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_gail
Posts: 2876
From: So FL
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Search Engine Optimization: more questions - 8/1/2002 11:59:33
When I do a Goggle or Yahoo search for a website I recentlly completed, it comes up number one when I type in its full name: " Bella Umbrella." www.bellaumbrella.com
Here' s my first question:
I' d like to have the site appear in search results when entering only one related word or phrase, such as " umbrella" or " special event." Is this at all possible? If so, how?
I' ve often heard people speak about raising a site in rankings when doing a search. I understand that search engines don' t want duplicate submissions so this is not a technique to raise rank.
Here' s my second question:
What is the proper way to raise the ranking of a site once it' s been already registered?
Thanks, gail
Note: the BellaU site has only been submitted to the few remaining major free search engines recommended in the Outfront article " Introduction to Search Engines - Part II."
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abbeyvet
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From: Kilkenny Ireland
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RE: Search Engine Optimization: more questions - 8/1/2002 12:28:51
The site probably does appear in the list for the terms umbrella and special event - though maybe on page 107 or something, and there is the problem, or challenge if you prefer.
Getting a top 10 or 20 ranking for a term as general as either umbrella or special event is not going to be that easy. But here are some things you could do quite readily.
1. Think about all the key phrases that people might use to find the site, or might use and then accidently find the site and decide they need it. This is a brain storming exercise really and the site owner can play too!
2. Once you have these phrases go to the search term selection tool at http://www.overture.com (Proceed as though you were going to buy advertising, on a help yourself basis, and you will find it. The move the link a lot, today it is here: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/)
Use this to see what actual terms are searched on using your keywords and phrases from 1 above.
Here are the top results for searches in the last month for a few terms for example:
19846 umbrella
13708 patio umbrella
7044 beach umbrella
5920 market umbrella
2347 umbrella stroller
1698 outdoor umbrella
1499 golf umbrella
1392 umbrella cockatoo
1086 umbrella insurance
1048 umbrella light
1035 sun umbrella
955 umbrella stand
839 umbrella tree
819 umbrella stands
812 offset umbrella
796 umbrella manufacturer
Parasol
2934 parasol
142 parasol record
116 easy sun parasol
100 texas parasol
73 parasol umbrella
71 lace parasol
61 chinese parasol tree
46 parasol humming bird feeder
40 parasol 1789
39 sun garden parasol
36 chinese parasol
35 parasol frame
33 paper parasol
31 japanese parasol
30 woman with a parasol
27 costume parasol
Special Events
15793 special event
1276 special event planning
811 special event ticket
740 special event insurance
709 chicago special event
474 special event planner
469 atlanta special event
425 special event magazine
345 international special event society
319 mayor office of special event
312 city of chicago special event
288 special event coordinator
276 chicago mayor office of special event
236 special event rental
162 gift for a special event
159 special event tent
Most will be irrelevant to you, but you can pick out the important ones.
Repeat this process with all the stuff from step 1.
3. Now make a shortlist of the most important search phrases you have found - how many is really up to you. Then make sure those phrases appear, in the right word order, in your pages. Primarily in the content, but also in the meta tags. ALl will not appear in every page but you should be able to get
That is a way of getting the relevancy of your pages up, which will have an effect.
The other really important thing is getting links to your site. You should try to get the page linked to from other complimentary sites - in this case perhaps wedding planning sites, may be a company renting out marquee tents. That sort of thing. You will need to offer a link back in return.
A site like this it is probably well worth paying to have listings in wedding planning sites, event planning sites and so on.
Increasingly the chances of getting really good qualifed traffic is dependant on having links from relevant sites that deliver traffic most likely to be interested in the service. You will have to pay for many or most of these but without paying it is going to be an uphill struggle. I would think that well targeted ads on keyphrases would be very useful to - as in the Google ads perhaps.
It' s a slow, laborious and very time consuming process. I have passed some clients whose sites I have done on for optimisation to a colleague who specialises in the area - she gets results but she would routinely spend twice as much time promoting the site in the first couple of months as it took me to develop it, so it is not cheap either.
To be honest I find the whole process excrutiatingly boring, which is why I refer them on to someone who finds it fascinating!
_____________________________
Katherine
:: InKK Design :: InKK Domains
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_gail
Posts: 2876
From: So FL
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RE: Search Engine Optimization: more questions - 8/1/2002 13:18:20
quote:
3. Now make a shortlist of the most important search phrases you have found - how many is really up to you. Then make sure those phrases appear, in the right word order, in your pages. Primarily in the content,
A lot of good stuff to digest here but this particular item struck a chord. It raises a related area of inquiry as to " what" content we' re talking about or, more accurately, " where" the carefully crafted content is placed on a page.
When pulling up the BellaU site in a search, the resulting " description" is certainly not what we intended or hoped for. It is NOT the metatag description, it is NOT even part of the first paragraph of the main content on the home page. Here' s what' s displayed:
" Web designer Copyright © 2002 Bella Umbrella All rights reserved."
This is actaully part of the text displayed in left sidebar " include." The include is placed in the first column of the main (second) table on the home page.
Am I correct in the assumption that WHERE content is placed on a web page also influences WHAT is displayed as the description when doing a search? The left sidebar text seems to be taking precedence because of it' s " first" position in the table.
I hope I am wrong. So the question would be: how do you get the actual description to show in a search; or at the very least, the main content text?
Hope you can make sense of my question!
thanks, gail
ps Bobby, why aren' t you chanting?![:p]
< Message edited by _gail -- 7/31/2002 1:21:55 PM >
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abbeyvet
Posts: 5095
From: Kilkenny Ireland
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RE: Search Engine Optimization: more questions - 8/1/2002 13:45:20
Some of the search engines use the meta description, some do not. Google, which I assume you were looking at, seems to pull relevant bits of text from the page - depending on what the search is.
It then highlights the words used in the actual search. I am not sure about how it actually chooses the displyed description, maybe someone else is?
Quite often what is displayed is the first bit of text on the page - not as you look at it from the web, but the first bit that appears in the HTML, which may be quite different. As you point out, it is likely to be something in the left column of a table.
One way of using this is to choose VERY carefully some VERY good phrases as alt text to any images you have that appear on the top of the page.
_____________________________
Katherine
:: InKK Design :: InKK Domains
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_gail
Posts: 2876
From: So FL
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RE: RE: Search Engine Optimization: more questions - 8/1/2002 15:17:20
quote:
ORIGINAL: abbeyvet
One way of using this is to choose VERY carefully some VERY good phrases as alt text to any images you have that appear on the top of the page.
Does this apply if the image(s) at the top of a page are in an include?
gail
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_gail
Posts: 2876
From: So FL
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RE: RE: Search Engine Optimization: more questions - 8/8/2002 16:11:42
quote:
ORIGINAL: abbeyvet
A site like this it is probably well worth paying to have listings in wedding planning sites, event planning sites and so on.
Increasingly the chances of getting really good qualifed traffic is dependant on having links from relevant sites that deliver traffic most likely to be interested in the service. You will have to pay for many or most of these but without paying it is going to be an uphill struggle. I would think that well targeted ads on keyphrases would be very useful to - as in the Google ads perhaps.
I' ve been still trying to come to grips with understanding this.
Are you talking about someone contacting a local company which has a related business, say a florist, then develop a page in the site where this and similar links are placed? I reviewed a site the other day which had a page with " Referrals" on it thanking " the following vendors for their ongoing support." The statement followed by a long list of links to related services.
My guess is that these were reciprocal, not paid for.
As to paying, are you talking about purchasing ad space on search engines such as Google? Are these the " sponsored" links which are typically given top ranking after a search?
Assuming a decision is made to purchase paid listings, which search engines should be recommended? I know Yahoo! now is quite costly.
Finally, regarding " wedding planning sites, event planning sites" do you find these under category listings of the major search engines.
thanks, gail
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jim555
Posts: 1
Joined: 1/6/2007
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RE: RE: Search Engine Optimization: more questions - 1/6/2007 5:50:55
Everything is possible in search engine optimization. You can optimize a website for keywords of your chioce.
In case you are not confident about handling seo work, you can contact some reputed seo companies who will help you get this job done.
regards
raj
[link=/http://www.seohawk.com]Search Engine Optimization SEO Specialist Company[/link]
< Message edited by jim555 -- 1/6/2007 5:56:56 >
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The_magus
Posts: 44
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RE: RE: Search Engine Optimization: more questions - 1/7/2007 10:44:36
Hello Gail:
I am a little reluctant to stick my head up over the parapet for fear of getting it shot full of holes by people who know one heck of lot more then I do but at the same time I would like to offer a few commments on this subject.
I have read of number of books on SEO and a lot on the internet - much of it was contradictory - one would write that meta tags and keywords were dead while another would swear that they were the secret of success.
After four years I have formed a couple of opinions:
1. Search engines spend a lot of time and effort trying to prevent web masters from getting their pages in a postion higher then the content deserves - after all we can't all be number one for everything. Do you honestly think that anyone out there knows the secret to consistent number one??? I don't!
2. I suspect there are a lot of people trying to put shoes on the kids who will give anyone interested in paying them the impression that they have this secret but I doubt if they do have it.
3. Fresh pages seem to rank higher in response to search strings then pages which have not been changed for six or eight months. I often find that a recent page will be on the first page of Google after a week or so yet a similiar page written months ago will come way do their list. The highly ranked page will slowly descend into the depth over time.
I now try to update my existing pages every few months which gives it a new date/time group. Apparently changing for the sake of changing is referred to as "surging" and is frowned upon so I try to make real changes to the pages.
I also try to use a descriptive title for the page and a reasonable number of keywords which I think anyone would use if he/she were searching for the information on the applicable page. You will be amazed at what some people use yet my pages gets suggested. My server shows a list of referrers which lets me bring up the actual page from the search engine which sent them to my page so I can see what search string was used - it often surprises me that the search engine sent them to my page when the question was so poorly framed. Then again you will be surprised at the apparent lack of education of the searchers and their inability to write a coherent request.
My suggestion is to do the best you can following the suggestions about preparing your pages, use appropriate mets tags, use as much content as you can and hope for the best.
By the way, you should not be surprised that your site is number one if you type in "www.yourdomain.com" - who else would you expect to come number one for that???
You might try typing in "site:www.yourdomain.com" which will result in the search engine providing a list of all your pages that they have indexed - not all will do this but the big ones will. Don't drive yourself nuts wondering why this will fluctuate wildly from time to time - it will eventually return to normal. I think it has something to do with the changes in the algorithms used by the search engine trying to keep ahead of cheaters and to provide the most applicable response to the viewers.
Cheers - ever onwards and upwards
Jack
The Magus
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Spooky
Posts: 26606
Joined: 11/11/1998
From: Middle Earth
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RE: RE: Search Engine Optimization: more questions - 1/9/2007 13:34:07
Please note the original post date was 2002
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