OT web site optimisation..

Geek help please...
work has had their web site Professionally optimized ...
we are now in possession of the document that tells us what to change, but have no idea where in the HTML it needs to go???
we are using a wordpress site..
and have access to the FTP area
looking for the meta titles and such and cant find them in the code
Help please
Si

Hi Si

Optimized for what? Google ranking?

If so, from what I have read meta tags etc are a waste of time now as the engines don't even bother with them

Similar thing with placing 'key words' in your content.... Google are wise to this sort of thing now and actually penalise sites for taking the piss as it were

It seems to be all about off page content now... In other words buggering around with your pages has limited effect. What you need are links from other sites to yours.... Google sees this as 'this is an interesting site coz lots of others link to it so Ill move it up the ranking'... Needs to be one way though. The days of reciprocal links are gone.
I.E a link to you is +1 ... if you link back to the same site its a -1 .... net zero

It struck me that search engine ranking is a full time job. Sure you can get up there (and you NEED to be in the first few items on page 1) but to stay there means regular work/payment.

I spent a day looking at this stuff... don't have the figures but it summat like only 20% of your ranking actually comes from your site.... the rest is from external links

Struck me that 'ranking' is the new 'we can do you a website' wild-west with people making $$$

Forums with dodgy black hat rankers with their underhand techniques - the lot
Interesting stuff to look into if you have the time

As for your content stuff -- I stumbled on software that would sprinkle your pages with keywords and give various metrics on the pages.... Thats probably what you need .... BUT it struck me as a bit of a waste of time tbh....... sorry

Yeah what he said. If you are talking SEO (search engine optimisation) then just adding keywords in the code or page titles etc. isn't going to cut it.

Apart form the very very dumb search engines, but not many use them.. do they?

Let's chat a bit.. if you can provide the code I can have a gander?
Patrick (noeyedear) is your man for this but he's kind of semi-retired now I hear.

[Weirdo]

Everything above is correct. We have two people full time on SEO at work. I spend my day dealing with slight tweaks to the site.

To be honest I think it is all black magic but they have made huge differences. The main thing that has made a difference in business is getting higher for the long tail searches. Ie if you sell skateboards appearing high for that is good and vanity but it is appearing number one for "good value skateboards for sale with free grip tape". It seams that people search this way with very specific searches. If you get top for those people click and if they land on a relevant page ( and that is very important) they will buy. Our site has hundreds of pages.

As for the meta stuff then yes it does not get used much but it is something you can easily do and if it makes a slight difference then great.

I think the thing to do is to get the site in order. Make sure all the standards are met and that it is well structured

[Woody]

Everything above is correct. We have two people full time on SEO at work. I spend my day dealing with slight tweaks to the site.

To be honest I think it is all black magic but they have made huge differences. The main thing that has made a difference in business is getting higher for the long tail searches. Ie if you sell skateboards appearing high for that is good and vanity but it is appearing number one for "good value skateboards for sale with free grip tape". It seams that people search this way with very specific searches. If you get top for those people click and if they land on a relevant page ( and that is very important) they will buy. Our site has hundreds of pages.

As for the meta stuff then yes it does not get used much but it is something you can easily do and if it makes a slight difference then great.

I think the thing to do is to get the site in order. Make sure all the standards are met and that it is well structured

Well structured LOL thats me fucked

[Weirdo]

It is also about content. You have to make sure that you have loads of unique content. You have to make Google think that your site is the most authoritative site on the web for the subject. You can not even copy and paste from other sites because they pick up on the duplication of text and mark you down.

Woody, There is always improvements to be made on any site. As I say we have two people full time on SEO. Changing stuff on the site and creating links and monitoring what people search on. Google analytics is a good place to start and it is free. You can get a load of information on what people are searching for and what people are doing.

Another trick someone told me was to use some the browser readers that blind people use. The argument is that google read the site not look at it. So if a blind person can use the site and find everything then google can.

It really is a case of tweak this tweak that

[TimWalker]

I found page title made more impact than meta tags.
I changed that with my domain host gubbins, not my website html.

I know bugger all really, but changing from 'Voltage Studios' to 'Voltage Studios recording rehearsals leeds bradford west yorkshire' or whatever it was jumped the site up about 12 places in the usual searches.

[Weirdo]

As I say they all make a slight difference. Get a page with a relevant title, meta tags, keywords, URL, content that is unique, alt tags on photos and then you stand a chance of getting higher up the rankings than your competitors.

Add in links from good relevant sites, add all the social media shit like twitter feeds, Facebook links and YouTube and now you are talking.

Obviously the market you are in and your competitors will require you to do more or less.

ok cool thanks guys..
so if we add the meta tags then it will help a bit as we have no keywords on or site at the moment.
our google analytic is good at the moment but you cant find our site unless you enter exactly the company name..
and this is what we are trying to fix.
i have the what to do list but no idea how to get it into the HTML
i guess it will appear as <meta>blah blah blah ???
just adding a line into the top of the code for the page setup?
or am i simply adding " hit " words/phases into the text of the page in bold?

[TimWalker]

Google Place pages and Bing and yahoo business listings help a lot too. Also 118.com and various other business listings. Just search for your type of business and various listing sites will pop up. Add your business to those sites....most of them are free...tell the pay ones to go shite - they're not worth it.

[Weirdo]

Geek help please...
work has had their web site Professionally optimized ...
we are now in possession of the document that tells us what to change, but have no idea where in the HTML it needs to go???
we are using a wordpress site..
and have access to the FTP area
looking for the meta titles and such and cant find them in the code
Help please
Si

http://codex.wordpress.org/Meta_Tags_in_WordPress

This should help with the actual job of putting in meta tags

As Tim and others said, the big thing for Google results is the number of other sites that link TO your site. So those directory listings are a good place to start.
Also worth doing some link sharing with other businesses you know, not competitors obviously but they all count.

Found some of the stuff I was researching

Ok

watch this



Website

http://www.seosoftwarereviewed.com/amr- ... -robot.php

Seriously thinking of getting and using this

Oh just to explain

What this, and others do is create one way links to your site by creating/submitting to thousands of article sites

Its ONEWAY links you want..... reciprocal links wont cut it

It strikes me that if your competitors are using software like this then tinkeing by hand is NOT going to work....

I have a business idea brewing that involves all this stuff..... may go for it..

Would be interested in feedback on the idea so I may post about it (basically training for small businesses taking away the voodo of web domain registering/uploading and website building -- touching on SEO and including Xara Web Design as a freebie)

Thinking of marketing on Groupon and hawking the training round the country


xx

[Weirdo]

Joolz, I would be dubious at how well this works. It is not that much different to the spam posts that appear on here.

Google hate to be cheated. As a business they have a problem. Apart from paid search they have no way of making money. The business model is based on making the best search engine that customers want to use and then sell key space to people who want to pay.

Users want relevant search results. All it will take is for a company to provide search results better and google could be finished.

The last time I was at google all they talked about was content with relevant links from authoritative sites. One link from the BBC or some other good site will be worth loads of small links.

If that software does work google will just change and the site will be stuffed

I hope you get mileage with it but not so sure. It is never that easy