How do I know if our webmaster is doing his job?

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
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greenbarn
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How do I know if our webmaster is doing his job?

Post by greenbarn »

Our website is run for us by a local, and the more I read on here about SEO and the rest, the more I realise how ignorant I am!

Content apart - I think I need to get some more photos on the accommodation description pages, and an easier to use calendar - I have no control over keywords etc.
I can look at stats.

Is there a way that I can determine how effective the website is set up from an SEO viewpoint? (I've just done a Google search of "holiday cottage Ravenstonedale" and finally got a direct hit on page 20. Ravenstonedale is not exactly big...... We get much earlier hits via listing sites.)

I don't know what my expectations should be, but is there a simple tool that would enable me to check on optimisation, and help me understand whether the webmaster is doing a good/bad/indifferent job before I go and beat his door down?

Any advice or pointers very gratefully received.
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

You could try:

CleverStat for starters. I've found it useful. There are other gadgets on their website.

MG
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pete
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Post by pete »

Before beating doors, be sure yourself what are your keyword/phrases,

if you think that its very important for google to rank you highly for

holiday cottage Ravenstonedale"

then, no your site is not optimised for that, you dont have ravenstonedale in your keywords list nor is it mentioned on any of the headings, (the first time its mentioned is in the banner so google cant see that)

what did you ask your web designer to optimise the site for ?

there are lots of better folks here than me but in the end you need to choose your keywords,
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Thanks for the tips, MG and Pete.
Cleverstat looks interesting, and I can see myself playing with it.

Pete - I said I was ignorant on this, only more than I even realised! It's a bit humiliating for someone who spent his working life in IT (starting before it was called IT....), but I don't even know how I can see the keyword list! :oops:

Is there a one liner explanation, or do I need to get the icepacks and paracetamol out and do some study? Knowing what keywords are in the list is an obvious start point for understanding how the site is optimised, compared with what I might think would be useful.
e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

No icepacks or paracetemol needed:

Open your website in any browser.
Right click in some blank white space on the page, and in the popup menu you shoulod see something like "View source". Select that and a new window will open with all the gobbldigook HTML behind the web page. This is what search engines see.

Right near the very top are three critical lines:

Code: Select all

<title>Green Barn Cottages</title>
<meta name="Description" content="Green Barn Cottages offer luxury self catering accommodation in the Eden Valley near Ravenstonedale Kirkby Stephen Cumbria" />
<meta name="Keywords" content="green barn cottages, holiday cottage cumbria, holiday cottage kirkby stephen, holiday cottage eden valley" />
The <title> is also what anyone can see in the very top blue area of the browser window.
The "Description" is often used by search engines to dispaly this text on the results page.
Then comes the "Keywords" which in my very humble (and ignorant) opinion is the least important these days.

As long as the important search phrases and key words are used in the Title, the Description and most importantly in the visible text on the page, then you're well on your way to SEO.

OK, there's a lot more, but these are the real key starting points that ANYONE can and should be able to manage.
** Richard
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They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Thanks e-richard, that's a great help.

Interesting point about the importance or otherwise of keywords. I'm obviously going to have to do some reading up, and it's already raised a question in my mind - does Cleverstat just look at keywords? Must go and have another look! (later..... Right now Lady G wants help with a changeover :( .)
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

I've tweaked my SEO last week to try and get my website appearing for the term 'child friendly', and I'm shocked to see that by adding it into the title and the opening text and a keyword that I'm now on the first page for relevant 'child friendly' related searches.
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HenryG
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Post by HenryG »

Which is why I believe the best SEO'ers .. are the client themselves.

Don't expect a webdesigner to know SEO. Most don't. And it's "almost" unfair to expect that from them.

Allow them to just concentrate on with what they do best: "making things look pretty" and that.

Then later on .. do as some do here .. tweak things here and there yourself - get listed on page 1 !! :)

Fact is: All the very best SEO tips can be found here at this very forum. As a matter of fact - way too many good precious tips (meant to be "secret") are overshared.
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

Don't expect a webdesigner to know SEO. Most don't. And it's "almost" unfair to expect that from them.
Alas, I can't really agree with that. It used to be that designers designed pretty sites that didn't work, and handed them to coders, who made them functional (but were themselves hopeless at graphics). Neither really took full ownership of anything to do with search engines.

Nowadays it's common to see people who are experts at both and know SEO.

If I were hiring someone to create my website, I'd expect nothing less and I'd consider it very fair.

Although...
the best SEO'ers .. are the client themselves.
I think you may be right on this point.
Brooke
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Windy
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Post by Windy »

I've tweaked my SEO last week to try and get my website appearing for the term 'child friendly', and I'm shocked to see that by adding it into the title and the opening text and a keyword that I'm now on the first page for relevant 'child friendly' related searches.
Having read that LV I decided to try the same for "dog friendly".

We didn't feature on Google Pages 1-10 in any combo I tried before making the type of changes above

We are now Page one for "dog friendly log cabin" worldwide, and try keying in "dog friendly pine lodge" or "pet friendly pine lodge" and see who is world Google number one tonight.

Oddly we still don't feature in the first 10 pages for "pet friendly log cabin" so we still have some work to do!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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HenryG
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Post by HenryG »

vrooje wrote:
Don't expect a webdesigner to know SEO. Most don't. And it's "almost" unfair to expect that from them.
Alas, I can't really agree with that. It used to be that designers designed pretty sites that didn't work, and handed them to coders, who made them functional (but were themselves hopeless at graphics). Neither really took full ownership of anything to do with search engines.

Nowadays it's common to see people who are experts at both and know SEO.

If I were hiring someone to create my website, I'd expect nothing less and I'd consider it very fair.
I say almost unfair because most are paid cheap rates also and results are expected fast.

To be good at SEO you really must know the market extremely well, an advantage most owners possess - but very rarely the webdesigner. And if pushed and pressured, the clueless webdesigner may make v serious SEO mistakes.

No-SEO is better/safer than Bad-SEO.

If a webdesigner is being paid a fair premium rate : then sure, expect everything dedication experience and more: marketing analysis, web promotion.

But to expect the world for a low rate. IMHO that is unfair. If the webdesigner did the SEO job right - then profits should have sky-rocketted. Making the fee paid seem peanuts in comparison, exploitative.

When the owner takes over and begins tweak his/her own site, now that is different. They won't mess with dangerous things before consulting others here. They won't pay some automated or outsourced service to spam the web, forums or blogs. They will discuss which keywords might work best. Like the tips we see, brilliant.

Owners can learn and know more about SEO from this forum - than any course or most webdesigners could ever learn in a short time. In-depth SEO. Property/holiday rental SEO. Safe and effective.
ccazes
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Post by ccazes »

www.websitegrader.co will "grade" your website. I found this on another forum and found it very useful.
It can be pretty depressing reading sometimes but it gives useful hints about meta words etc.
My website got a pretty average score but there are things that count in their grading (eg paid adverts on yahoo) that I will never do. Also I think it looks at how good your site will sell something but more like amazon does for objects which doesn't apply to what we do (I think). eg I do not have a checkout cart on my website - evidently.
Being a complete novice in SEO and website construction, I took the easy route of using Iowners to build my website. I built the website free then bought their SEO package and their stats package (70 quid in all). Their advice has been overall good and in line with advice I found elsewhere and I have had good google rankings and referrals.
Someone said that owners who know their market well can give invaluable insights to web designers as to what SE meta terms should be. I couldn't agree more. You should totally get involved in that aspect.
Good luck!
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Windy
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Post by Windy »

Thanks for that link - it needs an "m" at the end though www.websitegrader.com

It gives you some interesting information
Being a complete novice in SEO and website construction, I took the easy route of using Iowners to build my website.
There's nothing wrong with that - their templates are very professional looking.

Your site looks great - although I'm not 100% sure about those floating photos on the front page - they make me feel a bit sea-sick if you don't mind me saying so :lol:

Having revisited the dog-friendly thing I mentioned above I see that we have now slipped to the bottom of P1 for dog friendly but we are now page 3 for pet friendly. Did anyone mention the words "black" and "art"?
TTP mk2
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Post by TTP mk2 »

vrooje wrote:Alas, I can't really agree with that. It used to be that designers designed pretty sites that didn't work, and handed them to coders, who made them functional (but were themselves hopeless at graphics). Neither really took full ownership of anything to do with search engines.

Nowadays it's common to see people who are experts at both and know SEO.

If I were hiring someone to create my website, I'd expect nothing less and I'd consider it very fair.
I wouldn't, any more than I would expect the designer or developer to be an expert photographer or copywriter, they are all completely different skills & all needed for a good web site.

I would however expect a developer to do the SEO, if given the right information before coding.
ccazes
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Post by ccazes »

Hi e-richard,
Why are keywords less important?
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