Friday 6 July 2007

Custom PC

Take a look at this site.

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/

It's really badly set up for SEO. Really, really badly. For example:


  • Who on earth searches for "kustom pc" instead of "custom pc"? Branding based on a misspelling is a big mistake.

  • If somebody does actually go for a "kustom" custom pc, surely they'd go for one - not many! so why would you buy kustompcs.co.uk? The targeted term here is "custom pc".

  • You can buy a custom PC from kustompcs.com or kustompcs.co.uk - great! The company's bought both domains. So why have they chosen to duplicate content between the sites, instead of set up a permanent redirect? Awful.

  • The title tag.. oh god, the title tag. This tag is critical. Once I placed an image-based form I was working on for a client on a test server, and used the name of the campaign for the title of the page. It happened that the form got spidered; when we went to review the progress of the client's site, our marketing guys found that my creative had stolen the number 1 spot for the name of the campaign, blowing the client's site out of the water. And what have these guys done with it? "Kustom PC's"? Not only can they not spell - the grammar's awful - but there aren't /any/ keywords in there! How about "Custom PC parts and builds at kustompcs.com". Easy. Child's play, in fact.


On top of this - no meta description, no h1, it's in tables (disrupting flow and stopping important content coming to the top), the left category nav uses javascript; problems, guys. No wonder you're so lowly ranked for Custom PC ;)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been using KPC for the last 7 or so years, they are the best, and most efficient site I've ever used... I will not flame other companies who have shameful service, but your SEO Rant is pathetic!
Have you ever purchased from Kustom?

Not only are they an amazing shop but they have a fantastic social aspect too, and often host entertaining nights, no other sites offer not only a good smooth purchasing process but a fantastic night where you can sample products or just have a beverage and BBQ!!!

Solitaire said...

KustomPC's are successful due to the fact that they have GREAT Customer service both Pre and Post order.

Other companies that have flashy websites tend to take up to a week to reply to customer queries, but with KPC's it's usually around a few hours.

They know their stuff and they know what customers want! Good service not flash sites! Who cares if it does not conform to "YOUR" specific standards to website creation.

How many successful companies both physical and on-line have you ran?

You sound like you're still in Uni taking a degree! Guess what "Reality"(tm) is different from School! :D

Leon said...

Solitaire: I'm a lecturer, though thanks for your concern.

Anon: No doubt the company is excellent; their SEO, however, leaves things to be desired.

Anonymous said...

"Branding based on a misspelling is a big mistake."

Perhaps you should tell this to Google, as their company name is a misspelling of "Googol".

Your arguments here are weak, and horribly misinformed. Sorry.

Leon said...

DAWG: That's fine, thanks for your opinion! Care to back up your claims or make any specific complaints?

Anonymous said...

to be frnk i thyink ur a twat kustom pcs is the best place to go for for computer parts/advice, just ask anyone who goes there all the staff r more than friendly and help u out better that any other pc shop i've ever been in so before u try n flame somewhere i think u should talk to some of there customers and see what they think of it

Anonymous said...

Their website may not be perfectly set-up in terms of SEO, but they have done at least one thing right: they have a great forum that is well indexed by the search engines and that brings in a huge amount of traffic - I constantly run in to them in the search engines when I least expect it.

Your main point about the domain is a weak argument - their are so many obscure domains out their AND they don't actually sell customised pc's - they sell components and parts.

Plus, the customer service is shit-hot :)

Leon said...

Sure; the forums are full of excellent content. Dropping in a plugin like vBSEO would really capitalise on the experience of the customers here, and make the low-hanging SEO fruit on the forum a into a simple set of checkboxes; the URLs suck as-is, especially without a sitemap!

Anonymous said...

well they seem to get enough customers, so who gives one?

Leon said...

You're right; what kind of a business would want more customers?

Anonymous said...

"If somebody does actually go for a "kustom" custom pc, surely they'd go for one - not many! so why would you buy kustompcs.co.uk? The targeted term here is "custom pc"."
possibly because CustomPC.com & .co.uk were already owned by others & Kustompc.co.uk was owned by Microsoft ...

I'm sure that you know your subject but I don't think that KustomPCs are a good example for you as they are an atypical company.
They operate in a niche market where they are very well known & recommended & don't sell on price but service.

 
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