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"Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:45 am
by Bob Pl
Got a call last night & this is something I've been thinking about for a while for my accounting business.
In a nut shell they get $180. annual for hosting plus $140 annual for search engine (10) keywords. This for a 1 page which probably is sufficient for moi.
So about $26 a month.
Quality looks nice
http://www.mywebsiteoffer.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
They are in Montreal.
Comments? Any better than this?

Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:24 pm
by Stephen Yeoh
Bob,
A lot depends on what you 'need'. They haven't specified what 6 months of search engine positioning means? How often are they working on this for you? How are the keywords determined? Are they adjusting the keywords over time? Do they guarantee any particular placement and lots of other details etc.
What they have prepared as a promotional site may not be representative of what they will create for you. Is it going to be all text on your 1 page or will graphics be included? Do you need email with that? Will your site spend more time down than up? What guarantees do they make? What kind of availability do you want or need for your site?
I'm not saying it's a bad deal, it's just that there is a lot that still isn't said on the web site. I didn't try digging for the info.
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:42 pm
by Randy Chase
I can make you a better deal on the hosting (but note, it is not my business, we just happen to have servers). Search engine optimization means what are they offering? Just key words? Making a one page site is simple and you can do that yourself.
Otherwise, there are places that you can get your own site done cheaper. Check out godaddy.com
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:11 pm
by Bob Pl
Thanks guys, I don't really have answers to any of those questions, my 1st time at this. The girl on the phone (Kiera) sounded cute.
I know it's pretty easy (once u know how) to put up the page, I just don't want to bother learning at this point.
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 4:01 pm
by Jason Munchhof
Pricing hosting as a per page deal seems fishy to me. It shouldn't matter how many pages you have, only the total file size and the traffic levels. Seems like they're trying to charge monthly for the pages they design for you.
Agree with Randy, much better hosting deals out there.
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 4:10 pm
by Randy Chase
I bet there are people here that will build you a simple site with simple search engine stuff, for $100. That means you only pay it once. Not every year which is scam.
Hosting... I can host a simple site for the cost of a dinner. Or many servers will do it for $5 a month or so.
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 4:47 pm
by Bob Pl
Randy Chase wrote:I bet there are people here that will build you a simple site with simple search engine stuff, for $100. That means you only pay it once. Not every year which is scam.
Hosting... I can host a simple site for the cost of a dinner. Or many servers will do it for $5 a month or so.
Sounds good to me, who wants this job?
It is really a simple one I would just want a person who types in a local north county city (Carlsbad, Encinitas, etc) and a key word like tax return, quickbooks, bookkeeping , etc. to get a hit on my web site. It should work whether you use yahoo/google/whatever else. It would give a list of the services I provide & contact info email, phone, some credentials that's about it.
If I get inclined to learn html whatever I'd like to be able to update it occasionally.
Need more info or contact me off forum
b_plante@hotmail.com.

Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:58 pm
by Kurt Rahn
I can design Web sites, and I'd be willing to do it for you, Bob. You could host it on Randy's servers. However, I know nothing about search listings, so you'd be on your own with that. Also, have you considered Google AdWords and/or other search sites' paid listing services. They're good because you only pay for each clickthrough to your site.
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 4:03 pm
by Bob Pl
What are the top (2, 3 or so) search engines that I would have to deal with?

Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 4:07 pm
by Kurt Rahn
Google and Yahoo are the 800 lb gorillas.
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:34 pm
by Bob Beamesderfer
Kurt Rahn wrote:Google and Yahoo are the 800 lb gorillas.
Google is the 1,200 lb gorilla. Yahoo is the 600 lb baby brother gorilla.
Most of SEO is handled in the design of the site, not the hosting. Title bar text, H1 headline, keywords, meta tags, bolding keywords, length and keywording of text blocks. Nothing critical to SEO can be in an image. None of this stuff can be overdone, or the search spiders will downgrade the relevance.
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:01 pm
by Randy Chase
Yep. Not that big of a deal. You can optimize it if you want, but a few words sprinkled on the page, a good title on the page... and you should be good to go.
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:57 pm
by Steve Ekstrand
Title: Lindsay Lohan explores lesbo fantasies with Eva Green and Jessica Alba
Metatags: Porn Boob Ass Lesbo Sex Paris Lapdance Flash Nipslip Britney Nude Strip Bang Cash Money Blow Escort Massage Beyonce Brothel Olsentwins MidgetTrollSex DonkeyShow Palin
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:08 pm
by Bob Beamesderfer
Those will do the trick. Just be sure to bold the most popular search terms.
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:09 pm
by Steve Ekstrand
Steve Ekstrand wrote:Title: Lindsay Lohan explores lesbo fantasies with Eva Green and Jessica Alba
Metatags: Porn Boob Ass Lesbo Sex Paris Lapdance Flash Nipslip Britney Nude Strip Bang Cash Money Blow Escort Massage Beyonce Brothel Olsentwins MidgetTrollSex DonkeyShow Palin
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:11 pm
by Kurt Rahn
I think you meant...
Metatags: Porn Boob Ass Lesbo Sex Paris Lapdance Flash Nipslip Britney Nude Strip Bang Cash Money Blow Escort Massage Beyonce Brothel Olsentwins MidgetTrollSex DonkeyShow Palin
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 9:44 am
by Steve Ekstrand
Kurt Rahn wrote:I think you meant...
Metatags: Porn Boob Ass Lesbo Sex Paris Lapdance Flash Nipslip Britney Nude Strip Bang Cash Money Blow Escort Massage Beyonce Brothel Olsentwins MidgetTrollSex MooseShow Palin
I fixed it.....
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 10:43 am
by Kurt Rahn
LOL
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:39 pm
by Bob Pl
Bob Beamesderfer wrote:Kurt Rahn wrote:Google and Yahoo are the 800 lb gorillas.
Google is the 1,200 lb gorilla. Yahoo is the 600 lb baby brother gorilla.
Most of SEO is handled in the design of the site, not the hosting. Title bar text, H1 headline, keywords, meta tags, bolding keywords, length and keywording of text blocks. Nothing critical to SEO can be in an image. None of this stuff can be overdone, or the search spiders will downgrade the relevance.
So are you guys saying that I DON"T have to pay extra for a search engine query to find my site? Just have the relavent WORDS appear in th site?

Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:42 pm
by Jeff Shyu
no, i'm pretty sure you have to still pay to get those hit list listed on google and yahoo.
i think at least google frowns upon people listing high traffic buzzwords like above, and will actually cut you off.
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:46 pm
by Randy Chase
You can have a reverse effect if you try to fool the bots and you have to be careful to not overdo the words.
Still... yes... putting a good title and a few choice words will help get you indexed by the search engines. You can also do some minimal ad placements with google to generate more linkage.
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:58 pm
by Bob Pl
Randy Chase wrote:You can have a reverse effect if you try to fool the bots and you have to be careful to not overdo the words.
Still... yes... putting a good title and a few choice words will help get you indexed by the search engines. You can also do some minimal ad placements with google to generate more linkage.
Just to be 100% clear
I'm not looking to put phoney sex related words just to get hits. I really don't want to get lots of calls & email that don't result in new business. Just a tasteful site that would get a hit if some business in the No. county did a google on bookkeeping or payroll or financial statement and a location like Carlsbad.
So just a good site without paying extra to be a "sponsered" site (that list on the far right that shows up).
Would that be all? Put it on my business card & yellow page ad?

Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:59 pm
by Larry Andrews
One other possibly useful tidbit. Anything you can create in Powerpoint or Word can be saved in HTML format. No need to learn HTML until you need to fix what MS inevitably FUBARs.
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 3:39 pm
by Bob Beamesderfer
Jeff Shyu wrote:no, i'm pretty sure you have to still pay to get those hit list listed on google and yahoo.
i think at least google frowns upon people listing high traffic buzzwords like above, and will actually cut you off.
That wasn't mentioned in the SEO webinar that we had at Autobytel when I was there.
- A lot of it has to do with simple things like not having the web page title bar say something generic like "Home Page"
Using the H1 tag main headline on each page is good; on the homepage it can be the same wording as the title bar
So, the title bar should say something like: Robert Plante Accounting [or name of your firm]
H1 tag on the home page should say the same thing as the title bar
Each page should use the H1 tag for the main headline
Keywords and meta tags can be identical
Ideal length of text blocks on each page is 100-200 and they should use the keywords, but repetition here will have the search bots downgrading the value
Re: "Free" web site offer questions.
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 3:55 pm
by Randy Chase
Exactly.
I would suggest something like a title page that says Carlsbad and North County Accounting Robert Platte
Meta words to include North County San Diego Carlsbad Fallbrook Vista Encinitas Del Mar Solana Beach Accounting CPA Tax sheepsex
Put up a couple nice images, your contact info, a little blurb about you. For example, you can get even a little more extensive and copy this site. It's my sisters, she is a CPA.
http://www.beachcpas.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;