updating websites, prices, fit rates etc

[Gavin A]

I've just been having a scout around at the competitions websites, and I'm starting to see why people might be pretty baffled by the current situation with FITs, system prices etc.

There are still websites out there with FIT payback calculations based on the 43.3p FIT rate, websites mentioning the 1st July FIT cut deadline, and 90% of the websites having no pricing guidance at all on them. The number of companies out there offering 4kWh systems is also a bit shocking - if they can't even get that basic terminology right, I dread to think what else they're getting wrong.

I'm actually wondering if some of them are still trading tbh, but it's no wonder the industry is having a hard time getting the message across about the price reductions, excellent payback that's currently on offer, EPC's etc.

I don't think the government really gets how difficult they make it for the industry with this constant chopping and changing of things, particularly for those who've got to actually get their web designers to do the updates for them (I learnt the hard way about that years ago, so ours has always been relatively simple for us to update in house).

So anyway, these are just some late night musings...




ps I know we're far from perfect, and I'm still in the process of trying to make sure we've not still got the odd bit of wrong info on our site. Also, in case anyone was wondering, Dan's site passed with flying colours

 

[SolarCity]

I don't think the government really gets how difficult they make it for the industry with this constant chopping and changing of things, particularly for those who've got to actually get their web designers to do the updates for them (I learnt the hard way about that years ago, so ours has always been relatively simple for us to update in house).

This has been our problem. We have had a friend of a friend do our website on the cheap - it has been a real struggle to get it updated. We're going to get it sorted so that we can alter things ourselves.

 

[dansk]

Dan's site passed with flying colours

hey young man - you meaning me ;-) although i am offering 4kwp!!

 

[Gavin A]

hey young man - you meaning me ;-) although i am offering 4kwp!!

ay... just didn't want anyone thinking I was pointing fingers at you being as you're local to us.

and yeah, fair doos, but it was messing up the formatting on my table if I actually listed it at 3.84kWp, and at least we specify it below.

Think we're about to switch back to a full 4kWp for that anyway.

 

[dansk]

Anyway mate - you'll be pleased to know i just knocked Evo of the top spot on google ;-) "solar pv installer" and coming next "solar pv" #8

 

[Gavin A]

fair play.

I've actually been trying to work out what the hell you've been doing to get such a high ranking - showing as a page rank of 4 on my page rank thing.

I take it that it must be related to the vast amount of links you've got from those link builder sites, which I was led to believe google were meant to have been cracking down on... but it appears not.

Not that I've been snooping or owt... *whistle*

we dropped right down a couple of months back when we replaced a module on our front page with something that turned out to be entirely flash based, and lost all our content from the front page as far as google were concerned. Back to or close to top for most search terms including the word leeds now again, which is our target.

oddly, we're now top for "install before 1st august" or "solar pv install before 1st august", which I think just brought us a customer in from t'other side of the Penines.

 

[dansk]

ita a dark art ive mastered over several years, its about quality not quantity.

 

[dansk]

Gavin, im gunna run an experiment starting tonight - your top for "solar pv install before 1st august" im #8 lets see if i can catch you before the 1st of august for a laugh.

 

[Eco Deal]

I catching you dansk you better work hard !!! im creeping up on you mwwwwwaahhhhhh

 

[dansk]

yeah yeah - for what terms?

 

[Eco Deal]

I not seen much benefit from seo
im top for solar power installer /s

and ranking on first page for 4 or 5 others

but dont seem to get much ..

 

[Gavin A]

Gavin, im gunna run an experiment starting tonight - your top for "solar pv install before 1st august" im #8 lets see if i can catch you before the 1st of august for a laugh.

I much prefer the beating evo energy game, but if you insist... game on.

shouldn't take you long with your page rank.

 

[dansk]

its not about PR - its about quality content which you have and links - but - not any old link -

As MEP says it doesnt really make much difference TBH! its all a show.

 

[Eco Deal]

do you pay dansk or diy ???

 

[dansk]

DIY - ive learnt the hard way over the years, do it all myself now.

 

[Gavin A]

tbh, we're also working on trying to increase our conversion rate, and the ratio of people staying on the site for longer etc.

not too arsed about the national stuff really, though the odd job from elsewhere all helps.

 

[Gavin A]

note to self, must do payroll before playing with the internet...

 

[TedM]

There's plenty of good advice on the google webmaster pages if anyone hasn't found that yet - Webmasters ? Google

 

[dansk]

ploughcroft must be busy they havent even changed there adwords...doh



www.ploughcroft.co.uk/


Most Accredited Renewables Company. Get in Before 1st July Tariff Cut!
Free Solar Panels Quote - Friendly Advice 0800 034 4100 - Earnings Calculator

 

[Gavin A]

it appears you've overtaken me already... but well, let's just say this is just the first skirmish and we'll see what the next few days brings when google catches up

 

[dansk]

That was quick, wish it happened like that on other keywords. TBH it was only a test on my behalf, as I want to get another venture up and running, I'm a closet SEO, if you want any help just ask, I reckon I could some good.

 

[Eco Deal]

learn me how to do my own SEO it cost an arm and a leg .

 

[dansk]

you can pay me as a consultant

 

[Gavin A]

it appears you've overtaken me already... but well, let's just say this is just the first skirmish and we'll see what the next few days brings when google catches up

*evil laugh*

my counter measures have taken affect, and you're back in 2nd place Mr Dansk:tongue3:

 

[Eco Deal]

its it easy are you just swaping links ?

 

[Gavin A]

its it easy are you just swaping links ?

well, that was mostly about changing the content on the page, which tbh I was wanting to do a bit anyway as I'd written it in a hurry on the day of the announcement, so I just made sure it had that search phrase in a bit more, plus a few other bits an pieces, and submitting the page to google to speed up the process of google finding the changes.

 

[dansk]

nope, linking swapping is so 2005, these days its about unique quality content, high quality relavent inbound links, but not from link farms etc. there is a bit too it if im honest.

 

[Gavin A]

hmm... bugger, I think we just got dumped down the google rankings for 'solar panels leeds', presumably because I've just added that search term as the link title for our site in a few of those link farm type sites... apparently google has just released a revised version of it's google penguin search algorythm on Friday, which coincides precisely with the point where we appear to have been dumped from averaging around 2nd or 3rd to suddenly being dumped to 30th.

well it could be that, or it could have been something else I'd done... doh.

as far as I can tell it's only impacted on that one search term, unfortunately that was the one I'd been targeting as being the most search term that was most relevant to us. Hopefully this won't be a permanent thing.

 

[dansk]

i see you page 2, and page 1 in the local business results. yes also revised penguin update on friday

 

[Gavin A]

stupid thing is, I've never been able to see us at all in the listings for 'solar panels Leeds' because it seems to just post up our google places listing if we're searching from somewhere near to our location, but for people searching from elsewhere we show up fine.

dansk - is that our front page you're seeing on page 2, or our panels page? as our panels page was ranking on page 2 by itself, and the front page was supposedly showing at 3 for anyone outside of the google places area.

I'm getting this info about us dropping down the rankings from the google webmaster site, which runs about 2-3 days behind, and was showing us at 2.9 last week, then suddenly we drop to 30 on Friday for 'solar panels Leeds', which doesn't look good given the penguin update date.

I think the google places listing is different though, so luckily we'll still appear there for local searchers, which is mainly what we're after.

 

[dansk]

its your internal page i can see. sometimes if your "signed in" that squews the listings and also i have to clear cookies, pain in the --- is Google sometimes, its trying to be clever by providing what it thinks you want to see.

 

[Gavin A]

eta - thanks for checking for me.

yeah, I do the search checks via the incognito browser on chrome, which basically signs you out of everything, though google still knows your location.

It was our front page that was ranking at number 3 (well, average of 2.9), and then apparently dropped straight from 2.9 to 30 on the 30th May. Hard to tell if it's affected anything else really, as they only show up over a longer period.

alternatively it's something to do with changes I made due to our little competition, or google noticing something else I'd done because of me submitting the page at that point..... I'd only just finished getting us back up the rankings for that term after we'd dropped right down a couple of months back after we changed part of our front page to flash. arse.

 

[dansk]

just leave it for a few days im sure it will return, out of interest have you seen it at posistion 3 with your own eyes, or just from the reports?

 

[Gavin A]

not personally, as I say it seemed that the google places listing was featuring instead of our standard listing for people in Leeds. I had someone in middlesborough check it for me though last week, and he said we were 3rd in the natural listings for the front page, which matched with what the google webmasters tools was telling me.

I had possibly done a couple of other things it might not have liked though, so will try resubmitting the page now I've undone those bits. Not a huge issue, more a bit of a pain in the arse, and maybe a bit of a warning not to try anything too dodgy in name of SEO coz google are like the all seeing eye, and can strike you down at will.

 

[dansk]

very true, less is more with SEO.

 

[Gavin A]

minor glitch now sorted, we had 2 days down at 30, now back up to 3rd. I guess google must have liked the changes I made then. *phew*