best seo practice

[kakshaks]

Hi All
I have been trying to optimise my site for search engines recently and have received the following 3 pieces of advice regarding Actinc V7:-
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"There is some Javascript present within the HEAD section of the pages. We recommend this code be pushed into external .js files".
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"The ideal order of tags should be Title, Description,Keywords". Title is currently fine but this is followed by keywords,description(ie. wrong order) which is part of HEADERMETA variable which I somehow need to change (ie. I want description followed by keywords).
.
"Within the sitemap, add a TITLE tag to each line".

Before I start an argument on whether this is good advice or not, would anyone out there be able to tell me how to do any/all of the above.

Thanks in advance
Kevin Akers
www.testinprivate.co.uk

[Duncan Rounding]

I haven't done this but...
For the Metas you try swopping round Design Text 1182 and 1183.
For the sitemap you could try modifying template Act_SiteMapSectionLine.
The js - the urchin code for Google Analytics can be placed at the bottom of the page instead of the top - the other js is for your navigation (Yahoo Sections) which needs to stay where it is.

[RuralWeb]

There is some Javascript present within the HEAD section of the pages. We recommend this code be pushed into external .js files".

I dont think actinic will work correctly with this as an external .js file. The plan is sound ie get rid of the java script which is blocking the spiders - this is common with this template. You would be better swapping the navigation system. This was discussed recently so do a search.
.

"The ideal order of tags should be Title, Description,Keywords". Title is currently fine but this is followed by keywords,description(ie. wrong order) which is part of HEADERMETA variable which I somehow need to change (ie. I want description followed by keywords).

. Description and keywords are ignored these days but you can swap these around by editing the templates.

"Within the sitemap, add a TITLE tag to each line".

I dont understand this - you can only have one title tag per page so you cannot add it to each line. Can you explain more.

[kakshaks]

Thanks for the help so far.
.
With regards to the sitemap, they r suggesting:-
"<a href="home-drug-test-kit.html" title=”Home Drug Test Kit”><b>parents concern drug test</b></a>" and I dont know how to get the 'title=......' code inserted.
Thx
K

[Duncan Rounding]

You are referring to the Title attribute not the Title element (tag).
As I mentioned previously try modifying template Act_SiteMapSectionLine.
You could do this for example:
<A HREF="NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLINK" Title="NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONNAME"><B>NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONNAME</B></A>
This would give you a title attribute of the section name. If you want to have custom titles then I presume you could add a new custom variable and define it per section then reference that custom variable above - but that's a bit outside my knowledge.

[RuralWeb]

they r suggesting

I presume by this statement that you are paying for this advice - if so then "they" should be able to tell you how to do it. If "they" cannot do it I would suggest they do not know what they are doing with regards to Actinic and SEO. There is another thread running about an SEO "Expert" who does not know Actinic - beware poor advice will break your site.

And no I do not want your business - Im just offering advice while not doing your SEO advisers job.

[jont]

As Malcolm says be very wary of advice given by SEO companies on Actinic sites. Actinic is different to the ordinary and the vast majority of SEO companies simply do not understand how it functions and can cause more problems than benefits - I would not take a Ferrari to be serviced at a Vauxhall garage.. or vice versa

Even if the advice is free tread carefully. There are lots of threads on SEO specific to Actinic and are likely to create more benefit and in a safer method.

[Dek]

Best Practice!

I am assuming the site in question is the testinprivate site.

If this advice you have been given is the main part of the SEO work then I dont think you will benefit a great deal from this. If the suggestions are part of a much bigger report and you have only told us about this one part then I think you are focussing on the wrong area. Do they mention the titles? Linking in the copy? In bound anchor text? The list could go on and on....

SEO work is about many things and lots of people have their own strategies, to take isolated parts out of a project proposal and analyse in isolation and implement in isolation will never give you anywhere near the result you are hoping for.

I think you would be much better off to make your titles stronger, by this I mean, the vast majority of the titles start with the same thing 'test in private'. Therefore, this phrase will be seen as the strongest for each page and with it being the same on most pages you will be preventing the other phrases from getting the recognition they should.

If you look at the title for the page http://www.testinprivate.co.uk/acatalog/STD-Test.html

you have 'test in private: products >> STD tests ...........
this page is about 'STD tests and chlamydia'
your page name is 'STD-Test.html'

I think your work should be more focussed around this area.

I normally use _ instead of -
I would drop the 'test in private: products >>' and bring the 'STD Test' to the front of the title
I would also use where possible exactly the same title lettering as the page name.

So for me it would be

std_test.html with a title of 'std test kit, chlamydia test kit, gonorrhoea lab kit' or 'std test kits, chlamydia, gonorrhoea self test'

The meta description I use for doing an advert, this is what will mostly appear in the Search engine listing so writing a good catchy informative description will get you more clicks than just filling it in for the sake of it. If you leave the description blank then the search engine will fill it in for you by taking what it thinks is most appropriate from your page. This is sometimes a good technique to adopt.

Of the above, the title is the most important. Try different variations with your strongest phrase at the front.

I dont think you will gain an awful lot by just putting the tags in a different order, I do believe it is important to have the title as the first one after the <head> but beyond that the order of the other meta stuff is the least of your concerns.

Actinic does like to pack the head with javascript which is not the best but again, there are lots of Actinic sites with good results that have javascript in the head so I dont think it is the end of the world. Rather than spend your time on the negatives and get bogged down with minimal items, concentrate on the larger positives and you will get good results.

I think your site is very neat, good product layout and looks very professional, if I were in the market for your products then your site would tempt me to buy.

When I optimise my sites I use some auto variable stuff in the templates to populate all the pages and I choose a select few to focus on the more generic phrases. With the automation stuff you get used to adding products and creating sections with this in mind and it works ok.

As one of previous posts, there are lots of tips and help around on the forum, please read them carefully before parting with money or signing up for something or you may get burned.

[Mark H]

Just a quick note about the use of - rather than _ (in both page and file names) this has been discussed at: http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=20688

Which ever way you go on this, it's best to decide early on!