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10/26/2006 04:26:58 PM · #1 |
I have a friend who has been approached by a company to provide some of the following services at a cost. My suspicion is that most of this information is available for free, but I can't prove it.
Looking for people's opinions on how valuable the following services are (ie. is this easily obtainable or does this require expertise to obtain and analyze)...
¡õ Keyword strategy with up to 500 target keywords
¡õ Baseline reports that detail current standings in the search engines, competitors¡¯ search standings and Web site activity
¡õ Monitoring of Web site activity, including page hits, navigation usage, click-thru rates and overall visitor usage statistics
¡õ Web site updates to meta data, alt tags and page content
¡õ Web site updates and maintenance
o Designing additional pages (if necessary)
o Minor changes in the look and feel of current Web sites (not a complete new Web site)
*Any additional requests will be discussed and approved before included in this scope of work (2.5 hours included)
¡õ Monthly reports delivered the third Wednesday of every month that include:
o Optimization Report ¨C ...recommended Web site updates to Meta data, alt tags, image names, Web site navigation, Web site content and new Web page development.
o Ranking Report ¨C Standings in the top five search engines*
o Traffic Report ¨C Web site usage data summary
*The top five search engines are defined as AOL, Ask.com, Google, MSN, Yahoo! as of 10.09.06
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10/26/2006 04:41:03 PM · #2 |
You can get a whole load of those statistics from google for free, for your website. ( https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/about.html )
You can develop and fine-tune your own keywords for free, that would be more selective and more useful. Including hundreds of keywords within a single page will see your website blacklisted by some search engines for keyword spam in any case.
The only tangible benefit to this "service" seems to be the design and update of web pages, which looks like it's per-hour chargable after the initial work anyway.
Message edited by author 2006-10-26 16:41:31. |
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10/26/2006 04:41:46 PM · #3 |
Sounds like web log analysis to me. We use a product called Webtrends that can produce a report with most if not all of the items listed, with the exception of the updates and design.
//www.webtrends.com/
Look at their analytics tools.
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10/26/2006 04:51:04 PM · #4 |
google analytics is free and very very cool. It will give almost all that info.
The tools to update a web site as you stated are available from many sources. I suggest a search of fresh meat for an open source solution that suits his needs.
Message edited by author 2006-10-26 17:01:43. |
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10/26/2006 05:04:16 PM · #5 |
| Plus keep in mind that depending on what business this website is in (assuming it's a business), many of those analysis statistics may not be very useful, and may never be considered. The service you describe seems to be a web design service with analytics thrown in, usually provided free by the host. Perhaps the designer is some kind of VAR and charges a premium for a service being resold. |
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10/26/2006 05:06:23 PM · #6 |
Sure, you can get information for free, but it's how you use it that matters.
Does your friend have the time and resources to keep the site updated and optimized regularly? If not, then paying a firm to do it for him is a good idea. Otherwise, all the free reports in the world (or pretty web templates) will not drive traffic to his site.
If your friend has time, is savvy at designing, has a sound knowledge of html and can put the reports to work, then yes, there is no reason for him to pay anyone for the services listed. |
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10/26/2006 06:04:08 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by rinac:
Sure, you can get information for free, but it's how you use it that matters.
Does your friend have the time and resources to keep the site updated and optimized regularly? If not, then paying a firm to do it for him is a good idea. Otherwise, all the free reports in the world (or pretty web templates) will not drive traffic to his site.
If your friend has time, is savvy at designing, has a sound knowledge of html and can put the reports to work, then yes, there is no reason for him to pay anyone for the services listed. |
Yes, that's the rub, isn't it? I certainly think it may be worth it, but I wanted an inside opinion on the "value" (ie how much expertise is required for this stuff) of it all...
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10/26/2006 07:06:56 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by DrAchoo:
Yes, that's the rub, isn't it? I certainly think it may be worth it, but I wanted an inside opinion on the "value" (ie how much expertise is required for this stuff) of it all... |
Hmmm... value... Ok, as a website designer, I can tell you that you need expertise if you want your website to work for you. Period. No use trying to learn this stuff as you go, or fart-arse around in usergroups trying to get help on how to hyperlink your friggin email address, or getting your friend down the road who has a copy of FrontPage, to design one for you only to find out later that your website collapses to pieces and nothing works when viewed in the browser! My advice is; If you don't know html reasonably well, you won't be playing with the big boys in your market.
If you want actual dollar figures, in my experience, a typical 5 page website design package can be anywhere between NZD$1200 to NZD$5000 and will always include an initial analysis. I would then charge NZD$75 per hour (1hr min) for any ongoing content management. This includes most of the services you've listed. Further changes to design, however, is charged differently and is based on complexity.
My competitors charge a great deal more, so I guess you could say that I'm good value. But at the end of the day, it's really difficult to gauge because it all comes down to who you go to and how much you're willing to spend to hand the headache over to someone else. |
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10/26/2006 07:32:36 PM · #9 |
This really isn't me (i do have a friend). :) The cost for a six month contract is $6500.
I think you raise some good points though, although the majority of what you are talking about is website design and that seems to be the minor area of what this service was offering.
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10/26/2006 07:40:20 PM · #10 |
Based on what you listed I would look elsewhere. That's a steep price and it doesn't look like there is any link building (i.e. one-way linking, triangular linking, directory inclusions, etc). That's the bread and butter of getting a site ranked high and generating traffic not optimizing meta tags.
Message edited by author 2006-10-26 19:40:49. |
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10/26/2006 07:54:04 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by DrAchoo:
This really isn't me (i do have a friend). :) The cost for a six month contract is $6500.
I think you raise some good points though, although the majority of what you are talking about is website design and that seems to be the minor area of what this service was offering. |
Oh yeah, sure, a "friend" ;P
I think optimizing should rightly so be part and parcel of ongoing content management. That's the whole idea and judging by the price tag of the contract, I'm guessing the website is large and fairly complex? If not and he's unsure about price/value, he should really shop around before making a committment. I haven't looked into the going rates in the US, but there's sure to be other firms who could do better :) |
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