I've got as far as creating capture pages (as the entire site is dynamic) with keywords, meta data, image alt text, filenames and page titles all relevant. I've been to a few websites to learn all of this and every next one I turn to gives me even more information. My brain is about to explode with SEO techniques, jargon etc, and I was hoping someone could point me in the direction of a good SEO tutorial type site, or maybe even offer some advice.
I've now got to start work on keyword submissions and page submission, but frankly don't have the faintest idea where to start. The budget I have would not afford me a Mars bar so everything I do has to be cheap (ie free).
Is there a passing expert who would be willing to point a weary learner in the direction of a good SEO info site, or maybe even impart a few suggestions for someone who's head hurts after reading just the Google FAQ's on this site.
One of the problems faced by my company is it's size. I work for a toy company with 30-40 brands which all could be used for keywords.
I've tried not to come here and ask, "How do I get my site listed highly?" as frankly that's my problem and I doubt any of you have a magic wand. plus if there were an easy answer then none of us would be here right now. I was just hoping for the odd pointer or two so I can do the basics before I get bogged down in the minutae of getting to the very top. Top 100 would be nice, let alone top 10. I'll try and walk before I can run.
Thanks for any advice anyone has, even if its' "Run now while you still have your sanity!". :)
PS For anyone that missed it my question is - I've created capture pages (being uploaded next week), what the hell do I do now?
I was in a similar position a few months ago, and I found a few sites here and there that helped, but the "magic wand" is right here at WW. Use the search tool - there are almost no topics on SEO that have not been dealt with here. Also there is the sister site Search Engine World.
Run while you still have your sanity!! - that's good advice. - laughs maniacally in the background
More seriously - this site is a great resource and there are lots of people here who have already completely lost any threads of sanity they ever had and are now known as professional SEOs
Read the threads here and ask questions. Don't be afraid of asking stupid questions we all did it when we joined and most people realise this and help you as much as they can.
In order of importance the things to do are first to make sure you understand how a spider will read your site, are there any bad navigation routes which can't be followed, is the site all in flash, is all your text actually text, are you using frames without provision for spiders finding the text (they don't all read frames well)
Then once you have done this look at having all your meta tags in place and make sure the meta tags reflect what is on the page. Check out your page titles are these keyword loaded and are they consistent with page text and meta tags.
That should get you out of the wilderness into the top five hundred or so results for your searches.
Then get down to the detailed work keyword analysis, linking and Google PR, keyword density etc.
sanity is here in bags full, but insanity is a more custom attribute of a shed load of members including myself when trying to learn all the things their is too learn about SEO.
insanity can create genius, but i am only concerned in it making money.
have to assume you posted here because your in Britain. not a problem. JamesR recently started a new Forum, calles New to Web Development [webmasterworld.com] Good place to have a nose around, loads of excellant info, from members that post all over the forums [webmasterworld], particulary this post by James, the big no no's [webmasterworld.com].
Outside of that, this place is friendly and once you start hunting around and getting specific towards issues of concern, and posting or using the site search at the top, for possible answers/suggestions, then you will be well on your way.
Will no doubt run into you somewhere on the forums, agian.
oh btw, if you are in the uk ?, you could come and meet a few hundred of the members at the pub conference (we sit in the pub and confer) and have a beer, hey you never know the beer may be free - which it is - for a limited time (about 6 hours on the last two i've been two)
enjoy, caine
>I recently changed roles within my company from doing graphic design to working on their website. One of the key issues that previously no-one has had time to address...
First, while your head is bursting, I suggest you call a meeting with the highest management person you can collar and try to convey some of what you've already learned here (I wouldn't mention anything about the phase of the moon just yet). We have so many here that have to struggle daily because owners/managers/marketers have NO inkling that SEO is a fundamental part of successful web marketing. IMO, the best thing you can do for yourself is to make it clear that this is a dynamic industry and there really aren't any books or tutorials that remain valid for very long.
To answer the questions posted above, yes I am in the UK and work on a UK directed site.
The site I work on is asp based and driven by a database. Each page is currently created dynamically. There isn't much written content though as the site is mainly a shop, but that's changing <snip>No URL's please.
I'll have a look at those sites quiet_man mentioned too.
Now that the capture pages are prepared (though not yet in place), and hopefully they will look attractive and sexy to the spiders, it's submissions next I think.
I've been looking through some of the old threads and FAQ's and it seems to me that everything you can do to optimise a page could also be considered spam and get you blacklisted, which wouldn't be the most brilliant start ever. :)
If anyone able to clarify any of the following it would be a great help;
1) How often should pages be submitted to search engines?
2) Should the same pages be submitted repeatedly, or different ones each time?
3) I get the feeling as this is a place for people who know something about what they are talking about, that words like "WebPosition Gold" are probably dirty words. Do people rate such programs (for submissions and keyword ranking monitoring)?
4) How can I manually make submissions to Inktomi?
I'm off now to re-read the mind boggling Overture keywords submissions thread I was reading where people spend all day making submissions!
I need a drink!
Thanks for your advice everyone, it is MUCH appreciated!
[edited by: NFFC at 6:48 pm (utc) on July 4, 2002]
If you are anywhere near London or Essex, I would be happy to share 4 years worth of knowledge over a cup of coffee.
As the others 9more knowledgeable than MOI) have said there is NO magic wand out there, just common sense and good advice.
"Had a friend call me up yesterday, saying he needs lots of traffic, so I said, NO problem, I can send you 10,000 visitors a day, but it will not make any difference, as they are looking for porn, and he sells antiques"
anyway hope my comments help.
and as for Overture, I am currently spending between 10 -15k (Overture, Espotting and Google Premium) so can tell you a trick or two.
Shak
gotta disagree on your above statement!
Shak
Sounds like a strange statement but I submit a site (only pages with paid inclusion) once only to the following:
a) Yahoo for a paid review.
b) DMOZ
If you are running low on cash - that's all you need to do! Every search engine will crawl your site from those two submissions (provided you are included). It may take months or even years - but happen it will - even with SEs like Inktomi and AV!
If you have a bit more cash - then individual pages to Inktomi via Positiontech or another partner and FAST (via Lycos). Do each page once - and that's it for the year.
I have not submitted any page from my own site to any search engine for 3 years. Every page is listed in all SEs.
>2) Should the same pages be submitted repeatedly, or different ones each time?
See above. Once done - leave alone!
3) I get the feeling as this is a place for people who know something about what they are talking about, that words like "WebPosition Gold" are probably dirty words. Do people rate such programs (for submissions and keyword ranking monitoring)?
WPG is a tool - it is not a 'dirty word' - but rather like a London Cabbie rarely needs a map - so a good SEO doesn't need a guide. WPG is a guide and a useful tool for a learner and may give tips when you get lost. It is not needed for submissions (see above) but may help with monitoring rankings - but be careful. Some SEs don't like automatic ranking checkers - messes up their click-through tracking on ad impressions!
>4) How can I manually make submissions to Inktomi?
See above!
Same here.
Nice post, MMT. The part about WPG was particularly well put.
Tonster, you need PUBCONFERENCE!!
I've got a few of these in the works and would be happy to share a few tips via email (sticky), telcon (your dime). I'd also like to start a new thread that deals with parsing asp generated URL's. That's the part we really need to concentrate on. We've got the titles, descriptions, keywords and other variables addressed, but for some reason, my programmer is stumped with the parsing issue. Have you addressed that one yet?
I guess I'll have to come clean and admit I don't actually know exactly what url parsing is, though I can make a semi-educated guess :D Another area I'll have to look into.
Once again, thanks for the help, and a public 'thanks' to everyone who's taken the time to email me.
[webmasterworld.com...]
Seems like a lot to get hold of eh? As a few people have said, stick around here.
WRT parsing out URL’s. Not an easy subject, I would be love to be able to do it but it is beyond me and I don’t have the required access rights to the server.
Anyway here goes for a basic explanation.
With database driven sites you find URL’s that have characters that can cause problems to spiders as they try and request pages
Blahblah.com/news/detailpage.asp?id=21
The ? is what could cause the problem due to the possibility that the variable id could be one of an infinite number of options, which could drive the spider mental and trap them in a never ending loop. There are other characters that are considered search engine allergic & % and can cause the same sort of problems.
Now it is possible to parse out these characters so a to a search engine it looks like the page is just a static html based page.
By parsing out you can make the URL look like
Blahblah.com/news/21
But when it is clicked the parameters are taken out and made to request the correct page form the database.
I have seen explanations of this using ASP where you alter the url using instr and various replace commands. This can also be done using the mod_rewrite on apache.
In addition this it is becoming less of a problem as the likes of google can crawl dynamic sites with query strings but it is however a very slick technique.
Cheers
