I've disappeared from Google!!!

[craigkillick]

downloaded it a couple of weeks ago and have run a couple of sites I play with through.

Seems a great program. Seems to need updating every other day with new 'tables' which is a good thing in my book.

It pointed out some very clear things for me to do with the sites I had noticebly I:

1. Reduced the number of keywords to make the main ones more effective
2. Added specific text in my home page in the right place. ie. if you place the keywords at the front and at the end of the body they have more 'findability'
3. Made the keywords bold in the visible body text.
4. Changed some of the names of the alt tags to work better

Well worth a go in my book.

[Garri]

Cheers Craig, I'm gonna have a mess around with some experimental sites.

There is a danger that too many people will rely on programs like this and end up with sterile content. I've seen examples of this already.

With everybody all correctly SEO'd up there will be need to rise to the top amongst this cream of the crop, so perhaps there'll be some scope for those of us willing to zig whilst everyone else is zagging.

[craigkillick]

I am suprised how few companies do this (and I mean big ones).

The more I learn the more there seems to need learning and I think you are right. As soon as you stand still for too long, you are done for.

Gotta keep on moving.

[ashtondav]

Thanks everyone. My 'professional 'said he got me 12 months on page 1 position 2 or 3 on google and all other search engines. He reckons i still am on the first page of msn and yahoo, but said he will go away and look at keyword saturation %s etc.

Anyway, I have done a quick rewrite myself and re-submitted to google using their naughty boy 'reinclusion request' form.

Oh yes and i will use those websites to nose around.

Thanks for the help...

Tudor
www.frigiliana-apartment.com

[petehols]

Hi Ashtondav

I have just had a quick look at your website and I agree with a lot of the comments here. I would definately keep hassling your SEO guy if you have paid him money. Just a slight tip that has increased the rankings on some of my websites what I have found in the metatags you get a slightly better ranking if you mention the tilte of your website in the title tag only like frigiliana apartment and then in the description mention frigiliana apartment only twce more. Your description lacks depth and that is what people will read when you are found on the search engines so it has to be written well so that the potential customers will want to click on that link.

Secondly The bit at the bottom where you have outgoing links to other websites is a bad idea because that distributes your page rank you have the offer that if they find a better price you will beat it so let the customers find the other sites and hold onto your own page rank unless you are getting a recipricol link from them but dont put the link on your home page keep it on your links page.

Hope this helps you in some way and if I can help further let me know.

pete

[ashtondav]

Thanks pete

I followed up on some of the sites mentioned earlier in this thread and it appears keywords should appear "5% to 20% of the body" recommended in one source, on the basis that if they're not, how does andy search engine figure out what your page is about? Then you (and i accept your experiemce and succcess) say just a couple of times is sufficient.

If not a black art it certainly seems pretty darkish from a mere layman's perspective...

Cheers, and here's to learning...

[craigkillick]

Thanks everyone. My 'professional 'said he got me 12 months on page 1 position 2 or 3 on google and all other search engines. He reckons i still am on the first page of msn and yahoo, but said he will go away and look at keyword saturation %s etc.

Any self-respecting SEO company would not guarantee you anything. That is my experience. There are ways to try to trick the search engines but they tend to be temporary.

I'd just stick to their rules:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

I was also recently told by my SEO contact to try http://www.dmoz.org/ as this sometimes can help. I must admit to not knowing about the implications or how to use the site but it was mentioned in a recent seminar we did together.

[ashtondav]

Craig

He didn't guarantee. That's what the site got. I'm in DMOZ.

Thanks for the input and the link

Cheers

[craigkillick]

Sorry, misunderstod.

Again, I might be going over old ground but one thing the Search Engines love is an accessible website, may also make your site more visible:

http://validator.w3.org/

[petehols]

[quote="ashtondav"]Thanks pete

I followed up on some of the sites mentioned earlier in this thread and it appears keywords should appear "5% to 20% of the body" recommended in one source, on the basis that if they're not, how does andy search engine figure out what your page is about? Then you (and i accept your experiemce and succcess) say just a couple of times is sufficient.

If not a black art it certainly seems pretty darkish from a mere layman's perspective...
[quote]

Both of the statements quoted above are true. In the body text you should have your keywords appear between 5 to 20 % of the body. To make it more searchable in the search engines another important fact is the title and the description metatag. I was sharing what works best for the sites that I deal with. In the title put your main keyword and then repeat it twice in the description tag. Then also in the body text put your keywords in between 5% to 20% of the text. This will not be seen as spam as long as you stick to the guidelines. I have been tweaking websites and for years and know what works for my sites. SEO is a huge learning curve if you are doing it yourself and can be a daunting task for anyone. Just remember what you are doing this for at the end of the day it is for your rentals and think of how good you will feel if you achieve the top positions. A lot of people would rather not go through the hassle of learning and playing with the website for months which is why they hire someone they believe will do the job for them. The only problem is that there is thousands of people out there that claim they can do it but cant. I would advise you if you are going to do it yourself Research, Research, Research all the information is out there on the internet and it is not impossible to achieve the rankings you want without paying someone for it.

Anyway best of luck if there is anything else i can help you with just ask.

Pete

[Garri]

If not a black art it certainly seems pretty darkish from a mere layman's perspective...

it's pretty straightfoward really: just be honest and add true value to your website and write good copy for your description. Title tags are also very important - a no brainer

I've been surveying a few private web sites of owners (not from this forum) and I'm gobsmacked at what I am seeing - totally gobsmacked. So much so that using listings sites is a breath of fresh air.

I've seen many examples where the title page says 'home page'. 9 times out of 10 people are still not getting this right and we're at the tail of 2005!

Also, too many examples of photos of properties with interiors and exteriors but no captions to tell me what these pics are of. Great pics of views but are these the views I'll see from people's properties? - a bit of effort and research on my part says no in some cases, we're being mislead! (sorry, on my soapbox again!)

By the way, your own title tag on your home page is too vague. Frigiliana Apartment what? You have more characters at your disposal so use them to good effect.

[Garri]

all the information is out there on the internet and it is not impossible to achieve the rankings you want without paying someone for it.

Um, I would tend to disagree with that statement. Here's the news: no-one achieves the rankings they want, even if you pay someone to do it for you. You might get good rankings but you certainly don't have to pay anyone for that. Just basic common sense and honesty coupled with some knowledge of xhmtl (preferrably) and good honest content - well structured if you can.

[paolo]

In the body text you should have your keywords appear between 5 to 20 % of the body.

I think a page with 20% keyword saturation would be pretty near unreadable. Do you have an example of this?

[Garri]

I think Tudor used 20% in his last effort and look what happened to him - he got bumped from Google !

[craigkillick]

A month late but Google's done it again:

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topne ... ettle.html