Hi All,

 

I have a few questions about keyword optimization for my site. My website is www.shop4antiques.co.uk

 

The site has been running for about 5 months now, i can average about 20 hits a day (depending on my google adword spend) but i don't get any sales.

 

When i search on google for the keywords of my site a rarely find my site.

 

Can anyone adise me on the best way to optimize my site/pages for search engines?

 

I spoke to someone about this and they said to make sure that as many of my keywords are displayed on the pages of my site, can anyone explain this a bit more about how to do it?

 

Thanks

Vince

Hi

 

I generally use SEOmoz as a guide to effective SEO.

 

I'd say the most important thing for your site is in-bound link building (but make sure the URL is relative and in context to the content on your site), adjusting title tags (why on earth are they all the same - I have only checked 3 pages), and a good look at keyword discovery.

 

Let me know if you need any help.

 

Thanks

 

Little James

Forget link-building just yet! You need to sort out your on-site optimisation first. You have no real structure to your content and it's far from optimised - I don't just mean for search engines... you could go crazy on 'SEO' or PPC and get 1,000 visitors a day, but how many customers will you get?

My advice would be to sort your content out way before you go chasing links or you'll be wasting your time.

I agree/disagree to a certain point. Absolutely it’s extremely important to work out keywords, and I would normally endeavor to compare certain keyword among competitors, look at combinations of those keywords and naturally introduce them into various aspects of the page - however in my experience there is never a bad time to start thinking or even working on in-bound links.

 

A well optimised site will consider SEO even before Photoshop is used but that’s not always the case.

 

I would as you say look at Keywords but certainly wouldn't forget in-bound links right now. As per my comment, I had reviewed some page Titles which appeared to be generic, this forms part of Keyword analysis.

 

Little James

Do people actually buy antiques online? If I was looking for an antique item I'd probably want to look before I buy to make sure the item was in the stated condition or if it was genuine - these are probably genuine concerns that many of your customers will have.

 

I think you might need to revisit your sites approach more to advertise your business than as an online shop. I'm not saying ditch the shopping cart but put more emphasis on your bricks and mortar premises to encourage real visitors, and, ultimately, trust in you and your business.

That's hilarious; with getting so engrossed in SEO I never took the time to understand the business model itself.

 

bluedreamer - I think you may have hit the nail square on there! - A good point.

 

Little James

Do people actually buy antiques online? If I was looking for an antique item I'd probably want to look before I buy to make sure the item was in the stated condition or if it was genuine - these are probably genuine concerns that many of your customers will have.

 

I think you might need to revisit your sites approach more to advertise your business than as an online shop. I'm not saying ditch the shopping cart but put more emphasis on your bricks and mortar premises to encourage real visitors, and, ultimately, trust in you and your business.

 

Of course people purchase antiques from online shops, there are hundreds if not thousands of items including antiques sold on ebay per week. People don't get to look at them before hand they just go buy the pictures, having an online shop is exactly the same method of selling.

 

Most if not all antique dealers i know have either sold/closed their shops, stopped dealing at trade fairs and have concentrated on selling via the internet, cost are lower and you attract a wider audience.

 

I have taken peoples comments about page titles and keywords all being the same. I have now changed each page title to reflect on what is being sold on the page, each page and item has also been individually indexed with its own keywords in relation to what is being sold.

 

Of course i will now have to wait a month or two for google to update the search of my site and see if there are any improvements.

Do people actually buy antiques online?

 

Yes they do millions are bought on ebay everyday (well not millions, but you get my point)

 

You have a great domain name. Use the keywords in your domain name to rank higher, include them in your title tags. Open a ebay account and cross link. Write a blog about 'Do antiques sell online' and link it back to your site.

 

Good luck !

ebay is a great idea.

 

I wonder how many are using that as their middle-man for visitors..!

ebay is a great idea.

 

I wonder how many are using that as their middle-man for visitors..!

 

 

Not as many as you may think - eBay are buggers for changing listings and making it increasingly harder for people who flog a bulk of items.

 

Little James

Not as many as you may think - eBay are buggers for changing listings and making it increasingly harder for people who flog a bulk of items.

 

Little James

 

 

Thanks for the replies everyone, i have had mixed views and opinions about my site from another forum http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/s...dvertising+site

 

I would like to know peoples opinions from this site about my website design etc.

 

Thanks