Google search issues

[madboyo]

Full Name: Never! Company Name: Never! NEVER answer

So suddenly my full name and company name are essential as well?

The company name is MXBits if you hadn't noticed.

Maybe you'd like to know the serial number of the software to check if it's legit as well would you? Would you like a look at the books as well?

What has this got to do with technical questions about Google rankings???

[madboyo]

Link structure, pagerank and anchor text or all off page factors that will determine how well a page ranks in Google.

You shouldn't be relying on links in the sitemap. Important pages should be linked to directly from the home page and the fewer steps in the navigation to that page the better.

Mike

Thanks Mike!

So submitting a sitemap file periodically is a bad thing to do?

[madboyo]

When we first set the site up we purposely removed the catalogue sections and subsections because when we looked at other sites we actually found finding what you want from the listing on the left-hand side clumsy and made for a huge front page.

What your saying is we've probably done more harm than good. If I understand you correctly?

An example of this would be : http://www.dirtbikebitz.com/

[Mike Hughes]

So submitting a sitemap file periodically is a bad thing to do?

Not necessarily bad, but for most websites it's not really worth doing. Google uses the links on the website to rank pages, so if it can't find the page via your navigation then those pages aren't going to rank well anyway.

When we first set the site up we purposely removed the catalogue sections and subsections because when we looked at other sites we actually found finding what you want from the listing on the left-hand side clumsy and made for a huge front page.

What your saying is we've probably done more harm than good. If I understand you correctly?

I wouldn't say that. Your navigation should be set out for the user rather than Google, but google is important too. I would change the links that go via the cgi-bin to direct links and not have too many levels (links) to get to the content pages.

As an example of this last item. You have to go Plastics > UFO Plastics > Honda Plastics to get to the product page. At each step Google essentially views the next page as weaker than the current one. The more levels you go through to get to a page the weaker that page will rank.

If you link to all the pages from the front page then they'll all be ranked quite weakly. Link to the important ones (a 'bestseller' or 'popular item' breakout is a good way of doing this) and let the navigation take customers / SE's to the other pages.

Mike

[Darren B]

OK i skipped through this as, but is it not a requirement under distance selling to show a full address and contact number?

Im sure i read this at some time

[Darren B]

At each step Google essentially views the next page as weaker than the current one. The more levels you go through to get to a page the weaker that page will rank.

This is exactly what i see on mysites, the deeper you go the lower the page rank, i tend not to worry as the deeper pages are the spp ones that base will take them to. The higher pages with more info are the MPP's

[Rich Brady]

EU Regs I think (This isn't a piss take based on an earlier thread) It only rings a bell as eBay, who never used to let you put your contact details anywhere now encourage it

[madboyo]

Thanks guys other than the lot who wanted to flame mxbits just because we don't have a postal address and a name!

For all the others who have provided constructive feedback then I thank you for sharing with me your knowledge and experience. I can now go forward with ideas to test.

I will also look at the laws surround internet sales re: address etc.

[madboyo]

EU Regs I think (This isn't a piss take based on an earlier thread) It only rings a bell as eBay, who never used to let you put your contact details anywhere now encourage it

I have found the following document: http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/bus...ral/oft698.pdf

If you read page 11. Section 3, Sub-section 3.1

You must give your consumers certain information before they agree
to buy from you. We refer to this as pre-contractual information which
includes the following.


i) Your identity including sufficient detail for the consumer to be able to identify the business they are dealing with.

(vi) If payment is required in advance, you must supply your full geographic address **

**This applies before goods or services are received by the consumer.


So as it stands we aren't breaking any law.

We do not charge before we dispatch for the reason that we can't possible hold every stock item for every brand of motorcycle up there so therefore we sometimes have to wait a day for the stock to arrive before we dispatch.

That was the reason we did not implement systems such as Prox.

[grantglendinnin]

Mr X.

Regardless what the law states - only a fool would part with their cash to a back alley fraudster, which is exactly what most small companies running PO Boxes are.

Sorry to bring the harsh reality to your attention - this is advice, not criticism.

[bamboo]

i) Your identity including sufficient detail for the consumer to be able to identify the business they are dealing with.

With laws containing phrases as vague as this no wonder scam merchants are everywhere. Not suggesting you such a person, madboyo, but you have to admit it reads like a get out of jail card.

Just goes to show that the Law is often an Ass.

[bamboo]

Just a heads up. I had this pointed out to me today as a fault on one of my sites by a caring soul on this marvellous forum so I am doing the same for you good sir.

Your T&C page contains

Tax Charges For orders made from the UK or the European Union, 17.5% VAT is added. All other orders are VAT free.

[RuralWeb]

So suddenly my full name and company name are essential as well?

It just shows the respect you hold for the forum you use

[Darren B]

I have found the following document: http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/bus...ral/oft698.pdf

If you read page 11. Section 3, Sub-section 3.1

You must give your consumers certain information before they agree
to buy from you. We refer to this as pre-contractual information which
includes the following.


i) Your identity including sufficient detail for the consumer to be able to identify the business they are dealing with.

(vi) If payment is required in advance, you must supply your full geographic address **

**This applies before goods or services are received by the consumer.


So as it stands we aren't breaking any law.

We do not charge before we dispatch for the reason that we can't possible hold every stock item for every brand of motorcycle up there so therefore we sometimes have to wait a day for the stock to arrive before we dispatch.

That was the reason we did not implement systems such as Prox.

depends what is ment by geographic address, that excludes PO Boxes, only under special circumstance are they, normally for new builds whilst royal mail are allocating one

[TraceyHand]

I

(vi) If payment is required in advance, you must supply your full geographic address **

**This applies before goods or services are received by the consumer.


So as it stands we aren't breaking any law.

We do not charge before we dispatch for the reason that we can't possible hold every stock item for every brand of motorcycle up there so therefore we sometimes have to wait a day for the stock to arrive before we dispatch.

That was the reason we did not implement systems such as Prox.

Unless you charge your customer AFTER they have their goods, you're still receiving payment in advance!