Hellllooo Folks..new site here from newbies needing help with SEO

[yeomtom]

Hi there Folks,

we have just completed the first three months of operation with our new ladies shoe retail site.

http://www.pretty-small-shoes.com



It is our first ever site and we know very little about web retail, (our background is graphic design). We designed the site ourselves, and it was executed by a small web company reccomended by actinic.

We are using actinic catalogue version 9 right now.

It runs reasonably well on adwords traffic but has less than 20 visitors a day from organic/natural search.

The niche we operate in is small size ladies shoes. Shoes below size 3 UK are not much stocked in the high street (adult ladies below size 3 account for just 2% of the population) and the web is a good place to be found by those in need of these items.

We have done a little SEO on the site, but are VERY green and dangerously, we know a little of what to do and in the first couple of months have applied this knowldge a bit haphazardly.

We would be extreemely grateful of some tips, advice and critiquing (sp?) of our SEO set up and advice on any of the things we must/could do to improve our natural search results.

Our main phrases , are `small shoes` and `petite shoes`, and we target mostly UK traffic with adwords and have recently dabbled a bit with USA traffic. Though our market ultimately we see as international.

All and any comments would be most welcome.


many thanks

T & J

[guccij]

This is just my suggestion and is not in any way an absolute "you must do this": I'd remove the text above the horizontal menu bar and put a graphic in there, and replace the big image "Welcome to our on-line shop" etc with readable text*.

Now this is just my opinion, you understand and is not a criticism in any way shape or form, but the pic of the flying woman (if that is what it is), is a bit scary. I thought at first it was a ram's head.

--EDIT--

* this for SEO purposes, so Google etc can read it.

[parklifeclothes]

the pic of the flying woman (if that is what it is), is a bit scary. I thought at first it was a ram's head.

Its a very weird image and could be improved IMO.

The images of the actual products are very clear and give every imaginable view which again is what customers will be wanting to see.

Personally I think the add to shopping bag image is 'lost' due to its colour and placement.

Apart from that a very good start.

[plantshop]

Im no expert but I assume that you have read all the other site reviews before posting?

A couple I spotted stright off:

The buy button has no rollover so there is no indication that it is active

There is no checkout button

BUT your website designer should be able to tell you all this - SEO needs to be built into the website when it is designed not added as an afterthought. I use V7 but I assume its the same with V9

[Darren B]

Ermmm i thought this thread was asking for SEO advice

[gabrielcrowe]

yes, it is, but what a mental site.

though its very in your face, the structuremay need some tweaking, to help the flow.\


the only h1 in the site, is the header, where the logo is. how about some real words in there?

there are no h2, and there are a few h3, empty tags.

you are missing some meta keywords and tags, i'd pop some in there, unique ones for each page.

also: the front page is stylishly messy, perhaps a clean up.

i like the 'call me i'm all about shoes' icon on the left bar, below the nav.

smart.

[Mike Hughes]

I think it's a nice and attractive site, although the rams head on the flying lady is a bit dark and scary.

In terms of SEO:

1. The page titles should reflect what's on the page. i.e. if the page is about 'tango shoes for small feet' then that's the kind of thing the title should say.

2. I couldn't see the keywords or description meta tags. Make sure you include these on the page.

3. There appear to be multiple copies of the same page depending on how you get there. This isn't needed and lowers the position each page will get in the search engine pages.

4. Add what we sometimes call a 'breadcrumb' trail. This shows where the visitor is on the site ( 'Shoes > High Heels > Tango shoes' etc) and this helps the visitors (tip: and search engines) understand where they are and the structure of the website.

5. Make the short description (product name) clearer on what it is. People looking for Tango Shoes are going to have to search for 'Tango Shoes' unless they want a fizzy orange drink. The product name (and image text, etc)should say 'tango shoes' rather than just 'tango'.

Mike

[gabrielcrowe]

since you mentioned that you dont really know SEO, then may i suggest paying a pro, and learning from them? you'd save yourself a lot of time, and you'll also make a lot more profit.

[plantshop]

Ermmm i thought this thread was asking for SEO advice

Only trying to help -

[gabrielcrowe]

that button with your number on it, you may want to get skype, and make it a skype link, you may get some sales through that too.

as niches go, you'res is pretty interesting.

how are your google adwords going?

[plantshop]

How about the fact that all the main text is on the page as an image, I thought that search engines could not read images so that will not be helping. I may be wrong so please be nice to me as I get upset easily

[gabrielcrowe]

this is true planty, i completely missed that.

dont ever use images for text where text can be used, you're throwing away an opportunity.

[plantshop]

Also your images are large file sizes which Im sure I read somewhere does not help, perhaps if they were compressed better it may make a difference.

[plantshop]

this is true planty

Woooooooooo I got something right. Im off to start an SEO business now

[Mike Hughes]

How about the fact that all the main text is on the page as an image, I thought that search engines could not read images so that will not be helping. I may be wrong so please be nice to me as I get upset easily

I think Jules may have said this in post #2 but it is easy to miss. I didn't notice it the first time around.

Mike