SEO needed.

[YeOldeOke]

I usta do SEO back when I was building websites with Dreamweaver, and was pretty clued up. But times have changed.

I run a WP site on Woocommerce and thought I'd easily get to the top of the SERPs in SA after my international experience, but I wuz wrong. WP SEO is a bit of a different animal it appears, more so on an ecommerce site.

I got to the first page quite easily after I started a year ago, but restructured the site to focus on specific products over a period, and now I just sorta peek out on the bottom of the first page for a keyword or two.

I don't have the time to focus on it, and learn SEO on WP. This is not a competitive market and I don't only want to be on the first page but at #1.

I'm looking for some good white hat SEO. Problem is finding someone who isn't going to waste my time and not get very far. How would you guys go about finding such a person? I'd prefer someone local.

 

[flippakitten]

Rather spend your money on advertising, people charge stupid amounts for SEO when for the same money, you can get a lot more response and all they're doing is making sure you have information formatted correctly for Google Business, Facebook etc... Oh they'll also tell you to have as much info describing your products as possible.

Then charge you R3000 a month to manage that. If you're a big company and it makes sense to pay that instead of a full time employee, sure, otherwise apply the above, pay for some advertising and get the same results, if not better (and cheaper).

 

[halfmoonforever]

No offense but vapes/vaping has become quite popular, so not sure how you think it's not a competitive market...

 

[YeOldeOke]

Rather spend your money on advertising, people charge stupid amounts for SEO when for the same money, you can get a lot more response and all they're doing is making sure you have information formatted correctly for Google Business, Facebook etc... Oh they'll also tell you to have as much info describing your products as possible.

Then charge you R3000 a month to manage that. If you're a big company and it makes sense to pay that instead of a full time employee, sure, otherwise apply the above, pay for some advertising and get the same results, if not better (and cheaper).

I do advertising, though not really on social media. We also have a Farcebook page of sorts. The same applies as re SEO, I don't have the time to spend on the learning curve.

And yes, SERPs are valuable to me. Cannot use PPC for vaping.

 

[YeOldeOke]

No offense but vapes/vaping has become quite popular, so not sure how you think it's not a competitive market...

It's not a competitive market in SA, believe me. If your'e talking about loans and finance in UK then we're looking at competitive.

 

[halfmoonforever]

It's not a competitive market in SA, believe me. If your'e talking about loans and finance in UK then we're looking at competitive.

I don't believe you. Why? Experience. So where is your evidence it's not a competitive market, when, literally in the last 3 months, 4 vape stores within walking distance of me popped up? Never mind the countless websites I've visited (and a Cape Town-based on I'm using because of good service)

You might have a niche in custom order e-liquids, but if you're going to target anything within the vape-space, you'll find quite a bit of competition there boet

 

[Thor]

I don't believe you. Why? Experience. So where is your evidence it's not a competitive market, when, literally in the last 3 months, 4 vape stores within walking distance of me popped up? Never mind the countless websites I've visited (and a Cape Town-based on I'm using because of good service)

You might have a niche in custom order e-liquids, but if you're going to target anything within the vape-space, you'll find quite a bit of competition there boet

Still not as much as the finance industry, but yes I do agree in niche he will be up against a healthy amount especially if it's brick and mortar shops too with an e-commerce site.

 

[Basil959]

(EDIT: I was going to delete this post but maybe the OP will see value)

Let me start by saying I'm not a developer and basically a noob...

I've done 10's of hours on Lynda.com on WP and SEO.. Regarding SEO my personal belief is you are the only person who knows your product and you need to add your own product content, that said.. I wish before I started I realized that the No 1 thing you should be focused on for SEO is Google.. not the customer or what the customer might search..

Maybe start by adding Yoast to your back end and then check Moz.com, maybe there are a few clear problems.

My product on my site is very specific and I have more content (take all my own pics) and links and info than any other competitors.. I've followed all the Yoast SEO and not much.. I'm actually considering hiring a SEO VA to assist, if I do I might post the whole experience on mbb..

I've just uploaded my products to google merchant, lets see if that helps drive traffic..

 

[YeOldeOke]

I don't believe you. Why? Experience. So where is your evidence it's not a competitive market, when, literally in the last 3 months, 4 vape stores within walking distance of me popped up? Never mind the countless websites I've visited (and a Cape Town-based on I'm using because of good service)

You might have a niche in custom order e-liquids, but if you're going to target anything within the vape-space, you'll find quite a bit of competition there boet

Believe me. Why? Experience.

I can expand but why argue about it? With respect, if you think the SA market in vaping is very competitive SEO-wise, then maybe you need some international exposure.

My problem isn't experience or basic knowledge, it is time and time to adjust to the quirks that developed since I last did SEO seriously.

 

[YeOldeOke]

(EDIT: I was going to delete this post but maybe the OP will see value)

Let me start by saying I'm not a developer and basically a noob...

I've done 10's of hours on Lynda.com on WP and SEO.. Regarding SEO my personal belief is you are the only person who knows your product and you need to add your own product content, that said.. I wish before I started I realized that the No 1 thing you should be focused on for SEO is Google.. not the customer or what the customer might search..

Maybe start by adding Yoast to your back end and then check Moz.com, maybe there are a few clear problems.

My product on my site is very specific and I have more content (take all my own pics) and links and info than any other competitors.. I've followed all the Yoast SEO and not much.. I'm actually considering hiring a SEO VA to assist, if I do I might post the whole experience on mbb..

I've just uploaded my products to google merchant, lets see if that helps drive traffic..

I simply don't have the time to pursue all the little tweaks that need to be done which I currently am not aware of.

For instance; Woo on WP, value of product page reviews vs product discriptions, does it matter which tab is open by default. Etc. Hundreds of little things.

Basically what I am asking is if you didn't have the time to sit and tweak and update yourself how would you go about finding someone to do it, someone who knows what they are doing.

You pay upfront, at least half, then the oke muddles around and gets nowhere slowly, money time and opportunity lost.

Anyone can start a website as an SEO, it's a minefield.

So how would you guys find someone who can do the job?

 

[Thor]

(EDIT: I was going to delete this post but maybe the OP will see value)

Let me start by saying I'm not a developer and basically a noob...

I've done 10's of hours on Lynda.com on WP and SEO.. Regarding SEO my personal belief is you are the only person who knows your product and you need to add your own product content, that said.. I wish before I started I realized that the No 1 thing you should be focused on for SEO is Google.. not the customer or what the customer might search..

Maybe start by adding Yoast to your back end and then check Moz.com, maybe there are a few clear problems.

My product on my site is very specific and I have more content (take all my own pics) and links and info than any other competitors.. I've followed all the Yoast SEO and not much.. I'm actually considering hiring a SEO VA to assist, if I do I might post the whole experience on mbb..

I've just uploaded my products to google merchant, lets see if that helps drive traffic..

Incorrect. This applied 5 years ago.

You must focus on the consumer/user/reader/client first! Google is incredibly smart build your side for the end user and google will reward you as far as Google goes keep the site according to google's structured content and valid html5 and you do not have to worry about him anymore. Focus on content aimed for people. Treat google like it wants to be treated; Like a person.

 

[YeOldeOke]

Incorrect. This applied 5 years ago.

You must focus on the consumer/user/reader/client first! Google is incredibly smart build your side for the end user and google will reward you as far as Google goes keep the site according to google's structured content and valid html5 and you do not have to worry about him anymore. Focus on content aimed for people. Treat google like it wants to be treated; Like a person.

Yup. I was gonna remark on that but the post got too long.

A very unwise approach.

 

[The Flight Guru]

The dynamic of SEO has changed completely with Google clamping down on link buying. You need to spend money nowdays on CONTENT to stand out. Ultimately the longer the customer is spending on your site the better Google will reward the lower bounce rates. Link building is very time consuming as well and takes a lot of money. To stimulate sales immediately I would also suggest some sort of PPC campaings to begin. Whilst this is going on, try to build solid descriptions for your products and maybe ask suppliers for backlinks. Do a blog about your products, get the word out.

 

[ShermyG]

Hey let me know if you still looking for help. I will have a look at ur website and see what we can do to improve. Hit me up on skype. Sherman778

Cheers