Need a designer

[h2oskier]

Looking for someone who would be interested in shooting me a proposal to build me a web site. Please PM me if you would be interested in this.:waving:

[h2oskier]

Wow with all the people who critique on this subject, i thought this would have my mail box full, and phone ringing off the hook.

[Turboguy]

I saw your post and figured your pm box would be exploding with guys begging for the work.

I do my own websites but stop there. I can however recommend a good guy who is very reasonable. He did the website for the Hydroseeding Associaton which I thought turned out well. If you want to see some of his work here is the URL to the Hydroseeding Association site he did. http://www.hydroseeding.org He also does the websites for the members of the association and he is very reasonable.

I would be happy to give you Ken's contact info. I have no idea what he would charge but I am quite sure it would be three numbers not four as I often see here and would guess it would be not even high three numbers. If you or anyone wants his contact info, pm me.

[h2oskier]

Thanks for the info from both the guys that have PMed me and also posted. Your information is very well appreciated.

[srl28]

I too would be interested in speaking with your friend who does websites. Have the starts of one but its not much, really needs work/design. PM me. Thanks!

[jonesy5149]

I have a guy that dose a kick ass job and price is right there. name is nik and email him
Imbegin@gmail.com. my web sit is http://enterprisedesigninc.com/

[grass disaster]

i got a guy that did mine for around $250 pm me if you want the guys name

[gasracer]

Here is the person who did mine. They give a 10% discount to anyone form Lawnsite.
http://www.liquiddatafl.com/

[earthly]

We used " Jill Duffy Designs" she does awesome work.


Check out out site to see for yourself www.earthlypossibilities.com

[bolc5150]

Bunch of them out there. Most will do it via phone and internet. My guy done mine for $400.00 from ground up.

[nr7pro]

Joining in a little late here, but here's some comments:

@Grass Disaster,
Not too bad for $250. I would suggest some SEO work - get better search engine rankings.

@gasracer,
Nice simple site! You got a lot of key important elements covered! BUT your navigation menu is BROKEN Please go back to your designer and ask them to get it fixed. If you need a screen shot PM me. I can also take care of it for you if you wish.

@earthly,
Really well laid out site! If you don't mind sharing approx how much did that cost you?

@bolc5150,
Hey man you made out really good with a site like that for $400! Consider improving your on site SEO, like image tags - most are missing. Your web guy should know what to do.


I'm around to answer any questions. I actually design websites myself and handle search engine optimization to improve rankings for businesses. If you're not sure of something fire away!

[gasracer]

Joining in a little late here, but here's some comments:

@Grass Disaster,
Not too bad for $250. I would suggest some SEO work - get better search engine rankings.

@gasracer,
Nice simple site! You got a lot of key important elements covered! BUT your navigation menu is BROKEN Please go back to your designer and ask them to get it fixed. If you need a screen shot PM me. I can also take care of it for you if you wish.

@earthly,
Really well laid out site! If you don't mind sharing approx how much did that cost you?

@bolc5150,
Hey man you made out really good with a site like that for $400! Consider improving your on site SEO, like image tags - most are missing. Your web guy should know what to do.


I'm around to answer any questions. I actually design websites myself and handle search engine optimization to improve rankings for businesses. If you're not sure of something fire away!

Thanks for your input. I will have the issue corrected.

[nr7pro]

no problem!

[gasracer]

no problem!

Sent you a message. I would like the screen shot of what was wrong.
Thanks.

[nr7pro]

just replied!

[grass disaster]

i had some seo included in the origional set-up.

i'm currently at the top for most all google searches

[Turboguy]

If you are getting the results you want that is the important thing. I would guess that you come up higher on a search for lawn cutting than you do on a search for lawn mowing which is the more common term.

I took a look at your SEO. I have seen worse. I would probably agree with NR7. It isn't great but if you are getting good results that is the important thing.

As far as your site itself, personally I am glad you stayed with that one. To me it has far more eye appeal than most actually pretty basic sites I have seen. For sites that people didn't put a ton of money in I would rate it one of the tops.

[grass disaster]

If you are getting the results you want that is the important thing. I would guess that you come up higher on a search for lawn cutting than you do on a search for lawn mowing which is the more common term.

I took a look at your SEO. I have seen worse. I would probably agree with NR7. It isn't great but if you are getting good results that is the important thing.

As far as your site itself, personally I am glad you stayed with that one. To me it has far more eye appeal than most actually pretty basic sites I have seen. For sites that people didn't put a ton of money in I would rate it one of the tops.

what can i do n my end to improve my seo. my web guy says he doesnt do much of that any more.

i'm currently at "A" tab on google for mowing and cutting in my 2 primary towns

[Turboguy]

I can give you my recommendations but it is bedtime now, actually past bedtime and I have an early start tomorrow.

Do you know how to change the meta tags?

[Turboguy]

Grass Disaster, I have to go earn a buck pretty soon but early tonight I will write a very long post or series of posts and explain my ideas about SEO to you and then make some specific suggestions for your site. I have a homework assignment for you in the mean time if you have some free time.

Sit down and imagine yourself as a potential customer looking for someone to provide the services you do. So now you are a homeowner with a lawn and you are sitting in front of your computer ready to do a search. Write down every term you could think of to search for to find someone like you and then put that list in the order you think most would search by. Ok?

[grass disaster]

Grass Disaster, I have to go earn a buck pretty soon but early tonight I will write a very long post or series of posts and explain my ideas about SEO to you and then make some specific suggestions for your site. I have a homework assignment for you in the mean time if you have some free time.

Sit down and imagine yourself as a potential customer looking for someone to provide the services you do. So now you are a homeowner with a lawn and you are sitting in front of your computer ready to do a search. Write down every term you could think of to search for to find someone like you and then put that list in the order you think most would search by. Ok?

ive done a lot of this already. i try lots of words and variables. i do most of my attempted searches on yahoo and mostly google. i usually on the 1st or 2nd slot.

[gasracer]

The issue with mine is only with those using Mac OS and odd screen resolution

[nr7pro]

Thanks TurboGuy, and I read that Grass Disaster is at top for most his searches.
I haven't tested any searches but if it works for him than that's great! Maybe the
competition is low, or they're not doing good at all on their SEO.

Either way, @GrassDisaster, since you're using wordpress, here's a GREAT
plugin for you to work on your SEO on your own:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Here are the key features relating to meta-tags:

Automatically optimizes your titles for search engines
Generates META tags automatically


The plugin goes fairly in depth and can be a handful to use, but to change the simple stuff you should have no problems! There's lots of help files on google for the plugin - just google it. Also, looks like TurboGuy is going to help you out a lot with the keywords to use!

[Turboguy]

Grass Disaster, since you are coming out on the top of the search engines and you are happy you might as well just leave it alone. I think your site could be optimized much better but if there is no way to go up don't worry about it.

[Turboguy]

I am not going to get into SEO as much as I intended but here are a couple of things.

To view the html of a website if you right click on the web page and select "view source" you can see the HTML that makes up the page. With the search engines the title and description are pretty important. The keywords are not so important any more.

Here is your title.

<title>Grass Master Service</title>

The good thing is you have "Grass" in your name. If I were doing it I would change it to "Grass Master Lawn Cutting Service"

or Lawn Mowing service.

The description you have is not bad.

<meta name="description" content="Need your Lawn Cutting in Lonsdale, Northfield or Webster? Grass Master Service offer a range of Lawn Services at affordable prices" />

It is a big plus that you list the key service areas. I think that is why you are coming out good. One complaint I have would be that you stay with the words Lawn Cutting in your title and site content. I would mix some of the search words such as lawn mowing and lawn care in both your description

these are your keywords on your site now.

<meta name="keywords" content="grass, lawn, cutting, cut, service, lonsdale, services, northfield, webster, mn, minnesota" />

Keywords used to be a big deal but they are not all that important but where are the words lawn mowing and lawn care. What about the county you are in. Why would you come up if someone searches for lawn mowing and the name of your county?

There are some other meta tags that SEO firms add such as instructions for the bots but to me they are not real important.

I think one of the really good thing you did with your site is the last line on your home page that reads

"We offer our lawn services in and around Lonsdale, Northfield, Webster and Lakeville. If you fall slightly out of these cities please contact us as there are a few other areas in MN (Minnesota) where we work." I might reword it to add the name of the county.

Links are important these days. The SEO firms have an advantage in that if they are optimizing 100 sites they can do a link page on each and list thier other 99 customers and list your site on theirs but I question sometimes how much the search engines will rate a site for lawn care with a link on a site that sells tv's. I guarantee you if you had a link on Briggs and Hondas site that you would get rated high but one way or the other, if you can cross link it will help.

Search engines look for the search terms in the content of the site as well. The earlier in the content that the keywords are the better. The further down the less they will rate them. You do pretty good on that except that there are some of the most popular search terms you don't use at all. Using them often is also good. That can be over done too. In the old days the SEO people would do tricky things like typing the key words over and over and over in white text on a white background so no one saw it but the search engines. The search engines got smart and basically will drop a site that does that now.

I would suggest adding a footer with your page links. Just a line accross the bottom of the site that reads

HOME SERVICES TESTIMONIALS etc with hyperlinks to your pages. Sometimes the bots can follow that better than the image links from the buttons. It may not matter but it can't hurt.

[grass disaster]

I am not going to get into SEO as much as I intended but here are a couple of things.

To view the html of a website if you right click on the web page and select "view source" you can see the HTML that makes up the page. With the search engines the title and description are pretty important. The keywords are not so important any more.

Here is your title.

<title>Grass Master Service</title>

The good thing is you have "Grass" in your name. If I were doing it I would change it to "Grass Master Lawn Cutting Service"

or Lawn Mowing service.

The description you have is not bad.

<meta name="description" content="Need your Lawn Cutting in Lonsdale, Northfield or Webster? Grass Master Service offer a range of Lawn Services at affordable prices" />

It is a big plus that you list the key service areas. I think that is why you are coming out good. One complaint I have would be that you stay with the words Lawn Cutting in your title and site content. I would mix some of the search words such as lawn mowing and lawn care in both your description

these are your keywords on your site now.

<meta name="keywords" content="grass, lawn, cutting, cut, service, lonsdale, services, northfield, webster, mn, minnesota" />

Keywords used to be a big deal but they are not all that important but where are the words lawn mowing and lawn care. What about the county you are in. Why would you come up if someone searches for lawn mowing and the name of your county?

There are some other meta tags that SEO firms add such as instructions for the bots but to me they are not real important.

I think one of the really good thing you did with your site is the last line on your home page that reads

"We offer our lawn services in and around Lonsdale, Northfield, Webster and Lakeville. If you fall slightly out of these cities please contact us as there are a few other areas in MN (Minnesota) where we work." I might reword it to add the name of the county.

Links are important these days. The SEO firms have an advantage in that if they are optimizing 100 sites they can do a link page on each and list thier other 99 customers and list your site on theirs but I question sometimes how much the search engines will rate a site for lawn care with a link on a site that sells tv's. I guarantee you if you had a link on Briggs and Hondas site that you would get rated high but one way or the other, if you can cross link it will help.

Search engines look for the search terms in the content of the site as well. The earlier in the content that the keywords are the better. The further down the less they will rate them. You do pretty good on that except that there are some of the most popular search terms you don't use at all. Using them often is also good. That can be over done too. In the old days the SEO people would do tricky things like typing the key words over and over and over in white text on a white background so no one saw it but the search engines. The search engines got smart and basically will drop a site that does that now.

I would suggest adding a footer with your page links. Just a line accross the bottom of the site that reads

HOME SERVICES TESTIMONIALS etc with hyperlinks to your pages. Sometimes the bots can follow that better than the image links from the buttons. It may not matter but it can't hurt.

great info, i will look in to changing these couple things.

all in all looks like i'm on the right track