This is a site of mine that has never achieved its potential (IMO):

http://www.sitebadges.com

I have just re-coded the site making it XHTML compliant (transitional) - this allows me to place the menu below the text in the code for SEs, but at the top left for humans. This should help its poor SERPs. (I shall be removing the tables used for images with captions too in a few days.)

However the real problem is keywords. When you see the site, it's obvious what it is selling! But did you know such a product was available? Would you have searched for it? What words/expressions would you have used? This is my problem. I am having to use 'advertising' and 'promotion' which are far too wide and well-used...

Any ideas?

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Paul Bilton design services ~ Sites not Sights

I think your target market is car emblems.... plop that into google...

Nigel

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J.N.Lew Design Group : Web |Computing | Marketing
Color Management and Adobe Photoshop

Why didn't I think of that?

Your main page looks extremely good to me.

I'm just curious to know what your target market is?

These are simple questions, not harsh criticisms. Hmm, I think I forgot how to spell...

How many people have websites that produce enough income that would make them decide to put such an emblem on a $50,000 automobile?

I have a beat up old truck, and wouldn't hesitate to stick it on there. But, there are local ordinances in my area that require me to pay a fee to advertise in that manner.

I do like the concept, as once you have placed the emblem on the auto(s), and paid any necessary fees, it's FREE advertising.

I don't know exactly what keywords/phrases you should use for this, BUT, maybe you have a special "niche" market? I wouldn't give up on it.

Just throwing some ideas at ya.

I wish you success with this!

davey

Hi,

I like your site. This site has a tremendous potential imho. Have you tried offline marketing? How about striking a deal with someone related to the car industry? I think online advertising is not the way, specially if you don't know if people search for your products and how (what keywords) they search for it.

Probably nobody searches for "car badges" but what about "cheap website promotion", "outdoor promotion", "outdoor advertising" "On-street advertising", etc, have you tried that??

I see you deliver worldwide, how about promoting your site in other languages?

My two cents,


Alfredo

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<a href="http://www.translationpacks.com">
English Spanish Website Translation</a> - translationpacks.com - English and Spanish translation services for websites.

Thanks for feedback so far. You see the problem I think.

Target market? Any business. However this is too wide, which is why I decided to aim for the business with a website.

I will incorporate this excellent feed back to produce a more targetted site...

Thx again.

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Paul Bilton design services ~ Sites not Sights

Thanks for feedback so far. You see the problem I think.

Target market? Any business. However this is too wide, which is why I decided to aim for the business with a website.

I will incorporate this excellent feed back to produce a more targetted site...

Thx again.

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Paul Bilton design services ~ Sites not Sights

Excellent idea, I forwarded your site to a dealership we work with who's very proactive with their web site marketing.

I wasn't sure what "Site Badges" were until I went to your web site. I guess the name is not specific enough in regard to what it is you're selling.

Your site is nice so maybe some SEO can help. Add some anchor tags to your menu text links to help boost your keyword content. Address your description tag and see if you can improve on that. Your description tag is the same on each page - change your description tag on each web page for better performance in the search engines. I think your ALT tags can be improved. Instead of using "site badge - short message" for example, try using more keywords there.

Are you doing any kind of advertising in automotive trade magazines? You might be able to afford some classifieds at least, if budget is an issue. I would hope some auto dealers would eat this up.

I love the idea and I hope you find success!

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Marcie Wolf
AlphaGeek Web Design | MarcieWolf.com

I think the term offline marketing would be a large one to compete for. Perhaps a parallel site to find people and introduce them to this one. You may be able to use that site to go after that term without fudging it up with too many misleading terms in the text.

But i like your product in concept, a rich mans bumper sticker, the final frontier of product placements. I would hope to find this sort of thing when searching 'offline Marketing' 'marketing ideas' 'free marketing ideas' 'cheap marketing ideas'
since vanity isnt going to sell many of these and business sense may.

And Davey, you are cool. Always a silver lining in your posts.

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Charlotte newspaper

Hi Paul B,

I just purchased 2 items from you. Just so you know - the reason I did so is because I remembered you reviewing my site on Web Pro World a good while back...

I could not find you on Google - but that is maybe because for the life of me I could not think of the appropriate words to use when looking for 'advertising logo that you stick on the back of a car that is not just a cheap plastic sticker'....

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Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

I agree with some other comments that you probably need to do some offline marketing to start getting your name known. Maybe ask a local car dealer if he can stock some leaflets - and maybe a local computer shop - or where ever else web masters might shop and notice such a thing. Likewise maybe look at getting some advertisin on car websites, or computer hardware/software sites. have you thought about adwords? You could really specify a niche market .

It is a brilliant idea, but I can see why you're struggling! Maybe have a look at how competitve a word like 'website promotion ideas is, the overture tool can give you some variants and some idea of what competition you have.

Good luck with it!

How NEAT! I might order one...the only thing stopping me right now is my beat up car, well that and I'd have to become a better driver so's not to P'O anyone who could track me down.

It is a great idea however and I will order one as soon as I get a new car. You are bookmarked!

OK, keywords and marketing:

several years ago I ran across a site called "carpops" which sold magnetic door signs for car doors. I don't think they are in business any more because their site nolonger works - but the keyword: "carpop" still brings up the site name in Google.

http://www.carpops.com (defunct?)
http://www.aiwana.com/Merchant/merch...t_Code=carpops (a really bad site - no pictures of the products (?)

Keyword: Removeable Body Graphics (a bit titilating)

other keywords I saw in a google search were:

graphics for your car
magnetic graphics for your car
Auto Emblems
Body Graphics
luxury labels

Go to Google's Sandbox and play with keywords!

Some I just made up:
Magnetic car logo
car tatoo
body graphics
automobile branding
car brand
Car Logo Products
go logos
logos to go

(Ain't brainstorming grand?)

snowflakegirl

http://www.papervalentines.com

Thanks Pagetta, I have already tried Adwords, with little success - again because of those keywords/the market: it's all very well haveing a great product, but when it is unknown, folk simply don't search for it.

The classic answer is to concentrate on the product's advantages: long-term, effective, economical, custom website/business advertising and promotion. These are highly competitive keywords and the product is not what one would expect to come up.

automotive badges advertise gets me #3 in google. BUT people don't search for that!

SnowflakeGirl: thanks for taking the time. Actually we dropped magnetic badges as they were too easily removed - either at speed, in the car wash or stolen.

So my search goes on.

And thanks particularly to Jordan for actually
buying...

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Paul Bilton design services ~ Sites not Sights

Whether you use the exact products is a moot issue.

You should make a reference to them somewhere in your text that your car products are better than magnetic, carpops, XYZ products etc. That way you get keyword credit and the search engines will pick up your page when people are looking for your competitor's product ;-)

key phrases are what most people use when searching - and yes, you want Google to find you when someone types in: automotive badges advertise, and magnetic badges

That's why I gave you the Google Sandbox link so you can see what phrases people use.

I had fun last year looking up all sorts of phrases people use for seeking out paper snowflakes (and they do!) I created sentences out of many, many phrase words and worked them into the pages. I also counted the number of times my keywords appeared on my competitor's pages and made sure my pages equalled or exceeded theirs per page wordcount.

I now get tons of traffic :-)


snowflakegirl

http://www.papersnowflakes.com

I love your site and wish I would have thought of it.

I went through some ideas on Overture's keyword selector and came up with some.

Business Advertising
Small Business Advertising
Unique Advertising
Promotional Advertising
Car Advertising
Company Logo
Business Logo
Anything with the word "Ads" in it

Also, you might want to try affiliate marketing and exchanging links with promotional sites.

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SteveAZ

www.coinsncurrency.com

Good looking site. Was very easy on the eyes.

webhost1
www.yourweb.info

NB - I thought your purchase process was speedy and straigtforward, but one minor detail...

On the confirmation page it brought up my postcode as being "ZZ BT22 1NB" rather than "BT22 1NB" (I am in the UK).

Another very minor thing - it would have been nice to have the option to purchase in my local currency (Credit cards really rip you off on exchange rates)...

At any rate - I am now looking forward to driving much more courteously than before :-)...

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Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

Thanks for your points:

I'm aware of the 'ZZ' it is added for some reason by the credit card handler.

I think you should find your cc company gives a very good rate of exchange - better than a bank or buying currency. It would mean setting up a site for each country, with a cc handler in each to provide local currencies.

Yes, you'll have to drive with care!

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Paul Bilton design services ~ Sites not Sights