Quote:
Originally Posted by jetskiron
Wige, if I understand you, your are suggesting to drop the corporate image pic on my homepage and go with my own picture and sell my own expertise. Can you be specific on what edges should be softened? If my feelings get hurt, they will heal  . |
I am not sure if softening the edges was the right way I should have phrased that. Right now, you say you take on the big corporations, but your entire web site is based on making you look like just another big corporation. I would make the web site look more like a single proprietorship, with photos on the home page including you; you meeting with an (unidentifiable) client, you at the scene of a loss with an adjuster, you working in your office. Include a description, one or two paragraphs, of the service you provide to clients. Put a testimonial or two on the page, where the person giving the testimonial identifies you by name (but only sign the testimonials with initials for privacy).
Basically, from your posts, I get that you are UClaim, so your web site needs to show you as the face of UClaim. Just an idea. Not sure how it would actually work, but I think it would go something along those lines.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kate Lennon
MJ - - "Not sure about the exact percentage, but moredial is more right than wrong. Keyword rich domain names are a fairly low SEO factor, despite what Kate maintains. She seems to have reasons to believe otherwise, but there are precious few industry experts or observers who agree with her - if any."
Actually I have discussed these points with some of Google programmers I know - the guys who set the algorithms - and they rate the domain name (and a couple of other things I haven't seen mentioned here) as extremely important. Keyword rich domain names are NOT a "low SEO factor". This is a myth which has apparently been accepted a fact by many SEO "experts". It's easy to disprove. Almost every generic dot com domain name that exists (comprised of no more than three words, and preferable not more than two) appears on page 1 of Google search results regardless of inbound links and other factors. If you have a business selling leather jackets and you acquire the domain leatherjackets.com you are almost guaranteed to get listed in the top Google results for searches which include the term "leather jackets". If you sell dog kennels and your website is dogkennels.com Shop Dog Kennels, Dog Crates & Pens - DogKennels.com, the same thing applies. As I say, it's easy to prove. Make a list of ten items - coffee tables, gold watches, exotic birds, hot air balloons, chop suey, lightning rods, tennis racquets, whatever you like - and see how many of them display a dot com equivalent when you search for the relevant terms. You'll find that the dot com domain matching the term is displayed on page 1 or 2 of Google search results at least 75% of the time. And when it does not, it is usually because the domain doesn't exist, or is a sponsored ad ("parking") website. Or the title of the site is different from the domain name.
Websites with a strong generic domain name which are reasonably well optimized, have a few links going to them, and contain a reasonable amount of content are almost guaranteed to appear on page 1 of Google searches for relevant search terms. And that, whether you agree or not, is a fact. |
Was going to respond to this, pointing out how this quote more or less disproves it's own argument, but that is perhaps a discussion for another thread?