looking for SEO review of client website

i am currently building a website for a client and i am wanting to know how my SEO practices are. i've done a couple things as far as SEO is concerned with the website but i'm looking for tips on what i can do to improve it. feedback is appreciated. website is www.ansimation.net/nd/ now all i have done as of yet is the index page but i shall do more today.

 

First off there is no keywords or description meta tags.

 

<h2>Welcome to Nelson Daniels</h2>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>
<p>
Nelson Daniels is a General Contractor specializing in building high-end <br />
homes and luxury remodels throughout Los Angeles, Orange County, <br />
and Santa Barbara.
</p>

The above is fine but you would rank better for Nelson Daniels if the oping statement was H1 and maybe the reduce the font size so it doesnt look too large.

Also for better SE results you could repeat the Nelson Daniels text in the paragrapgh text.

You can use the above example for other keywords you want to rank well for

 

it is my understanding that h2 carries more weight with search engines than an h1 does, am i correct on this? if so, why would i replace them with an h1?

 

I thought it was h1, lets see what other dp members think

 

either way, thank you for suggesting the meta tags. they have been added.

 

your sub pages are giving 404 error .i did not look it but my suggests are here

* validate your xhtml and css
* use meta tags (keywords, description, robots)
* if you dont have robots.txt file on your site. add one robots.txt file to your root directory

 

umm, as stated above, the only page done is the index page as of yet. and as for validating the xhtml/css

[08:56] <@ansimation> !v www.ansimation.net/nd/
[08:56] <wigga> Validation Result (www.ansimation.net/n...)
[08:56] <wigga> HTML: Valid. ( http://ittybitty.cn/d6zn/ )
[08:56] <wigga> CSS: Valid. ( http://ittybitty.cn/p5yz/ )

it's valid.

and what exactly does the robots.txt do?

 

Use one if you dont want search engine to index certain pages or directories

 

then that defies the whole idea of optimizing the website to rank higher within the search engine, yes? i mean, if i didn't want it indexed, i wouldn't care...

 

The robots.txt file is only telling google that you dont want certain pages indexed, if you want you whole site indexed dont use a robots.txt file.

I personlay dont use them as like you i want all my sites content indexed, but there are occasion where you create a page that you dont want put in the google index.

 

Hi punk , yet another elegant and lovely design from you.

Trav there are few things you could change on the layout to better optimize it, i will line up few things.

1). The title, is poor and without keywords. Who cares about Nelson Daniels, i would rather care about Nelson Daniels services. Using keywords in the title instead of the owners name. Something more like "High-end
home building and luxury remodels | Los Angeles | Orange County | Santa Barbara." (you could lose the city names to keep the length of the title shorter and increase the % of the keywords in the title), but, i would rather get more informations from the site owner and ask what is his targeting business.

2). The hidden text in logo, lose it. Use rather image of the logo inside a <h1> header like <h1><a href="clientssite.com" title="Keywords"><img src="images/logo.gif" width="XX" height="XX" border="0" alt="Same keywords as in the link title" /></h1>. This will perform much better than a hidden text (hidden keywords are not really loved by search engines, especially the big G).

3). Re organize the coding, float the divs in a way that the content sits in the top (right under the header) instead of under the side menu.

4). Use <h1> title tags for the content and with a more descriptive words yet keyword rich.

P.S. you could of drop me an email tho b....

Cheers bud.

 

thanks bud, appreciate it