I live in Cornwall, hence Cornwall SEO. Being an SEO consultant in Cornwall, UK means I deal with the local tourist industry. A number of Cornish holiday websites have sprouted up. It used to be you would go to the travel agent to look up a Cornwall holiday let, now you simply go online to any of the various Cornish Cottage for rent type sites.
Cornwall is famous for fisherman?s cottages and fantastic views, so the holiday rental industry down here is huge. Like most ethical SEO I only take on one client per industry, so I can only take on one client from the Cornwall holiday rentals market.
I want to be sure they are the right kind of client. They have to be ambitious, it will be my intention to grow their business and be along for the ride. Ideally I would want a client who understood that having a close relationship with an SEO is the way to go, rather than some distant London based glitzy agency, run by people in it for the money.
Sure I’m in it for the money too. But to be honest, I love this business. So much so I would work for nothing if the project was right, but shhhhh, don’t tell anyone. I have a real passion for search marketing and sometimes I find myself on a huge rant in front of a client about shady SEO companies. OK, it may seem a little like the mad man from the mountain routine, but the passion gets communicated. The confidence comes across.
What most of my clients need is a search engine geek, not some dude with a cheap suit and slicked back hair. Trouble is, they might not recognise the geek for what he is. But if they don’t “get it”, then I don’t want to work with them.
I had a convo with a chap in the Cornwall Holiday cottage lets biz, and I had to tell him straight that the big shiny agency who seo’d his site was doing a crapjob. Even if I don’t get his business at least he knows I don’t bullshit. Sometimes you have to let loose with both barrels.
But get this, the site had no H1 tags, the Titles were pretty much all the same, the urls were as long as the Mile End Road, it had no site map and the internal link structure was as flimsy as an Essex girls thong on a Saturday night in Ibiza.
And they had paid the agency tens of thousands of pounds, and they got no H1 tags. No wonder I went on a rant.
Looking at the state of the local search in Cornish cottages it looks pretty easy to rank. I think a lot of these sites get made by web design agencies and the SEO guy is some work experience 16 year old who is waiting for his application for marketing school to go through.
Hard core SEO would rip through a lot of these local centric sites. If you have the knowledge and the brass cajones for it, team up with local businessman with the eye for talent and make a nice wedge togther.
And before anyone accuses me of keyword stuffing, it’s all been contextual baby.