Two weeks ago, a metals friend called me; she was distraught need help. She called me because she did not know what to do but I might be able to.
Here is the background...
Months ago she had her website redesigned but it wasn't until this month that she realized that her sales had not only fallen off, a lot!; but her position in various search engine results had gone from the first page to page 7 or higher. After a few hours of research it was apparent that the website redesign killed the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) because the pages had been renamed and redirects had not been setup; the website description and keywords had not been configured correctly and more geeky stuff.
To put it nicely, her web programmer (I will not call them a developer, see below for more) gave a lame answer about not knowing how to fix it.
Note: a programmer, in my book, is someone who will do what you ask without thinking off the consequences and as a result bugs and other issues can result. A developer will do what you ask and more; they will make suggestions about possible improvements, will raise a flag if an issue is found and will also care about your final product and business.
So there were two choices - either I fix it or find someone who could. I was asked to fix it.
It took a week of working for an hours or two in the evening and a full Saturday but the changes and a few improvements were made and they were published.
Then we waited....
..Slowly over the course of the next two weeks, her website rose in the rankings and now, depending on the search terms, her website is back in the results and traffic to the site in 15 days was double that is was for the entire prior month.
Being a good developer and consultant (in a prior life) I have now sent a follow up document on my thoughts about how the website should be moved to a more advanced platform (it is currently just HTML and JavaScript) and what enhancements could be implemented with the platform change. I did this on my own time 'cause that's what friends and good consultants do and we don't expect to be hired because of it.
Here is the background...
Months ago she had her website redesigned but it wasn't until this month that she realized that her sales had not only fallen off, a lot!; but her position in various search engine results had gone from the first page to page 7 or higher. After a few hours of research it was apparent that the website redesign killed the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) because the pages had been renamed and redirects had not been setup; the website description and keywords had not been configured correctly and more geeky stuff.
To put it nicely, her web programmer (I will not call them a developer, see below for more) gave a lame answer about not knowing how to fix it.
Note: a programmer, in my book, is someone who will do what you ask without thinking off the consequences and as a result bugs and other issues can result. A developer will do what you ask and more; they will make suggestions about possible improvements, will raise a flag if an issue is found and will also care about your final product and business.
So there were two choices - either I fix it or find someone who could. I was asked to fix it.
It took a week of working for an hours or two in the evening and a full Saturday but the changes and a few improvements were made and they were published.
Then we waited....
..Slowly over the course of the next two weeks, her website rose in the rankings and now, depending on the search terms, her website is back in the results and traffic to the site in 15 days was double that is was for the entire prior month.
Being a good developer and consultant (in a prior life) I have now sent a follow up document on my thoughts about how the website should be moved to a more advanced platform (it is currently just HTML and JavaScript) and what enhancements could be implemented with the platform change. I did this on my own time 'cause that's what friends and good consultants do and we don't expect to be hired because of it.
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