SEO Advice

[Brightstar]

Hi Everyone,

My website (URL below) has two main sets of search keywords - 'Masonic Regalia' and 'Masonic Supplies'.

I am currently at position number two on Google for the search term 'Masonic Supplies', which has remained static for months. My second, and probably the most important set of search keywords, 'Masonic Regalia', which was until recently hovering around position number four, has today dropped to position number nine, and is in danger of 'falling off' the first page.

As far as I know I have done nothing to affect the sites natural listings. However, now in panic mode, I have made some changes to the page names and titles in the vain hope my ranking will improve.

I have a Google Webmaster account, and have an .xml sitemap. The information there tells me that I have 1952 of 2051 pages indexed, the site is being crawled regularly, and I have just short of a thousand backlinks. I have also spent some time optimising my page load time, and score 94/100 when Google Page Speed is run.

What is annoying is one of my competitors website, ranks higher than mine despite a Google Page Speed of 38. I was mistakenly led to believe one of the last Google Updates was about page load time?

I must admit, SEO is not a strong point of mine, and would ask if anyone can point me in the right diection, or can see some glaringly obvious mistake I am making.

Any replies, or advice most gratefully appreciated

[peblaco]

There are many factors that affect SEO. You have no heading tags you may want to add a H1 tag.

[Brightstar]

Thank you Louise for taking the trouble to reply

Sometimes the obvious is staring right at you, but you cannot see it !

This is the code used to format the title at present:

!!<<span style='font-family: Monotype Corsiva; font-size: 23px';>>!!Suppliers of !!<<span style='color: #ff5b0d;'>>!!Quality!!<</span>>!! Masonic Regalia & Accessories!!<</span>>!!

I would like to still use the same font type, but incorporate the H1 tags, but cannot get it work

Are you able to point me in the right direction please?

[Mike Hughes]

Page load time is a factor in google but only a minor one.

Looking at the home page I see 1,335 links with about 180 of those being from other websites.

As your company name is 'Acacia Masonic Supplies' that is the anchor text that these links are typically going to use which will be a key reason you're doing well for a search on 'Masonic supplies'. You'll also have your name all over the page in prime positions as well.

The anchor text used in the links is more important for SEO than the link itself.

If you want to do better for 'Masonic Regalia' you'll need to use the text in all the key places on the page and inbound links.

Mike

PS. re H1 tag. Just use CSS to declare the styling on your H1 tag.

[Brightstar]

Thank you Louise and Mike for the advice, if I have got it right? - please check my website ...

[peblaco]

Yes that has the H1 tag. You may want to look at Mikes advice regarding adding the two key phrases to the page and it would help if they were within the H1 tag.

[Brightstar]

You may want to look at Mikes advice regarding adding the two key phrases to the page and it would help if they were within the H1 tag.

That's the bit I'm struggling with - maybe because I'm thick! - not sure how to do this.

[Brightstar]

Louise,

Many many thanks

[animal dreams]

Steve,

If the term "masonic regalia" is so important to your business, as well as improving the rank of your site with correctly worded backlinks, you might consider setting up an off-site blog with a domain name like mymasoncregalia.com or .co.uk offering FREE advice on regalia etc.

The number one listing is an exact match domain of this term and I suspect all exact matches are gone. But having the term in the domain name will make it much easy to rank and, once you get it onto page one, you can put links or banners back to your main site.

If you search for the term "Parrot Cages" you will see my site at #1 and a second (blog) site at #4. Two bites at the cherry

Alan

[Brightstar]

Hi again,

Thank you all for your advice above, which has been implemented (hopefully) on the website.

However, things have gone from bad to worse, as I have now dropped off the first page for the search term 'masonic regalia'.

I am really at a loss as to why. Is it something I am doing wrong, or something my competitors are doing 'right' which is pushing me down the rankings for my search term?

Coincidently, I changed over to V11 shortly after the search term started dropping in the natural listings.

I really would appreciate some feedback if at all possible.

[Mike Hughes]

I've sent you a PM.

Mike

[Brightstar]

Re : Pm

Hi Mike,

Nothing received?

[Mike Hughes]

Sent via the 'email' function on your actinic profile. Does this have the right address?

Mike

[Brightstar]

Hi Mike,

In the time it took for you to reply, the PM came thro' - must of got delayed - I blame Royal Mail

[Mike Hughes]

Good. I wasn't looking forward to having to type it again.

Mike