[Danane]

hi,
my current web page is in MS Front Page (no comments, puhllleeaase!)..I have zero page rankings, more or less. Should I:
1) buy and learn Dreamweaver myself - 6 wk. online courses - I'm 'somewhat' savvy, know a little html, understand images vs. text re. importance to rankings, have good design eye for colors, fonts, images, and know about keywords, etc. However, i'm not the most patient person...get irritated when 'things' don't work well right away.
2) hire local designer - who has lots of sites I've seen; she ONLY does the design - i'm a pet sitter - I don't need sleek and too deep - only 5 pages or so...I would have to hire an SEO person separately.
3) hire someone who SAYS they 'do it all' - design and SEO. and blog, etc. I'd love to have someone who can tie everything together.

How do I know if someone realy KNOWS about SEO - everyone seems to know lingo...my head is dizzy. I do want to be able to go in and add pet pictures, local events, etc. myself. Is that asking too much?

My 'design' is pretty much 'set.' I'm much more interested in the SEO part - NOT the design part. However, I can't get anyone to work with me on MS Front Page - code apparently is not good for Google algorythym (sic) - I don't understand completely. Is it possible to find someone who could do more with current (ms front page) site, instead of rehauling in new software?

Price point - most are around $50/hr. There are about 5000 web designers per square mile here in Asheville ( similar to # of yoga teachers! maybe they're the same people!), but I'm wasting a lot of time trying to decide: to spend LOTS of time myself vs. just paying (I've been quoted $750 approx. by 2 people - just for design).

Any ideas, suggestions? Write me privately for additional info - if necessary.

Thanks, you smart guys!!!

[TechGuy]

I'd do a few things -- first, ask them for some sample sites that they've done. When you're to the point where you've narrowed it down to a handful of people, you could contact those customers to see what they think of the person you're thinking of using.

As for the SEO, it's a tough thing -- the most obvious thing to look for is promises. If they promise or guarantee rankings of any kind (i.e. "within the first page"), I'd forget them right away and move on. No one can guarantee such a thing.

Google has a great page on SEO and what to look for in an expert:
http://www.google.com/support/webmas...n&answer=35291

[caraewilton]

I agree with the techguy on this. Nobody can promise rankings. I did write a pm, but here are a few other things that I have found useful.

In your html markup, use <h1> and other heading tags correctly. If you are in a specific location, then include the town name in the header somewhere.

If you look at this site: Courtney

We had a problem in that if you searched for "International School Pretoria" we did not appear anywhere in the first couple of pages of a google search. A few months ago I redesigned the page so that the header h2 tag said "International School" and the header h3 tag said "Pretoria, South Afirca". The result is, a search now for "international school pretoria" lists our school on the first or second page.

For this site, I also have spent a lot of time on the actual content of the pages, making sure it is firstly imformative and secondly relevant.

The site has been up for over 10 years, so it immediatly has a better chance in terms of page rank, however since taking it over I have spend a lot of time hunting down school related directories where I have listed the school. Technically this should help page rank, but I have found it more useful in terms of legit prospective parents searching the directories and then finding us.

Another thing that can help, is blogging. Regular and relevant blog posts on a site does help people to find your site, especially people looking for obscure references where the key words are picked up in the blogs.

As I said in my pm, "Content is King". The more relevant content you have on your site the better. At the end of the day, accessability is far more important anyway, and if you create well structured, content rich sites, page rank and position follow automatically.

Some other things to consider:

Okay, front page is really a no! It was last updated in the 2003 version which makes it very old. It really does produce terrible code that is not cross browser compatable. Actually it only really works in Internet Explorer 6. This does not mean you have to buy expensive adobe products to produce exceptional web sites. I personally use an html editor called WeBuilder which only costs $40 for the personal home eddition. For graphics I use Paint Shop Pro which costs about $80. The combination of these two programmes allows me to do pretty much anything I want.

Another thing you could consider, is using Wordpress. This blogging tool can act as a mini content management system which would allow you to upload pictures, make changes, even create password protected pages all from your browser. Wordpress, by the way, is free!

[Danane]

Thanks to tech guy and Cara!! This has got to be the best forum on the web! hyperbole...I think not!!
Jane