9 replies to this topic

[rotten apples dot net]

Hello. I have had my website up and running since May 2010. I have not put much of any effort into the SEO portion of the site because I am just unsure and confused.

I am running my site built upon a WP template and it does offer a built in SEO section. This is of no help to me though, since I cannot understand meta tags, meta descriptions, etc.

I tried to configure the XML sitemap submission awhile ago via CPanelX (cron), but I keep getting these emails weekly:
/bin/sh: XML: command not found

I don't even know what to do at this point. I am frustrated to say the least. I have tried to research this independently, but only end up more confused. We are doing well in our business, but I know we could be getting a lot more business if we were found easier. Attracta is giving my site a 30/100 score, which is bad. I would love some help/advice on how to improve this if someone could find it in their heart to help me!

My skill lies completely in graphic design, and not so much with the coding aspect, which is why I'm failing at this!

So, I am looking for someone with a desire to help a complete n00b with her business website SEO. We do not run a local business, we are completely web based at this time.

Pretty please help?  


-Nico
www.rotten-apples.net

[NyteOwl]

SEO isn't rocket science or black magic. Nor are they any "secret systems" to getting better noticed. Avoid SEO "gimmicks". Worry less about "ratings" sites, and watch you own site logs. Much more informative. As an example a lot of people worry about what Alexa rates their site at. Unfortunately Alexa only returns results based on info gathered from users of the Alexna toolbar and IE module. As a result it only measures one segment of the Internet user base.

Here are a few basics:

1) Make sure your site has good useable content
2) Make proper use of headlines (ie don't nest top level headlines inside lower level ones)
3) Don't use graphics for text is you can avoid it
4) Provide all graphics with appropriate alt and title tags
5) Write a brief description of what the site is about and contains and place it in a <meta description="insert here" /> tag in the page header
6) Select a group of keywords that match what your site isa bout and contains and place them in a <meta keywords="insert here" /> tag in the page header
7) Make sure your site name and most important keywords actually appear in your page content
8) Avoid the urge to "keyword stuff" your pages and avoid things like invisible text and blocks of keywords shifted out of a users view.
9) You can actually submit your site to Google, Yahoo, etc. so they may find it faster thanb you waiting for them.
10) Avoid submitting you site to "link farms". Getting a few good related sites to link to you, or a local business directory is a good idea.

That should get you started

Edited by NyteOwl, 21 October 2010 - 02:29 PM.

[Brandon Yanofsky]

I actually just wrote a blog post on this: www.blistmarketing.com. It'll answer everything, but basically, to sum it up, you can fix all this easily with wordpress plugins.

Get All in One SEO. Enter a homepage title tag with keywords that describe your business and a description also describing your business. This automatically fills in all the meta info.

Also get the plugin Google Sitemap XML. It'll automatically create your sitemap and submit it to all the search engines.

If you need more help, feel free to contact me. I'm also giving away free SEO analysis right now and can give you more detailed tips how to fix everything, FOR FREE!!!!. lol.

rotten apples dot net, on 21 October 2010 - 09:22 AM, said:

Hello. I have had my website up and running since May 2010. I have not put much of any effort into the SEO portion of the site because I am just unsure and confused.

I am running my site built upon a WP template and it does offer a built in SEO section. This is of no help to me though, since I cannot understand meta tags, meta descriptions, etc.

I tried to configure the XML sitemap submission awhile ago via CPanelX (cron), but I keep getting these emails weekly:
/bin/sh: XML: command not found

I don't even know what to do at this point. I am frustrated to say the least. I have tried to research this independently, but only end up more confused. We are doing well in our business, but I know we could be getting a lot more business if we were found easier. Attracta is giving my site a 30/100 score, which is bad. I would love some help/advice on how to improve this if someone could find it in their heart to help me!

My skill lies completely in graphic design, and not so much with the coding aspect, which is why I'm failing at this!

So, I am looking for someone with a desire to help a complete n00b with her business website SEO. We do not run a local business, we are completely web based at this time.

Pretty please help?  


-Nico
www.rotten-apples.net

[rotten apples dot net]

Wow, thanks for all of your help! I am going to take full advantage of the advice you guys have given me. Thanks again! You have helped me with this information. This is a great place for me to start.

By the way, are there any books that either of you would recommend? And Brandon, I am definitely interested in speaking with you further about your offer. I just want to get some things together first in my head...so that I have some clear, concise questions to ask you!

Thanks guys! You are awesome!

Brandon Yanofsky, on 26 October 2010 - 09:41 PM, said:

I actually just wrote a blog post on this: www.blistmarketing.com. It'll answer everything, but basically, to sum it up, you can fix all this easily with wordpress plugins.

Get All in One SEO. Enter a homepage title tag with keywords that describe your business and a description also describing your business. This automatically fills in all the meta info.

Also get the plugin Google Sitemap XML. It'll automatically create your sitemap and submit it to all the search engines.

If you need more help, feel free to contact me. I'm also giving away free SEO analysis right now and can give you more detailed tips how to fix everything, FOR FREE!!!!. lol.

rotten apples dot net, on 21 October 2010 - 09:22 AM, said:

Hello. I have had my website up and running since May 2010. I have not put much of any effort into the SEO portion of the site because I am just unsure and confused.

I am running my site built upon a WP template and it does offer a built in SEO section. This is of no help to me though, since I cannot understand meta tags, meta descriptions, etc.

I tried to configure the XML sitemap submission awhile ago via CPanelX (cron), but I keep getting these emails weekly:
/bin/sh: XML: command not found

I don't even know what to do at this point. I am frustrated to say the least. I have tried to research this independently, but only end up more confused. We are doing well in our business, but I know we could be getting a lot more business if we were found easier. Attracta is giving my site a 30/100 score, which is bad. I would love some help/advice on how to improve this if someone could find it in their heart to help me!

My skill lies completely in graphic design, and not so much with the coding aspect, which is why I'm failing at this!

So, I am looking for someone with a desire to help a complete n00b with her business website SEO. We do not run a local business, we are completely web based at this time.

Pretty please help?  


-Nico
www.rotten-apples.net

[billzo]

rotten apples dot net, on 21 October 2010 - 09:22 AM, said:

We are doing well in our business, but I know we could be getting a lot more business if we were found easier.

That is not true.  Google, especially, is schizophrenic.  It drops websites in the rankings all the time for little or no reason.  If you are doing well now, I suggest you leave everything alone.  No point in fixing something that isn't broken.

[IBBoard]

Also, being found (i.e. the click from search engine to site) is no use if a) users can't then find the specific thing they wanted (your site isn't usable), b) you don't sell what they wanted or even a similar product (you've over-worked the Search Engine Manipulation and are getting false-positives) or c) users find what they want but can't/don't want to buy it (off-putting and unusable site).

IMO, a huge proportion of SEO is a lie and wasted effort. I do very well on various search terms for one-off pages that I've created and not put any SEO work into (and they're not uncontested, niche terms). Similarly, my wife's website just makes things accessible and focuses on usability and her shop ranks quite highly. I ignore all the SEO salesmen and just go for usability. If it is usable for a user then it becomes usable for a spider anyway, and given that the users buy things rather than the spiders then any focus purely on the spiders seems like misdirected effort (or cheating - i.e. keyword stuffing and the like, which makes sites look horrendously unprofessional).

[jednorozec]

IBBoard, on 27 October 2010 - 01:40 PM, said:

IMO, a huge proportion of SEO is a lie and wasted effort.

Silly Extra Outlay.

I put up a Drupal site for a friend in a rather specialized area a couple of years ago and after helping him put up a few pages that site has been static. I just googled the specialized topic and got over 3 million hits. The site is hit number 4 and the first 3 are different areas of another site. As far as I know, there are no links to the site anyplace and it has never been promoted. The main benefit of SEO is putting money in the pockets of SEO 'experts'.

[IBBoard]

I do wonder whether part of that is longevity - perhaps Google likes sites that have been around for a while, since they're not just "hit and run" sites that try to make a quick buck and vanish. I say "perhaps" because, obviously, no-one knows how Google ranking *actually* works. People have reasonable guesses and rules of thumb that appear to work, but none of it is certain or accurate.

As for the acronym, I tend to go for SEM for similar reasons - most of it is Search Engine Manipulation (trying to conn the bot into rating your site high). UXO is much more important - User Experience Optimisation! Make it good and they will come (and bots will like it as well).

P.S. "user experience" is not the same as excessive Flash and Javascript. 90% of the time they are opposites. Just a hint in case anyone took my last comment about UXO the wrong way

[jednorozec]

I'm running the Firefox add-ons Flashblock and NoScript. Flash isn't quite as bad as the blink tag but I find it really annoying. There are a large number of sites that don't work correctly unless you're running Javascript and that's really annoying also. Javascript can give a better user experience if it's done right but the site should still work without it.

[RealTime]

As far as your Attracta score goes, using all of their SEO tools, as directed, to raise your overall Google score should help with your Google traffic.  It took some time to take effect, but after a few weeks it started really working for my sites.