You won't DARE post THIS on the FORUM!

daniull · 13-08-2008, 11:41 PM

Ok, now that I have proven that I know how to get your attention, let me first say that I am a long time watcher of SEO chat/forums/blogs but a first time owner of a corporation who would rather learn about SEO than just throw retarded amounts of cash to some company who will not produce results for my site.

Now I know that some of these things might be basic to you, and I know there is so much SPECULATION about what works vs. what doesn't work that I just need to get to the bottom of where I am at with my site.

So, without further adieu, lets get started.

I started a site which sells certain musical products about 3 years ago and have never really explored the avenue of SEO at all. Although I do not consider my self a complete beginner, I want to be considered one while I talk on this forum so that those giving advice would not assume I know even the first thing. So please, treat me like an idiot here. Do not even brush quickly over the most SIMPLE issues.

Currently I am ranked #13 and #34 under the most popular keywords in my product range and I have never really tried linking or link exchange ever. I don't even know how to check who my inbound links are! To be honest i always thought #13 was pretty good. But obviously I want to be in the top 5 for all 4 of my keywords. The interesting thing also is that in the particular field we sell in....there are not any MASSIVE companies and those who rank better than I, probably don't deserve to be there. In all honesty I would think that the top 5 should be VERY easy for me.

So,

with all that said.....where would you start? Step by step would be the best for me....and not vague--well as specific as you can be although i know that you don't have the site in front of you. I know you all do not have the first hand knowledge of looking at the site, but there must be enough info to warrant a general discuassion about SEO for dummies.

Thanks and Kind Regards,

Daniel

***Brian Turner*** · 14-08-2008, 09:19 AM

Hi Daniel and welcome to the forums.

A couple of pointers first - I never recommend link exchanges, but would rather encourage people to be more intelligent in their link approaches. Link exchanges are something that had value 10 years ago, but cannot really be recommended now.

As for checking links - the only sure way to do this really is via a link check on Yahoo search, using the following format:

linkdomain:mydomain.com -site:mydomain.com

Another couple of quick pitfalls:

1. Ensure all pages have unique page titles. Many dynamic sites can just repeat the same page title - which is effectively telling Google & co. "Hey, these might all just be versions of the same page". Not good.

Treat Googlebot as like a child with a simple level of understanding - you need to make it as clear as possible what an individual page is about, using relevant keywords on that page - so that Googlebot can take this info to the Googleplex for processing.

2. Watch out for canonical issues - simple pitfalls are to have active versions of your site running on www.mydomain.com and non-www mydomain.com - redirect one to the other and stick to that format.

Also watch out for issues with linking to the homepage - if your domain is mydomain.com, don't link back to mydomain.com/index.html or similar index files unless there is an absolute need to, and if there is a need to, to 301 redirect to the index page from the root. The issue here is that Google does not index pages - it indexes URLs - so if you have multiple versions of a URL for the same page and actively using these, Google may be inclined to drop one as a duplicate, and kill any
advantages that the "duplicate" URLs were passing to other pages.

Hope that helps for starters.

daniull · 14-08-2008, 06:22 PM

ok...great.... thats good for starters....but I do not have any other domains except my main one..... what are the benefits of more than one? and if any, how do I take advantage of them....???

daniull · 14-08-2008, 06:28 PM

Brian... this is great to have this help in the forum.....

thanks... I am going to probably kill you with questions...but maybe it's great for the forum...I am sure there a many people in my situation. The other thing I was wondering alot lately.... There are very few "SEO experts" who are willing to "take" the job of optimising a site. Many that I talk to seem to falter when I ask for work done. I have my theory about this and it is real simple.... they can't really deliver anything tangible, and many of them have probably caused more harm than good. What do you think about that?

***Brian Turner*** · 15-08-2008, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniull

ok...great.... thats good for starters....but I do not have any other domains except my main one..... what are the benefits of more than one? and if any, how do I take advantage of them....???

Not suggesting multiple domains here - merely how to link to your homepage in a consistent manner, as well as how to run a link check on Yahoo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniull

Brian... this is great to have this help in the forum.....

thanks... I am going to probably kill you with questions...but maybe it's great for the forum...I am sure there a many people in my situation. The other thing I was wondering alot lately.... There are very few "SEO experts" who are willing to "take" the job of optimising a site. Many that I talk to seem to falter when I ask for work done. I have my theory about this and it is real simple.... they can't really deliver anything tangible, and many of them have probably caused more harm than good. What do you think about that?

To be honest, I don't know of many SEO companies who would refuse to do onsite optimisation unless the company was already too busy, or else they don't do on-site optimisation. I think most SEO companies are usually happy to take on onsite optimisation work - as are a range of cowboys happy to charge most for least work!

daniull · 15-08-2008, 04:58 PM

Right... yee haw!

As you can see I am completely in the dark here.

Ok, So, Let's pretend someone came to you with an unlimited budget and asked you to review their website for SEO.

What is the absolute 1st thing you would check?
What is the 2nd thing you would check?
What is the 3rd thing you would check?
etc....

I think anyone who is new at SEO would love to hear some step by step advice on this. A simple list would be great!

then, in turn, what fixes and changes would you implement? (of course we know that depends on what is wrong)

***Brian Turner*** · 16-08-2008, 01:19 PM

Hm, okay - will get started on this.

Solicitors Mortgages · 23-08-2008, 02:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniull

Ok, So, Let's pretend someone came to you with an unlimited budget and asked you to review their website for SEO.

What is the absolute 1st thing you would check?
What is the 2nd thing you would check?
What is the 3rd thing you would check?
etc....

1)Canonical issues
2)Search engine friendly urls
3)H1 tag

someone else can add 4,5 & 6

Megahertz · 03-09-2008, 01:59 PM

I might be stupid here.... what are 'canonical issues'?

Sorry if this is a daft question!

monicaw · 05-09-2008, 10:54 AM

To see a very good explanation and example about Canonical issue, view this link mattcutts (dot) com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization

And no question is daft, "you only know how much you've learnt"

13-08-2008, 11:41 PM	#1 (permalink)
daniull Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 4	You won't DARE post THIS on the FORUM! Ok, now that I have proven that I know how to get your attention, let me first say that I am a long time watcher of SEO chat/forums/blogs but a first time owner of a corporation who would rather learn about SEO than just throw retarded amounts of cash to some company who will not produce results for my site. Now I know that some of these things might be basic to you, and I know there is so much SPECULATION about what works vs. what doesn't work that I just need to get to the bottom of where I am at with my site. So, without further adieu, lets get started. I started a site which sells certain musical products about 3 years ago and have never really explored the avenue of SEO at all. Although I do not consider my self a complete beginner, I want to be considered one while I talk on this forum so that those giving advice would not assume I know even the first thing. So please, treat me like an idiot here. Do not even brush quickly over the most SIMPLE issues. Currently I am ranked #13 and #34 under the most popular keywords in my product range and I have never really tried linking or link exchange ever. I don't even know how to check who my inbound links are! To be honest i always thought #13 was pretty good. But obviously I want to be in the top 5 for all 4 of my keywords. The interesting thing also is that in the particular field we sell in....there are not any MASSIVE companies and those who rank better than I, probably don't deserve to be there. In all honesty I would think that the top 5 should be VERY easy for me. So, with all that said.....where would you start? Step by step would be the best for me....and not vague--well as specific as you can be although i know that you don't have the site in front of you. I know you all do not have the first hand knowledge of looking at the site, but there must be enough info to warrant a general discuassion about SEO for dummies. Thanks and Kind Regards, Daniel

14-08-2008, 09:19 AM	#2 (permalink)
*Brian Turner* Business Guru Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Near Inverness, Highlands, Scotland Posts: 7,800	Re: You won't DARE post THIS on the FORUM! Hi Daniel and welcome to the forums. A couple of pointers first - I never recommend link exchanges, but would rather encourage people to be more intelligent in their link approaches. Link exchanges are something that had value 10 years ago, but cannot really be recommended now. As for checking links - the only sure way to do this really is via a link check on Yahoo search, using the following format: linkdomain:mydomain.com -site:mydomain.com Another couple of quick pitfalls: 1. Ensure all pages have unique page titles. Many dynamic sites can just repeat the same page title - which is effectively telling Google & co. "Hey, these might all just be versions of the same page". Not good. Treat Googlebot as like a child with a simple level of understanding - you need to make it as clear as possible what an individual page is about, using relevant keywords on that page - so that Googlebot can take this info to the Googleplex for processing. 2. Watch out for canonical issues - simple pitfalls are to have active versions of your site running on www.mydomain.com and non-www mydomain.com - redirect one to the other and stick to that format. Also watch out for issues with linking to the homepage - if your domain is mydomain.com, don't link back to mydomain.com/index.html or similar index files unless there is an absolute need to, and if there is a need to, to 301 redirect to the index page from the root. The issue here is that Google does not index pages - it indexes URLs - so if you have multiple versions of a URL for the same page and actively using these, Google may be inclined to drop one as a duplicate, and kill any advantages that the "duplicate" URLs were passing to other pages. Hope that helps for starters. __________________ SEO specialist

14-08-2008, 06:22 PM	#3 (permalink)
daniull Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 4	Re: You won't DARE post THIS on the FORUM! ok...great.... thats good for starters....but I do not have any other domains except my main one..... what are the benefits of more than one? and if any, how do I take advantage of them....???

14-08-2008, 06:28 PM	#4 (permalink)
daniull Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 4	Re: You won't DARE post THIS on the FORUM! Brian... this is great to have this help in the forum..... thanks... I am going to probably kill you with questions...but maybe it's great for the forum...I am sure there a many people in my situation. The other thing I was wondering alot lately.... There are very few "SEO experts" who are willing to "take" the job of optimising a site. Many that I talk to seem to falter when I ask for work done. I have my theory about this and it is real simple.... they can't really deliver anything tangible, and many of them have probably caused more harm than good. What do you think about that?

15-08-2008, 04:58 PM	#6 (permalink)
daniull Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 4	Re: You won't DARE post THIS on the FORUM! Right... yee haw! As you can see I am completely in the dark here. Ok, So, Let's pretend someone came to you with an unlimited budget and asked you to review their website for SEO. What is the absolute 1st thing you would check? What is the 2nd thing you would check? What is the 3rd thing you would check? etc.... I think anyone who is new at SEO would love to hear some step by step advice on this. A simple list would be great! then, in turn, what fixes and changes would you implement? (of course we know that depends on what is wrong)

16-08-2008, 01:19 PM	#7 (permalink)
*Brian Turner* Business Guru Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Near Inverness, Highlands, Scotland Posts: 7,800	Re: You won't DARE post THIS on the FORUM! Hm, okay - will get started on this. __________________ SEO specialist

03-09-2008, 01:59 PM	#9 (permalink)
Megahertz Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Hull, UK Posts: 14	Re: You won't DARE post THIS on the FORUM! I might be stupid here.... what are 'canonical issues'? Sorry if this is a daft question!

05-09-2008, 10:54 AM	#10 (permalink)
monicaw Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 1	Re: You won't DARE post THIS on the FORUM! To see a very good explanation and example about Canonical issue, view this link mattcutts (dot) com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization And no question is daft, "you only know how much you've learnt"

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