Need help driving traffic to company website... and opinions please!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

How do I get it listed on Search engines? When I googled the Co. name, turns out there's hundreds of us. :(

Opinions on the site and layout welcome too! :)

http://www.intexcontractors.com/index.htm

[wtmusic]

1. Well there's an old saying in the web design business...

you can pay a consultant $1800 and wait 3-6 months for results, or...
you can just wait 3-6 months. ;-)

This is the best resource on search optimization I've found:
http://websearch.about.com/od/searchenginemarketing/Web_Site_Optimization_DIY_Web_Site_Optimization.htm

Don't pay anyone a dime until you follow these tips, and give it some time (3-6 months). It's not rocket science, but it does take some persistence. You will see results.

[sandnsea]

2. I can help a bit

Do you have access to the HTML? You need to do a little meta work. Then get some links, make a list of your Portland colleagues to start. You can PM me if you want.

Site looks good for a basic introduction. It's what most small business have. It's friendly, doesn't scream "money", all that trusty blue, I'd call you.

[Jane Austin]

3. If you have friends or business contacts with websites who will link to yours,

I believe that helps you in the search rankings.

[yewberry]

4. I don't know about how to increase traffic

but there's a tiny edit (or two) that should be made on the testimonials page. Brian's quote misspells "heels" and I don't think drywall should be hyphenated. Can those be changed?

Good luck!

[crispini]

5. I would think about buying Google Ads

The google searches that you need involves "contractors" and the areas that you are in. People who know your company's name can already get to your website. You now need people who are just looking for people to do the work. For example, you want to come up when people search for things like:

drywall contractor Portland
home remodeling Portland

etcetera. I hear Google Ads are not too spendy and you can adjust your ad buy as you go along. I see you have all of that stuff in your meta tags so that's a good start.

[demobabe]

6. Start here

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/docs/en/about.html - Google Webmaster tools. Sign up.

Don't buy Google Ads until you know what you're doing. It's really easy to blow a bunch of money and not get any real effect.

Edit: typo

[Omphaloskepsis]

7. Get valid code.. Use pure CSS for layout...

Tables are for tabular data.. Not layout. Valid XHTML and CSS will help your ranking.

http://del.icio.us/tag/search_engine_optimization

[blogslut]

8. Fix your TITLE tag

That will help search engines to find you more easily. As for getting more traffic, there are some moves you can do yourself.

It helps to have as many others sites as possible linking to you. I notice that you have a "clients" page. Perhaps some of those clients run their own web sites and would happily list you and you would return the favor?

Then you want to submit to directories, in categories that fit your industry. DMOZ is back online and a listing there will help you. I would look around these areas for the best category:

http://dmoz.org/Business/Construction_and_Maintenance/

Yes, you can buy advertising and if you know what you're doing, that's swell. Just the same, you can do bunches of 'free' stuff that can't hurt.

NOTE: To change a TITLE tag, you have to change the HTML code of the page. If you don't know, HTML, I always found the tutorials at Webmonkey to be fun:

http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/reference/html_cheatsheet/

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. thanks guys!

Great feedback!

[Ghost in the Machine]

10. I have a few programs that can help you out

search engine submitters, search engine optimizers, ad blasters, etc... PM me your email addy and I'll send you a couple to try.

Also, if you have time, or have someone else working the site that has time, check out this site:
http://www.ts25.com/index_s1.jsp?ref=vampireskiss ... it's a surf for traffic site. I personally prefer to purchase credits since I don't have much time to surf anymore.. check it out and see.


PEACE!
Ghost