Forum Moderators: open
In google I get
AboutUS:example.com
Another about us page.
THEN our index page,...
THEN our sitemap page?
Obviously I'm doing something pretty wrong here. My keyword density is about 8 % from what I can tell but I really didn't check it until after I wrote the pages.
It's a pretty simple site with 14 pages total.
Is my sitemap more valuable than the rest of my content?
Is aboutus always going to be the first page people see?
Totally lost on SEO lately. Seems like everything I do backfires. I've tried to write all my pages in a manner that would be good for the end user to find the information they need about us before contacting us.
I'm nowhere near my competition unless someone searches for something very obscure.
Is it too soon to debate this in my head as it's been only about 3-4 weeks since release?
(we have had all of our pages indexed since day 5 by submitting our sitemap to google).
Suggestions please?
But they don't matter. No-one except you will search for domain.com, will they?
What matters is the searches potential visitors make. If they are OK, no worries.
So I wonder however my theory. The sitemap and index pages are more viable than my content rich pages?
And how long does it take on average to 'rank' against your competition?
IE: Blue Widgets Information
We are nowhere to be found.
I know only what I know from years ago and haven't kept up with SEO as of late. I use h1,h2,h3 tags (probably improperly), I ensure my keywords are used and that my titles are relevent. I keep my density between 4-8%, and my total page sizes are generally smaller than my competition who have java scripts, tons of large images, and dynamic menus etc. They are all very poorly designed.
Most of them on page one, keyword spam - link spam , and make NO use of h tags, meta tags, and utilize title spamming as another method of seo.
My site seems to be written pretty good. Great? no. But better than the competition by far.
So the question is. While I eventually be held in the eyes of the SE's as a viable resource - or, am I doing something wrong and possibly this old black hat method does still indeed work as my competition is doing?
But worth catching up on developments.
I'd certainly suggest reviewing your use of Hx tags; overuse could be a red flag, as well as limited potential benefit.
I'd also think about page sizes. Small is not necessarily beautiful, though uniquity is a more important issue.
Personally I'd never advise blackhearted methods; they don't work for all (the bottom of the serps are as littered with spam as the top!), and many sites where it *seems* to work are actually surviving despite the silly spam, rather than doing well because of it.
Plus spam very often has a limited shelf life; the successful spammers are those who spend theier waking lives checking up on the latest SE developments to keep one jump ahead, and their sleeping moments having nightmares. Most with the intelligence and skill and aptitude to succeed at blackhearted techniques could almost invariably do better putting those attributes to honest use.
Go figure. (And I won't even START on the moral issues ;) )
My one article about widgets with super powered widgets - is page #1, rank #1.
SO - I fear that all my other pages are were they are going to be, more or less, for their keywords and thus - I haven't an idea what to do.
The interesting thing is, the page that is rank 1, page 1 - obviously has very little search for it exactly, HOWEVER you know as well as I do, that they would easily put another page with those keyword phrase words out of order before mine.
Why is it then I am where I am?
Well - first I think my footer might be hurting me. I have the same footer at the bottom of my page with three links in 'mini articles'
IE: The blue widget is one of style and power....<more?> with small pictures next to it. The titles of these are in h3 tags.
The h1 tag is the main title of the page, or - the link they arrived at.
Widget acquisitions is the link from the main page, the h1 tag says Widget acquisitions from abc company...
Then there is a body text below this, and shortly after - an h2 tag with more information.
The 'footer' info is in h3 - and never changes from page to page.
The page that is ranking well does NOT have this footer, nor does the sitemap that seems to be ranked higher than any other page when you do a check for example.com in google.
Could this footer be killing me? Should I at least change the titles from h3 to just standard text?
S
If they are, and the destinations are Ok (or internal), then I see no reason why they'd harm you. But if the articles are not of much interest to visitors and / or they are on a suspect site (eg an article farm), then it's certainly possible they are hurting you.
But it's fairly unlikely, and no reason why the header tags should hurt.
Kinda wondering if I've linked to the SAME links too many times internal. Possibly eliminating the bottom true footer links or the BIG footer links w/ descriptions.
Still tossing it up. All links repeated 3 times...might be a bad thing. I went for readability - functional use THEN SEO using my main keyword target last on the 'true' footer.
The article doesn't have this or the 'big footer' Could this java be hurting me?
Javascript is effectively ignored by the SEs
You seem obsessed with the notion that you are doing something wrong; could it be that you are NOT doing something right?
Do you have quality incoming links?
Do you have unique content?
Do you quality content?
Do you have enough content?
Do have fresh content regularly?
Reread Google's guidelines to be sure you really are not breaking some important advice - but concentrate on developing your site; make it better, and it will repay you.
*approx. Correct to nearest million. or thereabouts.
[edited by: Quadrille at 8:47 am (utc) on Aug. 6, 2007]
Uh, yes I AM obsessed that I am doing something wrong.
Our site is attracting a product with the reverse: Instead of attracting Super Duper Widgets..
We are getting Duper Widgets Super..
Wish I sold those! I'd probably make a dollar a day. :)
We deal in multi million dollar , uh - widgets.
There is much to know about the industry but those that are in the buyer 'power' so to speak already know of it completely. writing articles or 'content' from me would be pretty lame.
It would be like writing an article about how to use a computer to bill gates and expected 'his type' to come in and want to solicit our services.
Oh well, I'll find something.
The last I want to do is become a site full of extremely general useless information, but I will admit that my first article about this new improved super duper widget, has seen a few hits.
