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If you have the resources to implement it I would personally go with #2 - it gives you the opportunity to get some long tail traffic in from the colour variables. Obviously don't make the products 'sound different' from each other, just explain the product another way.

If the products are separate for a reason which is beneficial to the customer (as you suggest) and you can write good enough content for each then this would certainly be the way to go.

Thanks for the response!

Hello,

In the past we have ran many contests with aims such as increase facebook likes, twitter followers, newsletter subscriptions etc but I was wondering if anyone has had any success in gaining links through a content and if so how did you set it up?

Hi Adam,

Your right, you had have a very solid DA and PA and there are certainly competitors in the top 10 results with similar kinds of authority. Also the design of your site looks very nice.

One problem I can see by using http://www.opensiteexplorer.org is that all your anchor text is brand related. Anchor text is one of the key ranking signals which indicates what your website is about and none of your refer to 'electric bikes'.

Of course your 'raw' number of links (by total and root domains) is lower than those in the top 10 results too, which is also another ranking factor which you could improve.

Hope this helps,

Rikki

Personally I like Magento.

Open source so cost effective, very easy to use for customers, good back end, loads of extensions, large community and I have always found the SEO easy to sort...

Thanks, I'll check them out!

Hello everyone,

I recently read Danny Doves book, Search engine optimisation secrets, and loved it. I was wondering if anyone had read a similar book on the PPC side which they could recommend that touches on similar topics such as advanced techniques but also the practical side such as billing and dealing with customers etc...

On top of what inhouseseo has said the page itself is ok, I was expecting to see something really spammy but at first glance it seems like a perfectly fine page.

I completely agree. For that budget I would expect a select amount quality links rather than a large quantity of spammy ones, but who knows... maybe the company is working on relationships to get some really good quality links and is just doing the run of the mill directories in the mean time (playing devils advocate here a little because I don't believe that is the case).

I think the on page SEO is just as vital too. If the website in question is the one in the OP profile then I would question that a little too.

The homepage seems to be targeting 3 key phrases plus the brand name which isn’t ideal, especially not with very competitive key terms.

I could go onto the categories too - you have the category which is targeting the key phrase for men, women and children when there are separate sections for each which could target the male, female and child’s keywords while the main category page targets the general term.

I think in 6 weeks it can be difficult to judge the link building strategy but taking the on page SEO into account I would say you might be better changing...

Not sure if I agree that the budget is way over the top for what you are trying to achieve if the keywords really are 'hyper' competitive. It depends how it has been structured - is it $25k when they achieve the rankings or $25k for the time period (3m, 6m, 1y) regardless of results?

In terms of their plan I agree with the others that sounds of the link building does sound a little low quality but even today those links can still get people ranked highly if done correctly (high quality directories, relevant one way links etc) and the on page stuff is good.

I don't like the way they state how many of each link you will get, that does sounds spammy and automated but there is know way of knowing if the 'one way links' are going to be high quality or not because there is no detail.

To me it all comes down to results - how long have you been with the company and how far have you progressed?

That sounds very weird, never heard of anything like it.

Uploading a script you know nothing about and opening up your FTP don't sound like things I would be doing in a hurry, they could run phishing scams or anything through your site without you knowing about it.

If you are keen on doing this and trust the company I would ask what they script is and why they need FTP access. In theory they should be able to write articles and do a lot of the on page SEO all from your CMS...

Thanks for your help all. Decided not to buy the domain and keep going with things as they are!

Thanks THB. You re-confirm what I was thinking really but it's just when they are offered I think they make you think about it a bit more. Would be interested to hear any other views on this?

Hello, Someone approached a client of mine to sell a exact match domain name for a very competitive and high converting keyword. Would this be of any use and what are the best tactics to employ if it is purchased? I was of the opinion that the 'power' of exact match domain names are dying fast but would be interested to hear what people with experience in this think and what they have done with them (i.e. set-up a website on that domain or re-directed it)? Thanks, Rikki

Yeah, Magento has upload built in.

What might be a good idea is to download and install Magento to get the back end and features a try before you buy a website built on it. It's free and quite easy to setup.

I guess everyone will have their thoughts on this but for me I would want to see the websites they have built, in particular the ones in your industry. Having a look though the sites will give you an idea of their design capabilities but also how well they have coded it in terms of site speed.

It would also be wise to speak to one of these companies to get a little bit of feedback on the developers (I find people are quite open and honest in their assessments).

From recent experience in looking for a Magento development company you will find the quotes you receive range massively. We received quotes from £5,000 to £225,000.

It really is a tough decision to make and get right so make sure you cover all the bases and get proposals from a wide range of companies.