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Being Stonewalled By A Website's Designer/Host

by Breakinglink
16 replies
I picked up a CPA as a client for SEO. They are great, paid up front, don't ask me to do a ton of work that we didn't agree on and so forth. I am having an issue with the designer and host of the website, more specifically the shoddy work they did on the site.

They were nice enough to create Google places listings, but didnt link the site to them. The homepage is an on page SEO nightmare. I can't get them to get me the info to change any of this, surprise, surprise.

It has been difficult to rank them because if I change the name of any of the pictures, they wont appear. I cant put any articles on the home page, because the "custom WordPress site" doesn't act right if I do. I am looking at driving their traffic to posts...which end up being so long it doesn't look even moderately professional. Any I ideas if I can some how get the info for the Google places listings through another route? Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.
#designer or host #stonewalled #website
  • Profile picture of the author Quickhelper
    You might be looking at a complete start over. How is their budget looking like? If you are making a lot of money for not very much work, I think you may need to think about ripping down crap they did, and setting up everything from the beginning to be more manageable for the long run. I agree its frustrating when the SEO and the designer can't work together on the same page.
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    • Profile picture of the author Breakinglink
      Originally Posted by Quickhelper View Post

      You might be looking at a complete start over. How is their budget looking like? If you are making a lot of money for not very much work, I think you may need to think about ripping down crap they did, and setting up everything from the beginning to be more manageable for the long run. I agree its frustrating when the SEO and the designer can't work together on the same page.
      I have a feeling that the designer was leaving it that way as an upsell for later. They just bought the site back in January so I highly doubt that they would want to start over. However, that does not solve my Google places problem. It would probably only take me a couple days to redo the entire site but for what I charged I would be a sucker to do it.

      Anyone have any thoughts on how to get the places log in info since I have the companies cooperation?
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    • Profile picture of the author somacorellc
      Originally Posted by Quickhelper View Post

      I agree its frustrating when the SEO and the designer can't work together on the same page.
      Whatever you do, do not start over on the Google Places unless you have access to the current GP account. If you create a dup listing you could get yourself into Google Local Hell - not a fun place to be.

      When you say you can't get "them" to give you the info, I assume you mean their current or former web guy, not the CPA. If that's the case, just tell the CPA to email that web guy and get the login information for the Google Places account, because you need it to do your job and it's critical for their success.

      It's not up to you to get that info.
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      • Profile picture of the author Breakinglink
        Originally Posted by somacorellc View Post

        Whatever you do, do not start over on the Google Places unless you have access to the current GP account. If you create a dup listing you could get yourself into Google Local Hell - not a fun place to be.

        When you say you can't get "them" to give you the info, I assume you mean their current or former web guy, not the CPA. If that's the case, just tell the CPA to email that web guy and get the login information for the Google Places account, because you need it to do your job and it's critical for their success.

        It's not up to you to get that info.
        No I most definitely don't want to end up in GP Hell. And I guess I got myself into the thought that I needed to do everything but you are right it really shouldnt be up to me to get that info. Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    That's exactly right. And you have to let the cpa know that you can't do your job without that access or being able to alter the site. If the site he has isn't cutting the mustard, he needs to know that. Be the one with integrity that tells the client what they need to hear, not what they necessarily want to hear.
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  • Profile picture of the author deu12000
    I had a problem where the host/designer would only give FTP information for their site (no database access) and told the client they wouldn't be able to use the domain they've been using for years after a month. I told the client to try to buy the domain at the very least from them. The client didn't want to buy the domain because he had some kind of falling out with the host/designer.

    The site was a database driven site. If it wasn't I would have just taken the site through FTP or if I didn't have that access I would have ripped it. What I did was created a new site, copy and pasted the information I needed. Registered a new domain for him. I then re-directed traffic from the old domain to the new domain. Instantly google loved the new site. The rankings went up and leads went up.

    Anyway you can try ripping the site if he really likes the design. Then having it coded for WordPress if that's what you want to do.

    Really I'd try to see if there was a buyout option for the google places listing, the domain and the site.

    If the google local listing isn't ranking anywhere you can ask google to delete it and start over. Try to get some kind of buyout though. It will make everything much easier.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    For the G+ Local listing, here's what I would do:

    Create a new listing and submit it to get a new postcard in the mail. Verify that listing and then submit a support ticket to Google support explaining the situation and asking them to move the other listing to your new Google account, merging the two or whatever they think is best. Make sure you point out to them that you've verified the listing, so that proves you're the owner of the business.

    I've done something similar and I've worked with Google support many times. They're usually quite helpful. I've had duplicate listings deleted or merged by Google support without me having to manually verify each one first.

    I hope that helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author Breakinglink
      Originally Posted by Kung Fu Backlinks View Post

      For the G+ Local listing, here's what I would do:

      Create a new listing and submit it to get a new postcard in the mail. Verify that listing and then submit a support ticket to Google support explaining the situation and asking them to move the other listing to your new Google account, merging the two or whatever they think is best. Make sure you point out to them that you've verified the listing, so that proves you're the owner of the business.

      I've done something similar and I've worked with Google support many times. They're usually quite helpful. I've had duplicate listings deleted or merged by Google support without me having to manually verify each one first.

      I hope that helps.
      Great answer Kung, I had not even thought about that yet. I will get cracking on that ASAP.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kyle Rude
    I agree with Kun fu backlinks. I think that's the most effective way to do things.You just gotta work with Google support til they give up hahaa
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  • Profile picture of the author bbdginc
    Can you get admin privileges to Wordpress and update or change the theme? Then at least you can get post on the homepage.
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    • Profile picture of the author Breakinglink
      Originally Posted by bbdginc View Post

      Can you get admin privileges to Wordpress and update or change the theme? Then at least you can get post on the homepage.
      I would have done that but the website creator pulled something I havent seen yet. The website is done with a custom WP theme. And if I change anything, including the theme, I would have to redo all the content.

      The issue about the theme I am having is that if I try to change a pages layout, the layout I change it to comes with the text already on the page. For example If I wanted to change the home page to the "About Me" page setting it wouldnt give me a layout of 3 collums or whatever, it would actually repost the entire page where the home page is. The only way I could change this is to get into the c Panel but the creator is refusing me the access.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    Took support all of 5 days to delete old listing and make new one live. They do good work
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    • Profile picture of the author Breakinglink
      Originally Posted by Kung Fu Backlinks View Post

      Took support all of 5 days to delete old listing and make new one live. They do good work
      I ended up taking your advice and getting the support to just combine the two. They didn't hassle me much because the old ones were locked in with old information so it wasn't a problem to get them to change it over and give me access.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
        Originally Posted by Breakinglink View Post

        I ended up taking your advice and getting the support to just combine the two. They didn't hassle me much because the old ones were locked in with old information so it wasn't a problem to get them to change it over and give me access.
        Glad to hear things went smoothly
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  • Profile picture of the author AlbertGA
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  • Profile picture of the author vndnbrgj
    Can you still manually make changes in the html side of things inside the site?
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