A couple of SEO website questions.

[lendaddy]

Question the first:

We have an established domain but there are no "keywords" in it as it's just our company name. I have been told that having keywords in the domain name seriously helps in you SEO efforts when it comes to natural results.

Should we change our domain name to contain keywords(we have no linking or other handcuffs to our current domain)?

Question the second:

Can you just add a subdirectory containing keywords to achieve the above referenced results? An example would be if you sell outhouses but your website is clearyinc.com. Could you just add a sub page or whatever called clearyinc.com/outhouses and get the same effect?

Thanks.

[motion]

Just my .02 here based on my experience.... SEO is a black art. I honestly believe you will be chasing your tail trying to get good results on your own without the benefit of extensive experience. You can have the most relative, well-designed, seasoned website and still rank poorly in searches. I strongly believe it is well worth the investment to hire a SEO specialization firm to create your SEO strategy, redesign your site's home page and then follow up with monthly maintenance.

[lendaddy]

Thanks, I was going to ask about the firm you hired. Can I ask what such a service runs...ballpark?

[motion]

I found them at guru.com. I believe they are out of India. I paid a flat fee of $1,000 for a guaranteed top 8 placement. Henceforth, I'll be paying $150 a month to maintain the placement. Pretty cheap when you consider what a customer or two might potentially be worth. Let me know if you want their company name.

[lendaddy]

Absolutely, I'm not sure we'll go that route but I agree that it's a reasonable amount. PM the name or site please. Thanks.

[stealthn]

Yes Meta tags are easy to create, but to get the best search results you need to know how the search engines "think" there are a few good books, and even some courses on how to use search engines. The principals are the same for the meta tags.

You don't need a different domain name, just add the meta tags to your main site, and point the search engines to it.

Merry Christmas.

[steveo123456]

Adding keywords to your metatags is a waste of time. The most important place to get your relevant key words in is the title and h1 and h2 tags. SEO is not rocket science but it does take time and experience to do well. The basics are pretty simple but if you're in a competitive market it can really get tricky.

Also I always advise against hiring anyone who guarantees results. There are some really good companies out there but they do not come cheap.

[motion]

I've read that H1 and H2 tags are also irrelevant these days. Sigh.....

[notfarnow]

SEO work can be like hiring a rainmaker. Great if it works, but it's not worth $chit if you don't have a crop planted.

I'd look long & hard at what you're hoping to accomplish with your website. You can spend a lot of money on SEO without any impact on sales or leads.

Think strategically about who you really expect to be visiting, and more importantly, who will be buying. Who are your customers now, who is going to be your customer next month/year, and how does your website SERVE them. From what you've described in this thread and others, your time, effort & money may be better spent on writing solid content that is aimed at the customers you are gunning for. These may be existing customers, or customers who are visting your site after you've made contact with them.

Don't get me wrong, you'll want some focus on SEO... but making sure you have solid content should be your #1 priority.

Case in point:

Two projects in the past year
1) SEO consulatnt brought in, lots of excitment. Budget of a nice house and a decent Carrera. Amazing results to much fanfare... 25% traffic increase after a couple months of tweaking. No increase in sales, but hey! Look at all that traffic from the UK!

2) 2 person, 5 week in-house project to address "quick-hit" content and usability issues. 0 increase in traffic, 6% increase in sales. Paid for itself 2 times over the first month.

Lots of businesses get spooked into spending $$ on generating traffic instead of taking the time to understand how people are using their site. There are lots of folks here who can help you with that.