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Is this good?

  • Thread starter Employment Law Services
  • Start date
Employment Law Services

Employment Law Services

EmployEasily Legal Services
My website is currently ranking 3rd of about 1,210,000,000 for the keyword phrase human resources services and 35th of about 1,040,000,000 for the keyword human resources...........is that good?

Site went live December 28th 2008.
 
P

profitxchange

New Member
Only if it bringing you business. Just being top is meaningless - its what it does for you that matters.
 
Employment Law Services

Employment Law Services

EmployEasily Legal Services
Only if it bringing you business. Just being top is meaningless - its what it does for you that matters.

Yeah, agreed! I was really just curious as to whether my ranking for highly competitive keywords was good given my site only went live in late December.

I'm monitoring closely my traffic and on-site conversions and will revisit the site's 'flow' if things don't play out..........any feedback / suggestions on improving bounce rates / calls to action would be welcomed with open arms :)
 
Scottish Business Owner

Scottish Business Owner

New Member
I have to agree with profitxchange. Unless it's getting you more enquiries or even something tangible then there is very little in having number one spot.

You asked about call to action on your previous post and then when I went to your site I found the "FREE Health Check" bottom left. Surely that has to be one of the main methods of getting people into your pipeline?

If it is then I would suggest you put it top right where the jigsaw thing is just now. That's prime real estate for call to action. Your newsletter button as well needs to give me a reason to actually subscribe. Just my 2p anyway :)
 
Employment Law Services

Employment Law Services

EmployEasily Legal Services
Thanks - just the sort of feedback I'm looking for!

How would you suggest I make the 'subscribe to our newsletter' look more appealing?
 
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Scottish Business Owner

Scottish Business Owner

New Member
It isn't really the look to be honest. I dont like the way it's integrated if i'm honest where it seems to want to open my email so I can send you one. I would prefer some sort of small form or maybe even a page that gives me some compelling reasons to subscribe.

I'm guilty of this myself and i'm looking at the best way to do it. One way off the top of my head would be to offer some sort of free white paper and I think you could do this and offer some real value given the industry you are in. The call to action would then focus on this as a way to get their email address. I would also suggest you look at some sort of email marketing program to integrate the subscription into as this could then open up autoreponder series etc.

Maybe going over the top here so I will stop now :p
 
Employment Law Services

Employment Law Services

EmployEasily Legal Services
Thanks - your feedback is spot on!! I'll need to look into a better newsletter integration but can certainly offer a freebie as an incentive to sign up and may also add this to the HR Health Check offer too.
 
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Boxby

New Member
What is it that you want visitors to your website to do?

(Note to - Can you change the forum settings so that when you click on a link in the forum that it opens up in a new window, instead of over the top of the thread that your reading?)
 
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Gordon N

Gordon N

New Member
Can you change the forum settings so that when you click on a link in the forum that it opens up in a new window, instead of over the top of the thread that your reading?)

Think it already does, in IE it opens a new window and in FF a new tab I'm sure.
 
PeterHoggan

PeterHoggan

New Member
Intrepid,

I think one of the contributors to your bounce rate might be typography. The font is small, line height is minimal and there is a lot of content shoehorned in a very small space - at first glance the page looks like a daunting read. This is being made worse because none of your headlines contain benefits designed to engage visitors and draw them into the page.

I would try to increase white space to make the page easier on the eye and change your headlines to reflect the why rather than the what.
 

Boxby

New Member
One thing I do is to have a think about what it is about my favourite websites that makes them my favourite.

Stuff like layout, colours, text fonts, spacing, white space etc etc. Instead of sitting looking at your own website thinking what should I change, sometimes it helps if you just think a bit differently about websites that you know that you like visiting.

One question i'd ask is have you ever read all of the text off your own front page? Or do you just jump and skim? or skip altogether? Because chances are your visitors will do the same.

Sometimes its a bit of a case of not seeing the wood for the trees and it helps to look at things a bit differently.
 
Employment Law Services

Employment Law Services

EmployEasily Legal Services
Thanks eveyone for all of the constructive feedback!!

I'm planning on overhauling my home page and will be looking to significantly reduce the amount of text and better position my 'calls to action' to generate more enquiries, etc.

Watch this space!!
 

stuarty

Banned
My website is currently ranking 3rd of about 1,210,000,000 for the keyword phrase human resources services and 35th of about 1,040,000,000 for the keyword human resources...........is that good?

Forgive me but I really have to ask this. Didn't you say in other posts that you have knowledge of SEO/SEM? For example you said in another post...

I DO have a good working knowledge of the industry, probably as much as many 'so called' SEO companies claim to have

So why are you asking one of THE most basic questions in SEO? Anyone with even the most basic knowledge would know if the above was good or not and how to interpret these numbers.

When I checked your rank you were 12th and 49th on google uk

I'd do some keyword research because that particular phrase is very very very....very low competition.

Type into google -> allinanchor:human resources services

You get 215k results

allinachor is a rough guide to the number of websites that have this particular phrase but this does NOT mean competition.

You need to determine your "keyword effective index (KEI)" for your phrase.

KEI = number of actual searches per phrase / google search results per phrase

In your case 1000 actual searches / 101,000,000 = 0.0000009

The higher the KEI the more desirable the search phrase. You KEI is extremely low which means no oneis targetting that phrase.

Whilst you've been given good advice about tweaking your site to convert - you will be wasting your time unless you have identified the phrases that pay first. For that you need at least 3 months worth of keyword research and implementation then you should tweak your site for conversions - not before.
 
Employment Law Services

Employment Law Services

EmployEasily Legal Services
stuarty, I've gotta say mate, increasingly, the posts you've made recently seem to slag off others in what appears to be an attempt by you to make yourself look better / more knowledgeable than everyone else involved in the thread...........

I think that a lot of things you say in your posts are actually useful and informative (evidenced by the number of times you've been thanked in posts) but when you post replies that attempt to promote yourself at the expense of others I actually switch off to what you're trying to say and actually start skipping over your posts completely.

If you want your points to be heard / appreciated, you might want to consider how you go about making them..........it would be a shame if the knowledge and experience you have to share was ignored because people find your posts offensive / annoying and ignore them.

why are you asking one of THE most basic questions in SEO? Anyone with even the most basic knowledge would know if the above was good or not and how to interpret these numbers.

You've taken my question out of context........I was asking if my SERPS position for the 2 keywords mentioned was good based on when my site went live (end Dec).........I have a firm grasp on how to 'interpret' the numbers.

The higher the KEI the more desirable the search phrase. You KEI is extremely low which means no oneis targetting that phrase.

Yes higher is better but your statement is totally misleading.......'human resources' has a KEI of 0.001 but is highly targeted in searches. The fact that its also highly competitive is what drives down it's KEI score............I'd have thought as an SEO Service Provider you'd have known that and would've therefore accurately represented KEI scoring. A lamen could easily misunderstand what you said and end up targeting completely useless keywords just because the KEI score is high.:(

Isn't it the case that increases in both keyword popularity and competition means KEI scores effectively stand still so it's unlikely that the KEI score for 'human resources' is going to change much but that despite having a low score it still gets lots of searches?


I'd do some keyword research because that particular phrase is very very very....very low competition.

Yeah..........:001_rolleyes: Just because competition for a keyword is low doesn't necessarily mean its the wrong keyword or that ranking high in SERPS for it is of no benefit/value.

Aren't laser targeted keywords that generate relevant traffic and therefore conversions on your website more important than traffic volume?

SEO work that generates great SERPS for irrelevant keywords that result in high traffic, a high bounce rate and low conversions sounds like a complete waste of money to me.........lower traffic that produces a low bounce rate and a high rate of conversions is a better ROI.

The two keywords I noted are NOT my primary keywords and are NOT ones that I've actually targeted hence the low competition / search demand for them.

Whilst you've been given good advice about tweaking your site to convert - you will be wasting your time unless you have identified the phrases that pay first. For that you need at least 3 months worth of keyword research and implementation then you should tweak your site for conversions - not before.

How can anything that increases on-site conversions be a waste of time? I've done my research, spoken with several experts and am getting quality traffic to my site now that is increasing on a daily basis as my SERPS position for my primary keywords improves...........why wait to try and improve conversions?

Thanks to those of you who provided constructive and useful feedback in this thread, I've got some great ideas that I can immediately action to start improving my on-site conversions and bounce rate now! :thumbup:
 

kazza

Banned
You've taken my question out of context........

No he didn't actually. If anything it's you who has taken things out of context. It looks very much like you spent half the night googling that blurb above and regurgitated it. Stuarty was spot on in his assessment.

I read the last few of your posts and you make out you're an SEO expert one minute then you know nothing the next. You really don't know what you're talking about.
 
Gordon N

Gordon N

New Member
uh oh! Another SEO related thread about to explode! :001_rolleyes:

Excuse me while I run a way to my 'happy place' :D

[TING TING - Seconds out...]
 
Employment Law Services

Employment Law Services

EmployEasily Legal Services
uh oh! Another SEO related thread about to explode! :001_rolleyes:

Excuse me while I run a way to my 'happy place' :D

[TING TING - Seconds out...]

You and me both Gordon!!

Yeah, agreed! I was really just curious as to whether my ranking for highly competitive keywords was good given my site only went live in late December.

Kazza nice to see your second post on this forum is as inflamatory as your first one..........and equally misguided.............quality!!
 

stuarty

Banned
the posts you've made recently seem to slag off others...make yourself look better / more knowledgeable than everyone else involved in the thread...........

Er... no. If anyone is trying to show off it's you. I am very precise in everything I write. If I see something wrong I will point that out. I always can and always have been able to back it up. If I don't know about something then I ask about it and accept it! I never tell an expert in their field they're wrong or try and upstage them (unlike you). You seem to think you're an expert in this field and you've had a go at me several times in posts but I suspect it's a case of sour grapes over some of the howlers you've came out with. It's these howlers that people misinterpret. Need I remind you about your advice telling companies to insist on a contract that provides "average results"? Hmmm.

You've taken my question out of context........

No I didn't - if you understood as much about SEO as you claim then you would know it was in context.

I have a firm grasp on how to 'interpret' the numbers.

Er...no you don't. From what you've written on this subject you don't appear to know how use a calculator correctly.

Yes higher is better but your statement is totally misleading.......

Er no it's not. That's a howler if ever there was...as you say below...

*
'human resources' has a KEI of 0.001 but is highly targeted in searches. The fact that its also highly competitive is what drives down it's KEI score

Eh? Drives it down? KEI is a ratio (that's basic school arithmetic) of popularity and competition. The higher the ratio the better.

You really haven't got a clue what you're talking about. There are different parts to the formula you missed, partial, exact, square of popularity etc etc. I think someone above said you googled "KEI" and farted out a rant at me.

Let me share something with you. We had a client who were an HR services company exactly like yours (it's on our website). We did their SEO, Internet Marketing and Keyword research. I personally did their keyword research and SEM for 4 years - so I know exactly what keywords and phrases you should be using, so please don't tell me what I do and don't know! I got them to number 1 for 5 prime keyphrases (which you dont rank for at all) plus 60+ other longtail keyphrases. In the four years we worked with them, their internet business grew considerably from a one man band to a thriving company with 6 staff. They were bought out last year by a competitor and one of the reasons was to gain their internet presence!

Why mention this? Because I know exactly how good your site is compared to what we did and how it could be improved for as little as possible! The company above are no longer clients since the buyout, but, I still have mountains of extremely valuable data that could have been passed on to help you!

I never slag off any expert in their field because I never know when I might need their help in the future and being respctful pays dividends. Perhaps you should think about this before you slag off expert SEOs on a public forum in future too!
 
NorthSouthMedia

NorthSouthMedia

New Member
Interesting post ... I'm not going to get involved in KEI or anything calculable, just going to point out the obvious here ... Intrepid, congrats on getting your high positions in such a short timeframe, it shows that you are heading in the right direction.

But, and there is always a but, as Stuarty pointed out, they are probably low-key search terms, anybody who has been involved in organic ranking for sought-after, competitive keywords will tell you that it takes time (more than 4 months, for starters) to rank prominently.

Still, even if they are low-key, they might still convert, and that's what matters - sometimes, its better to be a big fish in a lot of small puddles than a small fish in a big puddle.

Your defo on the right track, keep the momentum going and someday, perhaps ...
 
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