SEO managment/investments are a MUST!
Thread poster: Tomi Dobaj
Tomi Dobaj
Tomi Dobaj  Identity Verified
Slovenia
Local time: 14:16
Member (2007)
English to Slovenian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
May 8, 2014

Dear Sirs,

from time to time I go and google my language combo (e.g. english slovenian translator/translation) to see how the proz.com is doing its search engine optimization.

I see it is getting worse and worse, actually it is currently so bad, that there absolutely no chance for any direct clients (who do not know about proz.com) to look up any Slovenian language services and to use Proz.com while at it.

Do you have any SEO policy and budget, that we coul
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Dear Sirs,

from time to time I go and google my language combo (e.g. english slovenian translator/translation) to see how the proz.com is doing its search engine optimization.

I see it is getting worse and worse, actually it is currently so bad, that there absolutely no chance for any direct clients (who do not know about proz.com) to look up any Slovenian language services and to use Proz.com while at it.

Do you have any SEO policy and budget, that we could have a look at?


Kind regards.
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Platon Danilov
Platon Danilov  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 15:16
English to Russian
+ ...
agree May 8, 2014

I tried Google to search for "Slovenian Russian translator" (one of my pairs) and failed to find a relevant ProZ page even on the third SERP page!

 
Diana Coada (X)
Diana Coada (X)  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:16
Portuguese to English
+ ...
I googled May 8, 2014

''Portuguese to English translator'' and my profile comes up on the first page of results on google.co.uk.

 
Tomi Dobaj
Tomi Dobaj  Identity Verified
Slovenia
Local time: 14:16
Member (2007)
English to Slovenian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
SITE LOCALIZER
Are you sure, Diana? May 8, 2014

I tried google.co.uk, and you are surely not on the first 3 pages...

But inserting word "to" does help a bit so at least occasionally a proz.com directory or profile appears. But not on the first page of results...

I definitely avoid entering proposition words into the google, and I think many people search that way...


 
Diana Coada (X)
Diana Coada (X)  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:16
Portuguese to English
+ ...
5th result May 8, 2014

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2r7huronaqnpqv8/proz.png

 
Tomi Dobaj
Tomi Dobaj  Identity Verified
Slovenia
Local time: 14:16
Member (2007)
English to Slovenian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
SITE LOCALIZER
Interesting! May 8, 2014

Google seem to really adopt the results to the data they have about us..

Diana, have you done any personal search engine optimization for your proz.com profile, or you just upkeep it intuitively?


 
Diana Coada (X)
Diana Coada (X)  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:16
Portuguese to English
+ ...
I just used keywords I guess, May 8, 2014

but I've been neglecting my profile lately, to be honest.

 
Jutta Deichselberger
Jutta Deichselberger  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:16
French to German
+ ...
Unfortunately you are right... May 8, 2014

My profile doesn't appear at all...:-(

 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 13:16
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Google's a mess nowadays May 18, 2014

Put in the word "translation" and it just gives you pages and pages of sites giving you MT versions of the other word(s)

 
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Robert Gebhardt
Robert Gebhardt  Identity Verified
United States
Member (2011)
Italian to English
For Diana Jun 12, 2014

Diana, are you sure your google results are not personalized? Check on the right to see if there are icons of a globe and a person, and make sure the globe is highlighted.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/o133wtkdr1sn9s1/Schermata%202014-06-12%20a%209.21.38%20AM.png



I only say this because when I perform the s
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Diana, are you sure your google results are not personalized? Check on the right to see if there are icons of a globe and a person, and make sure the globe is highlighted.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/o133wtkdr1sn9s1/Schermata%202014-06-12%20a%209.21.38%20AM.png



I only say this because when I perform the same google search I don't see you anywhere on the first page.
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Rachel Waddington
Rachel Waddington  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:16
Dutch to English
+ ...
Be more specific? Jun 12, 2014

I think if you want the search engines to find your profile you will need to be more specific. Expecting to get into the first page for just your language combination is optimistic when you consider how many translators there are out there with the same combination. In any case the first page for the combinations I just tried seems to be taken up with free online translators.

Where you might stand a chance is if you have a very niche specialism - my Proz profile seems to come up on
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I think if you want the search engines to find your profile you will need to be more specific. Expecting to get into the first page for just your language combination is optimistic when you consider how many translators there are out there with the same combination. In any case the first page for the combinations I just tried seems to be taken up with free online translators.

Where you might stand a chance is if you have a very niche specialism - my Proz profile seems to come up on the first page for "Renewable energy translations" or "renewables translations" (but it has to be in quotation marks). Not sure if that is what everyone else sees (anyone want to check for me?), but I clicked the globe icon to hide personalized results.

Diana - I can't see you on the first page for "Portuguese to English translator", but I do see you on the first page when I type "portuguese court interpreter" (with quotation marks), which I picked out of your keywords at random. Shows that putting some thought into your keywords can be worthwhile.
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Tomi Dobaj
Tomi Dobaj  Identity Verified
Slovenia
Local time: 14:16
Member (2007)
English to Slovenian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
SITE LOCALIZER
To be more specific ... Jun 13, 2014

thanks Rachel for prompting me to elaborate.

I was not clear enough obviously.

I thought Proz.com as (now) a large company with strong income should take care of the SEO marketing MUCH more seriously, and I would expect it to be their #1 investment.

Of course not in individual translator profiles, but in the home page and translators database and list access. This would enable also individual translators to appear sooner on the SE lists, like on page 3 or
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thanks Rachel for prompting me to elaborate.

I was not clear enough obviously.

I thought Proz.com as (now) a large company with strong income should take care of the SEO marketing MUCH more seriously, and I would expect it to be their #1 investment.

Of course not in individual translator profiles, but in the home page and translators database and list access. This would enable also individual translators to appear sooner on the SE lists, like on page 3 or 4 in Google would be already something.

I also expected some input here from the moderators or, better, Proz.com marketing team - since this is a very SERIOUS issue, since Proz is only accessible to the world through search engines!

What else are they doing with our millions from memberships? NOTHING is more important than SEO optimization for a portal like Proz.com!

Hope that was a bit clearer

Kind regards.
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Rachel Waddington
Rachel Waddington  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:16
Dutch to English
+ ...
See what you mean Jun 13, 2014

I see what you mean Tomi - I was more responding to the other people on the thread talking about profiles. I agree that SEO is very important - it's probably the main reason I decided to pay for membership. No point being here if people can't find you!

 


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