You see the ads all over the place offering you a free website. Once you look into a little bit, you see that although the website is free, the hosting is not. You have to pay every month to run it. Of course, everybody knows; nothing is free.
If all you’re looking to do is have a website, it’s not a bad deal. If, however, you want customers to find you, to have the website work for you, it’s not a good deal. If your website is not optimized correctly, to play by Google’s rules, you will not be listed in a Search Results Page. Websites like this are no better than tacking a flier to a telephone pole. The only people that will ever see it, are those that you send to it. And you already know those people, so the website is a complete waste.
These Free Website companies like WIX, SquareSpace and Web.com so offer Search Engine Optimization/SEO packages. They start at $399 per month. Now, from an SEO standpoint, that’s actually a responsible price. However, there is a problem with them doing your SEO.
Just to actually see what their idea of SEO is, I’ve called all of these companies to get a feel for their knowledge. Just as I suspected; it was SEO 101, at best.
So, that means that their SEO campaigns will consist of boilerplate fill-in-the-blank forms. They will not be digging deep for your specific business. Add to that: what if you are in the shoe business, and another guy down the street is in the shoe business? Without, researching and customizing your SEO, what would make your website rank higher than you competition?
SEO is very specific to YOUR business. When done correctly, it will shoot you to the first results page, and ultimately, to the top of the page.
Jeffrey Saltzgiver
Web Pro NJ
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