Use Google Webmaster tools to submit your site, and list your business.
Use Google Authorship to link it to a google+ account.
how to appear in searh engines
-
Hells Bells
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
Following advice from this site, promotemyplace and using webmasters tools situation has improved.
I now appear in searches that use four or more words like: holiday rentals marina de la duquesa, holiday rentals duquesa port, holiday rentals duquesa costa del sol, etc.
Then with less words i come up using things like "beachfront duquesa", "sunny duquesa apartment", etc
Nothing yet for holiday rentals duquesa.
For some reason in webmasters tools google says that my main keyword is sunny and then the second keyword is "kmh" which is not even a word and I don´t know where they are getting that from.
I now appear in searches that use four or more words like: holiday rentals marina de la duquesa, holiday rentals duquesa port, holiday rentals duquesa costa del sol, etc.
Then with less words i come up using things like "beachfront duquesa", "sunny duquesa apartment", etc
Nothing yet for holiday rentals duquesa.
For some reason in webmasters tools google says that my main keyword is sunny and then the second keyword is "kmh" which is not even a word and I don´t know where they are getting that from.
Google;
No 1 rule: Provide good content
No 2 rule: see No 1
Google has a very complex way of allocating your site a value in search results. It must be user friendly not SEO friendly. In general if you try to develop a site for SEO you will fail and go down the rankings. So it is pointless and counterproductive to focus on google before your site is at least 80% the way you want it. If you get off to a bad start with google it can take a long time to fix.
That said, once your site is sorted for being useful, informative and valid for your customers there are a few things you can think on to get up the rankings.
Keywords: Be very careful not to spam them. You should use them but only in real, readable text.
e.g. 'As you explore the Tuscan countryside surrounding the villa...'
rather than; 'the Villa in Tuscany is set in the Tuscan countryside in Tuscany and is a nice Tuscan Villa...
Use key words that are less competitive to be ranked higher in some searches, e.g. village, local attractions etc that someone might search for. I will never get high up on 'Tuscan villa' but am quite high on things related to Piero della Francesca, Sansepolcro and the local nature reserve etc
Google pays attention to headings, begining of paragraphs and end of page text in particular.
Images: Should have alt text with real, human friendly descriptions containing a keyword.
Links: should be real descriptive text and not just 'click here'. You should not have a page of links or too many reciprocal links. All links should be valid, useful and aimed at the user
Blogs: are good because google likes new content
Tricks: Google hates tricks, hidden writting, pixel links etc.
Once your site is ready and user friendly, then google friendly, you should be submitting sitemaps to google and other search engines. You should also be getting links into your site from related sites. You can use facebook, google plus, youtube and twitter etc to link back to your site. If you do all this, after a month or so google will be a little more interested in you.
All just my opinion based on my research with my own sites. Bear in mind I have not gone fully live yet and have been working on my site the best part of 6 months.
No 1 rule: Provide good content
No 2 rule: see No 1
Google has a very complex way of allocating your site a value in search results. It must be user friendly not SEO friendly. In general if you try to develop a site for SEO you will fail and go down the rankings. So it is pointless and counterproductive to focus on google before your site is at least 80% the way you want it. If you get off to a bad start with google it can take a long time to fix.
That said, once your site is sorted for being useful, informative and valid for your customers there are a few things you can think on to get up the rankings.
Keywords: Be very careful not to spam them. You should use them but only in real, readable text.
e.g. 'As you explore the Tuscan countryside surrounding the villa...'
rather than; 'the Villa in Tuscany is set in the Tuscan countryside in Tuscany and is a nice Tuscan Villa...
Use key words that are less competitive to be ranked higher in some searches, e.g. village, local attractions etc that someone might search for. I will never get high up on 'Tuscan villa' but am quite high on things related to Piero della Francesca, Sansepolcro and the local nature reserve etc
Google pays attention to headings, begining of paragraphs and end of page text in particular.
Images: Should have alt text with real, human friendly descriptions containing a keyword.
Links: should be real descriptive text and not just 'click here'. You should not have a page of links or too many reciprocal links. All links should be valid, useful and aimed at the user
Blogs: are good because google likes new content
Tricks: Google hates tricks, hidden writting, pixel links etc.
Once your site is ready and user friendly, then google friendly, you should be submitting sitemaps to google and other search engines. You should also be getting links into your site from related sites. You can use facebook, google plus, youtube and twitter etc to link back to your site. If you do all this, after a month or so google will be a little more interested in you.
All just my opinion based on my research with my own sites. Bear in mind I have not gone fully live yet and have been working on my site the best part of 6 months.
Just a few ideas ...
This page has google PR3. Shouldn't you include a link to your site in your signature ?
"Peak rates are shown below. Please enquire about other rates of our holiday rental. Multiple weeks bookings attract discounts. Early bookings do also attract ..." may not be the best marketing approach ?
Your meta tags can be improved. See http://searchenginewatch.com/article/20 ... -Meta-Tags for ideas
keywords and descriptions should be tailored for each page. There lots of free tools to use for this : viewtopic.php?t=114
This is still mostly relevant : http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm
I think consistency still works. Your keywords should appear in the title, headers, site description, jpg image names, alt tags, url, etc etc etc as well as content
This page has google PR3. Shouldn't you include a link to your site in your signature ?
"Peak rates are shown below. Please enquire about other rates of our holiday rental. Multiple weeks bookings attract discounts. Early bookings do also attract ..." may not be the best marketing approach ?
Your meta tags can be improved. See http://searchenginewatch.com/article/20 ... -Meta-Tags for ideas
keywords and descriptions should be tailored for each page. There lots of free tools to use for this : viewtopic.php?t=114
This is still mostly relevant : http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm
I think consistency still works. Your keywords should appear in the title, headers, site description, jpg image names, alt tags, url, etc etc etc as well as content
-
kevsboredagain
- Posts: 3207
- Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:32 am
- Location: France
- Contact:
I noticed in my stats the other day, a search for "villa with pool for rent in spain" on the UK Google. After 2 sponsored links, my site was number 1, ahead of many of the big name rental websites. I was shocked, although I could not repeat this fluke result a few days later - go figure!
I'm certainly no expert at SEO but my strategy is simply to try and have good descriptions on the web pages which mention all the key words more than once, spread over a few pages. I find that many people stumble across the site via some of the testimonials pages. It's a good way to keep adding descriptions but in the words of other people.
Also don't forget to complete all meta tags and image alts. You won't get listed because of that but it should help not being demoted for missing info. I'm actually guilty of not having different description tags for each page - something to work on.
As 50% of my guests are from the UK, I also bought the uk domain names and simply redirect them to .com. I also changed my hosting company to one in the UK, even although I don't live there. Whether these 2 things help, I've no idea.
As HelenB says, use the Google tools and make a sitemap to be more search friendly.
Now if I could just make my website more professional looking and have some better pics, I could maybe get some bookings!
I'm certainly no expert at SEO but my strategy is simply to try and have good descriptions on the web pages which mention all the key words more than once, spread over a few pages. I find that many people stumble across the site via some of the testimonials pages. It's a good way to keep adding descriptions but in the words of other people.
Also don't forget to complete all meta tags and image alts. You won't get listed because of that but it should help not being demoted for missing info. I'm actually guilty of not having different description tags for each page - something to work on.
As 50% of my guests are from the UK, I also bought the uk domain names and simply redirect them to .com. I also changed my hosting company to one in the UK, even although I don't live there. Whether these 2 things help, I've no idea.
As HelenB says, use the Google tools and make a sitemap to be more search friendly.
Now if I could just make my website more professional looking and have some better pics, I could maybe get some bookings!