Search Engine Optimisation

[freecrm]

I have almost completed my site which has been in development for about 4 months. (Sig. link)

Looking at Google Webmaster Toolbox, I know that most of the pages are indexed correctly but I am having real difficulty getting it anywhere near the top!!

I've also checked the referrals of all vosots and not one has come from a S.E.

I have gone through various steps with little success.

URL
Meta Title
Meta Description
<h1>
hyperlinks (internal)
body
Alts.

I have built other sites before but not on x10 - always with my own domain name.

How do I get better ranked?? Any suggestions (or am I limited because I'm part of the X10 domain?)

[Fahad]

I believe search engines do tend to prefer second level domains (ie x.com), rather than third or more level (x.y.com)
But I'm not sure.

[freecrm]

I believe search engines do tend to prefer second level domains (ie x.com), rather than third or more level (x.y.com)
But I'm not sure.

Guess I'll have to buy a domain name then!!

[rubenj]

Coolness

[RUSSELLA]

LOL, well gosh and darn, guess I'll have to get one too!
Edit:
Hi Rich,

maybe have a look at this URL, may not be what you are after but helped me.

http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/google.shtml

Russell

[veightar]

Its really about linking and nothing else. just check your back links at google and see if you've gotten any. Futhurmore, you should have done keyword research and that would have helped you to rank well for your domain name. I don't really think it all matters getting a top level domain name. even inner pages can rank up to about 6 in google, how much more subdomain name. Just try your seo well. I think linking to as many sites as possible will help.

[Siaram]

Hi Freecrm

Not to rin on your parade or anything, but I have studied SEO quite extensively and of course have a couple of my own sites and can honestly say that there really is no secret or mystery to it. If you have the hits to your site then it will climb in the ranks, if you don't? Then you will sit in obscurity/lonely land.

I know what you are thinking. It's like the old paradox, I want to get a job, but keep getting refused on the grounds of having no experience, yet we all ask the same question. How can I get experience if no one gives me a chance to work for them and get some. Or you get refused for a loan or credit card because you have no credit history and we ask, how can I get credit history if nobody gives me a chance and gives me some credit???

Herein lies the problem and honestly there is only one way to get around it. Get some good hits to your site on your own at first. It takes hard work and lots of networking, but you can, if you persist, get your own good hits to the site to start you off. Once you do this, you will see that you are slowing (sometimes even quickly) climbing the Google ranks to success!

There are really no shortcuts and as to your question about your site name, it really doesn't matter too much. You could have a site called I.Love.To.Fish.MYNAME.DoYou?.x10.com and guess what? If you have lots of hits to that site, then Google will love you and put you at the top of some list. The trick is, letting google know what type of site you have so the Meta tags are good and of course this is where a better name will also help as well. Mayhaps Fishing.anglingpro.x10.com is better right, because now you have already told Google in the domain name that your site is about Fishing & Angling. Bonus points there uh? ;)

The bottom line is, you need to get the attention of Google and other Search Engines so for the first little while you need to work hard to get it. I suggest you read my first post here in advertising called Free Advertising? The honest how-to guide. There are many cool options there to get you started as well as some info on BOUNCE RATES. These are VERY important. Don't wreck them or tamper with them or you can wreck your rating in a matter of days! The best example of this is don't cheat. If your site is about fishing, don't post links to your site everywhere claiming you have great porn. Your bounce rate will suffer greatly and you'll fall way back in the searches as S.E's don't like fibbers and it's easy for them to find out. Stats don't lie.

And finally, I would like to hear from you exactly what YOU believe your site is about and then see the Meta's you put for it because there are even tricks here that people don't utilize or know that can really help.

[freecrm]

Hi Freecrm

Not to rin on your parade or anything, but I have studied SEO quite extensively and of course have a couple of my own sites and can honestly say that there really is no secret or mystery to it. If you have the hits to your site then it will climb in the ranks, if you don't? Then you will sit in obscurity/lonely land.

I know what you are thinking. It's like the old paradox, I want to get a job, but keep getting refused on the grounds of having no experience, yet we all ask the same question. How can I get experience if no one gives me a chance to work for them and get some. Or you get refused for a loan or credit card because you have no credit history and we ask, how can I get credit history if nobody gives me a chance and gives me some credit???

Herein lies the problem and honestly there is only one way to get around it. Get some good hits to your site on your own at first. It takes hard work and lots of networking, but you can, if you persist, get your own good hits to the site to start you off. Once you do this, you will see that you are slowing (sometimes even quickly) climbing the Google ranks to success!

There are really no shortcuts and as to your question about your site name, it really doesn't matter too much. You could have a site called I.Love.To.Fish.MYNAME.DoYou?.x10.com and guess what? If you have lots of hits to that site, then Google will love you and put you at the top of some list. The trick is, letting google know what type of site you have so the Meta tags are good and of course this is where a better name will also help as well. Mayhaps Fishing.anglingpro.x10.com is better right, because now you have already told Google in the domain name that your site is about Fishing & Angling. Bonus points there uh? ;)

The bottom line is, you need to get the attention of Google and other Search Engines so for the first little while you need to work hard to get it. I suggest you read my first post here in advertising called Free Advertising? The honest how-to guide. There are many cool options there to get you started as well as some info on BOUNCE RATES. These are VERY important. Don't wreck them or tamper with them or you can wreck your rating in a matter of days! The best example of this is don't cheat. If your site is about fishing, don't post links to your site everywhere claiming you have great porn. Your bounce rate will suffer greatly and you'll fall way back in the searches as S.E's don't like fibbers and it's easy for them to find out. Stats don't lie.

And finally, I would like to hear from you exactly what YOU believe your site is about and then see the Meta's you put for it because there are even tricks here that people don't utilize or know that can really help.

Some good posts here - many thanks to all.

Regarding this post, you've confirmed what I feared about click-through ratings. I too have another 2 sites but not as competitive, which meant that I got to google 1st page rank within a few months. This one is proving much harder as many of the pro companies use incorrect keywords just to get the hits.

Fortunately, my bounce rate is only about 30/35% which is pretty good. Page views for new visitors remains at about 2.5 which is a bit lower than I'd like. (want it just over 3 if possible)

As an action plan, I need to get more outgoing/incoming links.

Re-check all descriptors and keywords and concentrate on the crux of this particular site (completely free, fully-functioning, online, multi-user crm system)

Third, network, network and network again!!

One of my main problems is that, because the majority of the site is viewable only by registered users, there isn't as much for bots!

Its very frustrating because there is a hell of a lot of functionality in this site and its free!


- Oh - please excuse the css for the menu at the top - I haven't got it sorted yet.

[balaji2u]

Analyze your competitors site , see where they linked to, approach the webmasters pull links, or stay updated in submitting your sites upcoming events to press releases, do social bookmarking.
Use do-follow forums .

[Siaram]

Not to discourage you, but I don't think a bounce rate of 30%-35% is acceptable. Try to keep this going down, the lower the better. Basically what a 35% bounce rate tells Google is that out of every visit you get to your site, at least 35% of the visitors leave right away without even really viewing anything. And this tells google that you could possibly be misrepresenting yourself or that the content on your site is not good or is not keeping people's attention and therefore you shouldn't be as high in the rankings.

Here is my Google analytics stats for today. If my bounce rate goes over 10% I start to worry and try to fix it fast. The highest I have seen it in 3 months was about 12% because a bogus paid ad site was sending me bots and I fought them and got my money back and it has been slowly going down ever since.



And a pie graph:



and Google Page ranking #1:



Basically what I am saying is that this took only 4 months and anyone can do it if they follow a few simple steps which I have already well outlined in the thread: Free Traffic - The Honest How-To Guide. Check it out, I'm sure it will help and good luck.