Who Does Killer Websites ?

[ltcadviser]

I'm in west deer about 30 minutes north of city what about you?

I'm in Atlanta now. Grew up in USC. Mom is in Lebo; dad is in shadyside.

 

[WebEminence]

Luckily I'm not a baseball fan because if I was, I'd be a Cubs fan.

I wanted to chime in on the website discussion. The advantage of a website builder is the drag-and-drop interface that allows almost anyone with basic computer skills to create a website. It's more expensive than shared hosting where you can host unlimited sites but they are different animals.

I did a video review of Weebly if anyone is interested in watching it. I don't think I can link it here but you can google "webeminence weebly" and you'll see the YouTube video. I did an example Weebly site at webeminence.weebly.com too. They do have a free version but it requires that you use their subdomain so it's not appropriate for most insurance professionals.

On the content issue, I agree with others that it's not worth putting on your site if it's not unique. Even if you're not penalized for duplicate content now, you might be tomorrow. It's best to steer away from practices that Google discourages and really aren't useful for your human readers. We're creating websites for humans, not search engines.

The initial question is difficult to answer. I would need to know more info on budget and needs of the website. I agree with others that a lot can be done inexpensively with Wordpress and professional design themes. There are some amazing themes out there that would cost $5,000+ to build from scratch if you did it custom.

 

[ltcadviser]

Or $15,000 plus..... Sigh....

 

[scagnt83]

The "duplicate content penalty" is misnamed, though. A better name would be the "unique content bonus" because duplicate content doesn't pull you down in the rankings. We have plenty of sites on our platform using ONLY stock content ranking on the first page for decent search terms.

Google would disagree. They specifically state in the webmaster guidelines that duplicate content can not only hurt your ratings but get you completely blacklisted!

Also, since there are multiple sites out there with the same content, google will see that as "Scraped" content.

Both duplicate and scraped content are listed by google as practices to AVOID.


And I would love to see those sites that rank page 1. Every site I have found so far that you have designed (I can find them all through a duplicate content checker) has a DA of 1....

Of course the way duplicate content works on Google is that out of all the same content they find, they pick only one or two to actually rank... the rest are penalized...

 

[GoCubsGo]

OP is FEOHIO. Are you looking for the FE market? I wonder what value a web site has in the FE market. Not much I think.

 

[scagnt83]

duplicate content doesn't pull you down in the rankings. We have plenty of sites on our platform using ONLY stock content ranking on the first page for decent search terms.

Then why do you have 4 sites (all with duplicate content) that you have designed (AgentMethods) that have been penalized by google?

And thats just from the ones I looked up....

northwestltc. com/
beaconinsuranceservice .org/
virginiagaykeninsurance .com/
doncasterinsurance .com/

(Google Sandbox and Penalty Checker Tool)


And if they are not your sites, then why do they have the same exact content as your "content library" and the same exact layout/design?


So can you explain why you are not abiding by Google's guidelines? And why you have sites that are penalized or sandboxed?


Also, most of those sites (as well as others you have designed) have the exact same H1s, no Meta Descriptions, and very poor H2s (basically the h2 is the same as the Site Title, which is not Best Practices).

So how are these sites a benefit to agents looking to gain leads online when you do not follow best practices per Google's guidelines?

And why does your site follow Googles guidelines, but the ones you design for agents do not??

 

[Mick_Keyou]

Scagnt, I just checked 2 of my sites that stated "may be penalized or sandboxed"

Nothing else was stated. Any suggestions on the next step to take when that result pops up?

All my content is original/copyscaped.

 

[scagnt83]

Scagnt, I just checked 2 of my sites that stated "may be penalized or sandboxed"

Nothing else was stated. Any suggestions on the next step to take when that result pops up?

All my content is original/copyscaped.

I would first check it here http://websitestatschecker.com/page/google-sandbox-penalty-checker/#.UyET6D9dWSo to see if it is actually sandboxed or just penalized.

Do you use google webmasters tools/account? If so check it for any warning messages from google. If you have any they should give some direction.


First you must correct what is wrong. Use https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769 as a guide.

Then you can resubmit your site (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35843?hl=en) to Google and they will consider taking away the penalties.

That is where I would start. From what I have read spammy links can get you penalized/sandboxed too. So that might be your problem if content is not.

 

[WebEminence]

Scagnt, I just checked 2 of my sites that stated "may be penalized or sandboxed"

Nothing else was stated. Any suggestions on the next step to take when that result pops up?

All my content is original/copyscaped.

Mick_Keyou, have you figured out what happened to your 2 sites? Curious to know.

 

[Mick_Keyou]

I haven't gone to scagnt's new links just yet. It's on my ever growing to do list. I'll report back asap if I figure it out.