Website help thread

[BannerPenguin]

I just wrote a very long post on the biz forum about topics being covered here and then I found this thread so I deleted that post and will detail it here.

So here I am trying to get my local hair salon website to rank better. Site is Heather AnnZ Salon - Hair Salon in Fargo ND. I have been working on this for the last month or two and I will detail what I have learned.

Everyone says content is king create great content and you will slowly move to the top of the list. I think this is partly ture. You need something for visitors to your website to do. Creating a blog is a good way to get visitors to stick around for a while once they find your site. There still is the issue of finding them. Of the few blog posts that I have written some of them are ranking on the first page of google under certain search tearms and generating some traffic to my site. But not the traffic that I want

Backlink from quality websites, ok this does make a lot of sense a back link is like a vote for your website. From what I understand google actually account for the content on the site the the link is located on. So If I create account on a gardening forum and a car fourm and link back to my website those links wont count for as much because they are from a non related website even though they are highly ranked. And good luck getting another highy rank salon in your market to link back to your site. They are your direct competitor.

So what is the solution, the solution that I think will work the best and help everyone is to share some guest posts between some of our non competing salon websites. You write something for my blog and I link back to your website and at the same time I write something for your blog and you link back to my website. This will be a link to our sites from a related source and at the same time will develop more content for each of our websites.

Thoughts? Anyone want to participate?

Thanks

Content is king. In theory. Don't listen to all of what google suggests as if everyone done that then there must be more to it.

Linking between blogs isn't going to do much. It won't do any harm but if you have done all your meta tags, H1's and what not then you probably need to employ a decent SEO company to get you where you want. It depends on the keyword you are trying to reach. We sell SEO services so if anyone wants purely honest advice about what they can do themselves and if the quote from another company is reasonable feel free to ask.

Don't go to any company that makes any promises. This is coming from losing £3k in my first year across a couple of SEO companies before I got clued up and got someone on board with us.

 

[Cholo]

Can anyone give me a rough idea how much it should cost to get my website built? My father in law has made a start at doing it but to be honest its not going too well so I think I need to pay someone to do it.

if you'd rather not say how much you paid on here could you pm me please.

Thanks
Sarah xxx

If you want to use Wordpress for your site (it's very easy to use and you can update content yourself) you can get someone to set it up for you from £50.

They will set up the theme, name pages etc etc and then you simply add the content. Once you get your confidence, Wordpress is very easy to play around on.

You can also get people to do the SEO for you via the same site.

These are just a couple of UK based people-

www.peopleperhour.com/hourlie/link/25001 - I can setup and customise your Wordpress theme ...

www.peopleperhour.com/hourlie/link/50193 - I can set up a wordpress site with your theme f...

 

[helencowleard]

Can anyone give me a rough idea how much it should cost to get my website built? My father in law has made a start at doing it but to be honest its not going too well so I think I need to pay someone to do it.

if you'd rather not say how much you paid on here could you pm me please.

Thanks
Sarah xxx

It didnt cost me anything, just my domain name for a 2 yr package but without that its free. I did mine through Wix.com it was fool proof. Very quick and easy. See what you think www.perfectlypamperedhands.co.uk
Highly recommend using it

Sent from my GT-I9195 using SalonGeek mobile app

 

[sarahrose14]

Well the basic website is already there i'll just be wanting someone to make it look pretty as it's looking a bit basic right now. I know nothing about computers etc so doing it myself is not an option. It's things that are probably quite basic really like a patterned background, a slide show of images on the front page and some YouTube videos put on there and i'd like to be able to click on images to enlarge them. I mean its not the worst website ever but it just doesn't feel professional enough at the minute, and my FIL gave me the impression he was adept with all aspects of web design and i've now found out a lot of it he's never done.

Also how do I make my website compatible with mobiles?

Thanks
Sarah x

 

[BannerPenguin]

Well the basic website is already there i'll just be wanting someone to make it look pretty as it's looking a bit basic right now. I know nothing about computers etc so doing it myself is not an option. It's things that are probably quite basic really like a patterned background, a slide show of images on the front page and some YouTube videos put on there and i'd like to be able to click on images to enlarge them. I mean its not the worst website ever but it just doesn't feel professional enough at the minute, and my FIL gave me the impression he was adept with all aspects of web design and i've now found out a lot of it he's never done.

Also how do I make my website compatible with mobiles?

Thanks
Sarah x

It depends on what system the website is currently built on and how it's hosted online will depend if someone can take it over and just change bits. I'm my experience most companies find it far easier starting from scratch.

Mobile websites again depends on the platform it's built on or there are companies that charge to make a mobile version for couple hundred pounds.

 

[Tracybubbles]

It didnt cost me anything, just my domain name for a 2 yr package but without that its free. I did mine through Wix.com it was fool proof. Very quick and easy. See what you think www.perfectlypamperedhands.co.uk
Highly recommend using it

Sent from my GT-I9195 using SalonGeek mobile app

Iv also got my domain through 123.reg but I can't for the life of me work out how to get wix to use it. I read through the faq's but didn't think it was possible? Could you give me pointers Helen?

 

[helencowleard]

I built my website then a few weeks later bought my domain through them by upgrading from a free package to a package with domain. I dont know about how youd attach a previously bought one. I'll see if I can find out any info for you x

Sent from my GT-I9195 using SalonGeek mobile app

 

[Cholo]

Well the basic website is already there i'll just be wanting someone to make it look pretty as it's looking a bit basic right now. I know nothing about computers etc so doing it myself is not an option. It's things that are probably quite basic really like a patterned background, a slide show of images on the front page and some YouTube videos put on there and i'd like to be able to click on images to enlarge them. I mean its not the worst website ever but it just doesn't feel professional enough at the minute, and my FIL gave me the impression he was adept with all aspects of web design and i've now found out a lot of it he's never done.

Also how do I make my website compatible with mobiles?

Thanks
Sarah x

Post a job on www.peopleperhour.com or www.freelancer.co.uk

Just specify what the site was built in and what you want doing. You can also specify your budget, if you want.
Both sites are predominantly web based and graphic design geeks and so it's easy access to thousands of very talented people

 

[carly.smith.333]

Can i link my website that iv built through weebly to the domain name that iv purchased for free?

 

[BannerPenguin]

Can i link my website that iv built through weebly to the domain name that iv purchased for free?

Don't quote me on it but I think weebly charge for this. You got a domain name for free?! How?! lol I wish I could

 

[Aphrodite26]

Can i link my website that iv built through weebly to the domain name that iv purchased for free?

I linked mine and it was free, can't for the life of me remember how though sorry.
I just know I didn't pay anything.

 

[Baggybear]

Can i link my website that iv built through weebly to the domain name that iv purchased for free?

I linked mine and it was free, can't for the life of me remember how though sorry.
I just know I didn't pay anything.

It used to be that you could use any domain you bought and point the Weebly free site to it BUT they have changed things as I was looking to do this on a new website for my other half and you now HAVE to pay Weebly (upgrade) to point a domain name to a Weebly site.

 

[Aphrodite26]

I must of managed to get mine in time before it changed.
Sorry I can't be of help x

 

[carly.smith.333]

Don't quote me on it but I think weebly charge for this. You got a domain name for free?! How?! lol I wish I could

Oops sorry, i paid for my domain name, i meant can i link it with my domain for free?

I can just see monthly plans...does his mean i have to pay every month i want my website for even though im editing it myself..?

 

[BannerPenguin]

Oops sorry, i paid for my domain name, i meant can i link it with my domain for free?

I can just see monthly plans...does his mean i have to pay every month i want my website for even though im editing it myself..?

Yeah that will be it. Your paying for the server usage.
We charge our clients websites a monthly hosting charge. It's fairly normal. Some web companies just include it in there bill for 12 months.

 

[rippersroo]

My brother told me SEO is something you can do yourself???
Also how does google Adwords work? I signed up cos I thought it was free then I don't think it was now they keep emailing aaaargh!!💩

 

[BannerPenguin]

My brother told me SEO is something you can do yourself???
Also how does google Adwords work? I signed up cos I thought it was free then I don't think it was now they keep emailing aaaargh!!💩

Some of it yes. It depends on how confident you are with your website and your competition on a specific keyword. Example: mobile hairdresser *insert small town name* will be fairly easy to do yourself. However: mobile hairdresser London would prove a lot harder and would say very very difficult by yourself.

Google Adwords it the adverts you get at the top of google and down the right hand side when you search something. It can cost anywhere from pence to pounds per click depending on the keyword. You fill your account with money and watch it disappear

 

[rippersroo]

Ok thanks BP so Adwords is not a good thing then? I've spent a lot of money on kit and literally everything I need for my business I just can't afford anything else!

 

[BannerPenguin]

Ok thanks BP so Adwords is not a good thing then? I've spent a lot of money on kit and literally everything I need for my business I just can't afford anything else!

Well it is to a degree it's just about balancing it right. There's lots of buttons and settings so id say unless your interested in learning and going through it then I wouldn't bother. Also unless you have a very nice website I wouldn't worry either.

Got all your marketing and promotion bits done?

 

[rippersroo]

Well it is to a degree it's just about balancing it right. There's lots of buttons and settings so id say unless your interested in learning and going through it then I wouldn't bother. Also unless you have a very nice website I wouldn't worry either.

Got all your marketing and promotion bits done?

Well I've done all I can think of at the moment. Leaflets in shops/houses. Business cards to hand out with a valentines offer on. Also on gumtree, freeads, viva street, twitter and my website. I hate fb so not doing that I've had too much trouble from it in the past!