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Think radio features (interviews) backed up by copy of same information and web links on radio web site may help a bit. Not sure. I did a short local radio interview some time back and there was no obvious commercial benefit ...

If you're advertising, then clearly you need lots of repeat advertising to the same audience - that strikes me as being a very expensive option.

I think people now want instant responses to their queries and the ability to buy / follow up equally painlessly. As my market is regional (from Manchester down to Kent), I think SEO, PR (national when possible, with my website link always appearing in the article) and lots of networking suit my business best. What geographical area does your market cover and how are you reaching it, plse?

Best wishes

Linda

You might lose some business asking for a very modest payment (eg 10%) upfront - eg on accepting the contract - but this approach helps a lot to keep out those who've either no intention of paying or who have serious cashflow problems.

I really hate chasing money. It's worth potentially losing some business not to have to do it.

Further random thoughts - either customer evaluations of new products, on one of the main menus (encouraging site visits to see what else is new and what others thought of the products); or customer evaluations of product sitting next to the "end of the quiz" "buy here" form (because there's comfort in going along with the crowd's decsions)?????

I've recently been trying to find a good kennels for my dog, just in case I need to find her a holiday home. I'd have read [product] reviews by other dog owners with a great deal of interest. I'm also trying for expert input (her vet's assessment of the good and the bad kennels locally). I suppose the equivalent for your client would be uploading telecommunications mag articles about the products and the excellence of your client's prices / service standards, the stats suggested earlier, etc??

One of the reasons stopping people from buying anything is because they're unsure they've taken all the key criteria into account. If it's a technical "thing", they often don't understand what questions to ask - or what the answers tell them. I'd guess a percentage of the buyers won't have any technical background.

Thinking along the same lines as sjr4x4, would it be helpful to create an interactive guide for non-techies to deciding which office phone system was right for you (eg tick each that applies to you - my office phone system has to switch calls between X landline / mobile nos, has to come with an assured maintenance system with an engineer available at an hour's notice, 8 hours notice, etc)?

Following the pattern of ticks and no-ticks (and with the option of human input if the customer got stuck), the site might generate a "You want the bobby dazzler version, sign here to get it" form. Depending on the answers, your client might want to team up with other service providers to produce a joint offering.

The most amazing thing I've encountered was a mailshot encouraging me to contact low-cost insurers (weblinks provided) to protect my small business against the risks of misinterpreting unclear government legislation and so acting illegally ....

This letter purportedly came from a government department, though there weren't any contact details given in the address and our company details were wrong. I reported it as a scam to Trading Standards ...

To my surprise, it was legit! The whole thing was a pilot exercise set up by Peter Mandelson's dept.

Not the next big thing, just an oldie but something that still sends shivers down my spine ...

Was introduced to a counselling software progam years ago that was so "human" you only sussed it was a machine minutes into telling it about your hypothetical problem ....

Must admit I don't find Norton's automated problem-solvers terribly helpful, though.

Linda

Thanks 14Visual. There's a "catch 22" quality about typical small business life (including SEO) isn't there? You've got to become reasonably good in lots of fields way outside your areas of specialism to make the money you'll need to pay the experts later on to do the jobs for you ....

Linda

Hi Tomsk

Yes, it's there. I've changed the title tags though so that's changed what the page is "called".

Your link helped me though cos it's highlighted points I need to check on my blog posts.

Most of them have the titles I set for them, some are just "blog" with the title below - which won't help with how they rank on Google. Probably I've been a mite careless in "telling" WordPress how to format the titles (sigh).

Thanks again - hope to boast soon about getting another couple of search terms on P1!!!

Linda

Lots of "thank you"s to express; and a little bit of updating. I might have to stop in the middle to get CreativeEye's advice as one of my site text alterations has had unexpected and unwelcome results!!!

Tomsk - Following up your advice again, with grateful thanks. Have now rewritten text of page, titles & metadescription aiming for career planning advice (260 local visits), career planning assessment (880 local visits) and career planning resources (210 local visits - but may change this as can't weave resources often enough into the text).

I checked the allintitles data for each of the amended keywords and they seem encouraging. I've also tried to learn a bit about what these allintitles,allinanchor etc tools do but have only had a very superficial look.

Properly promoting the site's inner pages is something I recognise I've got to do, when I can.

sjr4x4 - Thanks for the reassurance about the google tool bar. I hadn't realised there was such a huge interval before it was updated, now I know I'll stop fretting.

14Visual - Thanks for the feedback. The main problem with the site's SEO is the fact I'm doing it! SEO isn't something for intelligent but ignorant amateurs but that's how it has to be at the moment. CreativeEye hasn't any responsibility for my mistakes (for which they're probably very grateful!).

Will let you know how it goes. Thanks again to everybody, I do appreciate your input.

Linda

Thanks Tomsk, I'm grateful.

It's Career planning, career plan, career coach | Careers Partnership (UK).

This page has several of my blog items linked to it, so Google should have picked it up. It's not the only page on the site that's grey, though.

Best wishes

Linda