SEO newbie needs help

Njones Peon

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#21

Thanks Martin!

I just noticed when I logged into my Google webmaster account, that because all the files have had name changes & the sitemap has been changed, that Google no longer has my current site in its index apart from the main page. Is there any way I can speed up the re-indexing of my new site?

Njones, Jul 8, 2011 IP

Njones Peon

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#22

lemmyxuz said: ↑

You should consider outsourcing this to SEO professionals like me
Click to expand...

I'm considering it,.. but my budget is tight,.. what does an SEO professional cost these days?

Njones, Jul 8, 2011 IP

girish sharma Peon

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#23

MartinPrestovic said: ↑
I have just spent a bit of time looking over your web site and looking at the SEO side of things. There are a few problems and there are a number of things you can do for yourself.

You don't need to hire a specialist if your willing to; and have time to, put the work in yourself and listen to the right people on forums such as this.

Unfortunately you will always get one liners from people in this forum who are trying to build post count. The vast majority you can just ignore.

Ok, lets have a look at some of the things you can fix for yourself:

1. The structure of your web site is poorly designed for search engines. One of the basic optimizations you can perform is to have the target keyword in the URL structure. It helps Google to determine relevance of the page and will also be highlighted in the search engine results. So lets look at a couple of examples:

In your footer you have a link to: Gift Baskets
Which leads to: meadowsorganic.com/index-1.html

This would be far better as: meadowsorganic.com/gift-baskets.html

On that page you have a link to: Unscented Castile Soap
Leads to: meadowsorganic.com/product7.html

This would be far better as: meadowsorganic.com/unscented-castile-soap.html

That is just two examples, but the same principle can be applied to every single page of your web site.

2. On virtually all of your pages you have a number of meta-tags which can be removed completely. They are either not supported or completely pointless.

expires
rating
language
author
copyright
revisit
robots
googlebot

Take all of them out from every single page.

In addition, while you are doing the product pages write some proper meta descriptions and keywords for those tags. Using the Unscented Castile Soap as an example...

Meta Description: Unscented Castile soap
Meta Keywords: Unscented castile soap.

These would be much better as:

Meta Description: Unscented Castile Soap made the traditional way using only extra virgin organic olive oil.
Meta Keywords: unscented castile soap, castile soap

If you are unsure what keywords to use, take your primary keyword and head over to the Google Keyword Tool, paste it into the tool and run a search to see what other relevant terms come up. The general rule though is to make sure that whatever keywords you target, ensure there is relevant content on the page itself.

3. Sticking with your product pages, you have used the title (just beneath the photo) to create a backlink to the same page the user is viewing. This is completely pointless from a user perspective and the chances are that it is having a negative impact on your SEO. Remove the link and wrap the title in <h1> tags. This emphasizes the importance of the word to both the user and Google.

Tip 1: To aid in user navigation and indexation of your pages you should add a breadcrumb to the page. Linking back to the homepage and the upper level category, in this case that would be 'Bath'.

Tip 2: Another good thing to do on product pages is link out to related products. This will not only help sales, but also help internal linkage of your web site. So on this page you could link to other unscented products.

4. Fill out your alt tags on your product images. You have currently left them blank but this is another great way to get the keyword onto the page. Sticking with the same product page, adding "Unscented Castile Soap" as the alt tag will be better than leaving it blank.

5. You do not have a robots.txt file. Typically these are used to tell search engines what you don't want them to index, but it is good practice to have one because most spiders will look for it before they do anything else. Below is a basic version you can use which tells spiders that they don't need to ignore anything and to use a crawl delay to prevent them overloading your server (a lot of them ignore that setting anyway, including Google):
User-agent: *
Crawl-delay: 5
Sitemap: http://www.meadowsorganic.com/sitemap.xml
Code (markup):
Just copy and paste into a blank file and save it as "robots.txt", then upload it to the root of your web site.

6. You will notice that in point 5 the file makes reference to a sitemap. Again this is something which you do not have set up. Head on over to XML Sitemaps and use the freebie tool to generate a free XML sitemap and upload it to the root of your web site.

Note: You will need to do this again after you have corrected your structure as per point 1.

--------------

Right, there you go, 6 actionable items which you can complete for yourself and which will improve your SEO efforts.

There is not much point talking too much about link building because your site isn't really ready for it. But, overall you have very few links pointing to your web site and this is the area you need to focus on once you have fixed some of the items above.

If you ask around here, your likely to get the same mundane link building tips... directory submission, article submission, blog commenting, social bookmarking... those are the typical regurgitated junk ideas. Yeah sure you can try them, but my preference is to think a little outside the box.

One idea which could work well for your site is to contact bloggers who are interested in the types of product you sell. Offer to send them a freebie bar of soap or something in exchange for a write-up. Yes it will cost a little in terms of product and shipping, but these kind of links will last far longer, carry more weight in the search engines and if you find the right bloggers can generate a lot of direct traffic to boot.

Ok, there you have it, all free and I didn't try to sell you anything

Enjoy.
Click to expand...
Well imformative post carry on !!

girish sharma, Jul 8, 2011 IP

MartinPrestovic Peon

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#24

Njones said: ↑

I just noticed when I logged into my Google webmaster account, that because all the files have had name changes & the sitemap has been changed, that Google no longer has my current site in its index apart from the main page. Is there any way I can speed up the re-indexing of my new site?
Click to expand...

You can 301 redirect the old URL's to the new URL's but to be perfectly honest it isn't worth doing unless you have already done a lot of link building, which you haven`t.

Google won't take long to reindex your site. Also don't always beleive what appears in webmaster tools, it is not always accurate. For example, I just ran the site: command in Google and it still shows you have 62 pages indexed.

Just make sure you have submitted your sitemap in your Webmaster Tools account and Google will take care of the rest.

MartinPrestovic, Jul 8, 2011 IP

dailytrans Member

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#25

Njones said: ↑

I'm considering it,.. but my budget is tight,.. what does an SEO professional cost these days?
Click to expand...

Hello Njones:

I have seen your website it is good .. The main thing to do is linkbuilding. Content and Submission too. About your question for the rate of SEO: I used to charge my client 7-8 usd per.. that is my rate! some are charging higher than me... And As above said.. you should consult a SEO pro to advised you a good thing to do about your website. If you want to see SEO pro.. PM me I can share you the site. I cannot post link here because I'm new to this Forum..

Thanks

dailytrans, Jul 8, 2011 IP

golfpro1 Peon

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#26

You could always have a look at Tizag for some great tutorials on some of the HTML and CSS elements

golfpro1, Jul 8, 2011 IP

Njones Peon

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#27

I just clicked an ad on the forum for this site: my-internet-product.com/backlinksgalore

I like the prices!! But even at that cost, would I be throwing money away? Has anyone used them before?

Njones, Jul 9, 2011 IP

zelthost Member

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#28

I visit your site then i saw your html validity 38 Errors, 7 warning(s) CSS Validity Warnings (23).

1. You can see : http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=m...(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0 Correct you online SEO in site body.

2. You also see : http://static.googleusercontent.com.../search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf .

3. You have no any site back link in google,yahoo. Start link building for your site in Blog, Forums, Directory, search engine submission.

4. Articles Submission with you body key.

5. Submit xml sitemap.

You can see : http://web-design-seo-services.com/seo-link-building-tutorial/ for link building. Do this work. You will see increase your traffic and page rank.

zelthost, Jul 9, 2011 IP

inazir Greenhorn

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#29

Site seems cool, now start doing some off page like link building through articles, blogs and forum postings.. . I guess that all will works for your new site.

inazir, Jul 9, 2011 IP

digitalwebman06 Active Member

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#30

MartinPrestovic said: ↑
I have just spent a bit of time looking over your web site and looking at the SEO side of things. There are a few problems and there are a number of things you can do for yourself.

You don't need to hire a specialist if your willing to; and have time to, put the work in yourself and listen to the right people on forums such as this.

Unfortunately you will always get one liners from people in this forum who are trying to build post count. The vast majority you can just ignore.

Ok, lets have a look at some of the things you can fix for yourself:

1. The structure of your web site is poorly designed for search engines. One of the basic optimizations you can perform is to have the target keyword in the URL structure. It helps Google to determine relevance of the page and will also be highlighted in the search engine results. So lets look at a couple of examples:

In your footer you have a link to: Gift Baskets
Which leads to: meadowsorganic.com/index-1.html

This would be far better as: meadowsorganic.com/gift-baskets.html

On that page you have a link to: Unscented Castile Soap
Leads to: meadowsorganic.com/product7.html

This would be far better as: meadowsorganic.com/unscented-castile-soap.html

That is just two examples, but the same principle can be applied to every single page of your web site.

2. On virtually all of your pages you have a number of meta-tags which can be removed completely. They are either not supported or completely pointless.

expires
rating
language
author
copyright
revisit
robots
googlebot

Take all of them out from every single page.

In addition, while you are doing the product pages write some proper meta descriptions and keywords for those tags. Using the Unscented Castile Soap as an example...

Meta Description: Unscented Castile soap
Meta Keywords: Unscented castile soap.

These would be much better as:

Meta Description: Unscented Castile Soap made the traditional way using only extra virgin organic olive oil.
Meta Keywords: unscented castile soap, castile soap

If you are unsure what keywords to use, take your primary keyword and head over to the Google Keyword Tool, paste it into the tool and run a search to see what other relevant terms come up. The general rule though is to make sure that whatever keywords you target, ensure there is relevant content on the page itself.

3. Sticking with your product pages, you have used the title (just beneath the photo) to create a backlink to the same page the user is viewing. This is completely pointless from a user perspective and the chances are that it is having a negative impact on your SEO. Remove the link and wrap the title in <h1> tags. This emphasizes the importance of the word to both the user and Google.

Tip 1: To aid in user navigation and indexation of your pages you should add a breadcrumb to the page. Linking back to the homepage and the upper level category, in this case that would be 'Bath'.

Tip 2: Another good thing to do on product pages is link out to related products. This will not only help sales, but also help internal linkage of your web site. So on this page you could link to other unscented products.

4. Fill out your alt tags on your product images. You have currently left them blank but this is another great way to get the keyword onto the page. Sticking with the same product page, adding "Unscented Castile Soap" as the alt tag will be better than leaving it blank.

5. You do not have a robots.txt file. Typically these are used to tell search engines what you don't want them to index, but it is good practice to have one because most spiders will look for it before they do anything else. Below is a basic version you can use which tells spiders that they don't need to ignore anything and to use a crawl delay to prevent them overloading your server (a lot of them ignore that setting anyway, including Google):
User-agent: *
Crawl-delay: 5
Sitemap: http://www.meadowsorganic.com/sitemap.xml
Code (markup):
Just copy and paste into a blank file and save it as "robots.txt", then upload it to the root of your web site.

6. You will notice that in point 5 the file makes reference to a sitemap. Again this is something which you do not have set up. Head on over to XML Sitemaps and use the freebie tool to generate a free XML sitemap and upload it to the root of your web site.

Note: You will need to do this again after you have corrected your structure as per point 1.

--------------

Right, there you go, 6 actionable items which you can complete for yourself and which will improve your SEO efforts.

There is not much point talking too much about link building because your site isn't really ready for it. But, overall you have very few links pointing to your web site and this is the area you need to focus on once you have fixed some of the items above.

If you ask around here, your likely to get the same mundane link building tips... directory submission, article submission, blog commenting, social bookmarking... those are the typical regurgitated junk ideas. Yeah sure you can try them, but my preference is to think a little outside the box.

One idea which could work well for your site is to contact bloggers who are interested in the types of product you sell. Offer to send them a freebie bar of soap or something in exchange for a write-up. Yes it will cost a little in terms of product and shipping, but these kind of links will last far longer, carry more weight in the search engines and if you find the right bloggers can generate a lot of direct traffic to boot.

Ok, there you have it, all free and I didn't try to sell you anything

Enjoy.
Click to expand...
its really a great sharing. but to increase your sell i think you should also try off page. i think you are doing good with face book. cause i saw that you got a good number of fans
try other off page methods too.

digitalwebman06, Jul 9, 2011 IP

catanich Peon

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#31

Njones said: ↑

Can you recommend a good SEO company?
Click to expand...

Before you start hiring a SEO company, check out The Starting Point that will link to many thing you can do before you start spending money.

Start with changing you title tag to left justify the primary keyword of your site.

Is
<title>Welcome to Meadows Organic Soaps - Natural luxury.</title>
Code (markup):
S/B
<title>Organic Handmade Soaps - Natural Luxury From Meadows Organic Soaps</title>
Code (markup):
Then look closer at how you are using two different <h1> tags.

Finally start using Right Click-View Source to see how other sites use the primary SEO Elements.

Do this first, then call a SEO company.

catanich, Jul 10, 2011 IP

dilon Well-Known Member

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#32

I just go through your site, you need to put some more content that is really need it!!

dilon, Jul 10, 2011 IP

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SEO newbie needs help

Njones Peon

Njones Peon

girish sharma Peon

MartinPrestovic Peon

dailytrans Member

golfpro1 Peon

Njones Peon

zelthost Member

inazir Greenhorn

digitalwebman06 Active Member

catanich Peon

dilon Well-Known Member

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