Hello,

 

I redesigned a site for a client and used my latest SEO knowledge to 'try' and get the site ranked well in google etc.

After a few weeks now it still doesnt seem to be doing well.

 

Could somebody take a quick look and give me a nudge in what direction i need to be going in with this!??

 

The top search term im going for is fencing in caerphilly.

http://www.allenfencing.net

 

Also, I added the business and website to the google map search result - and yes it appears - but as a tiny marker with no letter inside it!? Why is this? Why isn't it showing a big marker with a letter and an URL to the site?

 

Thanks

 

Any help is much appreciated.

What's the URL?

i presume your talking about http://www.allenfencing.net/ which i found from the link on your profile

 

 

 

firstly you should register the domain fencingcaerphilly.co.uk ( not .com or .net etc )

host that site instead with the same files you created for allenfencing and then just redirect the domain allenfencing to the new domain

 

then change your meta title tags to include the main keywords ie fencing in caerphilly wales etc

 

then get the website listed on a few free directories that are associated with the keywords fencing caer

 

theres more you can do to improve the seo but untill you make these changes your not really going to get far with google

 

with services like fencing you have a lot of companies like yellcom and other directories to beat to get to the top

 

it works for my website loft-conversion-birmingham co.uk

i presume your talking about http://www.allenfencing.net/ which i found from the link on your profile

 

 

 

firstly you should register the domain fencingcaerphilly.co.uk ( not .com or .net etc )

host that site instead with the same files you created for allenfencing and then just redirect the domain allenfencing to the new domain

 

then change your meta title tags to include the main keywords ie fencing in caerphilly wales etc

 

then get the website listed on a few free directories that are associated with the keywords fencing caer

 

theres more you can do to improve the seo but untill you make these changes your not really going to get far with google

 

with services like fencing you have a lot of companies like yellcom and other directories to beat to get to the top

 

it works for my website loft-conversion-birmingham co.uk

 

Thanks coolblue.

 

They don't just do that area - caerphilly- so I would like to keep the site i have now.

Maybe if I bought the domian fencingcaerphilly.co.uk and did that site also? But I have already had that idea but then that'd be more cost to the client.

 

I mean i am nearly top for fencing south wales and nearly top in yahoo for fencing caerphilly so i cant be too bad!

 

Any more advice?

you could improve search results for more area's of wales by creating more pages

ie caerphilly.html

add content and a title that includes : caerphilly

 

google will pick up caerphilly in the domain/content/title which will give it a better chance

 

look at how many pages ive created that match important keywords and areas i cover

this has saved me a lot of money quitting sponsored advertising

 

my google listings

Thanks coolblue - seems im on the right track at least!?

Changing your domain name from .net to .co.uk will not make virtually any difference, in fact by doing so may damage the SEO your currently have built up. If you look up 301 redirect and changing your domain name you will only find negative comments that suggest that you will loose any ranking at all for 3 - 9 months.

 

By the way I have a friend who has a .net site that gets 22,000 unique visitors per month and his site is about old boats.

 

Read my comments in the left hand coloumn on these two pages, they should help:

 

http://www.sussexwebsitedesign.com/london.html

http://www.sussexwebsitedesign.com/scotland.html

Hi Dude,

 

I hope this helps.

 

There is a lot of bulls**t out there when it comes to SEO, I'll try my best to help you out with what I know works, for sure.

 

Firstly, regarding registering a new domain name, I'd like to talk about domain name suffixes (.net, .co.uk, .com etc). They are different for a reason and they can help give you slightly increased rankings if you choose the correct one. Be aware though that these increases are marginal but can help you get ranked higher and more importantly quicker in local search engine listings if you choose carefully.

 

Each domain name suffix has a specific meaning or usage attached to it. Your current .net domain name suffix is what is known as a generic top level domain, and the phrase generic top level domain describes a specific sub-category of domain name suffixes which fall under top level domains. A .net domain name is intended for use by networks, specifically technical organisations whether commercial or not.

 

Other generic top level domains such as .co.uk and .com have different meanings. As you can imagine .co.uk domain name suffixes are intended for use by commercial uk based businesses.

 

Initially, .com domain name suffixes were intended for use by commercial US based businesses but this has changed. They have now, due to the way the internet and the marketing of websites has evolved, turned in to domain name suffixes that are now used for commercial businesses globally.

 

Now, if you are a UK based business that trades in the UK only, it makes sense to register and use a .co.uk domain name suffix. In local search listings you WILL rank higher and quicker for your keywords in the short term than you would if you registered a .com or especially a .net domain name suffix. If you are a UK based business that trades internationally then it makes sense to register a .com domain name.

 

Integrating Google Webmaster Tools in to your project will give you an insight in to how various aspects of your website performs when Google crawls your pages. It will also allow you to specify a country where your website is primarily targeting and it will allow you to upload an XML sitemap, which is important.

 

I'll now move on to Google Maps.

 

It is important to follow all of the instructions properly when registering and setting up your account in order for your website to be fully verified and ranked well in both Google Maps and the local search engine listings. Once you have verified your address, email addresses and telephone numbers. You should be set.

 

It is important to note that businesses with company addresses that are closer to a specific locations' perceived centre will rank higher in Google Maps and local search engine listings for specific keywords and keyword phrases. Many companies purchase virtual addresses that have post codes which are close to their centres and they use these to rank high in Google Maps and the local search engine listings.

 

On-page SEO accounts for roughly 10% to 20% of what a whole SEO campaign should consist of and it includes such things as optimised page titles, meta descriptions, meta keywords, domain names, page structure and keyword density.

 

Some important things to remember are listed below.

 

Having your main keyword or keyword phrase in your domain name will increase your chances of ranking well for this word or phrase in the short term and I have personally seen websites rank on page 1 and 2 within weeks of registering them without any other optimisation, and sometimes without even a website to index (which in my opinion is rather strange). That said, it is not really a major concern in the long term if you can't achieve this.

 

Keep your page titles below 65 characters and make sure they are keyword rich but not spammy and make sure they are informative also. Furthermore, try to use as few 'stop words' as possible. These are words which are filtered out of the search index list such as and, if, for, a and at. There are many other stop words and there are many websites which list these, just do a Google search for 'stop words'. It is also important to try and place your main keywords at the beginning and end of your title.

 

Keep your meta descriptions down below 145 to 150 characters and follow the same rules as page titles.

 

Meta keywords are generally redundant nowadays due to the sophistication of search indexing algorithms and the fact that they have previously been open to abuse, which I won't go in to here. That said, it won't hurt you to add them to your page. Note that you should keep these to your primary keywords and keyword phrases and keep the amount to a maximum of around 25 or 30, less if possible, ideally between 3 or 4 per page.

 

One of the most important aspects of on-page SEO and indeed any successful website is good, informative content.

 

Keyword density is another, yet minor factor. Generally for business websites you should keep word counts down to around a minimum of 250 words per page where possible. Your page content should be keyword rich and the percentage of keywords to content should be around 5% to 7% of the word count.

 

Page structure is also important. Your page should be structured logically using valid XHTML and CSS, making sure that your presentation is separated from the structure and content of your website. Meaning, place your CSS instructions in external stylesheets. Similarly, you should also place any scripts such as JavaScript in an external file and reference these in your HTML. This will allow the search engine robots to more easily and more quickly index the information on your website and this will be reflected in your rankings.

 

Creating separate pages within your site that have the file names named after keywords or keyword phrases (separated by hyphens) and content relating to those keywords and keyword phrases following the same rules as above will help your website rank well also.

 

All of the above is important and will help you rank highly but it pales in comparison to off-page SEO. Off-page SEO is the most important aspect of any SEO campaign.

 

Essentially, all off-page SEO consists of is gaining naturally or building yourself high quality, keyword rich, authoritative, one way backlinks to your website.

 

A backlink is a link from another website to your website. The difference between a normal link and a backlink is that a backlink contains keywords in its anchor text. So, instead of having http://www.yourdomain.co.uk you would have YOUR KEYWORD PHRASE.

 

When Google or other search engine robots (crawlers, spiders) begin indexing the content on another website they will follow links from that website. If a link contains keywords or keyword phrases in its anchor text Google will attribute page rank for that keyword or keyword phrase to the linked website in nearly all circumstances.

 

Note though, that not all backlinks will add to your rankings and some may even detract from them. The key to success is gaining high quality, authoritative, one way backlinks. This means backlinks that come from websites that have content that relates to your own as well as from websites that are seen as authorities on your subject and already rank well for those keywords and keyword phrases.

 

The one way part refers to you having a link from a website but not yourself linking to that website. This is called reciprocal linking.

 

It is important to note though that you should not go about gaining masses of backlinks in a short amount of time, especially for a new domain. Google will recognise this as unnatural and it will eventually affect your rankings. Also, domains younger than one year have an automatic penalty attributed to them, as many new domains disappear within the first year and generally Google sees websites that have been around for a long time as good sources of information, though not always.

 

Two to three links per day until you have around 750 should be enough before you begin to receive a sufficient amount of natural links, although this is not set in stone.

 

Places to get good backlinks from are blogs, forums and government and educational websites. This is not an exhaustive list but it's a good start. Also, it is important to note that a lot of forums and blogs operate a no-follow policy on links. This means that they do not permit Google or other search engine robots to attribute page rank to the linked websites, though sometimes this does not always work.

 

Just placing backlinks on other websites is not enough as this will be considered spam and the links will most likely be removed very swiftly. You must contribute in some way to the content. Then you can leave a link. But no more than two or again this may be seen as spam.

 

Getting listed in directories is productive but don't spend a lot of time dong this as these links a not very good quality. Being listed in the DMOZ and Yahoo directories will help quite a bit. To be listed in the Yahoo directory will cost $299. One directory I would recommend is the Free Index at www.freeindex.co.uk.

 

There are other ways to generate traffic to a website but this is another subject and involves using social media outlets, blogs and other services such as Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic to your website.

 

SEO is part science and part art, with a little bit of luck, weirdness and unpredictability thrown in for good measure.

 

At the end of the day, the only people who know what Googles search engine algorithms look for are Google, and there is definitely no substitute for great content, products and services.

 

I hope this helps dude.

Thanks everyone for your help

 

Much appreciated.

Have you seen SEObook.com - its a very good resource for advanced SEO

I'd like to talk about domain name suffixes (.net, .co.uk, .com etc).

 

Each domain name suffix has a specific meaning or usage attached to it.

 

 

In an otherwise great post which I mostly agree with, I would like to clarify this...

 

I am pretty sure, that although the gTLD meanings were mapped out initially (for .org .com .net ) that now any of them (except .edu, .gov, .int, .mil) can be used for any type of business...

 

However, Localised TLD's can be vitally important for local territories. Especially those in mainland Europe that very specifically use their own domain extensions in favour of .com (.de / .fr / .nl)

 

Source: ICANN

 

I am still personally unsure about the preference google.co.uk has with .co.uk over .com I have still yet to test it fully. But .com is usually easier for the customer to remember, it also makes it seem like a bigger company than it is, even when they know it is one man. I do recommend buying up both .co.uk and .com fairly regularly though to prevent any competition stealing business from under your nose.

I have a number of my own domains with holding pages on them. If its a name i like i always buy .com and .co.uk. The .co.uk gets indexed [despite only having a holding page] within days but the corresponding .com gets indexed rarely if ever.

Thanks for all the advice.

 

Would you say I need to research more into what search terms to use?

 

If so, How do I go about this?

 

Thanks

Thanks for all the advice.

 

Would you say I need to research more into what search terms to use?

 

If so, How do I go about this?

 

Thanks

 

I would look it up on here at the very least. https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal

 

Terms should be targeted to what your customers are likely to be searching for. Keywords and questions that are relevant. Preferably you will aim to get high on ones that are likely to covert to sales (or other action on page required) rather than just be top on a term that is rarely searched.