SEO Help Needed

Hi - re my posting in website critique, it was suggested I post here. I have been having major probs, with ranking and trying to submit my sitemap to Google. The old URL links, which Google keep on using instead of the revamped new URL's I've been told may take a while to rectify, but I'm becoming worried at the lack of visitors, approx 20 - 40 per day. Even when I punched in how2begin.com with Ask.com, it came up with nothing. Do I have a problem with the site's SEO?
www.how2begin.com

Ok, what SEO work have you been doing, how long has your site been up, what keywords are you competing for?

Remember your not going to rank well unless you SEO

Here is a list put together by Spinal007, he is sharp on SEO.

Finally, here's a list I put together last week of my 'one phrase strategy' (stupid name but it explains it well). It might help you as you go along...

If I had to optimise a page for “[COLOR=#3366cc! important][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif][COLOR=#3366cc! important][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif]car [/font][COLOR=#3366cc! important][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif]sales[/font][/color][/font][/color][/color]” I build a page where…

• <LI yYN8D="0" vI8W7="0">URL is SE friendly version of the phrase (site.com/car+sales/) <LI yYN8D="0" vI8W7="0">Title is the phrase (<title>car sales</title>) <LI yYN8D="0" vI8W7="0">Phrase is at the start of description meta tag <LI yYN8D="0" vI8W7="0">Phrase is at the start of keywords meta tag <LI yYN8D="0" vI8W7="0">H1 is the phrase - matches title (<h1>car sales</h1>) <LI yYN8D="0" vI8W7="0">H2 is variation of or contains the phrase (<h2>cars on sale</h2>, <h2>cheap car sale</h2>, <h2>online car sale</h2>) <LI yYN8D="0" vI8W7="0">When possible, all links to the page use the key-phrase (<a...>car sales</a>) <LI yYN8D="0" vI8W7="0">At least 3 <strong>/<em> occurrence of phrase within paragraph text <strong>car sales</strong> and <em>car sales</em>) – whilst also making sure there aren’t many other strong/em tags using other phrases which would reduce the density of our key-phrase. <LI yYN8D="0" vI8W7="0">The key-phrase appears in 1 of the first 2 and 1 of the last 2 paragraphs of the document. When you write a document about something, you usually mention it in the introduction and the conclusion. This technique enforces the importance of the key-phrase within the page content. <LI yYN8D="0" vI8W7="0">There's at least one image using the phrase in its source and alt text (<img src="/img/car+sales.jpg" alt="car sales"/>)
• The page links to itself with the title of the page – this means you have at least one link within the page that uses that exact phrase, and you have at least one link with that phrase that links to the page. Two birds, one stone.

I had a quick look and I didnt see any h1 tags.

Hope this helps.

Magnetica

Thanks for your posts.
The site has been live for approx 8 weeks. But here's my big problem I'm really an a total novice with SEO. I have done some research, but seem to be chasing my tail all the time .
1. I have been concentrating on Title, Description & Content.
2. Meta tags have been entered for every page.
3. Key words also for each article and for the home page - how to, how to begin, how to learn etc.

Dab42pat - I have tried to keep the font style colour etc uniform, though there has been some tweaking and with over 50 pages to date it takes a little time.
I'm afraid this is where my ignorance comes in, as I've got to admit, though I've learnt over the past few months quite a lot about code writing etc. show in my lack of understanding re your post .

The site was taken over for a revamp, but Tony doesn't get involved with SEO, hence my cry for some help.

Sorry Merlin my post wasnt clear at all. If you view Most posts by Spinal007 and Rob you may get a better understanding of what i was trying to get across.

Have a look at this link.
Duplicate content and check out Spinal007 recommendations.
Not all his recommendations will apply to your site but hopefully there will be a few pointers to work on.

You're on the right track.
Title- use keyword phrases. Most important keywords at the beginning.
Meta descriptions and meta keywords for each page should be unique to the page.
Content should be viewer friendly and also keyword phrase rich.
Use h1 - h6 tags on each page. H1 should be similar to the title tag.
Use of italics <em></em> around keyword phrases on homepage as well as <strong></strong> around other keyword phrases improve weight.

Backlinks- this does not mean reciprocate links for everyone that is out there. Try to your site placed on sites with similar content that have a good PR on their links page.

Write articles that include your link to site... submit to article directories. Watch you backlink numbers soar.

8 weeks is not nearly enough time to have good placement typically. Age of domain makes a difference. Newer domains will not rank as high as older without the use of some seriously thought out SEO.

Be aware of duplicate content. Does your homepage link say <a href="index.htm">Home</a>? If it does change it to <a href="/">Home</a>

Now once all of that is done, sit back and be patient!

Lchad - Grateful thanks for your help.

I've been into view souce, basically as I have no other means of access to the full page code. My designer is away so can't seek his help. The title I can see is wrong, it's just how2begin.com!!

The H1 tags appear to contain nothing, but again I've no means that I can see to alter these.

Your comment re homepage links has kinda got me confused may I ask when you have a moment could you check it out and offer advice?

I'm sending out articles that's ok though Goggle still not picking up any links, but having great trouble getting back links - hen & egg story I think. No one wants to link to a new site endless emails have been sent and to date not ONE reply. Also tried differnt formats for the emails, but no luck. Who ever said this was going to be easy?

Here is a "portion of your navigation"

Code: Select all

<ul id="ja-transmenu"><li><a href="http://www.how2begin.com/" class="mainlevel-active-trans" id="menu1" title="Home"><span>Home</span></a></li><li><a href="http://www.how2begin.com/how-tos/index.php"

The part in red is the part that needs to be changed to "/"

Lchad
Can you confirm that I've understood your instructions and the code should be changed to the following:

<ul id="ja-transmenu"><li><a href="http://www.how2begin.com/" class="mainlevel-active-trans" id="menu1" title="Home"><span>Home</span></a></li><li><a href="/"

Yes that's it. Obviously there is code missing at the end... and I know you realize that right?

Also I would try to change the first part of that... anytime you have howtobegin.com you need to change it to "/"

See if it works...

Quick addition to what LChad said, never link to /index.php anywhere on your website. index.php is an useless addition to the url which can only cause duplicate content - and it doesn't apply to your homepage alone:
http://www.how2begin.com/how-tos/index.php should be...
http://www.how2begin.com/how-tos/

All the feedback you've had so far is great and you should listen to everything that was said above. But THE most worrying is that you have javascript based navigation. SEs will not identify your menu as a bunch of links, just a bunch of text. This is probably the reason why it's taking so long for the SEs to index you new URLs (great job by the way).

Obvious problems I found:-
- Google has indexed 97 pages from your website - but I have a feeling this should be more.

- You have 1 quality backlink, you should have dozens. Submit your site to relevant directories (start with DMOZ)

- You have spread you keyword density very poorly. Important words are not given enough emphasis. You've completely missed out words such as 'article', 'tutorial', 'learn' and 'help', which in my opinion are a key description to your content.

- The one and only phrase that stands out is "how to". Ranking for a 3 word phrases (eg.: how to articles) is difficult, ranking for a 2 word phrases (eg.: how to) is even more difficult. Because of this, you're targeting a market with over 1.3 billion pages! It's virtually impossible!

What I'd recommend:-
You need to re-think your strategy, pick one 3 word phrase and use it as your "theme". Enforce that phrase's relevance by giving it enough emphasis in every page on the website - second only to the page's title. Then optimize each page for its specific topic, ie.: learn to dance, learn to cook, whatever!

You have little chance at ranking for generic phrases like "how/learn to" (sheer competition), but you can enforce the "how/learn to" theme throughout the website and focus each page on the bit that follows (ie.: dance, cook, etc).

Here's the "one phrase strategy" dab42pat was talking about (quoted from a different thread, but image your phrase instead of "car sales"):

If I had to optimise a page for “car sales” I build a page where…

• URL is SE friendly version of the phrase (site.com/car+sales/)
• Title is the phrase (<title>car sales</title>)
• Phrase is at the start of description meta tag
• Phrase is at the start of keywords meta tag
• H1 is the phrase - matches title (<h1>car sales</h1>)
• H2 is variation of or contains the phrase (<h2>cars on sale</h2>, <h2>cheap car sale</h2>, <h2>online car sale</h2>)
• When possible, all links to the page use the key-phrase (<a...>car sales</a>)
• At least 3 <strong>/<em> occurrence of phrase within paragraph text <strong>car sales</strong> and <em>car sales</em>) – whilst also making sure there aren’t many other strong/em tags using other phrases which would reduce the density of our key-phrase.
• The key-phrase appears in 1 of the first 2 and 1 of the last 2 paragraphs of the document. When you write a document about something, you usually mention it in the introduction and the conclusion. This technique enforces the importance of the key-phrase within the page content.
• There's at least one image using the phrase in its source and alt text (<img src="/img/car+sales.jpg" alt="car sales"/>)
• The page links to itself with the title of the page – this means you have at least one link within the page that uses that exact phrase, and you have at least one link with that phrase that links to the page. Two birds, one stone.

PS.: Use this tool to analyse your keyword densities:
http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html

Many many thanks for all your help offered,

Quite a bit to take in. OK I've changed the homepage title /description, may I ask will I have to do likewise on each page?

Very unsure what can be done re the URL's, I just tried placing an internal link omitting the - 2html and replacing with / only to receive a 404 error.

Re the navigation Javascript, these modules are part of Joomla and at a loss as to how they can be changed.

I have for some time had a feeling something wasn't right, as I have submitted to several directories inc. DMOZ, together with several exchange links, inc. webforumz, yet nothing is being picked up by Google, certainly worrying.

Do you think in your opinion, I'm going to have to find a company and pay to have the site made SE friendly?

Sorry for so many questions, but any advise is really apreciated.

No you do not need to pay. Honestly, unless you hired someone like Rob, you most likely will be wasting your money.

Webforumz links are no follow links so you will not get anything from those. If you become a SuperMember, then your links will help you in your SEO quest. That I would recommend you doing if you plan to stick around here for awhile.

DMOZ is tough to get into. Make sure you are selecting the correct area to submit.

Obviously you need the full homepage address so you do not get the 404 error. So at least you changed the one important one.

Yes change all titles and all descriptions AND change all keywords on each page too.

I can't help you on the javascript part. I don't know anything about that.

lchad - Taking a deep breath and a very strong coffeeb will start on the the changes needed, many thanks for your help.

I don't understand what you did, but either way:
you can;'t just change the links, you've got to setup the system so it responds to the links in a different format.

Ditch the module, find a new template, preferably an SEO friendly one.
As I always say, SEO is just as important as having a good looking website. There's no point to an attractive website if people won't find it....

Depends...
You have good content, which equals potential. A good SEO can work wonders with your site, but any average self-proclaimed SEO company will probably rip you off and do a crap job, so it's not worth it.

I agree with LChad, Rob is your man. I've sent him a message and asked him to take a look at this thread...

Ok merlin.... let me read up on all this and digest it... will get back to you soon.

__________________
Rob - SEO Specialist
Owner & Founder of Webforumz.com

I am currently unavailable for private work

Thanks Spinal, Woops! should have thought about the URL problem and realised it just can't be changed.
Ditching Joomla could be a problem, this is the template and system given to me by TW Hosting and Tony has helped me so much, not sure what would be said, if I asked to change it...........definately a sticky one there, but I'm not creating this site as a hobby, I do need ranking and hopefully an income.

if you want to make money from this, you have to ditch the javascript navigation yesterday - that's right, yesterday! javascript generated code doesn't get crawled by spiders and javascript generated links count for nothing. At the moment you have a website with a poor linking structure where very few pages link to each other and most pages are orphans or in deep web - also known as dark web - which is when a page is never linked to.

you don't have to ditch joomla, just get a new template and some seo modules.

START HERE.

... What spinal said.

Merlin... Joomla can be a VERY seo friendly engine if done correctly.

I think I can probabally work with you to sort the site out... doesnt seem to hard from what i see... specially with joomla, which is pretty simple to admin.

Give me a few days till we get the newsletter out and upgrade Webforumz.com.

Watch out for the annoucement regarding the site upgrade being complete, and then give me a shout.

__________________
Rob - SEO Specialist
Owner & Founder of Webforumz.com

I am currently unavailable for private work