Hello starchild,
This is a great question, and I have written several answers with good
response ratings with regards to search engines and traffic, so please
read this answer with an open mind. You will find that if you make
improvements in the areas I have reviewed, your site should notice a
considerable jump in overall search engine acceptance. While we can
not guarantee results, I can help you go in the right direction and
offer related insight.
I will start off by listing the obvious ways to improve on your
website, as this is the first and most important step with regards to
any website search engine listing. If your site is not aesthetically
pleasing and easy to navigate, all other areas of improvement will
have little to no effect on your overall *ranking*.
While each search engine has it's own criteria for inclusion, most of
them include traffic patterns within their own search results they
give to end users, to be of considerable importance. This ties into my
answer as you will see at the end.
Aesthetically Pleasing
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The first thing I noticed when I went to your site was the lack of
interesting *things*. Some of these interesting things include -
- A description of what your website offers
- Easy to use navigation bar or navigation menu
- Levels of interaction
Without the above, I immediately lost interest in what your site does.
Typically I would have left, and my surfing patterns can somewhat
represent what many users will do. Since users are unable to navigate
your site easily, they will leave out of frustration.
This plays an important role in how well your site ranks. Having a
consistent site navigation offers visitors the ability to jump to any
pages they wish, read more about your services, and feel more
comfortable using your site. In turn, they will stay at your site
longer and come back more often. This opens the door for the users to
take further notice of your site, and proceed to examine it closer. It
also allows search engine crawlers to index other portions of your
website, that may currently be unavailable on your site as it is now.
When I say "as it is now", I mean not optimized for clarity. I stay
away from the term 'search engine optimization'. As soon as we say
that, our sites lose their initial purposes :-) Optimizing for clarity
is something we do with term papers, business reports, and yes... even
websites.
To provide more information on why the above is important, I have
included an article that is about getting listed in Yahoo. It makes
mention that the main factors to consider when using the term
'aesthetically pleasing' are:
- Try not to overload your pages with too many graphics
- State your business immediately
- Unique Content
NetGain Article
http://www.netgain.co.nz/library/search_yahoo2.htm
I want to touch up on the last consideration of 'Unique Content'.
While your site is definitely about something unique, you really have
not told the search engines that. Adding a concise description about
what it is your site does (on the main page), will help clarify some
questions new visitors have. It also allows search engines to
*cluster* your pages with similar pages in similar categories.
With respect to Google, this process works along the same lines. While
Google does not have a human that looks at your site, the crawler they
use looks for certain criteria when indexing. While it can not tell
how aesthetically pleasing your site is visually (to the eyes) , it
can tell how pleasing it is with regards to content, size and
description. Please refer to another answer I have provided about
getting included in the Google index:
Getting included in Google
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=101210
(I will use some excerpts from the above answer to address the next
portion)
Gaining Credibility
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In order to realize a top position in any search engine will take more
than keywords and site optimization. Your website needs to lend a hand
to how credible you really are in the category that your site falls
into. There are many things you could do to gain more credibility as a
website:
- Exchange links with highly relevant sites (like Shamanism and Sekhem
sites)
- Get your site more unique, then start adding to directories
Getting added to directories and link exchanges is important. Your
site is highly specific. It fits into a very centralized niche, and
should be marketed via this route. Directories are not the same as
search engines. They usually specialize in one area of interest. In
your case you would want to be very concerned with getting listed with
these sites, as many of the top sites in this area have great search
rankings. If you can list with them in some fashion, search engines
may see your site as being 'field relevant', and start to push it up
in the rankings. Here are some directories/link sites you may want to
add your site to (after you improve the layout and design) :
DMOZ Spirituality Section
http://dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/
ReikiOne (Join the webring)
http://www.reikione.com/
Reiki Links
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/9434/resources1.html#Links
It may also be in your interest to start a link exchange of your own,
and bring together a network of sites that offer similar services.
Here is a small excerpt from one of my last answers about linking :
"Send out some friendly emails to sites that complement yours and are
in the same general area of sales (not to include competitors). Swap
links as often as possible. When you can, get links put on the front
pages of the sites, or on a page that has high visibility to search
engines. You can also build your own link swapping area with some of
the free scripts available from HotScripts:
http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Link_Indexing/
Essentially these are scripts you place on your site, that allows
people with similar sites to add a link on your site. In return, ask
for a favorable link on their site. You would be suprised at how well
Google accepts highly relevant links, and sites that have return
links."
The same thoughts in the quotes above apply to your site. Linking with
highly relevant partners can do no damage - it can only get better :-)
The link I gave goes directly to PHP scripts, but you can use any
'language' you prefer to build your link exchange. The site also offer
Perl scripts that perform just as well. (and most are free)
Local Listings
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Since your site is UK based, you should pay particular interest to how
you word your site, and the descriptions on each page. The only way I
was able to discern the fact that you are based in the UK was by
looking at your contact page, and seeing the shopping prices in
British Pounds. Keying in on the geographical location will not only
help bolster your search engine location, it will make your visitors
more valuable to your business. Here are some sites that you may want
to list with, that will in turn help you get listed (gain credibility)
with search engines:
Mirago
http://www.mirago.co.uk/
Abrexa
http://www.abrexa.co.uk/
Splut
http://www.splut.com/
You will have to submit your site to each, but here is the benefit :
- These sites categorize their listings. Your site will be highly
targeted.
- These sites are indexed well by other search engines.
- The traffic to these sites is substantial and UK relevant.
In general, I don't find that the problem with your site ranking is
anything that can not be easily fixed. If you concentrate on the
following things, in the order of which they appear, I am confident
you will see an increase in the following months :
Order of Importance for your site
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1) Website Design - Optimize and make attractive and easy to use.
2) Link Building - I always stress the importance of relevant
partnerships.
3) Keywords - Tell the truth to search engines. See example
below.
I will take a small excerpt from another question I recently addressed
:
"Using alot of keywords is a bad idea. Using keywords in general on
pages that you have created is smart. When I say 'keywords' I am
referring to describing your site accurately, and often."
This means you should have a small description of what each page
function is within your site. An example would be an 'Contact Us'
page. Instead of just listing contact information, describe what the
page does:
"Having a hard time using our site and want to contact us? We are
available for contact 24 hours a day. Our business is our customers,
and we would love to hear your feedback. Please use the contact form
below to get in touch with us"
In the above example we used the word 'contact' a few times. We didn't
over load a search engine with garbage, rather just enough information
for them to serve the appropriate page to their end users when they
perform a search for:
"how to contact (business name)"
See where this is going? Search engine listings are very relational
and dependent on a pleasant site design. The design doesn't have to be
a 'Michelangelo', just something original, and very descriptive. Play
your cards via this route and you would be suprised at the positive
results you may see with your search engine listings.
Thanks for the great question! Should you need further resources or
clarification, please ask before rating this answer as I would love to
help further.
To help with this answer I searched Google for:
uk search engine (for the search engines I listed)
://www.google.com/search?q=uk+search+engine
The rest is pulled from my own experiences in this area. I own several
websites that have had moderate success with search engine listings.
Thanks again,
SgtCory |
