In This Issue:
Open Fireplace Centre
“In the year 2000, when we signed up with FirstFound, very few people had heard of search engine optimisation. In fact much of the business community still didn’t see the point of having a website.
I built my own site in 1995 and back then, you could go to the various search engines and register yourself. My wife, Elizabeth, couldn’t understand why I was burning the midnight oil messing around with a website that no-one would look at.”
However, ten years on, the Open Fireplace Centre’s website has recently notched up seven MILLION page views!
Adds Alan, “After signing up with FirstFound we seemed to climb the ratings very quickly. They gave us monthly updates of where we stood with key phrases and we climbed up the ratings steadily over the course of the next six to twelve months.”
From an early annual turnover of approximately £90,000, the family-run business is now notching up a healthy £400,000 per year.
Search engine optimisation has become more complicated as the internet community grows. But FirstFound are renowned in the industry for being at the forefront of monitoring change and getting the best results for their clients.
Says Alan, “I recently put a new product range on the website and was a bit disappointed that Google didn’t find that section straight away. I contacted Roger Davies at FirstFound, and we’ve had some fairly lengthy conversations, trying things to resolve the problem. Thanks to his advice we are now getting this particular product up in the rankings.”
SEO has proved so effective, Alan no longer needs to spend money advertising in the yellow pages or local press.
He adds: “I can honestly say, without SEO, my business would not have survived longer than three years. We would have been overtaken by competitors. We’ve been really impressed by the individual care and attention FirstFound’s staff have given us. Nothing is too much trouble for them and you really feel that for the relatively small amount it cost, we get a far better service than we are paying for.”
Alan Hopkinson, Proprietor,
Open Fireplace Centre
www.fireplaces-oldham.co.uk