SEO/Website Updates- What have you done this week?

stugster · 24-03-08, 22:11

I've just struggled (which isn't necessary) through a wade of different pages making them all dynamic.

Each page now calls its own <meta> description, its own meta keywords, and its own title.

Hopefully in the next three to four weeks, Google will fire me right up to top spot!

I started playing with the site doing "this and that" at the start of March... Here's my Analytics results:

What have you done on YOUR site this week/month to justify better page rankings or more traffic?

barryhynd · 24-03-08, 22:22

Stuart,

This site is about to have vbSEO installed over the next week or so which makes the url's etc that vBulletin created much more friendly for the seo's. I have to say seo has been something i've followed quite closely over the past six months and i'm also a paid member of Aaron Wall's new seo training. While I would say I have loads to learn I think it sounds from the sounds of it that you're quite a bit through more of the on page seo.

Your stats confirm that what you have done has resulted in increased traffic. I think the secret with making changes is not to do too many at once and give each change time to show you a result. I love talking about seo because it's such a fascinating subject.

More posts like this please

p.s I'd be up for a little seo group where we could share ideas etc.

frockery · 24-03-08, 22:36

I am mightily impressed that you can put a graph on here!

To answer your question, I have added new stock with SEO friendly descriptions (I think), updated the onsite blog similarly and done a lot of networking. However, these activities were interspersed with much longer periods of sourcing stock, sending out orders, cleaning the house, looking after a sickly husband, doing the shopping and driving one kid to Glasgow and another to/from work in Dundee.

The google stats tell me I have about 400 uniques a day and lots of people are buying things so I am not complaining. In short I tend to go with the flow, which is probably a terrible answer.

I reckon I should be a bit more proactive on the SEO front so I will certainly welcome any idiot proof advice from the experts.

stugster · 24-03-08, 22:52

I am by no means an expert! I was just told that getting lots of content online, having meaningful "meta descriptions" and good keywords usually does it.

The real proof will be when google re-indexes my site again, because I made the fundamental mistake Barry talks about in that I've changed "A LOT" of content and coding around (hopefully for the better!)

barryhynd · 24-03-08, 23:08

Dont be thinking i'm in expert either! I just happen to find the subject fascinating!

Stuart's pretty much nailed the on site stuff, good page titles (preferably 65 characters or less), effective meta description and keywords and good use of h1/h2 tags. Off site for me is where the real challenges are and is pretty much focussed on getting links. This is the hard part which requires some further studying for me.

stugster · 24-03-08, 23:10

Me too Barry. I've done the easy bit, from now on it's link-building and monitoring the keywords to see which ones are most competitive (or something).

A book on SEO is needed I think! Will take a trip to Waterstone's tomorrow!

frockery · 25-03-08, 13:32

Make sure you pass on any good tips now! I still find SEO a bit like learning Ancient Greek.

ScottJ · 22-04-08, 10:58

Good description & meta tags help a fair amount, getting links isn't as easy as it used to be a few years ago, and then we also have the ageing sandbox filter to deal with now that was not a problem before so sometimes if your after a competitive market it can take a year before you can really compete for the big words.

alanbold · 22-04-08, 17:41

My belief is that new and relevant content as well as what you mention above all help your page ranking but Im begining to think that for a lot of sites, Adwords is the way to go as if your not on page 1 or 2 of google then effectively your lost from most searches. Ant Adword experts on the site

TomB · 23-04-08, 10:36

well after reading the finding good keywords post I've gone through my entire website and have updated my keywords for each page so they are relevant to the page content.

No I just need to go through the content and make sure its ok and then try and get some more links.

Has that finding good keywords thread inspired anybody else to update theirs?

T