

Yes, you need to continue working to stay on top, but it takes a lot less work to maintain a good result that to get there initially.

If you continue to gain new links and continue to add more content your rankings will improve (unless your competition are improving faster!)

Google do continue to change their algorithms to avoid black hat SEO but for people doing things the right way the strategy remains the same.

URLs are important since keywords in the url are given more importance than keywords within the page.

Search engines will follow dirty URLs, but the lack of keywords means the pages get less seo benefit.

Keywords in your domain name are brilliant for SEO and can allow a brand new site to jump straight in at number 1 for that specific search phrase.

the main thing you have to be careful of is not to get sucked into online marketeers offering you a solution to your google rankings and then using what google calls " black hat' techniques such as linking you to directory" farms" etc...if google blacklists you for questionable techniques which maynot be your fault from trusting turkeys, it will cripple your website forever...and you may as well pack up and go home in that instance.

blogging, google adwords CPC on $2 a day budget,article posting...all ' white hat' techniques that take longer but get you there eventually....the more times your website is mentioned in any shape or form online the more Google robots pick it up and slowly index you up.

Good point. If google detects blackhat seo (banned techniques that can provide quick results) on your site they may block your domain, with the only solution being to close your website and pick a new domain name.

Be very skeptical about any company that guarantees number one in google (often saying they work for google, but none of them do!).

Many will use black hat techniques, others will use obscure phrases that no-one searches for.

There are no guarantees in SEO, just hard work, dedication and patience. If you want instant results use PPC instead.