my new desined site, how does it look for search engine marketing ?

[paulieGB]

Hello,

 

I have just re-designed my shop and i have put - seo URL's on the site and header tags 4 novices and new google site map.

 

Can anyone look at my site and see if it is good for google search engine, or tell me if i should change anything e.t.c.

 

http://www.foxycards.co.uk

 

Paulie.

[♥kymation]

Your on-page titles for your categories are all the same. There's not much text on those pages, so the duiplicate content will hurt. Also, all of your on-page titles are just text -- these need to be in an h1 tag so the search engines will think they are more important. You can style the tags in your stylesheet so they look the same as they do now.

 

You seem to have removed the breadcrumbs, which I wouldn't recommend. Breadcrumbs are a good place to repeat key terms.

 

In the page head, your meta description and keywords seem to just repeat the same information that is in the title. I would change those a bit, and add some text to the Meta descriptions to give the search engines a bit more to chew on.

 

Not a bad start, but could use some tuning.

 

Regards

Jim

[lindsayanng]

definitely need to flesh out your keywords.. you mainpage has one keyword .. using a common keyword is not going to get your anywhere because you are competing against everyone else who has that keyword.. ANd those other sites probably have more linkbacks and quality link backs.

Put some more info and links in your footer too.

[paulieGB]

Hello,

 

Thank you for your replys =

 

''Your on-page titles for your categories are all the same''

 

= i have changed this, is it ok now ?

 

 

''There's not much text on those pages, so the duiplicate content will hurt''

 

= do i still need to worry about duplicate content ? and where should i add more text ? do i still need to ?

 

 

''all of your on-page titles are just text -- these need to be in an h1 tag so the search engines will think they are more important. You can style the tags in your stylesheet so they look the same as they do now. ''

 

OK i dont understand this, can you please explain ?

 

 

''You seem to have removed the breadcrumbs, which I wouldn't recommend. Breadcrumbs are a good place to repeat key terms.''

 

I havent removed the breadcrumbs, i was using header tags for novices , could that be why the breadcrumbs were not there ? there was a file for breadcrumbs i had to upload.

Anyway i have taken header tags for novices OFF and now am using Header tags SEO.

i hope its ok now ?

 

 

''In the page head, your meta description and keywords seem to just repeat the same information that is in the title. I would change those a bit, and add some text to the Meta descriptions to give the search engines a bit more to chew on.''

 

i actually thought it was a Good idea to repeat the keywords in the title and description ?, what should i add or take away from the title or description or keywords ?

i think you mean Just to add more information in the description ?

 

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

 

''definitely need to flesh out your keywords.. you mainpage has one keyword .. using a common keyword is not going to get your anywhere because you are competing against everyone else who has that keyword''

 

the keywords i am using, i did a check on webmaster search engine tools for 'happy birthday cards' and it gets hit about 900 times a day, so i thought that was great.

The thing is i have tryed different keywords before - 'greeting cards' which acording to webmaster gets hit about 1500 times a day, and i never got anywhere with that.

i also tryed 'handmade greeting cards' and that only gets hit about 70 times a day, i never got anywhere on google with 'handmade greeting cards' but i did get on the first page on yahoo for those keywords, Unfortunatly i never got any customers doing this and only sold one card on the site over about 5 months.

So i am looking for good keywords that will give me the customers i need to look at my site to buy greeting cards.

Im really stuck as to what keywords to choose, i thought i would try 'happy birthday cards' and set my site up really well to get good search results on google, i know i will get LOTS of good customers if i can do that with those keywords.

What am i supost to do - use goods keywords lots of people search for each day, or use very unpopular keywords where i MAY get good search engine ranking with ?

 

Paulie

[lindsayanng]

Like i said if you choose super good keywords that people use every day, you will HAVE to up your pagerank on google by getting LOADS of quality backlinks because lots of other sites are also using those popular keywords so you HAVE to have a better page ranking than them. and with the big companies, its hard to compete.

 

On another note, if you put a keyword in that gets about 70 hits a day, and you come up on the top page every time, that is 70 visitors a day that CAN come to your site.. maybe you should try to figure out why those 70 visitors are not clicking your site or are not purchasing.

[paulieGB]

well the keywords that i was using were 'handmade greeting cards'

And im guessing that people were typing that in to make there OWN greeting cards, i mean would you type that in if you wanted to buy a greeting cards ? maybe a few would.

Well thats what i think i could EASILY be wrong i mean the site was not looking good back then.

 

Also it was JUST on yahoo that i was on the first page, i didn't show on google at all for my keywords.

 

the keyword sugestion tool at www.submitexpress.com does show that 'handmade greeting cards' gets 71 searches a day in Wordtracker Results and 10 in Keyword Discovery Results,

now i dont really know what that means , but im sure that that doesnot mean that 70 people search for 'handmade greeting cards' on YAHOO.

 

What you think ?

 

Paulie.

[lindsayanng]

umm i wouldnt search "handmade greeting cards" unless i wanted to BUY handmade greeting cards.. if i wanted to create my own, i would search craft supplies, or card making supplies.. THats just me but i would THINK that would be the average.

 

Google, like i said, uses something called PAGE RANK. Google it and you will see.. theres a LOT more to being #1 on google other than keywords.

[lindsayanng]

I just did a Keyword Check on that site, and it seems to be WAY off.. I searched for the number of times "connecticut wedding photography" was searched, and i got 0!! that is CRAZY because it is a broad search but location specific.. i think a different tool is a good idea

[paulieGB]

thank you,

 

i just tryed yooter selection tool - http://www.yooter.com/keyword/index.php

 

I would say its more acurate, it shows how many searches for the keyword each month.

'greeting cards' gets 37203 hits and 'happy birthday cards' gets 3610 hits, and 'handmade greeting cards 'gets 299 hits (Not many searches each MONTH).

i was suprised that 'yahoo greeting cards' has 2570 hits, so maybe that will be a better choice for me.

 

i will try to get some links or LOTS of links if possible, do i need a link for MY web site on there site , lol stupid question probably, i did have some links for other greeting card site on MY old site, is that any good ?

links for other sites on my site or do i really need links TO MY SITE on THERE site ?

 

Paulie.

[lindsayanng]

no.. you dont want to put links of other card sites on your website. although you might HAVE to in order to TRADE, but the way to get page ranks is to get other sites to link to YOU.. You want Quatliy sites to link to you.

[♥kymation]

''Your on-page titles for your categories are all the same''

 

= i have changed this, is it ok now ?

That's better. There's still very little content on the category pages, so they may get ignored. More text would be better.

 

= do i still need to worry about duplicate content ? and where should i add more text ? do i still need to ?

You always have to worry about duplicate content. If a certain percentage of each page is duplicated, the search engines will consider them duplicates and ignore them. You should duplicate as little as possible. Use your keywords, but don't repeat the same text in the same order. Get creative.

 

''all of your on-page titles are just text -- these need to be in an h1 tag so the search engines will think they are more important. You can style the tags in your stylesheet so they look the same as they do now. ''

 

OK i dont understand this, can you please explain ?

Study up on HTML. There are some good references to this on this forum.

 

The H tags are headers. Headers describe what the following text is about, so search engines consider them important. You are losing out on some useful keyword emphasis if you don't have at least some of your keywords in an h1 tag on each page.

 

I havent removed the breadcrumbs, i was using header tags for novices , could that be why the breadcrumbs were not there ? there was a file for breadcrumbs i had to upload.

Anyway i have taken header tags for novices OFF and now am using Header tags SEO.

i hope its ok now ?

 

No. I still don't see any breadcrumbs. They aren't essential, but they are a good place to repeat your keywords, and they are useful to customers as well. I recommend putting them back.

 

''In the page head, your meta description and keywords seem to just repeat the same information that is in the title. I would change those a bit, and add some text to the Meta descriptions to give the search engines a bit more to chew on.''

 

i actually thought it was a Good idea to repeat the keywords in the title and description ?, what should i add or take away from the title or description or keywords ?

i think you mean Just to add more information in the description ?

It's a good idea to repeat keywords, but it's a bad idea for your Title and Meta Description to contain the same text. This can get you a penalty from some search engines. Also, some search engines will use your Description text as the page description that they present in the search results. If it looks like a string of keywords, your customers will be less likely to click on it. Write a good description, using normal English sentences. Use normal capitalization and punctuation.

 

Also, it looks like your product pages now have no Meta Description or Keywords at all. The keywords are not as important as the description, but your SEO contribution should put them both in. If not, you need to change.

 

Your site could also use some more text. You describe each card in detail, but there's no sell. Why would I want to buy your card? Why would I buy a handmade card rather than storebought? If you are only pitching to people who are already sold, you'll get very little business.

 

Regards

Jim

[paulieGB]

Hi thanks for your replys,

 

I have added alot of text on the home page and also on the categorie pages.

 

I have no idea what has happend to the breadcrumbs, can i get them back ? i dont know.

 

I have also added meta descriptions and keywords to the product pages.

 

''The H tags are headers. Headers describe what the following text is about, so search engines consider them important. You are losing out on some useful keyword emphasis if you don't have at least some of your keywords in an h1 tag on each page.''

 

I will have to read up on this i dont know how to add H tags.

 

Thanks,

 

Paulie

[lindsayanng]

"h" tags is just the <h1></h1> tags.. It literally is the HEADER of a body of text.. the <h> tag basically makes the text larger and bold.. <h2> is a little smaller and <h3> is even smaller but all are HEADERs.. kind of like a title that you have on a research paper.. you TITLE is a header.

[paulieGB]

ok thank you,

 

so should i add <h1><h1> around my keywords in the text in my php file so they stand out and get picked up by the search engines ?

[lindsayanng]

not in the keywords.. just in your text.. When you write text, make sure that instead of bolding or underlining, use head tags.. not HEADER

[lindsayanng]

just a note on your site.. as i was looking through.. you need to offer better product images.. The product listing images are small and it does not, by any means, make you want to click on it.. then, you offer no image of what the inside looks like.. Should offer atleast 2 images of each card.. Front, Inside, Back..and maybe the envelope if it comes with oen.

 

why does the "customize this card" bring you to a contact form?? I think you should forget abotu the SEO and optimize your site for usability.

[paulieGB]

thank you,

 

maybe a silly question buty does the size of the text make a difference to the search engines ?

so will <h1> be better than <h3> ?

 

Paulie.

[paulieGB]

i am going to change the images tomorrow, and have 3 pictures to enlarge and better quality thumbnail pictures.

 

the 'customize this card' button takes you to contact us because thats what they need to do to let me know what they want customized, is there anything better i can do with it ?

 

Paulie.

[lindsayanng]

No they dont.. you should look into adding the option type which lets the customer add text as an attribute to their order.. then they dont have to contact you via emaila nd wait for you to respond. No one WAITS for anything on the internet.. if they cant get an answer then and now, they will go elsewhere

[paulieGB]

great idea,

how would i add the option type page ?

 

i can do some reseach if you like, :)

 

thanks

[lindsayanng]

go to addons.oscommerce.com and type option type.. you will see the installation package.. from there, you just unzip and follow the instructions.

[paulieGB]

thank you very much i will do that tomorrow,

 

im of to bed now.

 

Paulie.

[paulieGB]

Hi,

 

Im wondering if it would be ok to take the main text of the home page, and instead have one line of text at the top of the page, as a link to go to another page, where all the information about the site and what we offer e.t.c will be.

How would that effect my site as far as search engine marketing ?

 

The people who have responded to this thread have said that text is very important for the search engines,

 

so would my 'main text' being on a different page than the home page be ok or a bad idea ?

 

Paulie.

[lindsayanng]

if you replace it with images and use alt tags for those images, you should be ok.. and yes, making an ABOUT US page with a link to it would help.. people might just find your ABOUT US page and not your index first, which is fine

[paulieGB]

Hi,

 

How about using my logo as the link ?

 

i could change the text on the logo so it says something like ' about foxycards ' or something that actually sounds good / u know what i mean though.

 

Paulie.