“I have noticed a HUGE improvement in my ranking when you do a search for chair covers, wedding decor, linens etc. I have had a ton of activity and lots of new clients calling and e-mailing daily.”
-Shannon Collins, Owner, ChairFlair.ca
To most people, the Chair Flair web site was a mystery. It looked great, the content was good, yet it wasn’t ranking at all on Google. In a sense, it was “lost”! Instead of ranking naturally like her closest competitors, the owner, Shannon, was paying Google Adwords enough to rip holes out of her pockets just to be visible on search queries.
When she came to Joyce, the first step was to figure out why the site wasn’t ranking in comparison to its competition, and what Shannon could do to improve her search traffic. Well, we found out that Google wasn’t indexing the site at all, but once that was fixed, it was time to address other issues – things that were not obvious to her web developer alone.
Keyword research was hugely a helpful start. Instead of assuming what the most obvious keyword would be to try to rank for, Joyce used a keyword research software to bring up the most successful core terms, as well as the best related terms to be showcased prominently on the site. As it turned out, most of her competitors were trying vigorously to rank for the obvious “chair covers”, while Joyce found opportunity in a highly searched, but little competed for search term (and that word shall remain between Joyce and Shannon! And no, Shannon did not mention it in her quote above!). After all, every business should be meeting the needs of it’s target market, and what better way to find out those needs than with keyword research! What a way to get ahead of your competition!
Secondly, the ranking on the Google map was addressed, which coincided with localized search optimization on the Chair Flair site. There was a lot of room for improvement in this area, especially in light of the keyword research that had been done, which revealed a lot of demand in the industry for certain specific items. These would be the basis for the way Chair Flair would be described online.
Of course, other optimization duties were performed on the site, but for competitive reasons, we won’t list them all here :) However, yes, there was more that could have been done, but when Chair Flair slowly crawled up the rankings to be on the first page of Google for her coveted search terms, she was happy, and the result was more business for the company. What more could we ask for?
Shannon also participated in her own site’s optimization by taking some pointers that Joyce submitted in a recommendations report. Her designer made some graphical changes to help with the usability and site navigation, and more blog posts about her industry were written. Fresh content is always a good thing, both for Google and for site visitors!
The greatest part about the Chair Flair SEO project is that it didn’t cost Shannon any more than she needed to pay for it. Why? Because of task-based SEO billing, which Joyce strongly believes in. Joyce could have told Shannon that she needed to pay thousands up front, or hundreds of dollars monthly, like many other companies do (no offense). But that would have been making false assumptions about what the site really needed.
Instead, Joyce made suggestions as a “first step” for Shannon. Using her best guesses, based on her experience and knowledge of search engine optimization, a small starter package was quoted to get things off the ground. If, in a few months, more was needed to compete with Shannon’s online rivals, we would come back to where we left off, and give the SEO some more “juice”! But Joyce’s estimate was right, and the site landed on page 1, saving Shannon hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, than if she would have gone for a “cookie cutter,” all-or-nothing package.
Today Shannon is thrilled, and has said the following about Joyce’s work:
I thought that [Joyce’s search engine optimization] was a great investment in my business. I am a small business and have to be careful where I spend my advertising money. This was money well spent!
I think you did a great job of trying to explain the process and what you were doing and why…For those of us not familiar with websites and all the steps behind rankings and searching it is a lot to wrap our heads around…I did feel better about my website utilization and what I can do on a go forward basis to help my ranking.
I was thrilled with how quickly you were able to get everything done. I appreciated that you were there if I had a question and you were quick to answer any of my questions and e-mails, which is rare in this day and age.
I do feel that this was a good investment in my business. I would recommend this type of company for any home based business….I feel this was better then any bridal fair or magazine ad I could have advertised in. We live in a world where internet is the first thing people go to when they need to look for information or a vendor. Internet is king and you need to know how to make it work for your business.
I would recommend [Joyce’s services] to any business who is looking for a fast efficient way to ensure they are reaching their target audience. There are so many factors that go into search engine ranking and most of us don’t know the simplest things we can do that will make the biggest impact on our ranking; which ultimately results in more business! [Joyce] made it so easy for me to understand what I could do to reach more of my demographic and generate more business for the future.
I believe any business would truly benefit from using [Joyce’s services].
Thank you for helping me help my business!