SEO

[MendoDave]

I am using one of these build your own website templates to build a new website for my wife. Does anybody pay for search engine optimization or do you just let the search engines discover your site?

This is the site. http://www.wutajoy.net/ 

Its not quite ready. As soon as I work out a few bugs is should be though.

[ducpainter]

My wife does a lot of research re SEO.

With Google's new algorithm you're better off avoiding the old gimmicks and just offer straight up content.

BTW...

Has Joy ever thought of offering a sampler?

I'd buy one of those.

[MendoDave]

Yea we were thinking of doing that actually. I will make that an offering tomorrow afternoon. 1/4 pound each.

[ducpainter]

Yea we were thinking of doing that actually. I will make that an offering tomorrow afternoon. 1/4 pound each.

That'll kill the diet...

sounds like a worthwhile venture.

[MendoDave]

Better than bacon? 

[ducpainter]

Better than bacon? 

I eat all the protein/fat I can stand.

I found that personally the pound of pasta and loaf of bread was the killer.

I have things under control again.

The brittle would be a nice treat.

[bevel]

My wife does a lot of research re SEO.

With Google's new algorithm you're better off avoiding the old gimmicks and just offer straight up content.

BTW...

Has Joy ever thought of offering a sampler?

I'd buy one of those.

+1 - worked in that industry for 18 mos, and content is what it really comes down to.

• Page Title (<title> tag) + Heading 1 (<h1> tag) + Page URL (if you can control it) should all be roughly the same.
• On page content should be tightly focused. Think of each page as a thread on this forum - if you find a page "threadjacking", make a new page for it. You've got 4 types of brittle, nothing wrong with having 4 separate pages. You'll be more likely to show the "almond brittle" page when someone searches for "almond brittle" and you have a page dedicated to just "almond brittle".
• Be up front with the ability to convert/buy. Yes, there's the link to "order" in your left nav, but take one of those pics, add "Buy Now" text over it, and make it a link to your order page. A person is smart, people are dumb, and people are what come to your website - you need to lead them to the action you want them to take.
• If you're going to be expanding to more products, consider a better vehicle for delivering more content to your site, like a blog or posting videos to YouTube. The more pages/content you have, the more likely you are to show up for any given search. And make the content useful for the audience. No one is going to not buy the brittle if you post a video of how you make it - if anything, they're more likely to buy.

[MendoDave]

Ok I will try to do most of that. I think the headers are the only thing I cant change. at this point. 

[Slide Panda]

Well the page currently doesn't have any headers <h1> <h2> etc, so helping to sort that out will help some.

Another important bit of info for you is ditch the image text. On your site all the left hand menu text and the "http://www.wutajoy.net/" banner at the top are images. As they are on the page presently, and of the search spiders cannot read them. The "http://www.wutajoy.net/" doesn't as written content for them. And with the generic file name of 'company_name.gif' it doesn't do much either. Similaraly the navigation doesn't have relavent file names - nor does it point to a URL with a relavent name. 5801.html doesn't tell me much - orderBrittle.html would.

From peaking at the code it looks like some sort of managed hosting/site solution? Some canned DIY sorta thing? I'd suggest you guys start to explore some other, better options.

For a small business like this WordPress as a content management system has a lot of value. The CMS is free and there are tons for really nice themes (the presentation layer) for free or low cost. yes, you'll need to get things set up, which if you're not a tech type will take some learning. But once set up, it's very easy to manage content. Additionally there are a number of plugins for Wordpress that purport to help with SEO. I've never used one, I just do it the good old fashioned way as described by bevel.

I helped build the guts for http://www.fantasysmacktalk.com/ and taught the guys the nuts and bolts for SEO. For specific topics - like week to week line ups they will rank above sites like ESPN. That site BTW is running on Wordpress- just to give an idea of what one can do. Though you can do a lot less.

This is probably a lot to take in, if you're not in the field at all. Feel free to hit me with a PM with questions - or just post in here. I'll subscribe 

[JEFF_H]

I had a company i know (they make modules for our store software) contact us for a SEO service quote.

Prices started at $750.



per month. 

[MendoDave]

Well the page currently doesn't have any headers <h1> <h2> etc, so helping to sort that out will help some.

Another important bit of info for you is ditch the image text. On your site all the left hand menu text and the "http://www.wutajoy.net/" banner at the top are images. As they are on the page presently, and of the search spiders cannot read them. The "http://www.wutajoy.net/" doesn't as written content for them. And with the generic file name of 'company_name.gif' it doesn't do much either. Similaraly the navigation doesn't have relavent file names - nor does it point to a URL with a relavent name. 5801.html doesn't tell me much - orderBrittle.html would.

From peaking at the code it looks like some sort of managed hosting/site solution? Some canned DIY sorta thing? I'd suggest you guys start to explore some other, better options.

For a small business like this WordPress as a content management system has a lot of value. The CMS is free and there are tons for really nice themes (the presentation layer) for free or low cost. yes, you'll need to get things set up, which if you're not a tech type will take some learning. But once set up, it's very easy to manage content. Additionally there are a number of plugins for Wordpress that purport to help with SEO. I've never used one, I just do it the good old fashioned way as described by bevel.

I helped build the guts for http://www.fantasysmacktalk.com/ and taught the guys the nuts and bolts for SEO. For specific topics - like week to week line ups they will rank above sites like ESPN. That site BTW is running on Wordpress- just to give an idea of what one can do. Though you can do a lot less.

This is probably a lot to take in, if you're not in the field at all. Feel free to hit me with a PM with questions - or just post in here. I'll subscribe 

Yes it is a canned website. At this point the advantages of these types of sites outweigh the disadvantages for what I'm trying to do.
My web building skills are on the rudimentary side. If I had to do this with dream weaver or front page I would be working on it for months. And forget about me coding by hand.

I plan on running this site for about a year before I reevaluate doing something better or paying someone to do it for me.

[MendoDave]

I had a company i know (they make modules for our store software) contact us for a SEO service quote.

Prices started at $750.



per month.  

If I start making upwards of 30K a month I'll get a hold of you.

[Slide Panda]

I had a company i know (they make modules for our store software) contact us for a SEO service quote.

Prices started at $750.



per month. 

Bah! They unless they are doing some hardcore shit - they are fleecing people. There's plenty of free info on how you can do well with SEO, for free.

Now I have seen some hardcore SEO tweakers who, through analytics and custom tools watch traffic very carefully and watch how that traffic arrived, via what words for example and adjust content to match up to what people are looking for.

But the average Joe with some free tools and research can do quite well.

As far as the canned site vs something else - One of the nice things about something like wordpress, especially in it's current incarnation, is that it really doesn't require any tech skills. If you can manage to post on the DMF you can probably get a wordpress site up, running and populated. You don't need to know HTML to do it.

I encourage you to research it or its kin. Those canned sites like your currently running are pretty poor by comparison.

[bevel]

Agreeing with Sad Panda on all fronts.

Stay away from firms promising your SEO work, and WordPress can go a long way compared to what you have now.