Taking down the site
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- wetterink
I got an email from a client and he informed he is taking down the flash site i did for him...due to a lack of search engines popping up the site when he types in keywords (which are pretty open).
What should I tell him. I hate when clients expect so much when they want to pay so little. It was a quick $1000 site and now he just makes me feel like crap.
Here is the email:
I am preparing to take down the site until we can figure out why we are not
getting ANY referrals or search engine hits. My most recent host stats show
zeros across the board, on referrals and hits from outside sources.
Basically the only people who can find my site are the ones who type in the
address. I personally searched for the site on Google, WebCrawler, Lycos,
and AOL and got no results f except by domain name. All
attempts to search by content gave me a big zero. Several months ago I
updated my info to all bots and reset my sites search information so that
all info would be included. I even re-posted the old pages without a direct
link to them and I am still getting nothing.Words fail me on how disappointing this is after the amount of time we spent
in trying to develop the site into something special. Please let me know if
you have any information that is helpful.
- jevad0
How long has the site been up?
There are so many things to factor into consideration about SEO.
Having a 100% flash site sure doesn't help.
I assume you have all the relevant meta tags in the source?
- wetterink0
This client is "savvy" and I gave him the meta tag info and information on how to update it a couple months ago.
The site has been up for about a year.
- spiralstarez0
yeah but fug that. For $1000 on a fully flash site I'm not doing your SEO work too.
Though on the other hand, it's up to us as designers to explain benefits and downfalls of our methods (flash & SEO) before we employ them.
- GrammaSeff0
what is in the title tag?
that should at least show up if its been there for a year
- mg330
Dude, you can't possibly expect a Flash site to rank well at all when content can't be searched and categorized. That's what factors the most into SEO these days.
There are a few things you could do, and I'm just thinking of these now:
1) Split various sections of the site into different SWF and HTML pages. This way, you can at least have your page titles relate to the given content. Page titles are critical to good SE placement, I have done tons of work with this in my job and it made a huge difference.
2) Create simple, all text HTML pages that break the site into sections, but only include the content from each section of the SWF.
Then, include a redirect script in the head section that sends them to the actual site, and they never see the plain text pages.BUT, with that, the content is as searchable as an HTML site, provided you've optimized all the pages properly.
This way would be even better if you did #1 as well and combined the two of them.
- ricstultz0
I wouldnt sweat it man. You did your part.... the design... and for only $1000.
- rob10
QUESTIONS:
Was SEO part of the original RFP? Was it your responsibility from the beginning to consider this? Is there a reason for the client to take it down while waiting on a response from you? Did he/you do the appropriate research prior to launching the site?My point is, if this wasn't part of their original request, why do you feel bad for their site not getting the hits the want? Some of this is their responsibility I feel.
- anon0
- mg330
ricstultz,
Of course the parameters of the work profile determine the extent of work that would have been done.
I don't do freelance work that often, but if I were working on a project like this, SEO would be right alongside visual design. If you're running a business and sales are involved, you're crushed if people can't find you on the web.
I'm not calling out wetterink by any means, but these days you need to be able to provide a client a total, well rounded package that prevents situations like this from happening.
- jevad0
and why is he taking it down?
what's that gonna solve?
- anon0
yeah that's actually quite odd jevad. it would make it even worse.
- skelly0
I'm no expert on search engines, but what exactly is he searching for. Is he expecting it to show up on the first couple pages of results? There's just so many websites out there I would think many other sites probably have similar content. Is it that unique?
- ricstultz0
I agree with jevad, what does taking down the site accomplish. If anything, it sounds like the client is giving out a guilt trip.
- mg330
Buying SEO software is like spending money on household kleenex when you already have toilet paper at the ready.
Anyone who can code a webpage and read can learn how to do it. It takes a while to learn what all you need to put together...but after you have the hang of it it is as rudimentary as remembering to close tags.
- anon0
pretty much on a guilt trip. lousy $1000. i wouldn't care.
- wetterink0
it was for a local comic book site. he can't sale things via the site (nor could he on his previous one).
i told him in the beginning that flash sites are tricky like this. he was aware of it to a degree, before he came to me.
i was done with this thing a while back and now i get this crap. i don't even care for the site...i just don't want him hurting my reputation in any way.
i work hard to get trust and then someone comes along to threaten that.
he wants people to type in "statues" in google and he be one of the first sites that shows up.
- anon0
nah, that prstorm is quite nasty, actually far removed from netiquette.
- inspiration0
have you linked it up yet. I want to see it and the hits won't harm his ranking.
- anon0
are you serious wetterink? i think google bombing is his only way if he really wants to show up #1 on those kinds of search queries.
- mg330
Yah, what is the product/service anyways?
Is it something generic that there are hundereds of sites for already?
If yes, good luck, the more fish in the sea the harder it is to stand out even with all bases covered.
And in this case, buying SEO software is just going to make you look like a sucker.