I received an interesting email today from a Facebook group that I am a member of. This is it:
Dear Members,
This may sound a bit cheeky but we need your help to get us further up the rankings on Google….
Please visit this link:
http://google.co.uk/#hl=en&q=florist+basildon&start=120&sa=N&fp=a73fa2ac306dd28e
we are near the bottom of page 13 and are currently 129 of about 20,600 for the search “florist basildon”, once you find us please could you click through to our website, this will help us to move up the Google ladder.Thank you all in advance for helping us in this matter, and thank you for your continued your loyalty to our business.
Kind regards
Krystal Bond Flower Design
Now, this is a classic search engine myth. People still think that search engines increase the “page rank” or SERP listing of a website if many people click a link to go to that website. Maybe, possibly, it did once work like this. Years ago. But not any more.
The site in question is a florists in Basildon (a town in Essex, England). There is nothing wrong with the owner of the site making an attempt to increase traffic to the site, that is just business. If clients can do something to help, then all the better. Which is what the owners of the florist were trying to do here, by reaching out to their customers that are members of their Facebook group (they are utilizing social media very well here!).
This is the first reply I sent:
This is not actually how it works. You need to get links with keyword anchor text of “florist baslidon”.
Plus more links in general.
Also make sure you are using those keywords in the site, but do not overdo it.
But then I thought for a little longer, and decided to do a little SEO analysis on their site. A quick freebie. Some people would probably charge hundreds of pounds for the tips I gave. I just cannot help myself.
This is what I found and the reply I sent:
A few things…
You do not have “basildon” on the front page of your site. Put your address on it. And have “Baslidon Florists” mentioned a couple of times too. Should be in the title, main header and text. eg.
current title is “krystal bond – home”. Change it to “Krystal Bond – Basildon Florists and Flower Design” A “home page” should not be called “home”. Not good for search engine placement.
Mention Basildon in the description too.
As the name is in an image, you need to repeat. The first main text is “Next-Day Delivery Available…” change it to match the site title, ensuring Basildon, florists and flowers are thrown in there.
Mention Essex too. A lot of people will search further afield. Also mention what other towns you cover, like “We supply to Wickford, Romford, Chelmsford, Southend …… etc etc. …. and beyond.” Currently “to our town, your town or somewhere in between!” does not tell Google anything!
Finally get some more text on there. Descriptions of the packages that you sell etc. “We specialise in Wedding flowers …… funeral flowers…… ” etc. etc. Think, what will people search for?
Valentines mentioned on your site? Do a page, leave it there all year round.
All these little things should help.
But….. you may be limited with the Vistaprint website.
It did not take very long to discover many problems with the website that would make it very difficult, even with some good inbound links to get it to rank high in any search engine. There were more problems on the website than I mentioned, things which would only be worth trying to fix once all the main SEO enhancements were made. Also, without investigating how the VistaPrint CMS works it is not possible to know what can be done (there was an issue with images having no alt or titles).
So, it seems that the life of an SEO professional is a varied one, and certainly one that is still in great demand. Lucky for some.
