Hey guys, how should I optimize my website's main page (splash)? http://www.gsizzle.com I know, in terms of SEO, the main page has done horrible so I'm hoping that you guys can help me by instructing me on what to do to better optimize my site so I can get myself some PR. Maybe H1 tags or something? Not sure, please help. Thanks
I think your best bet is to take off the splash page (research shows that they are ineffective, my own studies have shown that pageviews increase at least 5x without them). Replace it with a page with rich, dynamic content (the kind that is updated on a regular basis). Maybe try installing a portal, or making a simple page that describes the site? From a functioning standpoint, once again you would be better off going right to the main site. It is always good to use <h1>Title of Page</h1> to help Spiders determine what a page is about. Just use one though, or you will spread yourself to thin. Meta tags should be used. Lots of SE's dont use them anymore, but they can be helpful anyways when it comes to describing your page, or for some smaller engines. Use a describing keyword phrase in your <title> area. This is very important. Ditch the on page styling, and use a stylesheet. You will reduce the code to text ratio, and engines like easy to read pages.
What search terms or search phrases are you trying to optimize for? Three primary factors determine your Web site's ranking or position in Google or other major search engines for a particular term or search phrase. The first and most important factor is content. 1) Content is king. If you have a Web site that sells left-handed products, then add talking points about any and everything "left-handed". Talk about the history of left-handed beliefs, list famous left-handed people, and write about left-handed beliefs in other cultures and countries. Make your Web site the "go-to" source for everything left-handed. 2) The second factor that determines your Web site's ranking or position in Google for a particular term or search phrase is relevancy. Beware, relevancy is in the mind of the beholder. Make sure you are interpreting yourself through the public's eye. What is relevant to you is not necessarily relevant to a new visitor to your Web site or the search engines. If you are a wedding planner, your Web site may contain information, links and articles about wedding-related subjects such as, bakeries, florists and bridal wear. Should you include jewelry or marriage advice? That’s up to you. Remember to ask yourself, "Is this relevant to my visitors?" 3) Visitors -- Search engines are machines. They compile information about the Web site content it indexes and records. Therefore, if a poorly ranked Web site receives an astronomical amount of UNIQUE visits, the Web site position and ranking in most major search engines will improve exponentially. This might happen if a little known Web site was mentioned in the main stream news media. Visitor traffic is not the be-all, end-all to ranking strategy, but it certainly helps Google determine where to rank your Web site in the search engine universe. In a nutshell, there is no magic bullet to great search engine results. But using "Content that is Relevant to your Visitors" will take you a long way. Build your Web site for visitors and search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, Tehoma, AlltheWeb, Excite, and Lycos, will follow.
Hi Skribblez, If you have no choice but to go for Flash design, the following article may help: Optimize Flash for Search Engine The above posters have mentioned quite a number of useful suggestions already You may want to refer to my SEO techniques site for more details and let us know if you encounter further problems. Hope it helps
As others mentioned, get rid of that teaser page; people want the forum page now and not through extra clicks. Go directly to the forum page when typing the domain name. Each thread's meta description is a rough idea of what the thread is all about so you may want to create a unique meta desc for each thread..
Remove the splashiness of the site and build up more content with a style sheet!!! Too staticky. (If that's a word)...lol