Steve Johnston

References

During my work as an independent internet consultant I have enjoyed the following:

Google Consultancy Successes

October 2005 - Columbus Travel Insurance

Problem: ColumbusDirect.com disappeared from the Google SERPs - from position 2 in a UK search for Travel Insurance and had been absent for seven days.
Solution: Discovery of resolving canonical domain and a number of marketing locations redirecting via 302s to the home domain. Open Directory listing was also for a former .net domain, which also redirected via a 302 to the home domain. Within two days of the canonical domain and 302s being converted to 301s, the site returned to the top 10 for its key search target. It sits in 7th position at the time of writing. The desired change in the ODP listing has been requested, but has not yet been made to the .com. It is hoped that this will nudge it up a few more places.

Testimonial: Steve has impressed us with his speed of thought and practical advice which not only delivered but was easy to communicate to senior management and IT teams. Our site problems were mostly of our own doings, but sometimes you cannot see the wood for the trees and an objective view helped clarify exactly the steps we needed to take.
Paul Dittmer, Marketing Manager, Columbus.

July 2005 - Friends Abroad

Strategy: 100% Ethical Content and Reputation

Testimonial: I've known Steve for many years though I hadn't seen him for quite a while when we met in a coffee shop in London recently. I needed help for FriendsAbroad.com to get noticed by Google and to be considered relevant to language learners around the world.

Using the wifi link in the coffee shop, Steve quickly had me hooked. Firstly he typed Google consultant into google.com (not just google.co.uk!) and he came out top. Next he told me about a project he was working on for another client providing listings of local businesses in the UK. Though he did say his client had not indexed all their pages yet, I decided for no particular reason to try "chemist Farnham" and his client's site came out as the top two listings, presenting all the phone numbers for the chemists of Farnham.

So we hired Steve as our Google consultant. My only regret so far is that we have not had the resources to implement all his suggestions. We will soon fix that, and then I have no doubt we will also enjoy the traffic and awareness that Google can deliver for our target audience.

Although he is expensive per day, if getting Google to index your site effectively is important for your business, he is worth every penny.
Simon Murdoch, CEO FriendsAbroad.com and former MD of Amazon.co.uk

June 2005 - Cambridge Audio

Strategy: 100% Ethical Code and Content
Result: 120% growth in relevant traffic - page views up from 150,000 per month in September 2004 to 330,000 in May 2005.

Testimonial: "We've worked with Steve Johnston for over a year on the development of our content management driven website. His knowledge of applications, technologies and ways to add real value to our web presence has been invaluable.

In addition, his search engine optimisation advice has had a major impact on the performance of our site. We have benefited from an incredible improvement in the ranking of our site in response to generic search terms around our product categories. Traffic to www.cambridge-audio.com has increased 120% since Steve began working with us.

I'd recommend Steve to anyone who needs honest, impartial and above all, results-based web consultancy."
Simon Hewitt, Marketing Director, Cambridge Audio

January 2005 - Richer Sounds plc

Benchmark: Searches for the highly competitive branded products on Google.com saw Richer Sounds' pages somewhere outside the top ten.
Strategy: 100% Ethical Code and Content
Result 1: Top 5 globally when searching for: Philips 23PF8946 LCD TV
Result 2: Top 5 globally when searching for: Panasonic DMRE 85 DVD Recorder
Effect: Massive increase in site visits from product specific searches on Google

In fact you can choose any one of the Richer Sounds product range and find largely the same results as those identified above.

Testimonial: "Time and again Steve delivers practical and valuable advice that has one key effect; more customers."
Claudia Vernon, Marketing Director, Richer Sounds plc

November 2004 - Greet Street

Benchmark: No indexed entries in Google despite 6 months of trading and many inbound links.
Strategy: 100% Code
Result: 642 pages live in the index within 30 days of engagement: GreetStreet

Testimonial: "When I first contacted Steve Johnston, I presented him with a problem that had been dominating my internet life for several months. The problem was that Google had never, not once, visited greetstreet.com my e-commerce web site. Having already written the site to be as Google-friendly as possible, I concluded that the domain name must have been blacklisted for reasons unknown to me. So, I closed my eyes and with a heavy heart typed the words google consultancy into Google’s search box and hit return. When I opened them again I saw Steve Johnston’s site listed at the top. I noted with some envy that he had not had to resort to a Google Adwords ad on the right hand side. Already I did not care how much he charged (that would come later). He had my attention, for by this time the problem I had with Google had become personal.

Steve systematically studied the site, its log files and the incoming links I had established. He eliminated the obvious things first and I responded by making the changes he advised. Next he noticed an unusual and potentially damaging three way relationship between my site, Google's and that of a shopping directory which he then set about dismantling. He called the shopping directory and asked the people there to change the way they linked to my site explaining to them how it should be done.

This, along with a number of other key changes soon led to my site being visited regularly by Google for the first time since it was launched over 6 months ago. I felt very comfortable working with Steve as he has the ability to deal with people as if face to face, except he can do it using telephones and email. He is a superb communicator and a secure relationship builder. His tactic is to view the problem honestly, then de-mystify and rationalise the Google folklore which had grown up around this brilliant but to my mind, technically secretive organisation. Steve keeps in touch, does not ignore you for days on end and well, makes you feel important. But more to the point, if you want it, and I did, he educates you as the work proceeds giving you as much information as you can take. In my case I need to learn and I have learned from my liaison with this Google consultant. I contacted Steve on 19th October and we had a solution by 9th November. In this time I received around 6 phone calls and we exchanged over 36 emails.

Now that the problem has been resolved, I fully intend to work with Steve again to fine tune my site for Google in the very near future."
Marilyn Jamieson, Founder, Greet Street

July 2004 - Blue Sky Hosting Ltd

Benchmark: BlueSky.co.uk on page 6 in Google results pages for 'Domino Hosting' and no presence at all for 'WebSphere Hosting' searches
Strategy: 100% Ethical Code, Content and Reputation
Result 1: Number 1 globally for term: WebSphere Hosting
Result 2: Top 3 globally for term: Domino Hosting

Testimonial: "Steve's determination and focus has provided Blue Sky with two of the most sought after results for our sector. We are delighted with both the obvious results and their consequential traffic."
Anna Wisdish, CEO, Blue Sky Hosting

April 2004 - DNA Ltd for their web redesign for Highcross property group

Benchmark: Highcross.co.uk at result 249 on Google, with no content indexed
Strategy: 100% Ethical Code and Content
Result: Highcross easily found any search engine anywhere:
Google global search on term: Highcross (position 1 of 3,000) Yahoo global search on term: Highcross (position 4 of 1,800) MSN global search on term: Highcross (position 2 of 749)

Testimonial: "Steve's advice to DNA on our web site build for Highcross has been very helpful, his expertise and positive nature is a great addition to the design team. People can now find Highcross from the front page of most search engines."
Lindsey Twiston Davies, Creative Director - DNA

Most of my current projects are still 'client confidential'. I hope to be able to remedy this in the near future with some more testimonials. In the meantime and during my tenure at Domino Systems I worked on, and am very proud of the following successful projects:

Client: Rotary Watches
Strategy: 100% Ethical Content
Google Search on Generic Term: Designer Watches
Benchmark: Rotary Watches not in the top 100 results
Result: Top 3 globally and the only watch manufacturer in the global top ten

Client: Subaru World Rally Team
Strategy: 100% Ethical Reputation
Google Search on Generic Term: World Rally Championship
Benchmark: 'Also ran' average rallying site not in top 30 results
Result: Top 5 site globally and the only WRC team site in the global top ten

Client: Corus Hotels
Strategy: 100% Ethical Code & Content
Google Search on Generic Term: The Charlecote Pheasant Hotel
Benchmark: Languishing around result 30 for every one of their hotel searches
Result: Corus Hotels beating all hotel aggregators globally, typically in Top 3

Other Stuff

Client: Me, selling my consulting services
Strategy: 100% Ethical Content & Code
Result 1: No. 1 globally for term: Google Consultant
Result 2: No. 2 globally for term: Internet Strategist
Benchmark: Did not feature in the results at all for this search
Result: Number 1 globally

Client: Me, selling my house
Strategy: 100% Ethical Content, Code and Reputation
Google Search on Generic Term: Bromley Property
Benchmark: New page, no presence in the SERPs
Result: Number 1 globally in 3 days flat (achieved in June 2002 and still there)