Review Of Www.premo-promos.com

Hey peoples,

Here's the site for review: www.premo-promos.com

I was wanting to wait on posting this request, but also, i'm too curious and want to go ahead and see your opinions if possible. Please find below the answers to the standard questions. But before i paste that, I wanted to explain the reason for this request and a little background.

Years ago, when i first made the site, I was right in the mix of seo, and what did and didn't work. At that time, many techniques were used that are now considered spam, such as doorway and hallway pages, etc, and of course, you will not find those type of pages on our site now. (DISCLAIMER: but you will find obvious keywords at the top of our site...but i'm only copying what other sites in the top 10 did and what worked) Anyway, after doing a TON of legitimate seo work, my site got to the top 10 in google and stayed that way. This was around 2003. And regretfully, i become comfortable, although i always knew it would come to bit me. About a year ago, my site went awol in google. It WAS still listed. It was and is indexed. But other than being indexed or by searching by the actual business name, the site, or any of its pages, could not be found, again, unless one searched for the actual business name, "Premo-Promos".

I then learned this was the result of many things, including the infamous google dance. Since then, our google traffic has not really increased again. We are still top 10 in Yahoo, but google...

So that's when i came here months ago asking with the obvious newbie banner plastered to my forehead asking what is the "new thing", the best method, the newest techniques, of getting to the top. And of course, you guys just "love" those questions. I then read Jill's advice on making one's site the best it amongst competing sites, and that ideally, if google's algorithm was "perfect", the best site would truly be at the top.

So i went back and turned our 600+ html website into a data-driven, php site and added over a thousand customized items. That change alone makes us a lot better than we were, but i have a lot to do. For example, our site design, although clean, was made in 2001 and was designed when the first and primary focus was on "what is the screen resolution of the user", and as such, the width of the site is quite small on many monitors including my laptop. I do plan on changing the actual look of the site over the upcoming december holidays, and this should be easy considering that the previous 600+ pages has now been reduced to maybe 25 or so.

But i'm just curious what seo things i should be doing. I just don't know where i should be spending my time in order to help the google rankings. You can do a brief search on "promotional items" in google to view some of the top competitors and compare how their sites look.

QUESTIONNAIRE

Is this site completed or under construction?
- It is completed.

If completed: How long has the site been up?
- Since 2001. However, the new, php version has been up for about two weeks.

SEO
Do you have incoming links?
- Yes. 76 on google, which may mean close to nothing.

What keywords are you targeting?
- in general, promotional items, promotional products, and specifically, an of hundreds of thousands of printed items.

Do you want your code reviewed for errors or improvements?
- please feel free.

Marketing
Who is your target audience?
- Really, the target audience is any Business looking to purchase giveaways, or even executive type gifts, to be used at various events such as tradeshows, etc.

Why is your site different from sites selling/offering similar info/goods/services? Why will someone want to do business you?
- GOOD QUESTION! And this is how you guys can advise me. There are literally THOUSANDS of promotional distributors, with several 100 having decent, custom websites, and at least 30 having pretty nice sites. We ALL offer the SAME items from the SAME manufacturers. So really, the differences occur in customer service and who the customer is comfortable working with. Customers also care about prices and ease of use of the site.

How important is usability?
- Very important.

What is the purpose of the site?
- Sell promotional items. However, the site is mainly used for FIRST-TIME customers, because with the nature and customization of the products, 99% of repeat customers will simply work with their established salesperson. As such, the purpose of the site is mainly to attract the business customer for the first sale.

Design
Do you want design suggestions?
- please feel welcome to suggest and criticize.


Thanks for your help and your time. Looking forward to hearing your suggestions.