Starting to despair........

Hi there

i recently designed a site for a client to advertise his condo rental in florida.
as the client is also a friend - (and also i wanted develop my SEO skills) i decided to try and optmise it for him. over the last few months i have read up on a lot of stuff and had a few forum discussions too.

i never expected to be able to get a really good positions for it, on any popular keyphrases (on google) however - i am beginning to wonder whether i am ever going to get anywhere on any keyphrase that relates to the site.

the thing is that the serps for almost every keyphrase that i think relates to the site seems to be utterly dominated by the large sites with multiple listings.
i know that google prefers large sites, and also they have a huge advantage of internal links and content etc. but I am starting to wonder if a site my size with zero budget, can compete at all

my site has about 36 pages in all - however only about 10 pages have reasonable content on them (average 500 words a page) the other 26 pages have just a photo on them and a couple of sentences.


is there any way i could get the site to appear in any keyphrases that are worth while? or has a site my size got no chance in such a competitve arena?

i know people may not have any definitive answers but any tips would be greatfully appreciated

 

Hiya fluke,

That's a really good looking site BTW. My initial instinct is; Are you relying purely on SEO, keywords and phrases to promote the site? Have you tried any other forms of promotion such as getting your link placed in appropriate travel/ft myers/condo sites?

 

thank you

i have put it in directories and as many "competitors" sites as possible - as much for the value of the links for SEO purposes as for the traffic from the link.

 

Yes small sites can rank well, but it is easier for large sites who have enormous amounts of content and links at their disposal. I have a 55 pge site which ranks top 5 for several competitive keywords across many search engines, so it can be done, but you have to use all the tools at your disposal, especially inbound anchor text links combined with full on page optimization.

 

I have a few small sites that are ranking fairly well and inbound anchor text links with the proper keyphrases seems to make a big deal for them. Yes, content is very important and I never want to understate that but, IBLs bring leads and impact rankings. IMHO.

 

An AdWord box can be an answer when you've only the slightest chance of appearing in the first couple of Google pages. Sure, there are different opinions about the percentage of people who click on an Adword box as opposed to -- or in addition to -- natural search results. However, you do turn up on the first page and I suppose even a single click is better than never being seen because you're buried lord knows how deep in the results.
It's at least worth a try and it isn't going to be an expensive one. Perhaps there'll be some other AdWord boxes in competition with you, but I'd be surprised if many/any other condo owners are among them.

Duncan

 

If you do use AdWords, make sure you are making a return on your investment. I don't see the "Buy Now" button on your page. Make sure people understand what's for sale, and how they can buy. Also, consider joining any associations that will legitimize your site. Capitalize all or none of your left menu. Avoid abbreviations like "condo". You're site looks really good with the pictures and the maps.

There are no doubt rental sites on the web that you should get your site listed on, even if you have to pay. Those will most likely pan out better than Google AdWords.

 

Yes - there are a few things like that that i just havn't got round to changing
(i kind of want to put the keywords in the links so havn't bothered changing it yet as i havn't settled on any keywords)

unfortunately that seems to be what almost all serchers look for - perhaps changing it to condominium will get me less competition.

i think the one main thing that is really getting to me is this: according to almost every article on selecting keywords - wordtracker is the essential tool - (and overture kind of) - i have always thought that one of the main ways you select your keyphrases was firstly by the amount of searches it recieves and also by the amount of competetion each phrase has.

however (and as i hate forum pages coming up with my keywords in i will use examples that don't invove Condos ) lets say word tracker says the phrase "apartment rentals in london" has loads of searches but also loads of copmetetion - but the phrase "london apartment rentals" has almost as many searches but far less competition - HOWEVER when i do a normal search without quotes for "London apartment rentals" all the sites which came up for "apartment rentals in london" come up for this search also ! - meaning that all those sites are in direct competetion with me too! in fact it doesn't seem to matter what order the words are in - if they have certain words in the same pages will come up again and again ( not the same sites with different pages tailored to diffrent keywords - but the same pages - which only seeme tailored to one keyphrase come up no matter what order the words are in the search phrase)

therefore i just can't decide on what keyphrase to try and use - - is there a reason for this - is the old "laws" of keyphrase searching changed - or has word trackers "competetion" assesment always been wide of the mark - or is this a peculiararity of the area that i am trying to optimise in?