SEO newbie needs help

rosie_mama

My father-in-law has a carpet cleaning business in Belfast, but recently had mentioned how he was not getting as many new customers lately, and most of his calls were repeat business. He advertises locally and is in yellow pages, but myself and my husband thought it would be a good idea for him to have an online presence as well.

We are trying to set up a website for him to surprise him for Christmas, but we are struggling to get good rankings on Google. We have managed to get on the first page in Yahoo, but still 3 or 4 pages in on Google and do not rank at all in the top 100 for "carpet cleaning belfast" which is one of the main keywords people would use.

Can anyone help and point out anything that we can do to improve our ranking? The web url is www.belfastcarpetcare.co.uk.

We have also registered www.belfastcarpetcare.com and redirected it to the .co.uk address. We have set up Facebook and Twitter as well as a blog, and registered on several business directories.

What else can we do?? Please help!

Baidin

Cairns carpet care has you ranking in Australia - probably not what you want though!?

Redirecting .com. to co.uk is worth almost nothing. You'd be better off setting up two separate sites and linking back from the content. Just don't have duplicate content.

You need more content on the homepage and our services page.

Change page titles to something like this (70 characters):

'Carpet Cleaners Belfast | Carpet Cleaning Services | Cairns'

Each page needs a different title tag.

Each page should have one h1 (and H2) supporting the title.
ie <h1> or <h2> tags around your headings.

H1: Cairns Carpet Cleaning Services
H2: Professional Carpet and Upholstery Cleaners in Belfast

Is the business listed on Google Places? Can be a fast route to Page 1 if you are linking back to a well optimised website.

You also need to set up a Google webmaster tools account and ensure the geographical target is set to Ireland (or NI if it's listed there!?)

Get the above basics implemented and you have a small chance of getting there before Christmas.

rosie_mama

Thank you so much for your reply. I made a lot of the changes you suggested last night and already seeing an improvement

few more questions..

we are on google places, but struggling to get above H which is just off the first page! it doesn't seem to be updating the profile though which is annoying.. does it just take time?

because it is a .co.uk domain i can't set the geographical location. would Northern Ireland be more likely to fall under UK or Ireland, or should I use the .com address to target both?

If I set up a separate site using the .com, am I better to only link one way between them? I read somewhere that reciprocal links may negatively impact SEO?

Thanks again..

MOH

I wouldn't set up a separate site on the .com - that's how you'll end up with duplicate content. And if you're trying to manage two separate sites that's twice the work, and you're competing against yourself. If you just have the .com 301 redirected to the .co.uk that's not going to be a problem.

I don't think you can set geo-targeting for a .co.uk, it's targeted at the UK by definition. You should be able to set it for the .com though.

If you can do it at all, set up the blog on the main website, instead of separately on blogspot. Setting up Wordpress is fairly straightforward, even if you're not technical. Right now there's nothing at all linking the blog to your site.

Get links to the site - have a look through this forum for advice on link building. Update your boards profile and put a link in your sig. Do the same on any other forums you post on regularly (check the sig rules on each site, some prohibit this).

tricky D

MOH wrote: »

I wouldn't set up a separate site on the .com - that's how you'll end up with duplicate content. And if you're trying to manage two separate sites that's twice the work, and you're competing against yourself. If you just have the .com 301 redirected to the .co.uk that's not going to be a problem.

+1

Two separate sites is not a good idea.

Baidin

MOH wrote: »

I wouldn't set up a separate site on the .com - that's how you'll end up with duplicate content. And if you're trying to manage two separate sites that's twice the work, and you're competing against yourself. If you just have the .com 301 redirected to the .co.uk that's not going to be a problem.

Probably wasn't that clear first time. I was suggesting setting the .com geotarget to Ireland, so that you pick up traffic in both Google.ie and google.co.uk.

A redirect isn't a problem but neither is it an advantage. A minisite - three pages or so, Homepage, About Us and Contact Us can be quite quick to set up (recommend WordPress) and requires very little maintenance. Even if it's not delivering great rankings, it can build in strength and pass on link value to main site.

If you own the domain and want to get value from it, use it. The domain is worth nothing as a redirect and any links that get built into the .com (if just redirected) don't pass all the link juice to the .co.uk. They get diluted, so it's better to set up a build a different site.

It's not competing against yourself, it's a means of generating more traffic and it works.

Duplicate content is easily avoided and an overrated phenomenon from my experience. Just don't repeat content word for word. I've worked on almost 1000 websites and have only ever seen two sites punished - both were ridiculous examples of duplication.

On the Google Places issue, it can take time but here's a few ideas. If you really wanna go places with Google Places -- search for David Mihms' blog, a real expert on Places.

1. Have a play around with the categories you are targeting and make sure each one displays a map in the organic listings. I see you at G on Page 1 for "Curtain and Upholstery Cleaning Service belfast" so that's a start.

2. Get listed in free directories such as Hotfrog. Your address in these directories should be in the exact same format as on the site and on Places listing.

3. The address on site needs to be wrapped in this vcard microformat code or similar rich snippet.
<div class="vcard"> <span class="fn org">Business Name</span><br> <span class="adr"> <span class="street-address"></span>,<br> <span class="locality"></span>,<br> <span class="region"></span> <span class="postal-code"></span>, <span class="country-name"></span><br> </span></div>
3. Get more reviews - even get a few friends/work colleagues to do a few. Just don't smash a few out from the same IP address in a short time frame.