Website redesign?

slowmoe

Hi,

I'm just looking for basic info on costs involved of redesigning a website? We have an existing website buut its no longer cutting the mustard and want to have something more google rating friendly. How much would it cost from updating it a little to more of a redesign.

Also i have heard of companies that improve the google ranking of a site to the first 5 entries. does anyone know anything about these companies? Ho much do they cost and is that ork good or something that could be done ourselves?

Thanks!

francophile

SEO is a very specialised service; many design companies do not consider SEO so choose with care.

SEO: it is easy to get rankings for long tail keywords but incredibly difficult to get good rankings for a competitive single keyword and many 2 word keyphrases.

Top Tip: use Wordpress with a professional theme.

slowmoe

thanks for the reply.

tbh i don't understand what seo is, i just was looking for the internet marketing area to ask some questions in improving a website.

What would seo do for a website vs non seo?

How much would it cost to change the website to improve its ranking and visibility? Or what range?

Any info is helpful, thanks so much.

p

SEO just means 'Search Engine Optimization' - so you want your website to be better optimized so it shows up higher in results. There's varying ways of doing that.
1. Is making sure your site is structured well, and coded so that search engines can find all the content on it easily.
2. Is having interestng content on the site so that other sites link to it. The more sites that link to yours, the higher it will come up, though this is not a simple task.

As said above, getting top 5 places for specific keywords is very difficult, depending on the keywords and competition. Often just paying for ads is a better choice.

Many SEO companies are just snake-oil salesmen, and are not that great at what they do, so be careful who you partner with. There are some that can seriously help you, but their harder to find. I think someone who's looking at your overall website marketing strategy will be the most help.

All the best with it

francophile

I agree - be careful when choosing a seo company; if you have the time or resources try to do it yourself (it is not rocket science) but it is time consuming. For some help and tools: SeoAdviser.info

slowmoe

Thanks for the info!!!

What price range would i be looking at for an seo person?

And what price range for renovating the site a bit, its a small site, about 6 pages, a family business. There isn't much money to go into this but i personally think its needed.

Any price ranges or recommendations for anyone to do the above?

So to improve the google ranking i should just leave comments on blogs etc with a link to website? Is that a bit sneaky?

francophile

Adding Comments:
If you are providing good relevant content in the comment - that's acceptable.
Try to use "dofollow" blogs

tomED

Hi Slowmoe

It really depends on your requirements. Are you looking for a simple brochure site or something that stands out from the rest?

Nowadays you can get a templated wordpress install from as little as €300 in some cases. But if you go with a professional design agency expect to pay anywhere from €1,500 to €4k depending on your requirements.

tomED

neil10anderson wrote: »

Hi,
you should consult SEO companies, they provide web designing, online marketing and seo services for your website. I know some SEO companies.

Let me guess? yours??

tricky D

tomED wrote: »

Let me guess? yours??

Banlistastic!


OP what is wrong with your current website? Too often redesigning websites is viewed as the solution to your problems when it often just leads to a new set of problems. You could be better off trying to fix it first. Website Reviews could help.

link8r

slowmoe wrote: »

Hi,

I'm just looking for basic info on costs involved of redesigning a website? We have an existing website buut its no longer cutting the mustard and want to have something more google rating friendly. How much would it cost from updating it a little to more of a redesign.

Also i have heard of companies that improve the google ranking of a site to the first 5 entries. does anyone know anything about these companies? Ho much do they cost and is that ork good or something that could be done ourselves?

Thanks!

Before you redesign your site, what exactly are you fixing? If its just the design, then don't expect the search engines to take note - they're not going to be able to appreciate a design.

Web design has it roots in the Graphic Design industry, and bears many of its hallmarks. Design is therefore about creating appeal, standing out, sending a message, giving a look, making a connection etc. Most people understand this.

Whats difficult to understand is that websites dont have passing trade. they're not billboards or flyers and therefore relying solely on the same techniques aren't adequate.

Traffic to websites comes from 3 sources - Direct, Referring (from another website) and from Search Engines.

People use search engines to research in order to make better informed purchasing decisions - how much should I pay? What can I get? What should I look out for. It happens for website design and car parts and everything in between.

As search engines send people to websites, its a major form of "traffic" - thus bringing the site to life. Thus SEO has become an important factor for many companies. Probably less for Coca Cola, probably a big consideration for boards.ie (in saying that, how you practice SEO is different to everybody, there's no agreed-upon standard - its a broad and vague description).

SEO's and online marketing agencies are generally exposed to the different sources of traffic: how its generated, how it grows, how it converts.

There's often no straightforward answer to any business question and the web is no exception. If you want to build/create/expand leads/business generated from online activity you're going to have to experiment. You can try yourself but this may take time or you can reduce the time by hiring in someone to help you get started. you may/probably will hire/engage different people over time - each person brings their own strategy and thus their own benefits. Tie this to your own industry and pricing strategy and you get different and UNIQUE results. That's business.

Disclaimer: I am an SEO, I trade online and I work for/have worked for 12 of the largest companies in Ireland and 500 of the smallest. I am not here to solicit business but I hope to add a point of view that helps everyone get a balanced view of doing business on the web.

Happy Hunting.

tomED

link8r wrote: »

If its just the design, then don't expect the search engines to take note - they're not going to be able to appreciate a design.

That's a little inaccurate and I think it's only fair to clear things up.

Search engines will take more note of your websites new design if for example, the site becomes easier for it to navigate and slurp up more content, or if the code is cleaner and easier for Google to read.

If the new design doesn't improve these aspects, it won't help.

link8r wrote: »

Web design has it roots in the Graphic Design industry, and bears many of its hallmarks.

I'm not sure I agree with this either. Although we are beginning to see many design agencies getting involved in web design now. Some of the best web designers I know, started out solely in what we call "web design".

It's only over a decade and a half or so since adding graphics to a website was possible. Web designers were web designers then when they could only add text to a page or the next step where they could just change background colours.

link8r wrote: »

Design is therefore about creating appeal, standing out, sending a message, giving a look, making a connection etc. Most people understand this.

Again, I don't entirely agree here.

"Design" is not only about creating appeal. It's about creating an attractive, user centred and accessible design that can be used by everyone without guidance.

link8r wrote: »

As search engines send people to websites, its a major form of "traffic" - thus bringing the site to life. Thus SEO has become an important factor for many companies. Probably less for Coca Cola, probably a big consideration for boards.ie (in saying that, how you practice SEO is different to everybody, there's no agreed-upon standard - its a broad and vague description).

There's no doubting SEO is a extremely useful when it comes generating traffic - but I can't help but feel too many SEO's put too much emphasis on it.

What I mean by that is, a website is like any other business - it needs to be promoted.

SEO is a cheap way of generating regular traffic to your website. So over say a one year period, you will have generated a significant amount of traffic.

But let's say you ran a radio campaign - the minute the ad is run, you will have a massive surge of traffic that an SEO campaign could never bring. Then take Social Media marketing, if you get the right article and are associated with the right network of people, you can generate a massive surge in traffic too, again something SEO will never do.

Let's face it - SEO is massively attractive because it's generally generating traffic for a fraction of the cost of an offline media campaign. So the ROI is generally better. But, it's a much slower process.

I guess what I'm saying is, that SEO should only be one part of your marketing strategy. Too many companies, driven by mainly by their SEO expert just put all their time and effort into SEO.

And the problem with SEO is that you are waiting for people to find you, rather than you actively finding those people.

link8r

tomED wrote: »

I'm not sure I agree with this either. .....
There's no doubting SEO is a extremely useful when it comes generating traffic - but I can't help but feel too many SEO's put too much emphasis on it.

Let's face it - SEO is massively attractive because it's generally generating traffic for a fraction of the cost of an offline media campaign. So the ROI is generally better. But, it's a much slower process.

I guess what I'm saying is, that SEO should only be one part of your marketing strategy. Too many companies, driven by mainly by their SEO expert just put all their time and effort into SEO.

And the problem with SEO is that you are waiting for people to find you, rather than you actively finding those people.

Hey Tom. Thats a massively defensive reply to reply to someone I was giving my advice to. I think your reply has to do with an issue you've got with SEO (just what I take from reading it) - and that's fine but nobody was suggesting SEO to the user. Its like you just decided to make a point about SEO and I really dont know why or where you're coming from. I'm also sorry that this is turning into a webdesign -v- argument again (like you did in another thread) but I feel that you've made a lot of points that I want to now reply to.

@OP posted about a website that has little traffic. Therefore, it is entirely plausible to assume that the user isn't marketing the site very much at all. Continuing with that its plausible to assume they have no handle on traffic, bounce or conversions. So they have a lot of work to do to establish [A] whats wrong and what do we need to do to fix it before [C] working with someone to build a new site. I think that that is just sound, good advice. :cool:

If I read your reply, it sounds like a webdesign -v- SEO argument and I really dont have the energy for it! Please read my reply: I didn't suggest he should look at SEO only or even at all. I just explained it from my point of view. It is my point of view and you can't tell me its wrong. You can have a different one but that doesn't make mine wrong,:p

If you dont like SEO or have an issue with it, then raise it separately, don't just attack people's posts on or about the subject.

The last point you made is the most interesting. Many forms of advertising involve broadcasting a message or advertising - billboards, radio, tv, flyers. You have to send a message to a large group of people to get a return. Generally, that return is a fraction from 25% to 1% depending how will / how badly you target it. and you have to keep on repeating / building that message.

With SEO - instead of dropping 25,000 flyers in to houses or brodcasting to 50,000 radio listeners to get 250 people in through the door - you just get the 250 people who want to listen to you. Its direct to the target audience.

People are saturated with marketing - most males in the teenage - early 20 age group are often described as immune to advertisements. SEO is passive - the only people who see your message are the people looking for it.

tomED

link8r wrote: »

Hey Tom. Thats a massively defensive reply to reply to someone I was giving my advice to. I think your reply has to do with an issue you've got with SEO (just what I take from reading it).

Yeah maybe I do, well not SEO, but "SEOs". I'm sorry if you felt it was an attack - I didn't mean it to be.

I didn't feel you were giving Slowmoe any added advice on what was a pretty much closed thread a month or so ago.

Plus, I never said you were wrong, I just mentioned areas where I didn't agree with the advice you were giving the OP.

On the last point, this is a classic example of where SEOs oversell their service.

But, if you sent out 25,000 odd fliers, with a good message, it should get you at least (using the most basic marketing statistics) 500-750 potential leads. If it's a good leaflet, you could get a lot more - that will cost you about €1,000 or thereabouts. This doesn't include the added re-enforcement of the brand, which is another huge benefactor for convincing someone to use your brand.

So that's why I felt you were pushing the whole SEO too much and not giving enough information in terms of what else the OP should be looking at to promote their business.

If I'm honest, I see the "round two" fall of the web design industry in Ireland. In the mid 90s people were paying £15k for a brochure type website and getting no ROI. People lost faith in the industry because of this.

I see SEO doing the exact same thing - people being led to believe that the only way to succeed online is through SEO. Which I think we both agree it's not.

So all I can say is I'm sorry if you took my post up as being an attack at yours - it wasn't mean to be. I was really just trying to add a little balance to the discussion.

Let's not forget by the way, that I too sell SEO services.

link8r

I don't think that using SEO means forsaking all other means of marketing. SEO was important years ago - but most people thought SE traffic was free or an automatic right.

There's also shed loads of bad SEO. Many people dont want to partake in their SEO strategy - they want an off-the-shelf programme that works away on its own - that won't work. And there are people who will provide it to them.

Like the way you've extended what constitutes Web Design, we probably include a lot more in what we do, to include Usability, UI, UX, conversion, etc etc. That's our own strategy, and we're changing it a lot to Internet Business Development as part of a more holistic approach to internet marketing.