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The T Shirt Man · April 23rd, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xeon


	Not that I have anything against SEO, but well, I must be doing it wrong cos' it never works for me. Obviously, targeting the big keywords like "t-shirts" or even "funny t-shirts" is like trying to fish a needle out from the entire surface of the sun. And yet, when I pick very specific keywords, I get 1 - 2 visit from that keyword per month, and no sales, obviously. When I refer to the word "SEO", I'm talking about getting listed within the top 15 results in the big search engines for any important, popular keyword. It seems when it comes to SEO, there's only 3 possibilities: 1) Those who can't achieve top 15 results (or even top 80) for top keywords and give up 2) Those who spend US$800 - US$5000 every now and then to pay experts to SEO their website 3) Those who buy books on SEO, become an active member in SEO forums, practice SEO non-stop (99% of their time learning SEO, 1% designing t-shirts)......spending 3 - 4 years to learn SEO and in the end, become so acquainted with SEO that when their t-shirt biz fails, they can simply switch careers to start their own SEO company (which is actually pretty profitable) Just my 2-cents.

SEO is something you have to learn, and if you are experienced enough to edit your own pages (which is a basic must) then you can impliment it on your website...Its not like you have to learn a programming language such as PHP.
SEO = Knowledge. To be good it requires lots of reading and researching, some people dont have the time/want to do that.

You should be able to get a top 10 result for something fairly relevant to your shirts, like i said before try getting your company name at the top, and work from there.

Xeon · April 23rd, 2008

Thanks t-shirtman, although I personally feel that PHP will be easier to learn than SEO.

Rodney · April 28th, 2008

Quote:


	Not that I have anything against SEO, but well, I must be doing it wrong cos' it never works for me. Obviously, targeting the big keywords like "t-shirts" or even "funny t-shirts" is like trying to fish a needle out from the entire surface of the sun. And yet, when I pick very specific keywords, I get 1 - 2 visit from that keyword per month, and no sales, obviously.

Your problem doesn't seem to be related to SEO. It's a matter of "demand".

If you're only getting 1-2 visits per month for some specific keywords, then it's possible that those keywords aren't searched very often.

If you aren't getting a sale out of at least 100 visitors from visitors who come in through very targeted keywords, then it could be a problem of your website design making the customers feeling uncomfortable in some way about purchasing.

I don't think the blame rests on SEO in your case. There's a lot of other factors that come into getting visitors to buy from you.

Xeon · April 28th, 2008

LOL, ok! I will think about that.

the funk · April 28th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xeon


	although I personally feel that PHP will be easier to learn than SEO.

I'll SEO your site if you show me how to setup a shopping cart.

Xeon · April 28th, 2008

From the Funk:

Quote:


	I'll SEO your site if you show me how to setup a shopping cart.

What?! You're not kidding, are you? When I say SEO, I'm talking about getting listed within the top 15 results on major search engines on popular keywords.

Anyway, for the shopping cart, just spend a couple of hundred bucks and you can get the job all done and more, whereas for SEO, I need to spend thousands of dollars to even see any bit of results.

the funk · April 29th, 2008

No Im not...SEO makes much more sense to me than PHP. My problem with paying someone for a shopping cart is that they want me come back and pay them everytime I want to change a couple of things. I can do that myself if I could just figure it out. I know HTML, am learning CSS, but this shopping cart language is another story. If I could SEE it done one time, I could figure it all out, but reading this stuff makes no sense to me...

Any website I have ever done SEO (which is not many, it is not my trade but I do understand it) was on the front page (top 10) or second page of google and yahoo, which is not that bad. I still have the #1 result on google for a the first website I ever made with no payper click. Understanding your customers is the first step in SEO.

AustinJeff · April 30th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by the funk


	Any website I have ever done SEO (which is not many, it is not my trade but I do understand it) was on the front page (top 10) or second page of google and yahoo, which is not that bad.

I don't know "the funk" but I happened to see his site just the other day when I was searching Google for DTG contract printing. I went back and checked, and it's the second listing for that phrase. Not bad at all.

The T Shirt Man · May 2nd, 2008

getting #1 is not hard. Getting #1 for something competitive is. And getting #1 for a few/several competitive keywords is harder still

Quote:


	I'll SEO your site if you show me how to setup a shopping cart

You can do seo for a site but cant setup a shopping cart?!?!

the funk · May 2nd, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by The T Shirt Man


	getting #1 is not hard. Getting #1 for something competitive is. And getting #1 for a few/several competitive keywords is harder still You can do seo for a site but cant setup a shopping cart?!?!

Yes it is difficult to get #1 for very competitive keywords. I know someone who pays 15k (a year!) for an SEO company to be in the top 10 for a certain ethnic food in google (but is usually #1 for sites selling this type of food).

Now in his case, when people search for this keyword, they are looking to buy this type of food. But, how many people who search for "funny t-shirts" are looking to BUY funny t-shirts? Sounds crazy, I have nothing to back this up, and this is totally my theory, but I would bet that many users searching for "____ t-shirts" may not be looking to purchase, but rather get ideas, see site setups, research the big name players, etc. But for ebay, I would bet that this is much different, but you still have the people looking for ideas, stats, etc.

This also brings up some more interesting discussion. The big name players who sell "funny t-shirts" for example (like crazy dog, tshirt hell, busted tees, etc) are BRANDED companies. There designs are not necessarily branded, but there company/ideas are. They have been around for a while, are linked all over the internet (affiliate programs

), some seen on ebay even. They have built a large customer base and continue to get bigger, not to mention email marketing to get repeat customers. People know what tshirt hell is.

It would be very hard to compete with them trying to SEO a site for funny t-shirts, so if someone is trying to do this, it will take time to get to the top 10. I would bet that most of thier sales did not even come from search engines though (again my theory). If someone is trying to build a site around funny tshirts, there is a way to setup the site for SEO, but branding, marketing, and promoting will get you much further, then the SEO will kick in. But who knows, I could be completely wrong about all of this, but my advise would be if you are selling funny t-shirts, find a better way to market them besides the keywords "funny t-shirts". JMO

And yes, shopping carts are a pain to me...SEO is not!

Xeon · May 3rd, 2008

From The Funk:

Quote:


	I would bet that most of thier sales did not even come from search engines though (again my theory).

Well, you're right.....even Johnny's Cupcakes didn't do SEO....for these guys.....it just.....happens.

Like FaceBook, YouTube etc.....when they first start up, do these guys do SEO and create search terms like "online movie portal" or "online photo album sharing and toys"?
It's these guys who gave rise to terms like "social networking sites" and "online movie sharing" etc., and not the other way round.

Similarly, in the t-shirt world, it's pretty unthinkable that guys like JC, SnorgTees, BustedTees and The Hundreds etc., actually start a webpage and then SEO their site for "cool t-shirts" and "funny t-shirts".
If they did it that way, chances are they'll be just like the millions of unheard-of t-shirt companies on the web.

In my opinion, if you wanna get big, you've to do things in a drastic, revolutionary manner, creating entire new markets and then filling in the markets with your products, and not the other way round.

By drastic manner, I mean something like paying lots of money to get yourself on air and get interviews on TV etc., or you happen to have connections with Oprah and she invites you to TV to talk about your t-shirts, or you kneel outside Angelina Jolie's home and refuse to get up until she wears your t-shirt and then take a pic of herself wearing it.

Any of these things will give much more results than a century of SEO work you do on your site.

SEO is good only if you just want a small, stable income from your website, or if you plan to sell the same kind of common items as everyone else.

Like if you sell patriotic t-shirts, then you can SEO for that. It's very suitable.

If you're selling the same kind of stuff like BustedTees etc where the variety is huge and it's neither funny or offensive or artistic, then....good luck.

I don't believe SEO alone can bring a small no-name company to a world-renowned t-shirt company even in several years worth of time.

And ladies and gentlemen.....pls read my signature carefully.

The T Shirt Man · May 3rd, 2008

Quote:


	how many people who search for "funny t-shirts" are looking to BUY funny t-shirts?

Lots of them. If you wanted to buy a funny t shirt what else would you search for?

Quote:


	I don't believe SEO alone can bring a small no-name company to a world-renowned t-shirt company even in several years worth of time.

I do

SEO Brings you a brand. SEO means if you are top and people are searching for "funny t shirts" then lots of people will go to your site. These people will then talk to other people about your website and you will become a brand that way. Your site becomes a brand/famous because of the SEO. Obviously your site has to be good, but that is not the issue here.

Quote:


	Similarly, in the t-shirt world, it's pretty unthinkable that guys like JC, SnorgTees, BustedTees and The Hundreds etc., actually start a webpage and then SEO their site for "cool t-shirts" and "funny t-shirts". If they did it that way, chances are they'll be just like the millions of unheard-of t-shirt companies on the web.

Some of the big names mentioned above have very well SEOed websites. Maybe some of the above are well known names today, but they werent before. If you heard of them without using a search engine it doesnt mean that thousands of others did the same.

When you become a well known brand then SEO will not matter as much. But using SEO techniques can make you well known.

They say 80% of traffic comes from search engines.....There are many websites i use and have become "a brand" which i have found by using search engines. e.g. one day i was looking for computer parts, i searched, found a site and bought. I was happy with the product/service so now instead of searching i go straight to their website.

Basikboy · May 21st, 2008

Do you think It Is better to use the Generic Term Shirt or T-Shirt for the best placement on search engines? I mean would you rather have a category on your website that read Rude Shirts or Rude T-Shirts? which would work best when regarding search engines? Thanks!

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