Non Technical SEO advice

[Ian Allcoat]

I clearly haven't got the hang of the Forum world! I take it I can't put an example link?

That example link is my domain name /prescription_glasses/glasses-lenses.html

[Mike Hughes]

Hi Ian, that link works fine.

My mistake on the previous post. I was looking at the first example you gave which I now realise was just a made up example rather than a working one.

Mike

[Rich Brady]

Now type glasses lenses into Google and you should see us in second place just behind Specsavers.

Sorry to burst your bubble , but you're on page 4 when I do that search. Are you logged into your google account when you do that search?

[parklifeclothes]

Sorry to burst your bubble , but you're on page 4 when I do that search. Are you logged into your google account when you do that search?

I once thought I had conquered the world, everything I looked at I was page 1, postion 1, then I signed out and my world fell apart

[Rich Brady]

I once thought I had conquered the world, everything I looked at I was page 1, postion 1, then I signed out and my world fell apart

LOL It does catch a lot of people out!

[Ian Allcoat]

EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeK, Oh my God. I had indeed thought I'd conqured the World. 5 minutes of sheer panic have just ensued and alas you are right. I was logged in to my Google account. This is a relatively recent target of ours and I must admit, i thought we'd cracked it already but I think more time is needed.

However, I do stand by what I say. I do believe that in time we will get similar success for the 'glasses lenses' phrase having created that page and from applying other similar principles as we do for 'cheap glasses', 'glasses', 'prescription glasses' , 'glasses frames' , 'spectacles', 'cheap spectacles' to name but a few that we have used this exact same principle with and attained high positioning. To be honest, whilst writing this I have phoned 4 or 5 friends up and down the country to make sure I haven't been living in a Rosy Google world and I'm glad to say that we are right up there for the above phrases so, in theory, in time, it should work.

I love this Forum. You find out so much!! I'd never have known about that being logged into google thing!

[Rich Brady]

You're number one for "prescription glasses" in Google. Which, IMO, is much better than "glasses lenses" anyway.

It's always best to test results from varying IPs and when you're not logged in. Webmaster Tools is always a good indication of what's working for you and whats not.

Any way I've dragged this thread away from topic a little, so I apologise.

[Rich Brady]

Please go easy on me here but I am no techie....

We run baby furniture, bedding & toys website at www.4little1s.com and we are struggling with SEO generally. I would really appreaciate if someone could give me a few basic pointers in the right direction to help us along the way.

Would really appreciate it

Definitely get rid of all those links taking your visitors off site. The massive amount of whitespace at the bottom of your pages needs to go to.

I think you need to rename your pages and look at you section structure.

I'd split clothes_footwear.html up into:

Baby-Clothes.html
Booties.html
Kids-Clothes.html
Kids-Shoes.html

Reusing the terms as page titles (Baby Clothes, Booties, etc)

Remember if you're renaming pages to set up 301 redirects, so you don't loose any traffic.

This is the page title for your Clothes, Footwear page:

"Handmade baby clothing and footwear - UK - unique baby gifts - new baby hampers - baby clothing bouquets - swaddling blankets - funky soft toys - children's name plaques "

It needs to be much more content specific.

"Hand made baby and kids clothes and shoes"

Don't spam your titles, keep them concise.

[4little1s]

Thanks .. I have actually stopped focusing on baby clothes etc. If you look at nursery stuff, baby bedding etc, you will see that the file names and page titles are much better aligned to the products.

Someone has told me that there is some 4little1s content posted on Digg and that it is likely that it has been reported as spam. Is there any truth in this? The post is nothing to do with me.

Much as this is all about SEO, I don't think that this is a problem. We were ranking well, so although my technique could be improved, it would not explain why our site has dissappeared from Google altogether. I am convinced that there is a bigger issue here.

Any more thoughts?????

Thanks

[Ian Allcoat]

Unfortunately, this is heard of all the time with Google. A site can be there one minute and gone the next and with no information coming from Google to explain why this has happened. A change of their algorithm can sometimes be the reason. What was good for your site last month might not be now depending on what their new changes are.

The trouble is with the question you pose is that there are so many different factors associated with the big picture of SEO and what does, doesn't, did and might work. I wouldn't mind betting that if you put your last question to someone at Google that even they wouldn't be able to give you a straight, absolute answer. I for one am stumped so Sorry. Anyone else have any further ideas?

[4little1s]

Ian, Thanks for your posts and the advice given earlier. I will just keep working on my site to improve it further.

If anyone else has any ideas please share!

Thanks

[Chunkford]

LOL It does catch a lot of people out!

This is a sweet FireFox extension I use to check my search engine rankings http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/

Enjoy

[Ian Allcoat]

This is a sweet FireFox extension I use to check my search engine rankings http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/

Enjoy

Nice one. That's a really great tool. Shall be using that a lot from now on. Cheers.

[4little1s]

How do I do a 303 ?

[4little1s]

Sorry..I mean a 301 ?