Please look at my site! Need your advice!

28 replies
Hello all,

I started the store shown in my signature in March 2010 and after more than a year I still haven't been able to break big.
I get about 30 visits/day on average which is not enough for a real business.
I've gotten about 20 sales so far.

I've been paying $250/month for professional SEO services for the last 8 months and even though I'm ranking better than before for most of the keywords related to my niche I still get 30 visits/day.

From what I've read I need keywords in the first 3 positions since being in 4th+ positions doesn't have much impact. Currently I'm ranking 3, 4 and 5 for 6 of the keywords I'm going after. For all my other keywords I rank lower than that.

I wanted to get your advice on what you think needs to be worked on.
Is it simply a matter of doing more SEO work or is there anything else that stands out as being incorrect or missing?
I have a Facebook page, Twitter feed and a Blog as well.

I really want this to work and am willing to pay someone for SEO services since I'm not dealing with the SEO team I was working with recently.

Would paying someone for 20 EDU + GOV links make a big difference?
I found this service being offered on the "Warriors for Hire" forum channel and was wondering if it's recommended to pay someone a fixed price to do a one time job or is it better to pay someone monthly to do a continuous backlinking campaign for a seemingly more genuine process in the eyes of Google.

The point is that I want to build something solid that will last and not just something temporary and mostly I don't want to get kicked out by Google for doing something that looks like spam.

Thanks for your advice.
I'me starting to get lost in the maze of Internet marketing :confused:
Not sure what to try next to make this work.

Thanks for any comments and advice.
#advice #marketing advice #seo services #seo work #site
  • Profile picture of the author doorkicker13
    One thing.. your page isn't loading correctly for me in Chrome.

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    • Profile picture of the author haplo32
      Originally Posted by doorkicker13 View Post

      One thing.. your page isn't loading correctly for me in Chrome.
      thanks doorkicker13, I had forgotten about the issue.

      It shows up if you have something called skype addons in the add/remove programs if I remember correctly. it 's what's used to turn phone numbers into links on web pages.
      When I removed it I didn't have the problem although I agree that it shouldn't mess up the page like this even with the skype addon installed.

      I will make sure to have it fixed. I completely forgot about that.

      Thanks a bunch!
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  • Profile picture of the author omk
    I tired Chrome and it is loading correctly for me.

    Well, I like the niche. I don't see why you guys can't get this site to perform better,if
    you follow best practices.
    As far as paying $250/month for SEO services and getting such poor results! - I think you are getting ripped off. PM me and I will see what I can do to help you.
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    • Profile picture of the author haplo32
      Originally Posted by omk View Post

      I tired Chrome and it is loading correctly for me.

      Well, I like the niche. I don't see why you guys can't get this site to perform better,if
      you follow best practices.
      As far as paying $250/month for SEO services and getting such poor results! - I think you are getting ripped off. PM me and I will see what I can do to help you.

      Omk, thanks for the offer but it looks like I need 15 posts to PM you
      Maybe on Skype? my id is haplo29
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  • Profile picture of the author SB274
    Yeah I would suggest switching SEO companies. Not sure exactly what your current SEO company is providing, but for $250/mo and a years worth of backlinking, you should be at the top.

    In reference to the edu/gov backlinks - Edu and gov's links add a lot of value. I would definitely recommend getting some. It adds more credibility to your site in the eyes of Google.

    I hope that helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author haplo32
      Originally Posted by Kevin Pojezny View Post

      Yeah I would suggest switching SEO companies. Not sure exactly what your current SEO company is providing, but for $250/mo and a years worth of backlinking, you should be at the top.
      Hmm, I should have asked the Warrior Forum before going forward with these guys... I'm actually not with this SEO company anymore, that's why I'm looking for someone to do the work since I'd prefer concentrating on other sides of the business instead.
      Thanks for your comment Kevin.
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  • Profile picture of the author tune
    I have some sites where I exclusively used .edu and .gov type links and it did really well for me so +1 for that
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    • Profile picture of the author haplo32
      Originally Posted by tune View Post

      I have some sites where I exclusively used .edu and .gov type links and it did really well for me so +1 for that
      After reading a few replies it seems clear that .edu and .gov links are one of the ways to go. I'll probably give a try then.

      What if I suddenly end up with 40 .edu and .gov links overnight? Isn't it suspicious in the eyes of Google?
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  • Profile picture of the author haplo32
    Thanks everyone for your advice but no one has provided advice on my backlink campaign question:

    What would be best?
    Hire someone for:
    1- one-time fixed-price to create backlinks from high PR sites and repeat every 2 weeks let's say?
    2- continuous work by creating backlinks almost every day and pay a monthly fee?

    Just not sure what strategy to adopt.
    I just know I don't want to do it myself because it's a pain in the $%#@ and I'd rather concentrate on other aspects of the business.

    thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author amackley
      2- continuous work by creating backlinks almost every day and pay a monthly fee?
      thanks.
      I'm just seeing your topic here. My advice is drop the monthly fee. I find that the best back links come from quality sites. Have you written quality articles and submitted to quality sites in you niche? I'm not talking about article marketing.

      I train people to build their own sites and to market them. If you want people to visit your site, make people want to see what you have. Write 10 very good articles on topics related to your niche, camping. I'm talking about good quality articles that actually answer people's questions. You ALSO mentioned your blog.

      All links are not created equal. 10 articles (to start) from high-ranking sites will outperform cheap paid-for links all day long. So, once you have you 10 articles written, become a guest contributor on different sites devoted to your topic. Write content that will enhance their site. Go to the best sites (and have excellent content and photos). Some will not accept but a few good sites will.

      You mentioned eight months. If you spent eight months writing quality articles, you would have over a hundred on "authority" sites. Those will bring you the traffic.

      Of course, SEO is always important, but get your content in front of people and the traffic will come.

      But that's just the way I teach. It works for my students. PM me if you want more info.
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  • Profile picture of the author VOnline
    I personally don't like to pay for service. Kind of a DIY, learn it yourself kind of person.
    Site looks right in Chrome. Try other traffic methods or change up your SEO techniques.

    The site looks good tho
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    • Profile picture of the author Keepinitreal
      Originally Posted by VOnline View Post

      I personally don't like to pay for service. Kind of a DIY, learn it yourself kind of person.
      Site looks right in Chrome. Try other traffic methods or change up your SEO techniques.

      The site looks good tho

      do you think there is sufficient info on this site to learn all aspects of SEO
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  • Profile picture of the author redlegrich
    Yeah, you got hosed on the SEO that's for sure. I think cleaning up your on page stuff would help a lot. Make sure that's all sorted. Of course, you have a Yahoo store so you can't do as much stuff as you like I'll bet. Virtually no content on the home page, just products. That's not going to help much. Get some sort of conversion to capture email addresses by offering a free white paper on something useful related to your topic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dave90210
    Looks good you should get some sales, I'm using chrome and it works fine on my end. Very nice clean and professional site
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    • Profile picture of the author haplo32
      Originally Posted by Dave90210 View Post

      Looks good you should get some sales, I'm using chrome and it works fine on my end. Very nice clean and professional site
      Thanks Dave,
      I think the site will convert well once we have the traffic.
      Looks like our main problem is the amount of traffic that needs to be improved.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
    I just checked your backlinks and you have none... Go to Yahoo, type in link:campingshowerworld.com and you will notice there are no backlinks for the main URL and only 67 backlinks throughout your entire site.

    They certainly haven't done much for that amount of monthly payments.

    I would definitely call them on their work and start reverse engineering everything to find out what they have done and then ask them for specific things they have done. Catch them in a lie and then let them have it.
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    • Profile picture of the author haplo32
      Originally Posted by Mike Hill View Post

      I just checked your backlinks and you have none... Go to Yahoo, type in link:campingshowerworld.com and you will notice there are no backlinks for the main URL and only 67 backlinks throughout your entire site.

      They certainly haven't done much for that amount of monthly payments.

      I would definitely call them on their work and start reverse engineering everything to find out what they have done and then ask them for specific things they have done. Catch them in a lie and then let them have it.
      Good point Mike.
      I did check that out and was wondering why yahoo explorer wasn't showing up more backlinks but I kinda figured that because my SEO guy was creating backlinks from PR0 websites Yahoo Explorer doesn't display them or it takes a long time to be displayed. (From the reports he'd send me it looks like he created backlinks from blog sites created himself)
      When creating a backlink from a high ranking site it seems to display within a day or two.
      Not sure if I'm 100% correct on that but that's why I didn't make a big fuss about it.
      Just figured the backlinks were being crawled by Google anyway even if they're not displayed on Yahoo Explorer.

      From what you're telling me it's pretty clear that more backlinks should show up.
      I'll work on that then.

      Anyone's got some advice on a good strategy to build backlinks that's paid for?

      thanks
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  • You have a great-looking site but since you're traffic's low, it's not making much difference.

    When you put camping showers into google you get Amazon on top - so those looking to buy will likely buy from there, I guess.

    With your You Tube videos, I always get great results when I actually review products. I notice that you have some great videos showing how the products actually work but those that watch these videos are likely to have already bought the product or a similar one.

    If you're using THE PRODUCT and then REVIEW as a keyword, you know you will target people that haven't bought the product yet and are ready to buy. These are the people you want to target because they're ready to purchase.

    When I review products in videos I get much better results.

    Also, with things like the blog that you have on your site - I'm guessing that people won't be searching for Camping Shower Blogs. It's too random. But I'm sure there are more people who are interested in camping and outdoors in general who may then see your products that you offer and may find it's just what they needed.

    Camping Showers is also not the only keyword that you could focus on. There is also Portable Showers and Outdoor Showers - both of which are fetching more keyword searches per month. A few pages on your site with these keywords may help capture some of those who's searches are slightly different.

    If you haven't yet tried Adwords, it may be worth it just to capitalise on all that traffic that's getting to Amazon from the front page of Google. I don't usually use Adwords but a small campaign just to test the waters may be worth it. At least, better then spending $250/month on SEO anyway.

    Hope this helps somewhat. You're doing really well and you have a great site. As soon as people get to the site I'm sure the cash will come rolling in.
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    • Profile picture of the author haplo32
      Originally Posted by TheChickenandTheHawk View Post

      With your You Tube videos, I always get great results when I actually review products. I notice that you have some great videos showing how the products actually work but those that watch these videos are likely to have already bought the product or a similar one.

      If you're using THE PRODUCT and then REVIEW as a keyword, you know you will target people that haven't bought the product yet and are ready to buy. These are the people you want to target because they're ready to purchase.

      When I review products in videos I get much better results.
      That's an interesting point, I never actually thought about reviewing products. Makes sense since people do look at reviews before buying a product.
      The idea I had about showing how an item works is that even though the visitor hasn't bought it yet it might convince him to if the item does exactly what he wants it to do.

      Also, with things like the blog that you have on your site - I'm guessing that people won't be searching for Camping Shower Blogs. It's too random. But I'm sure there are more people who are interested in camping and outdoors in general who may then see your products that you offer and may find it's just what they needed.
      We're actually working on talking about the best camping spots in North America and develop an ongoing series of blob posts on the subject.
      Does that make sense?

      If you haven't yet tried Adwords, it may be worth it just to capitalise on all that traffic that's getting to Amazon from the front page of Google. I don't usually use Adwords but a small campaign just to test the waters may be worth it. At least, better then spending $250/month on SEO anyway.
      yes I've tried adwords and haven't had any results for some reason so I'm kind of wary to try it again but it's possible I haven't used the right keywords and maybe should give it a go again.
      I find it expensive to test though

      Hope this helps somewhat. You're doing really well and you have a great site. As soon as people get to the site I'm sure the cash will come rolling in.
      Thanks a lot! you really gave me a lot of things to think about.
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      • We're actually working on talking about the best camping spots in North America and develop an ongoing series of blob posts on the subject.
        Does that make sense?
        Sure. You need to think about the type of people that will actually be buying your product. I'm not sure but I guess that they would be more experienced campers. You need to target these people.

        Setting up a separate camping blog and then linking with an ad or just a link to your main site is sometimes a good idea if you're targeting the right people.

        It all depends on who you're targer market is. Who actually buy your products? If it's hardcore campers they may prefer a blog about the best places to go camping or wanting to try something new.

        Those families who are new to camping would probably find a blog that's all about an introduction to camping and getting all of the 'basic kit' for campers - one of which is a camping shower! Some people have no idea about camping and where to start. A blog like this would give them lots of great ideas.

        Try looking for camping forums and test the market - see what questions are being asked and what type of campers are looking on the internet.
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        • Profile picture of the author haplo32
          TheChickenandTheHawk: from what we've been reading on forums and such it seems that both hardcore campers and beginners buy these products so we're trying to appeal to both groups.

          Our blog is a subfolder of our store and you can see that it has the same header and left nav bar as our store so readers have direct access to our products: blog.campingshowerworld.com

          Thanks for bringing up things to think about.
          That's the way to progress
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          • Profile picture of the author MarcoJardel
            First of all I'm using Chrome too so obviously the site isn't rendering correctly.

            From an SEO standpoint I see the following issues:

            Why is the domain name the first thing in the Title? The first thing in the title should be the main keyword you're trying to rank for.

            The h1 tag (header) should be used once on the page and include your main keyword. You're using it a few times and wasting it on random stuff like 'call us' and 'search'...

            Use of h2 tag is equally as random... Used on the 'copyright'.

            h3 tag isn't even used at all.

            The code to content ratio is awful from an SEO standpoint -

            The site is full of inline CSS (CSS code on the actual page). This should be stored in an external CSS file and linked to (1 line of code instead of hundreds)... The shear amount of inline CSS is ridiculous too... Surely this amount of CSS is not needed.

            Also a fair amount of inline Javascript. Like the CSS this should be an external file and linked to.

            This is a table layout. Reducing the content to code ratio yet again. A div based layout would improve the code a lot.

            Overall the site would probably look fine when fixed but there is a lot of work to do with regards to the on page SEO. I haven't checked the backlinks but judging by the on page stuff I'd guess the backlinks must be doing ok...
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            • Profile picture of the author haplo32
              Originally Posted by MarcoJardel View Post

              First of all I'm using Chrome too so obviously the site isn't rendering correctly.

              From an SEO standpoint I see the following issues:

              Why is the domain name the first thing in the Title? The first thing in the title should be the main keyword you're trying to rank for.

              The h1 tag (header) should be used once on the page and include your main keyword. You're using it a few times and wasting it on random stuff like 'call us' and 'search'...

              Use of h2 tag is equally as random... Used on the 'copyright'.

              h3 tag isn't even used at all.

              The code to content ratio is awful from an SEO standpoint -

              The site is full of inline CSS (CSS code on the actual page). This should be stored in an external CSS file and linked to (1 line of code instead of hundreds)... The shear amount of inline CSS is ridiculous too... Surely this amount of CSS is not needed.

              Also a fair amount of inline Javascript. Like the CSS this should be an external file and linked to.

              This is a table layout. Reducing the content to code ratio yet again. A div based layout would improve the code a lot.

              Overall the site would probably look fine when fixed but there is a lot of work to do with regards to the on page SEO. I haven't checked the backlinks but judging by the on page stuff I'd guess the backlinks must be doing ok...
              Hi Marco,

              This is news to me but this is not something I'd be able to do on my own.
              Do you know anybody I can hire that does cleanup work?
              Also is this supposed to help rank better in Google?
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    Okay, your promotional focus needs to be on your blog but not the way it is now. You write in a previous post:

    “Our blog is a subfolder of our store and you can see that it has the same header and left nav bar as our store so readers have direct access to our products: blog.campingshowerworld.com”

    That's a mistake. Your blog needs to be full of accounts of fun camping experiences. As someone mentioned above, there probably aren't many blogs centered around portable showers. But that's okay because there are plenty about hiking, camping, fishing and all kinds of outdoor activities where, at the end of a long day of recreation, a portable shower would be a blessing.

    People buy when you get their energy up. Personal stories achieve this very well. I'd expect that if you're an outdoorsman you have lots of interesting and funny tales to tell. So tell them. And if not, take that $250 a month and hire a writer to write some engaging stuff for your blog.

    For example, maybe you were courting your sweetheart and were out camping. You viewed all kinds of breathtaking scenery, wildlife, had a great picnic, etc. And after the perfect day in nature with your honey, you smelled like an old gym sock when that amorous moment came after a couple of glasses of vino. Lucky you packed along the porta-shower thingy.

    I'm sorta making this up on the fly but this is the kind of stuff that engages the reader and says, I like this guy because he's just like me. I'm going to buy his stuff.

    Start focusing your SEO activity as much to the blog as to the home page. In fact, I'd make it two thirds to the blog (once you have some really engaging outdoors kinda stuff there) and one third to the home page.

    Of course, each engaging tale of the outdoors will have plenty of links to the money page. This is all going to sound weird to you at first but it's the way to go. Good luck.
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    • Profile picture of the author haplo32
      Originally Posted by travlinguy View Post

      Okay, your promotional focus needs to be on your blog but not the way it is now. You write in a previous post:

      "Our blog is a subfolder of our store and you can see that it has the same header and left nav bar as our store so readers have direct access to our products: blog.campingshowerworld.com"

      That's a mistake. Your blog needs to be full of accounts of fun camping experiences. As someone mentioned above, there probably aren't many blogs centered around portable showers. But that's okay because there are plenty about hiking, camping, fishing and all kinds of outdoor activities where, at the end of a long day of recreation, a portable shower would be a blessing.
      Hey travlinguy,

      It does make sense and I actually just read something similar recently and that's what was described as well about how to write a good blog.
      Thanks for the feedback!
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  • Profile picture of the author blend
    I would ask for a refund from your seo company. Correct me if i'm wrong, but for an seo company who charges $250 a month and have produced around 155 backlinks to your homepage, then they are having a laugh! I can do that within a month from fiverr lol!
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  • Profile picture of the author DFM
    Yes, I agree with blend, you should seriously ditch the SEO company that you are with right now... I mean seriously paying 250$ a month for what was it ? 8 months in a row to get 30 visitors a day, with no disrespect you should immediately cease any collaboration with them. Go to fiverr.com and order a few gigs related to the things that your SEO company said it was doing. Because as I feel at the moment they are probably doing like 1 hours worth of work every month.
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    • Profile picture of the author haplo32
      Originally Posted by DFM View Post

      Yes, I agree with blend, you should seriously ditch the SEO company that you are with right now... I mean seriously paying 250$ a month for what was it ? 8 months in a row to get 30 visitors a day, with no disrespect you should immediately cease any collaboration with them. Go to fiverr.com and order a few gigs related to the things that your SEO company said it was doing. Because as I feel at the moment they are probably doing like 1 hours worth of work every month.
      Actually, these SEO guys don't work on the site anymore.
      That's why I'm looking for an alternative.

      I used Fiver recently for 100 backlinks but I don't see the repercussions yet and can't see any signs of new backlinks when looking at Market Samurai report.
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