Need some basic SEO advice

[chodges84]

Hi,

I have finally decided i should probably look at my website (an ecommerce site), and see if I can rank it a little higher in the SERPS, currently I am hardly ranked in any (except for a few phrases in Y! and MSN). I've had a bit of a read around the forums and highlighted some things that *may* be a problem.

1. No Meta tags on any pages (description or keywords).
   
2. I use <h1> tags for product titles. There may be as many as 8 products of a page, all with a <h1>. At the top of the page is a 'category heading'. Should i change it so that category title is <h1> and product titles are <h2>?. A quick example (these aren't my products, first thing that cam e to mind) is batteries. The category title might be 'Alkaline Batteries' and then products are 'AAA batteries', AA Batteries' etc. These all appear on 1 page. Might it be worthwhile having a page dedicated to each type of battery and just offering a basic description on the page where you can see the section?
   
3. The file naming is like this manufacture_product.html. So if Fake Inc. manufactured blue widgets the page would be fake_blue_widgets. I have heard that hyphens work better. is this true? Would i benefit from having fake-blue-widgets.html? All my pages are indexed, in all major search engines, but only 1 visitor this month has come from a non ppc link, so i could change without any major effect. Would it be worth chaging from _ to - and would i see any downside with Adwords and such like by changing my file naming like that?
   
4. I don't write any content often. I always try and add new products, but sometimes they go on to an existing page, so no new pages. Would it be worth having a 'News' section, about the market i am in. I could probably add a new story every 2 days if not 2-3 over that period.
   

Can anyone say whether or not any of these will be effecting my position in the SERPS. Currently my home page is PR4 and I most of my pages are either PR2, 3 or 4.

One of my competitors ranks highly. He has lower PR than me, and a file structure like this www.competitorsite.com/product30/
he uses OSCommerce and Meta tags.

Any tips?

Thanks,
Craig.

[dickbaker]

A couple of comments, Craig.

I use underscores on my pages. I also run words together, such as fakebluewidgets.html. I don't know that it really matters that much.

Having a separate page for each product would help.

I'd use the <h1> tag just once, and use <h2>'s after that.

You don't mention how long your site has been around but, if it's nine months or less, you may be experiencing the lag time it takes to get ranked.

You also don't mention page titles. If you don't have your keywords in the page titles, do so now.

Also, you don't mention how much text is on the page. You want to have enough to repeat your keywords 2% to 20% of all the text. A hundred words on the page should do fine.

As for the meta tags, there are people on this forum who say they don't matter. I have many, many pages that rank in the top ten on Google, and all that's showing for the description is the meta tag description. Hard to know what Google would show if I didn't have meta tags.

Adding new content is definitely helpful. I've been remiss in doing that, but still am ranking very well. If I don't start adding some, though, that ranking could go south quickly.

If your competitor is ranking well, look at what they're doing and do the same thing.

Just my .02.

[chodges84]

Hi Dick,

thanks for the replies. I think I will avoid changing the underscores then, and adjust the <h1>'s.

The site has been around for 18 months or so.

Also, you don't mention how much text is on the page. You want to have enough to repeat your keywords 2% to 20% of all the text. A hundred words on the page should do fine.

So for every 100 words on the page, between 2 and 20 of them should be the keywords?

Having a separate page for each product would help.

I think i will keep the layout the same as it is now (as it works well), but add a link on the product title to a page deicated to that product, that way the page stays the same, but customers can click through and see more about the product (not that there is anymore to write, but a larger picture would be good).

If your competitor is ranking well, look at what they're doing and do the same thing.

I actually get on well with him, as I buy one product from him in wholesale lots. Last time we spoke he even reckoned my sales of that particular widget have exceeded his retail sales. I might just ask him if hes had any seo work done, and if so, if he could recomend anyone.

Thanks again,
Craig.

[avneetsethi]

About using underscores, I read on Matt Cutt's blog (the guy from Google) that you should prefer using hyphens instead of underscores.

He says that Google treats hyphens as spaces but not underscores since they are frequently used in many computer programming languages.

hope this helps.

[sarika mosaic]

Hi Chodges

META TAGS- Although Meta tags are used to provide extra info about web page, they are loosing importance nowadays. But if you still want to go for Meta tags, use 15-20 relevant keywords in KEyword meta tag. Description MEta tag is not noticeable by Google.

CONTENT- Try to add 1 page daily, if you cannot, add whenever you can but dont put junk in it.

I am not clear ebout using "_" or "-" in filename.

Thanks

Sarika

[sem4u]

The description meta tag IS used by Google. For some searches Google will pull data out of the description meta tag and display that as your site's description in the SERPs.

I usually use hypens for my filenames, partly because they are easier for me to read and partly because they may give a small boost in engines like Yahoo! and MSN.

[caveman]

Google is on record as suggesting hyphens over underscores.

[Robert Charlton]

Would it be worth chaging from _ to -

Probably not.

Yes, it's true that the engines can parse words more easily with hypens than with underscores, but I don't think that page filenames have much to do with ranking.

I also think that the confusion that would result with changing filenames would cost you a fair amount, and I don't think the questionable gain would be worth it.

I use underscores all the time too. If I were starting afresh, I might flip a coin.

Definitely consider focusing your pages.