SEM Ireland new domain and website - Feedback

SEM

Hi All,

We received our new domain and the design of our new site is complete. Pages are to be added on an ongoing basis. Our new website has just launched today 4/3/11. There is a 301 redirect in effect next week. Our company provides Search Engine Marketing services on a national and international scale.

Any feedbach would be appreciated

Thanks

www.sem.ie
Search Engine Marketing Ireland

tricky D

Two h1's on the whole site, key text in graphics, waffling content, a mailto with no form. Sorry to be harsh, but with the level of SEO and Marketing skills and experience demonstrated, you're taking the mickey.

SEM

The key text is not in graphics. Certain Keywords are being targeted for SEO reasons, the text in graphics you refer to was made an image on purpose so as not to dilute targeted keywords.
The waffling content you refer to was initially 3 pages long. All padding of any sort was removed leaving mostly points.
A contact form is being added, we just wanted the initial pages uploaded for spiders to crawl.

Thanks for the feedback

Sean^DCT4

1. JavaSctipt StatCounter code actually rendering on pages!
2. +1 on the waffle-ology content
3. +1 with regards to no form for contact us

I have dealt with enough SEO "experts" over the years to realise that you might aswell get a wad of cash and set light to it. Harsh words you might think but that site you have only justifies my thoughts.

SEM

Sean^DCT4 wrote: »

I have dealt with enough SEO "experts" over the years to realise that you might aswell get a wad of cash and set light to it. Harsh words you might think but that site you have only justifies my thoughts.

This only tells me that you haven't read our content. We don't charge until we reach search positions -
Thanks though, this makes me want the text content to be more clear and appealing to read

Any feedback on the "waffle"?

worc

I think by waffle the posters above mean you say a lot with no real evidence - where are your case studies? In 7 years you must have some evidence of your work... You've "surpassed" what has been expected of you before? Why not prove it - show the keywords you've got people ranked into the top 4 of natural SERPs. It's very easy to spout on about SEO but I think the posters above who've been through plenty of website SEO schpeel can see when someone isn't quite on target with their offering or just doesn't know how to put what they can do across.

Canonicalisation could impact your own website, no favicon...there's a good few things I could say about your site but I'm not going to do your job for you. This probably sounds harsh but it doesn't say much for your knowledge of SEO if you can't get your own site optimised.

SEM

Thanks WORC,

All of our clients to date have been refferals. We have a confidentiality agreement with all our clients so we will not display them on our site. The majority of our customers are sold before our first meeting due to successful referrals.
Demonstations have been created mainly to display SEO capability, these are only shown if requested by potential clients.

Any negative feedback in this discussion on our sem (internet marketing / seo) capabilities will be ignored as we know our capabilities in this area. Any improvement on how to get the idea of the fact across that we perform great SEM would be appreciated.

To reiterate; any feedback on our website would be appreciated

worc

SEM wrote: »

Any negative feedback in this discussion on our sem (internet marketing / seo) capabilities will be ignored as we know our capabilities in this area. Any improvement on how to get the idea of the fact across that we perform great SEM would be appreciated.

You obviously don't know the capabilities since your own website, which is very basic, isn't set up well for SEO and you have not taken advantage of many of the possibilities that you could have.

SEM wrote: »

To reiterate; any feedback on our website would be appreciated

The fact that you appear to be separating feedback about your website design from feedback about your website's optimisation says a lot as

they are not as mutually exclusive as you might think

. If you're purely after aesthetic feedback then I'm sorry to say that your website looks amateurish because you've used stock photos - there are other things that could be said but given that the advice would link aesthetic use of content with better optmisation of your site then you'll probably ignore the advice so I'll keep quite.

SEM

worc wrote: »

You obviously don't know the capabilities since your own website, which is very basic, isn't set up well for SEO and you have not taken advantage of many of the possibilities that you could have.

Thanks worc,
With a statement like that I can safely assume that you are no Eric Schmidt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt so a ducks back comes to mind.
To reiterate; any feedback on our website would be appreciated

worc

SEM wrote: »

I can safely assume that you are no Eric Schmidt

You would be 100% accurate but I am not the one putting myself forward as an apparent search engine marketer and potentially taking money off people for that service.

SEM wrote: »

a ducks back comes to mind.

Merda taurorum animas conturbit comes to my mind.

tricky D

SEM wrote: »

To reiterate; any feedback on our website would be appreciated

It stinks of a cowboy operation. There are no SEO, SEM, website or marketing skills demonstrated at all, at all. In fact there's glaring failure in all these areas. I don't find anything you've said credible at all. Especially the stuff about referrals, confidentiality, marketing.

SEM

Guys,

Maybe I wasn't specific enough in requesting feedback.

The areas I would like feedback on are:

Functionality,
Angle,
Design,
Composition,
Overall understanding to the layman

Leave the SEO to us. Demonstrations will be shown at meetings and not read.

tricky D

SEM wrote: »

The areas I would like feedback on is:

Functionality,
Angle,
Design,
Composition,
Overall understanding to the layman

Leave the SEO to us. Demonstrations will be shown at meetings and not read.

They all rubbish and indicate an almost total lack of skills, expertise and experience.

What SEO? From your site it is 100% clear you can't do SEO at all.

This type of cowboy stuff gives us who can really walk the walk and talk the talk a bad name.

The only advice I'll give you is to stop spoofing.

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

SEM

Why do I get the impression that I am stepping on peoples toes here? Maybe the page www.sem.ie/seo is treatening because it throws the theory of "a retainer" out the window?
Is it annoying tricky d that we invoice when our clients webpages reach search engine optimisation positions instead of asking for the money upfront?

PaulPinnacle

SEM wrote: »

Maybe I wasn't specific enough in requesting feedback.

Just so I'm clear, as a poster that has contributed 0 posts to the forum outside of this request for help (while working in an area that is very frequently the focus of requests for help), you're now dictating what feedback is agreeable and what isn't?

Just wanted to be sure there. :rolleyes:

Worth remembering, it's just as easy to give a rebuttal or counter in an engaging and friendly way as it is to do it in a patronising or aggressive manner. However, the results of the choice you make will be very very different.

Functionality - what functionality? There are 3 pages with random generic content, which has been described by many of your potential market as 'waffle' (I'd say fluff, but 6 of one...).

Angle - That's exactly what you're getting feedback on at the moment, yet seem to feel that it's better to chastise those willing to give it?

Design - Again, many of the comments refer to the design, in either a direct or indirect manner. At the moment the feedback has shown that regardless what you tweak on the design front you're not going to earn the trust of the users.

Composition - See above.

Overall understanding to the layman - The frequent use of the term waffle is again directly applicable here.

The site doesn't comply with legal requirements, has some fundamental issues at present and is currently gaining no trust at all from those with any knowledge in the area. However, as these aren't on 'the list', I probably shouldn't mention them.

SEM

PaulPinnacle wrote: »

Just so I'm clear, as a poster that has contributed 0 posts to the forum outside of this request for help (while working in an area that is very frequently the focus of requests for help), you're now dictating what feedback is agreeable and what isn't?

Just wanted to be sure there. :rolleyes:

Worth remembering, it's just as easy to give a rebuttal or counter in an engaging and friendly way as it is to do it in a patronising or aggressive manner. However, the results of the choice you make will be very very different.

Functionality - what functionality? There are 3 pages with random generic content, which has been described by many of your potential market as 'waffle' (I'd say fluff, but 6 of one...).

Angle - That's exactly what you're getting feedback on at the moment, yet seem to feel that it's better to chastise those willing to give it?

Design - Again, many of the comments refer to the design, in either a direct or indirect manner. At the moment the feedback has shown that regardless what you tweak on the design front you're not going to earn the trust of the users.

Composition - See above.

Overall understanding to the layman - The frequent use of the term waffle is again directly applicable here.

The site doesn't comply with legal requirements, has some fundamental issues at present and is currently gaining no trust at all from those with any knowledge in the area. However, as these aren't on 'the list', I probably shouldn't mention them.

Thanks PaulPinnacle,
What a great review,, well done,, sensible and thorough,, what do you do for a living?
In regards to the angle, by that I meant which type of customer would the content on the page www.sem.ie/seo appeal to and result in a call to action - don't cop out and say a dumb person

PaulPinnacle

SEM wrote: »

don't cop out and say a dumb person

It isn't a question of intelligence, it's a question of knowledge of a specific topic.

Many extremely intelligent people will/do read content on seo/sem and don't understand a word of it. When you work with it everyday it's easy to assume everyone has a basic knowledge, fact is, many don't. Ignorance of such a specific topic doesn't suggest or mean stupidity.

SEM wrote: »

In regards to the angle, by that I meant which type of customer would the content on the page www.sem/seo appeal to and result in a call to action

The content, as frequently pointed out to date, is fluff. There's nothing meaningful, tangible or quantifiable in there. I'm not sure if it can put it any clearer terms than tricky, worc and sean have already managed.

The premise that performance pricing is ground breaking or unique is flawed. It's quite common in the industry and many providers already offer it.

One of the reasons that it's seldom put forward as a 'headline' (or at least as the sole headline) is that it commonly confuses the hell out of basic users. This changes as users become more knowledgeable and gain more of an understanding of the industry, but the results will be seriously dependant on who you target it at. If you're aiming it at those with a knowledge of SEO who will understand the benefits of performance pricing, then they'll more than likely find the same issues that have been identified in this thread already.

(There's also an issue where PP is commonly used by "pump 'em and dump 'em" SEOs, looking for a quick buck from a high turnover of clients and will use any means necessary to hit target results regardless of the longterm consequences - I'm not suggesting you are, just that it's an industry wide issue than can influence users)

If it is going to be your big USP, you need to break it down far more, make the finer details extremely clear, quantify exactly how it will work and take many of the other steps pointed out in this thread to earn the trust of a user.

SEM

Another question for you PaulP,

Hypothetically say you required services from a search engine marketing company.

1. You searched online for sem or seo or any keyword phrase you thought was accurate and was given www.sem.ie as the first natural result.

Or

2. Someone you knew reffered to us as supplying an excellent service by spending time on their customers sites rather than their own.

Which one if these would hold more weight with you?

PaulPinnacle

SEM wrote: »

2. Someone you knew reffered to us as supplying an excellent service by spending time on their customers sites rather than their own.

When someone works in the industry it doesn't take much additional time or effort to make sure the basics are done correctly, so they aren't and shouldn't be mutually exclusive.

Sure, great testimonials and clients willing to evangelise for the business are a major factor, but if a business doesn't take the care or attention to ensure their own house is in order it raises serious queries about their attention to detail, professionalism, knowledge, ability and experience; it will, as has been clearly demonstrated here, put some people off.

Nobody mentioned having to rank first for a KP, simply that some best practise should be adhered to. So seems a strange leap to make.

Personally, I'd love to see more people focus on the latter. It would help reduce the huge number of low value blog comments and forum spam intended simply to game the system, which we see all too often.

mneylon

SEM wrote: »

Guys,

Maybe I wasn't specific enough in requesting feedback.

The areas I would like feedback on are:

Functionality,
Angle,
Design,
Composition,
Overall understanding to the layman

Leave the SEO to us. Demonstrations will be shown at meetings and not read.

You cannot dictate what people will give you feedback on.

Once you put a website online people will hopefully find it and draw their own conclusions, but you probably won't know about it.

If you actually post your site to a public forum then you are going to get all sorts of feedback.

If you don't want the feedback (all of it) then you shouldn't post asking for it

Making statements like this is incredibly pretentious and is not going to win you any friends:

SEM wrote: »

Leave the SEO to us. Demonstrations will be shown at meetings and not read.

cormee

The site looks very basic, not at all polished or professional looking - not what I'd expect to see from an internet marketing company.

You use inline styles:

<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: verdana;">the best SEO service providers don't advertise themselves - at least certainly not in a 'conventional' way. <br /></span></span></li>

Sometimes you encode quotes:

<li>When your claimed “keyword phrase”

Sometimes you don't:

<li>Analyse the online presence of that "keyword phrase"</li>

(and on that matter your repeated and unnecessary use of quotes is unsettling)

As pointed out already your content is far too verbose, trim it down or split it up into different pages.

Important information (your telephone number) is rendered in an image with useless alt text.

You need a feedback form on your contact page, you need to capitalise K in kildare and I in ireland.

Overall the site looks like it took about three hours to build.

SEM

Thanks cormee, great review

Blacknight wrote: »

You cannot dictate what people will give you feedback on.

It was a request. Our SEO skills seemed to be the main feedback & center of attention. There is no way of knowing to what extent a webpage is optimised just by how a page appears, especially when it has just launched. Our SEO strategy produced these pages. I didn't want to be explaining the reasons why the pages are as they are.

Chet Zar

You seem to be drawing a line between web design and SEO - they really are interlinked. Those two and web usability - they may go by different names but they are all inextricably linked. It's the dynamic meeting of multiple variables (wow I like how that sounds) which produces an optimised website.

The look and feel is clearly poor (kindest way to say it), stock photos look terrible for a number of reasons, zero trust, no address, no content, no blog, visible code at bottom of page, no testimonials. In short, can't take you seriously and here's a question - would you recommend a site such as yours to a client.

For me it's the equivalent of a fat personal trainer advertising his or her's services. If you can get outstanding results for your clients - fantastic. However one thing is for sure - if that's true then you're doing yourself a disservice with a site such as this.

pfurey101

SEM, the reviewers are spot on with their comments - imho.

You advocate offline referrals as your bread and butter so is it your intention to ignore search engine marketing for your search engine marketing business website?

I'm wondering why you even have a website because based on reviewer AND your own comments, if it is not your intention for be found anywhere within the SERPs.

This is the hardest business in which to get a decent ranking and it would appear to me, from you have said, that your strategy dictates you are not going to try.

You have to admit, 'tis a hard thing to understand why an SEM company chooses to ignore its own doorstep.

Cheers
Paul

SEM

pfurey101 wrote: »

You advocate offline referrals as your bread and butter so is it your intention to ignore search engine marketing for your search engine marketing business website?

I'm wondering why you even have a website because based on reviewer AND your own comments, if it is not your intention for be found anywhere within the SERPs.

This is the hardest business in which to get a decent ranking and it would appear to me, from you have said, that your strategy dictates you are not going to try.

You have to admit, 'tis a hard thing to understand why an SEM company chooses to ignore its own doorstep.

Cheers
Paul

Thanks Paul,
Our intention is not to ignore the SERPS, I am aware this is the hardest business to rank high in. The intention of our seo plan is to approach this in a very honest manner.

www.sem.ie will not be wasting time on link development for it's own website, that time will be directed towards customer' webpages. Like any seo goal we have pursued - our intention is to dominate the market we are targeting.

adrianshanahan

Hey,

Apart form the poor SEO of your own site, there is far too much waffle / text. The stock images you are using are far too low res and look poor on a screen of any value.

The color scheme is harsh to look at.

From looking at your site I'm not entirely sure what actual services you offer.

In all a poor show all round and looks a bit of an ameuture show that would not encourage me to business with.



Adrian