Complete CSS designed site ranks awfully!

But is this to do with the fact that it's totally designed in CSS or simply that my optimisation techniques are poor? Reading through these forums there have been some comments about using CSS, particulary H1, H2 etc and the effects that has on ranking. I was alwys under the impression that using a semantically structured process would help Google! Anyway the site in question is www.plasywern.co.uk and rank nowhere on virtually any related keywords! I'd like to invite critisism, particulary with regard to whether the CSS has impacted on ranking or not.

BTW I'm new here. Looks like a great forum!

Sarah

 

The use of XHTML/CSS is a plus but not a garanty for good rankings, how old is your site ? Seems like your websites homepage hasn't any PR yet and it's not reporting any backlinks either so try to increase the number of backlinks to your website ( with keywords in the anchortext if possible ) and wait

 

It's nothing to do with your CSS it's the fact that you have no links to your website.

Read the threads in here, links are so important for optimising your website, and they should be one of the first things you spend time on getting quality links to your website.

 

I'm sure they don't fall for something like that.

 

Hi ya

It is not the CSS

Hmmm - first go to shawns tool for keyword suggestions and type in your first phrase:

self catering holiday cottages in wales

result: No enquiries - ie no searchs

Not a good phrase...is it?

Concentrate on one or two phrases only - use anchor text as already suggested - use Mcdars tool/s to get allinanchor, allinurl, allintext positions and monitor them

Get your onpage title h1s and text correct - use your alts with a useful phrase and rename your jpgs to suit get you IBLs and OBLs balanced and useful

I posted Compars list somewhere of important SEO stuff - find that and follow it or visit Compars infopool

That is just for starters

 

Ok, I think I'm getting it, using Shawn's tool will let me know what users search for i.e. self catering holiday cottages in wales = 0 while holiday cottages wales = 27 a day and holiday cottages = 173. So it's wise then, using the suggestions above i.e. adding anchor text, H1 (as well as others) etc, to optimise pages in accordance with these results right? It seems then that inbound links are essential, so a site without any is doomed, correct? Oh, and while I remember, the site I mentioned above is a new site (3 months) so am I expecting too much at this stage? And how can I find out when Google refreshes its lists?

Well, thanks to all of you who helped here. It's becoming clearer.

 

You're learning fast. There's loads of information in the various threads on this forum, plus links to other useful information, and everyone's very helpful here.

I joined this forum about 2 months ago knowing absolutely nothing about search engine optimization, and while I don't consider myslef any form of expert, I know much, much more now, purely as a result of this forum.

If you can spare the time, go back and read as many old threads as you possibly can - you'll gain an immense amount of knowledge.

 

No you are not expecting too much but you should have yourself ready to get moved once you come out of the so called sandbox.

Don't forget that the internal backlinks with appropriate text are just as important - do you have a site map? If not get one and link all pages back to the first.

There is a whacking great thread out there 100+ pages that if you have the time you should read as it shows up a lot of info that even if you do't understand right now you will in the future - and it has links all over to tools etc.

Here is its address http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=256

 

Thanks eveybody, I can't believe how helpful this forum is, I've learned so much in the last couple of days. I'm off to have a butchers at that thread Foxy.

Sarah

 

Good Luck