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1 month in - feedback?


johnmaley

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I've been up and running almost a month now. I have had a handful of sales from PPC, but I'm languishing in the search engines.

 

I'm at http://onlytravelbags.com.

 

I'm showing up in the 6-700s on google for my 2 main key phrases. I'm between 250 and 350 on yahoo, and I'm not on MSN anywhere as far as I can tell. Does anyone see anything onsite that I should focus on? I've been doing a lot off site, but that will obviously take some time. Am I doing OK onsite? Am I at the point where I just need to add content and wait, or what?

 

Also, if anyone has any other comments about using the site, etc., I'm all ears.

 

Thanks

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A nice implementation of the default layout with a pleasant color theme.

 

Some tips which might make it even better:

 

- Make the infobox backgrounds white

- Change the categories box to a more aesthetically pleasing one.

- Make the header line and box heading lines a little bit higher.

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A nice implementation of the default layout with a pleasant color theme.

 

Some tips which might make it even better:

 

- Make the infobox backgrounds white

- Change the categories box to a more aesthetically pleasing one.

- Make the header line and box heading lines a little bit higher.

 

Good call on the infoboxes. I hadn't noticed that they weren't quite white somehow.

 

I messed with the categories box using parts of a contribution, and I think it looks better, but more importantly, I like the functionality better (the arrow indicating more categories makes more sense now).

 

I'm not sure what you mean by 'header line' and 'box heading lines'. Are you talking about the gap between the header navigation and the infoboxes?

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I'm not sure what you mean by 'header line' and 'box heading lines'. Are you talking about the gap between the header navigation and the infoboxes?

 

No.. the green header and box header lines themselves.... they are now about 14px high.

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Hi John,

 

It was refreshing to see a new site without the default text. You gave me something pertinent to read. (Okay, okay, honest in reviews, I didn't read it but it is something that someone looking for your product line would read and find interesting.) I felt like there was a reason to scroll down the page.

 

I would have attempted an account but I don't want a ton of spam: "we make the e-mail addresses of those who access our site available to other ... organizations" (which you repeated twice for emphasis). Yes, you do state one can opt-out. I find that where I must opt-out, the opt-out isn't received until after "we make the e-mail addresses of those who access our site available to other ... organizations ".

 

Unique color combinations. I kinda like the greens of GTB.

 

Of course I haven't touched your actual question

 

Google takes a little time.

 

Okay, I was on http://onlytravelbags.com/spyder-golf-trav...Golf-Travel-Bag and pulled the page source. I noticed "golf travel case" as a keyword. It does not appear on the page other than in a menu item. Do not use keywords that are not on the page subject. It may be another way of describing the product but if it isn't on the page then keep it out of keywords. Wrong keywords are worse than no keywords. Google does not need a keyword metatag to tell it what is on a page.

 

On my client's site I rewrote how the information gets written down on the page. Since I ain't too bright about dimensional positioning I still gotta write the header first then followed by the content body, then the right margin, the left column, and lastly the footer. This way the main content is closer to the top. I think it does help at times and I have seen some of the competition sites rewritten in a similar fashion.

 

I also noticed in your keywords for that page that the term "golf travel bag" was repeated 3 times. Looks like keyword spamming. your keywords should be more like, "Spyder Golf Travel Bags".

 

If your keywords are coming out like that on all the pages it becomes a bigger problem. Slim them done to once about what is on the page.

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I would have attempted an account but I don't want a ton of spam: "we make the e-mail addresses of those who access our site available to other ... organizations" (which you repeated twice for emphasis). Yes, you do state one can opt-out. I find that where I must opt-out, the opt-out isn't received until after "we make the e-mail addresses of those who access our site available to other ... organizations ".

 

Okay, I was on http://onlytravelbags.com/spyder-golf-trav...Golf-Travel-Bag and pulled the page source. I noticed "golf travel case" as a keyword. It does not appear on the page other than in a menu item. Do not use keywords that are not on the page subject. It may be another way of describing the product but if it isn't on the page then keep it out of keywords. Wrong keywords are worse than no keywords. Google does not need a keyword metatag to tell it what is on a page.

 

On my client's site I rewrote how the information gets written down on the page. Since I ain't too bright about dimensional positioning I still gotta write the header first then followed by the content body, then the right margin, the left column, and lastly the footer. This way the main content is closer to the top. I think it does help at times and I have seen some of the competition sites rewritten in a similar fashion.

 

I also noticed in your keywords for that page that the term "golf travel bag" was repeated 3 times. Looks like keyword spamming. your keywords should be more like, "Spyder Golf Travel Bags".

 

If your keywords are coming out like that on all the pages it becomes a bigger problem. Slim them done to once about what is on the page.

 

I wasn't aware of the issue with the privacy policy. I used a policy generator and maybe checked the wrong options or something, but I don't sell or give away any info. I'll change that very soon (I'm out of town right now or I'd have already fixed it). Thanks for mentioning it as a turn off.

 

I'll also revisit the keywords. I think that my train of thought was that google seems to treat plurals as separate from singulars, but maybe that's wrong. I thought that because different sites come up in different orders for singular vs. plural searches. I'm not too clear on how that works, either in theory or in practice. But regardless of that, you're definitely right that "case" shouldn't be on some of the pages that it's on. I think that's a function of me not using the header tags controller correctly, or having some terms in the auto-fill that maybe I shouldn't.

 

Thanks for the suggestions and for helping me find some of these loose ends.

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Hi again,

 

What I didn't say in the review is that I believe you are probably an upright, legit person like most of us store owners here are this forum. The policy generator didn't present your site in the best of terms.

 

... Google seems to treat plurals as separate from singulars, but maybe that's wrong. I thought that because different sites come up in different orders for singular vs. plural searches.

I know they are not treated exactly the same. I am not absolutely sure myself what are the differences. I think they keep changing all their little variables every so often. I remember reading about quite a few of Google's tips, but don't remember specifically about plurals. I think singulars can be found within plurals but not vice-versa.

 

I think I usually went with the plural notion on my client's site.

 

What I do now in researching keywords through Google's External Keyword Tool is not to look for keywords for my pages but to learn how people search and research hints at how to write my pages according.

 

I pulled up "golf travel bags" on the aforementioned page and see that you appear to be in a very competitive field.

 

I should clarify that the repeating of which I am speaking was on a product page. The main page and the category page I checked treat keywords differently.

 

I don't know if I should mention this, but I noticed that there were quotation marks within the content for the meta-Description. This makes for some really goofy HTML for your customer's browsers. see page http://onlytravelbags.com/guardian-players...-case-p-43.html

 

Good luck with your site,

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