Search Engine Optimization
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- 5timuli
http://www.broaddaylightltd.co.u…
Just finished this (simple) site, no fuss. The client is unhappy with their Google rankings.
Their suggestion, based on conversations they've had with other developers, is to replace the GIF header with HTML text. Now, this'll look like crap.
The other option was to put some invisible text on the page, but again this is a bad idea (or so I've read).
I've explained the site was only listed a few weeks ago and will probably take a while to improve. What's the best way to improve their rankings?
- cosmo0
it takes about 6 weeks before goolge ranking r up. Backlinks to the site can help.
- mg330
Well, the name is in the title tag, and that has more prominence than page contents.
Who is Rebus, BTW? Is "Rebus's Scotland" a common set of search terms? When people are looking for this type of content, what are they typically looking for?
Scottish photograpy
Scotland photos
black and white scotland pictures
pictures of scotland
etc???????????Do people know about the book already? Is it publicized well?
Or, are they intending people to find the book using search terms like I listed above?
If that's the case, "Rebus's Scotland" isn't really going to matter. Plus, once people ARE looking for that, I think it's unique enough that it would rank high.Searching for that on google, there are plenty of listings:
http://www.google.com/search?q=R…Maybe the site just isn't listed yet.
For example, look how I have the search terms. If it were listed, I think this would be found:
http://www.google.com/search?hs=…Either way...your meta tags (though their importance is less than other aspects) are also not fully optimized.
Your page titles, BTW, are also too long.
Run the url through this page. It will give some interesting info. Enter the url at the bottom
- jevad0
I hate clients that think SEO is the be all and end all.
It takes 6 - 8 weeks for the site to even get indexed by google - so you can start by telling him that.
Stick some divs on all teh pages with keywords and descriptive text - but hide them so they're not visible.
Also, change things like:
alt="about the book"
to
alt="Rebus's Scotland book by Ian Rankin"
- kyl30
what happens if your page titles are too long? The bots kick em out?
- mg330
what happens if your page titles are too long? The bots kick em out?
kyl3
(Oct 4 05, 15:13)
--------------------------------...Bingo!
- 5timuli0
Cheers guys. I used to do all this shit by VSE Online but since there's no option for OSX I've forgotten all the tricks. I've mainly been using all the supplied keywords/phrases but think they need a bit more work.
- sklassen0
ditch the splash page or at least put some useful content on there.
you could think about using iFR for the text headings instead of images so you could keep the type looking nice.
- mg330
Over time I've built this huge list of the main keywords that are used to find our company, as well as the ones that i typically find in logfiles.
Check it from time to time and it's amazing how rankings shift around because of what others are doing to their site.
- spiralstarez0
Google some resources on SEO.
Secondly, since it is such a simple site I'd consider redoing it in CSS which is more search engine friendly.
Thirdly, linkage is important. You have to promote it, get someone else to link your site, and check referrer reports in your web stats to see where people are coming from.
Lastly, if they are only paying you for the design of the site I'd also nicely explain to them the difference between web design and SEO and how it's its own complete industry.
- spiralstarez0
oh, useful free resource:
- megatron51500
I'd agree with sklassen, but ditching the splash page may not be an option.
Search engines love text, more so text relevant to your product/service/etc on the homepage.
Check here as well:
http://www.iloveseo.com/Lots of resources on SEO.
Explain to the clients that there is no magic wand for this stuff.
I wouldn't recommend hidding keywords, i.e. black text on black background, you could get banned in search engines for that.
- oBeseLilNinja0
google aswell as all the major search engines now work on how popular the website is, add it to some directories such as dmoz and directory listing websites in its related field,
- uberdesigner0
is there such a thing as too many tags?
- unresort0
exactly as said before, change the title to plain text and use sIFR-->
http://www.mikeindustries.com/si…
- mirola0
Put those meta tags on all your pages , not just the home page. These are still very important, especially the 'robots', 'keywords' and 'description'. The Description is what google will use to describe you on it's search results page. Google will only display about 150 characters from this so keep it short.
Stop using tables and start using div tags.
You need to identify key words and then just drop them in all over the place. There's a fine balance between journalistic integrity and key word quota. If you client is so hell-bent on better search rankings then they need to lose the integrity and start sounding a little silly.
Your client needs to make friends with similar sites and exchange links with them.
There should be alt tags on all the images in the gallery that describe what's in the picture i.e. 'Man walking along a canal'
There's quite a lot more you can do.
Some customers put too much emphasis on good search engine results when they can always just sponsor key words on search engines instead. It's a lot cheaper and will always get a quicker ROI.
- UndoUndo0
I recomend PPC Google Adwords and Overture, they are tangible programs that give you a true ROI.
if yr client still wants natural rankings here are some essentials.
1. descriptive alt tags on ALL images(using commnon keywords)
2. A site map linking all pages should be accessible on all pages.
3. a directory linking to relevant sites with complimentary content and preferably high page ranks (checkout gooogle toolbar) and where possible get them to link back to you.
4. avoid lots of dynamic content.
5. use the [noscript] tag at the top & bottom of pages to provide links for the bot to follow. the bots pull yr site code in as a string and search from the beginning and end of it.
6. try to get into dmoz - this will take forever unless yr site is truely unique and have valuable content.
7. register yr domain for more than 2yrs. google is now a registrant and looks at this to see how serious you are and it is not a 'disposable' domain.
8. check out google site map generator you'll need experience of python or a site that will provide the service.
and check yr position a http://www.googlerankings.com
this is an industry in itself, many ppl think you just submit to google and get No 1. if yr clients like this search google for SEO and get the no1 to quote. see what they come back with
good luck
- kelpie0
unresort - how does that Flash replacement technique fit with content managed sites? sites where the designers/developers have no control over specific content on pages after launch, does this cause any problems? (I'm thinking of that font tuning he talks about)...
- kev_charlton0
definately index the site on all the directories you can find...
have a read:
- 5timuli0
Thanks a lot guys, loads of good suggestions. Since the client isn't willing to pay any more cash I think I'll just improve the splash and optimize the other pages as suggested by some of you.
Thanks again.