Wordpress & On-Page Optimization
-
Seomoz,
Our current SEO provider built a squeeze page using Wordpress.
http://www.buddyrents.com/rent-to-own-furniture/spring-hill-34608/
The page has minimal links and the one drop-down menu links to other pages that look exactly the same with the exception of the page name and Google map.
Since the pages were built a 2 years ago there have been zero copy changes or code changes until a few weeks ago, yet the provider maintains that there is a maintenance charge to make sure the pages function correctly and are easily read by Google.
This sounds like a made up charge. Wordpress pages like these should be pretty stable and search friendly. Am I missing something?
Is this common to charge for SEO, On-page SEO and Maintenance for pages that have not changed and only rank if you actually enter the long-tail keywords that match the page title? They also don't create a lot of traffic, but the provider says they are essential to our online footprint. The pages have a PA of 1 and
the below on-page links (the exact same links for all 120 pages)
| Internal Followed Links | 23 |
| Internal Nofollow Links | 0 |
| External Followed Links | 3 |
| External Nofollow Links | 0 |Thank you in advance for your insight!
-
Daniel,
Sorry, C3 Media is the agency/ marketing department for Buddyrents.com. This is the site I am discussing.
Thanks.
-
Agreed. Sales is the ultimate measure. We are not able to complete sales agreements online, consequently lead generation is our key metric.
I have brought up the concerns with the provider. They responded that the branded traffic is part of their SEO results because some users seeing their links don't click, but then search the name. I don't buy it. Then when I asked them for a report of the monthly SEO/SEM. They responded with a link building report. I insisted that the report did not warrant the monthly spend and they replied...
"We are constantly changing our strategy depending on the competition and it would be like giving our secrets away. We use the spend as we feel necessary to generate leads. If you are happy with the leads then that should be the focus, not reports."
I think it is in our best interest to work with a partner who is willing to share information, so I want to move on. However, I want to make sure we have a plan and valid reasons before taking that next step.
Thank you and have a great day!
-
What about sales? isn't that the true measure of effectiveness? And the only one that counts in the end?
It's very easy to get caught up in semi-relevant (or downright phony) metrics. What difference does it make if you rank well on insignificant keywords? Or even if your traffic is up, but it's lousy traffic that doesn't generate sales.
A common "trick" used by SEOs of less than outstanding virtue is to optimize for not very competitive keywords. This is quite easily done and presents the illusion of progress. It can also generate really nifty reports with impressive charts and graphs. But to what end?
The fact that most of your traffic is coming from branded keywords is another alarm bell. It means that most of the people accessing your website are already familiar with your brand. But I'm betting that the whole of your web strategy is to reach new prospects.
If your competitors are getting almost all the non-branded traffic and you have other issues with your current firm, it may be time to move on. As mentioned before, you might want to give them one last chance. Talk about your billing issues and concerns with non-branded keywords.
I suspect what you really need is a deep data dive into the whole competitive web landscape. The findings should drive the strategy going forward.
Is your site by any chance www.c3medianetwork.com? if so, I must tell you there are serious issues on everything form on-page stuff to the diversity of your link profile.
-
You make some good points. So, let me ask you what is the best measure of SEO effectiveness?
If I look at overal traffic for our site, we are up 52% form last year, but compared to our two main competitors our traffic is minimal...competitors have close to 8x more traffic per month. Then in analytics the majority of our top performing keywords are branded. The provider sends ranking reports for 1st page SERP keywords, but the traffic we capture from those keywords isn't that great.
My understanding is that the traffic from non-branded keywords is a better gauge of SEO performance. We have never used PPC.
Thanks again for taking the time.
-
If the trust is gone, it may be time to move on.
Make sure you have a plan in place for a transition.
After all, however dissatisfied you are now, something is better than nothing.
But why not give it one last shot? Tell the company you are thinking of moving on, and see how they react. if you are otherwise satisfied with the company's performance, and it's just a matter of billing practices, the relationship might yet be salvaged. It could be as simple as moving to a monthly blanket charge, rather than itemized charges for different services.
Again, I don't know what your contract says, so I'm just taking some guesses here.
-
Hi Daniel,
My gut has made me raise my eyebrows a lot lately. I am finding that much of my day is spent trying to figure out if the charges are valid. Unfortunately, it is difficult for me to question SEO practices, when I am not an expert. We have seen "good" results with the main website, but I feel we are paying for "accessories" that aren't really necessary.
The trust is gone and I feel it is time to move on, but don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot.
Thoughts?
-
My objective is to find out what charges are bogus vs. real. We have had several instances as of late that has really made me question their practices. Including, when I have asked for a report of the the monthly SEO/SEM. They responded with a link building report. I insisted that the report did not warrant the monthly spend and they replied "We are constantly changing our strategy depending on the competition and it would be like giving our secrets away. We use to spend to as we feel necessary to get results." I know for a fact that is not a good answer.
If the choice is to find a new provider without losing the work that has already been done. What is the best process? Per the partnership agreement, we have full ownership of all online assets created for the company.
Thank you.
-
I am an SEO provider and this is probably another case of taking the money and doing nothing much for it. What are the objectives here?
-
It's really difficult to comment intelligently in the absence of more information about the overall relationship with you SEO Provider or what is spelled out in the contract.
But my gut tells me you are right to raise your eyebrows....
(to mix metaphors and body parts)
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why do bots spam my wordpress blog comments?
anyone with a wordpress blog knows what i am talking about. but why do they do this? my theory is that it is for backlinks, but aren't all wordpress comment links nofollow? i am just curious as to what these robots think they are gaining by flooding my blog comments section. Thanks, Ryan
Link Building | | RyanMeighan2 -
Link Building/ Off page strategy. Do we have already have a 'hook' or should we create more specific content.
Hi Guys. As part of our link building campaign I've been creating a database of people who might link to our site. We're a diary company. So I’ve been focusing on people interested in stationary, paper, pens, etc who also blog. We have a unique product at TOAD diaries, it's essentially an online tool that allows you to design your own diary. You can choose size, colour, duration, etc and also personalise the cover. So the product (we think) is very compelling and interesting. First of it’s kind. Check it out here: http://www.toaddiaries.co.uk/designer/diary/a5/everyday-diary-week-across-2-pages/coil-bound/toad-plum/12/1/8/2014 So.... question. Do you think that the site itself would considered 'good content'? i.e) It's already a very interesting idea that's worth linking to. Or Would it be better to create a high quality engaging blog (with info-graphics etc) that really speaks to that community of people? Say, about our love of the humble paper diary, and why it's still useful. Then use that blog content to try get links? You thoughts would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance. Isaac.
Link Building | | isaac6630 -
Is it worth 301 redirecting an old backlink from a 404 to a landing page?
I was reviewing the 404 report in webmaster tools, when I found a 404 back link from a 10 year old forum topic on a very high DA site. It seems the poster did a direct hotlink to a pdf that was on our site a very long time ago, but is now gone so you get a standard "can not be found" page on our site. Is it now worth redirecting the url to an appropriate landing page, considering the age of the post/ link and the sites DA, or is it not worth it because of the age of the link, its a forum, and we are still getting some juice from it anyway despite it being a 404, and won't get much more out of it. Just want to know it good practice if I find many such links (very old links to now 404 pages) Thanks
Link Building | | PaddyDisplays0 -
What happens to (external) linkjuice after you redirect a page?
Hope everybody is having a good day:). I was wondering what happens to the external link juice of a page when you redirect it to a new (and improved) url? For instance www.example.com/lowvolumesword/highvolumeword/ 301 --> www.example.com/highvolumeword/ Will the /highvolumeword/ page lose a lot of (external) linkjuice? Is it best to change the external links to the new url manually or leave them as is and let the 301 redirect take care of it? Is it possible to say that no more than x% of your linkjuice will be passed through via a 301? I hope im making sense here and am looking forward to your reaction. Thanks in advance,
Link Building | | PrizeWize
Lawrence0 -
Having pages in the footer
Hello, I have a website , and some keywords that im targeting i want to create separate pages for, so i can have good quality content on there, but at the same time i dont really want to have those pages in my header menu, its just for the Search Engines to see the quality page, with a keywords im targeting. So can i just have those pages in my footer menu? whats your opinion on this ? Thanks
Link Building | | vlad_mezoz0 -
Page Rank, Domain Rank, Link Building....Oh my!
Hi Everyone, So I am looking into a couple of sites that we can use for press release distribution. Naturally, I am looking for sites that will improve our SEO (sites that have a high domain authority). I guess I am just trying to wrap my head around the whole domain/page authority and how it effects our SEO. So for example, I am looking at prlog.org. They have an overall domain authority of 91...sweet! Is this all I should be looking at when I am looking to place a press release, which will include targeted links using appropriate anchor text? If I drill down even further to the actual section that the press release will live on, which will be the security section of the site, the page authority is a 49. Is this what I should be looking at? Do I have to drill down even further and look at the page rank for the actual URL that my press release will actually live on? I am assuming since it will be a totally new page that the page authority will be very low. Is this correct? Should I be looking at a combination of the two? The page authority of 49 is pretty low but the domain authority is very high. What does this mean for my SEO and my links? In a nutshell I need to know what I should be looking at for SEO purposes, is it domain authority, is it page authority of the section the site will live on or is it the actual page that my press release lives on. Is it a combination? What would you do in this situation? Also, could you give me a little more insight into when a low domain/page authority can actually hurt you. What the threshold where you get no link juice or are actually penalized? Do you have any insight in the domain/page domain number that is considered not worth it? Thanks all! Pat
Link Building | | PatBausemer0 -
Links to commercial pages vs resources.
My company has a number of resources pages that are garnering links from external sources. It won't be long before these links outnumber the breadth and the quality of links to my homepage and commercial pages. Does having a lot more links to the resources pages risk unbalancing flow of PageRank around the site? What I want to avoid is a situation where my homepage has a lower PR than my blog/resources, or people searching for relevant terms getting directed to my blog/resources (with many high-quality links) than to my commercial pages (which will have fewer).
Link Building | | JacobFunnell0 -
Is there a way to tell if a directory is passing Page Rank or is devalued?
Hi Mozzers! I was wondering if there is a way to determine if a specific directory is passing Page Rank or if the links have been devalued by Google. Thanks!
Link Building | | SparkplugDigital0