Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello SUN Community:

I recently bought into an existing company www.clickresponse.net.  We do Search Engine Optimization and mainly target smaller and medium-sized businesses.  For those who don`t know what SEO is...we help business improve their rankings on the major search engines...google, yahoo, etc. 

The site was/is built by my partner who has some experience in that area.  I`ve been looking at some of our competitors and am wondering if we should redesign our site.  If anyone has time I`d  really appreciate your looking at our site and comparing it to some of our competitors...

Our site:  www.clickresponse.net

some others to compare to:  www.evisibility.com  www.submitexpress.com  www.increasevisibility.com

These companies are all larger companies than ours but are simmilar to what we aspire to become.

Keep in mind that our target market is smaller to mid-sized businesses...Do you think we need to redo our site?  If not, what would you change on our existing site?  Anything else stick out...comments about our business model offerings, etc???

I really appreciate your help and will spend some time returning the favor to others.

 

 

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Scott Hearne The SEO Company That GUARANTEES Results www.ClickResponse.net shearne@ClickResponse.net 888-392-1110 x102

I would start with the link that says you rank #1 when I see you at #7 ...

I would also go with a little truth in advertising. You use the words guarantee everywhere ... but what are you guaranteeing?

I think your "information" is really outdated. Traditional marketing is not dead, and SEO is not the only answer. These kind of statements were a great fad ... like a few years ago ...

Sorry for the tone ... I`m not too fond of this type of company.
And WHOA on your prices.

Good grief! This site is so visually disorganized, it took me a minute to even figure out where to start reading! There`s a huge headline in the middle of the page, then small stuff at the top. I figured that was important, since it`s at the top, but then kept getting distracted by that huge headline.

I did a search for -SEO writing- and your company wasn`t anywhere on the first 50+ results. Like Nicole says, how are you going to guarantee me that you`ll make ME #1 if you`re not number one?

I didn`t see anything that looked at all like SEO writing, rich content, or anything like a "theme." There wasn`t a menu, no tabs, nothing about how SEO works, and nothing about why I would want to use the site.

I saw nothing about before-after statistics relative to rankings, and certainly nothing about the new "social networking" and personalized Google searches that just came out.

If this was put together by a so-called SEO expert, perhaps you might want to rethink your trust in that person`s capabilities?

You currently have this BELOW the fold:

1. Are they willing to put their money where their mouth is and guarantee results?
2. Do they have a proven track record you can verify yourself?
3. Do they have client references who will vouch for them?

Aside from the fact that it`s a critical entry into the site, the headline is way too long, hard to read, and immediately generates skepticism: "Who says there are only three questions? Based on what studies?" And so forth.

I`d suggest there are more than three questions, but one critical question would be "How many professional copywriters does the company use?" I`d like to see some examples of before-after content, and an explanation as to why that content was changed. Just as an initial thought, anyway....

Submitexpress looks like it`ll probably come out the winner in these four examples.

The claims are still a crackup. I mean even submitexpress says they are number one on google ... and I`ll hand it to them, they are number 2 ... but it`s funny to put that you are #1 when you are not. (Wikipedia wins that honor for the search on "search engine optimization".)

I`ll tell you one thing that submitexpress has going for them though ... they registered the domain in 1998 and have it thought 2010 at this point.

They also don`t give you the URLs in the testimonials because the ranks probably fall within a year of setup!

I would redesign the site. Make it more professional looking. It was very confusing. I did not want to put the time Craig did because it was so disorganized. 

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Thank You nhgnikole, CraigL and onlineeater....and I thank anyone else who reviews the site. 

I wanted to thank you for taking the time to review the site...Craig na nhgnikole in particular.  You guys put some time in doing this and I really appreciate it.

While I would disagree with a few of the things that were mentioned, about guarantee, the seo industry, etc.,  That these stuck out as issues to you is noteworthy and we will pay attention to them.

All the other comments are great.  I`m going to take these (as well as any more reviews that are done) and have a meeting with my partner and discuss them...

Thank-you again for your time....

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Scott Hearne The SEO Company That GUARANTEES Results www.ClickResponse.net shearne@ClickResponse.net 888-392-1110 x102

nhgnikole:  I thought I`d reply to a few of your comments...lest others read them and think we`re dishonest or something.  It`s obvious that you don`t like SEO companies and your comments are colored by that.  The fact is that we provide a very valuable service for a great price.  It`s unfortunate that someone reading this might infer from your comments that we`re some sort of shady company...not at all.  I do thank you for your time though.

 ... I would start with the link that says you rank #1 when I see you at #7

nhg nikole...on the link we state that we have a first page ranking...which we do...we are position 7 on page 1

I would also go with a little truth in advertising. You use the words guarantee everywhere ... but what are you guaranteeing?

There is an "Our Guarantee" link at the top of the page...Did you not see it? If you read that page it explains the guarantee in detail.  There is nothing "untruthrul" or dishonest at all.

I think your "information" is really outdated. Traditional marketing is not dead, and SEO is not the only answer. These kind of statements were a great fad ... like a few years ago ...

Sorry for the tone ... I`m not too fond of this type of company.
And WHOA on your prices.

Do you mean our prices are too high?  I think our prices are too low...what we do is fairly labor intensive.  If you look at our competitors you`ll see that our prices are considerably lower...

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Scott Hearne The SEO Company That GUARANTEES Results www.ClickResponse.net shearne@ClickResponse.net 888-392-1110 x102

Hi SEOExpert,

A comment on the site: I am not a web designer and have not looked in detail on the content of the site, but it just `feels` wrong. After a bit I realized that you have your content on the left and a tab on the right! that`s what was bothering me, not too much just enough to feel something was amiss. Most sites are like this one the tab on the left and the content on the right.

Also, on your last post on this thread, keep in mind that if you have to explain it, it doesn`t work. You shouldn`t have to explain your site, remember that your site should be selling you, not the other way around.

Yes, exactly. If I didn`t find what the guarantee is, or if you had to explain things to me ... then that`s obviously not clear enough.

Yah, I`ll add my agreement: if you find yourself justifying something, you`re probably losing at least 1 customer (probably more).