Hiring an Seo expert, please suggest improvements for my site....

[nooby]

...and what I should expect to pay.

I've been in contact with someone, seems like a nice guy but we have yet to do anything. Thought he was more a designer than Seo, but he says he does that as well. I found him by looking at sites in other cities to get ideas. Have yet to do business with him and other than his mention of guest blogging, I'm unsure of his Seo abilities.

Anyway, I should have a proposal from him by the end of week. Mind you, I'm not beholden and am willing to give my business to one of you here whom I think is competent. I've spent the past month reading on this forum so I'd have an idea about what to expect and to avoid disaster when outsourcing Seo.

My site: [URL=http://schwartztax.com[/URL] was created using xsitepro. I think I have most onsite Seo complete, but I'm sure I messed something up and overlooked a few things. Still needs geo tagging. My current plan is to hire a woman I know to write for my tax blog. I'll also have her start a tax glossary for link bait. She starts a week from tomorrow.

It's been suggested the site should be converted to Wordpress. At least my blog would be seamless with the rest of the site. Thoughts and expected cost?

Currently I rank bottom of page one, top of page two for a number of my keyword search terms. How would you get me above the fold? What should I expect to pay and over what period of time? (yes, I know Seo is ongoing, but I don't think my local competition is that strong on the google.)

I'm really interesting in how much I should expect to pay for Seo. I know with Adwords, I can add 140-200 clients per year at an annual cost of about $7000. (I bid top three, so people see me at the top of the page.)

Please recommend a plan of action for Seo and what I should expect to pay. Also, any on page technical tweaks I can do on my own? Bear in mind that regardless of whom I hire to do Seo, I'll still use the writer to generate five or so blog posts/week.

Finally, yes I know the current content is weak and the site looks amateurish. Clients like the look, homespun and not a large corporation.

Thank you for your help!

Ps. Here are my thoughts: I'll use the blog and the glossary to build content; use the blog posts to get guest blooging with back links. Pay Seo person to build solid back links. Feel like I'm missing something.

[subzero27]

First lets start with your website...

1. I am not a big fan of the 3 column layout. If i were you i would have gone for a 3 row layout.

Catchy header

What i do

Testimonials

Sidebar would be a quick contact form / free analysis or something similar. Basically something that would capture the lead.

2. Having a big news block at at the center of the page doesn't help with anything. If you click on the link it takes you to an external website ( wsj.com). You are purposefully letting your visitors go !

3. Instead of SchwartzTax.com - Tax Preparation Services | Denver Tax Accountant

The title should have been

Tax Preparation Services | Denver Tax Accountant - Schwartztax.com


4. Menus - You have to change the menu titles

Tax Preparation Services | Denver Tax Accountant is the menu title which points to the homepage. A simple "home" would have been sufficient. If you really want inter linking do it within the content and not the menu. Its looks spammy.


Your website has a decent domain age ( Apr 2009) and if you are looking for local ranking it shouldn't be too difficult. The costs would be totally dependent on your choice of keywords and your objectives.

[corlif]

hiring an seo expert is not so easy, need to be clarify first now seo expert is working on onpage and offpage but they dont have experienced in seo analysing and content writing. so be careful when you hired a seo.

[Bettertax]

Hi all,

I'm sort of hi-jacking this thread as I have a similar issue.

I'm a little nervous because I have read a few threads here and sometimes you're a bit mean (probably rightly so) - please be gentle with me! (My English is good if that will help

We're also tax specialists, coincidentally, but in the UK so not competitors! I am not an SEO expert by any means and everything I have learnt has been from reading and asking on forums such as this. I don't think I have done too badly but the market is ever growing and staying ahead and up there continues to be tough, especially with Google forever changing the goal posts.

By all means have a look at our website as is, but the point of my post is to ask some independant advice re: finding an SEO expert and what to expect.

Reason being, our website is currently being re-designed and developed. Along with that we plan some app development. We are also having a member log in area that will connect to a bespoke DB that's in development.

One of the reasons to have the site re-done was in order to migrate/ integrate my blogger blog, so it's actually on site - thereby attracting visitors of the blog on to the site. At the moment, visitors come to the blogger but don't necessarily go to the website, so the website is not benefitting from those extra visits. Am I right to think the blog should be part of the website? Do you think I should leave it where it is (with it's back links) and start afresh with a new attached blog? Or get it migrated? The SEO company have sort of left this decision to me, but they think I should leave it and have it seamlessly integrated (which means it stays at blogger?). I'm not sure I see the benefit?

OK (sorry this is getting long now I am venting!). In terms of SEO, this is the techniques they have said they use:

In terms of on-site SEO, we do not write content for Client's websites, nor alter their content unless there is a specific agreement in place to do so. Most of our clients would not want a third party altering their content.
The work that we undertake for onsite SEO includes;
Initial set up of meta Titles, content & keywords
Sitemap generation and submission
Creation of 301 redirects to retain existing links
Set up of analytics & GWMT verification
Site analysis and comparison report (leading to any recommendations regarding content)
The majority of SEO work undertaken is offsite and this includes (not exhaustive lists);
web2.0 & hub site creation
3rd party content writing and submission
directory submissions
blog and forum posts
social bookmarking
Direct link building
Indirect link building
social activity (if required)
Link profile analysis ( lost, gained, ratios etc)
site traffic analysis
anchor text analysis
keyword rank tracking
search query analysis

Now apart from the analytic interpretation (last 5 - although I can see visitors etc as I do have GA & GWMT set up - it worries me that the list hasn't been made specific to me and my needs), I do most of the other stuff and have done.

Along with this they have offered 12 keyword phrases - all for £800pm. To me and everything I have read over the time, I think this is a lot to pay for what they are offering. We already rank on page 1 for at least 5 keywords/ phrases.

Oh and another thing, at the presentation they bamboozled us with Alexa ranks, rather than Google?

I'm so sorry this has become so long. Any advice you can give to help me decide best way to go would be appreciated.

Thanks

[tstolber]

To the OP, if you do change site URLs make sure that the SEO implements 301 redirects.

I am not a big fan of changing URLs if you don't have to - and you usually don't have to.

When searching for an SEO, do your research and get recommendations. Unfortunately SEO is an industry with many people who make claims they can't substantiate. In this field cheap usually means bad and not just low value, it can be negative value as there are many things that can adversely impact your site if not handled correctly.

Also, if someone suggest optimizing your meta tags that is the point you should walk away!

[joshz]

An arm and a leg!