[alant092]

Hey people just posting to see if anyone would be kind enough to help me with some S.E.O

Bascially I have took over the running of this website:

www.schools4business.co.uk

I have completed some SEO tips found on forums etc, such as using alt tags, meta tags, page titles, h tags, verifying my site in google and adding the sitemap.

However the site will just not index, I am at a loss of if there is anything more I can do, if anyone could throw me some pointers that would be great. Thanks in advance!

[neil0wen]

How long since you made these changes?

[Jamiee™]

Site seems to be indexing now.

Little pointer:

When linking from your site to an external page, you dont want to be losing traffic.

for example, the line of pictures don't link to a new window or tab, they run in the same window meaning you've lost traffic.

Simple way to counter this is to..:

 original = <a href="http://www.staffpart.org.uk/"><img src="images/SP.jpg" alt="Staffordshire Partnership" width="323" height="60" border="0" /></a>

New = <a href="http://www.staffpart.org.uk/" target="_blank"><img src="images/SP.jpg" alt="Staffordshire Partnership" width="323" height="60" border="0" /></a> 

If you cannot see the difference, where the href tag lies, before the IMG tag begins i have put in target="_blank" which opens a link in a external window.

Hope this helps,
Regards,

[alant092]

hey thanks for the help I have added the target="_blank" attributes so as to not lost traffic

I uploaded the site about a week ago so you could say I made the changes then

[S3 Web Design]

Hi
Because of the php you have multiple urls i think pointing to the same page, this can mean that google thinks you have duplicate content - you need to look at using a head tag of link rel canonical.

You need to choose your keywords for each page and rewrite your titles for each page and the meta description. Your pages could do with some more content so that google has stuff to index. I have a long article on keywords on the second link below. There are lots of other seo hints and tips which may help.

Also the site does not appear to have many if any links to it - try and add it to some well indexed directories at least and see if any business contacts with indexed websites in similar businesses will provide a link to your website.

Another suggestion is it would be helpful if the menu selection stayed light so you know which page you are on.

[mrchristoph]

Is there a way to validate target="blank" with XHTML strict? I've not been using it for this reason.

[S3 Web Design]

Yes

Use

<a href="http://blog.s3webdesign.co.uk/index.php/s3-web-design-desire-solutions-cms/" onclick="return !window.open( this.href );">Fully Editable Website Content<br /> - Desire Solutions CMS from S3 Web Design</a>

[Tom]

The point of it not validating is that it's forcing the user to do something they may not want - a better way would be to use an icon to show which links are external so the user can make their own mind as to whether they want it in a new window.