Hello Ringo,
Please let me say first of all, that regardless of your statement that
this is your first attempt at webdesign, I'm very impressed. You are
most definitely in the realms of 'fine tuning' your site, rather than
requiring to fix many glaring problems. I hope the suggestions I put
forward below will help you to iron out the difficulties you have
outlined - if after reading through them, you are unsure on any
points, please do not hesitate to ask me for clarification before
rating my research - I will be most happy to assist further if
necessary.
I have reproduced this text also at the following URL, as some content
may not post well here:
http://www.beginnerprogrammer.com/googleanswers/ringo/ringo.html
I must say before beginning, that the precise algorithm Google uses at
any one time to determine the placement of sites within its' listings
is unknown outside of the organisation. If it were to be made public,
it would become easy for site designers to manipulate the system
artificially. Google Answers Researchers are not party to such
information, and thus are not capable of giving specific definitive
instruction for the manipulation of rankings. With that in mind..
Firstly, I link-checked all the pages of your site:
Netmechanic's robot page counter:
http://www.netmechanic.com/maintain.htm#bottomtest
Email result:
NetMechanic has estimated the size of your site:
Your site size is 20 pages.
and I created a map of the structure, to become aware of the
overall design:
http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/index.html
|
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/Picturerug.html
| |
| |- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/starfishfront.html
| '- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/fruitharvest.html
|
'- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/construction.html
|
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/compareflatnew.html
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/myhandnew.html
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/woolnew.html
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/mybraidingnew.html
|
'- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/gallery.html
|
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/fireside.html
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/amishautumn
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/Mamanasco.html
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/sandstone.html
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/berwyn.html
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/serenity.html
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/fireandice.html
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/seascape.html
|- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/genesis.html
'- http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/topsail.html
I Checked the first 736 Google results under the search phrase
'braided rugs' - indeed, your index page does not appear in the
listings before the message 'In order to show you the most relevant
results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 736 already
displayed' appears.
Checking through the HTML on each of your pages, I would raise the
following points:
-------------------------------------------
Starting with your main index page:
http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/index.html
-------------------------------------------
Keyphrase density, meta & title tags:
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
I noticed that although your primary keyphrase no longer appears to
invoke your index page, many combinations of the words within the
title tag, will still bring it up in first position on Google. If you
ignore the 'braided rugs' keyphrase, your index page is actually still
very well listed.
For example, searching on the following terms:
Marge's Braided
Let Me Braid
You An Heirloom
Marge's Rugs
Braid You An
Rugs:"Let Me
(just to illustrate the point) puts you in first place. The exception
being, as is your concern,
Braided Rugs
I did check the Internet Wayback machine:
http://www.archive.org
to try and compare your existing site content to that which existed
prior to November 1st, unfortunately no archived page could be found.
So what is the problem with the keyphrase 'braided rugs'?
I believe this problem with your main keyphrase is likely due to two
things:
1. A change in the level of competition for that phrase
- You're up against some stiff competition for
your chosen keyphrase, making your listing
very vulnerable to changes other webmasters
make to their sites
2. The possible over-use of the phrase in your meta tags
- It's possible for your listing to be downgraded
as a result of 'shouting too loud' - You have 5-6
instances of the keyphrase in one (keyword) tag.
These problems are not insurmountable.
I have compiled some statistics regarding the keyphrase 'braided
rugs'. The figures should help you to gain an insight into the figures
you should aim for in your own site, in order to remain competitive
for that particular keyphrase. The full table shows a 'snapshot' of
your competition's current keyphrase distribution.
The full table does not post well here, so please visit the following
URL to see the individual figures:
http://www.beginnerprogrammer.com/googleanswers/ringo/ringo.html
The figures that currently relate to your own index page are as
follows:
5.64 - KD Overall keyphrase density, as percentage
1 - T Instances of keyphrase in Title tag
1 - MD Instances of keyphrase in Meta Description tag
5 - MK Instances of keyphrase in Meta Keyword tag
5 - B Instances of keyphrase in Body text
2.94 - BT% Keyphrases in Body text, as percentage
340 - TVT Total visible text (words)
0 - IL Number of incoming links, counted by Google
2 - PR Page rank, assigned by Google
Looking at the figures I compiled for the top 25 sites for the phrase
'braided rugs', notice that most sites do not exceed 2 instances of
the keyphrase in each of their meta-tags.
Over-use of keyphrases can lead search engines, including Google, to
raise an overusage flag, whereby the site will be ignored for that
term. In extreme cases, this can lead to the page or domain being
permanently disqualified.
A good resource to check, and help craft, your meta - tags, is
ScrubTheWeb's Meta Tag Analyser:
META Tag Analyzer:
http://www.scrubtheweb.com/abs/meta-check.html
Running your index page through the tool as it stands, gave the
following output for the meta keywords tag:
--------
WARNING! THIS TAG MAY BE DISQUALIFIED!
REASON: We found the following keywords were repeated
more than 3 times in the META Keywords Tag:
The word braided was repeated 8 times
The word rugs was repeated 6 times
--------
It's my suspicion that this could well be the reason for your page not
being listed under this particular keyphrase.
A look through the posts at Webmaster World forums reveals, however,
that meta-tags have diminished in importance..
An example:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum8/496.htm
The figures I compiled earlier bear this out - look at the number of
sites, even in the top 25, which are listed high for the keyphrase
without it ever appearing in the meta tags. I'd suggest that there's
no harm in keeping one instance of your primary keyphrase in each of
your meta tags, but it's quite possible that by over-filling these
tags with repeated terms, there is a danger more harm than good can be
done.
Certainly, it *is* important to place your primary, highest - traffic
generating keyphrase, firmly at the front of your title tag.
All in all, maybe try something along the following lines:
<html>
<head>
<meta HTTP-EQUIV="content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<Title>Braided Rugs from Marge</Title>
<META Name="Description" Content="Braided rugs of heirloom quality. I
make
functional and beautiful rugs - With quality material and workmanship
they will last for generations.">
<META Name="Keywords" Content="hand made braided rugs">
</head>
<body>
[plenty of visible body text, containing around 3-4% primary
keyphrase]
</body>
</html>
This:
<meta name="generator" content="Created Using Yahoo! PageBuilder
2.61.73">
Can safely be removed with absolutely no ill effects whatsoever.
This:
<META Name="revisit-after" Content="30 Days">
Can also be removed, most search engines including Google will simply
ignore it.
The author tag will not cause any problems, but nor will it increase
ranking or traffic.
The above are only examples - the more analysis you put into
identifying your best keyphrases, and their placement and distribution
on the page, the better.
Robert Woodhead has a very good page of tips regarding the preparation
of your page for indexing by the search engines. I have used his
advice with excellent results on a number of occasions:
http://selfpromotion.com/pageprep.t
The above page is part of his larger site, the homepage of which is
located at:
http://selfpromotion.com
Please note however, that the advice concerning Yahoo there is
possibly a little outdated.
A number of page parameters including Keyphrase density can be checked
at:
Keyword Density.com:
http://www.keyworddensity.com/
This is the tool I used to compile most of the figures for the top 25
and top 100 - 125 sites for the keyphrase 'braided rugs', posted at
the link noted above.
Incoming Links - of great importance.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
The number of incoming links to your index page seems to be quite low
- zero in fact, as currently measured by Google. Although it isn't the
only metric to be considered, you should be able to discern a trend in
the above figures toward higher-ranked pages having a larger quantity
of external links pointing toward them. One major benefit of having
many links connecting to your page from other sites, is that as well
as allowing humans to click-through to your
site, each link provides a potential route for a search engine robot
to visit.
You can check the number of links pointing at your page, which Google
is aware of, by entering the following searchterm into Google's main
search:
link:http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/index.html
Another way to locate pages which link to yours, is by using the
counter feature at LinksToYou.com:
LinksToYou.com Counter
http://linkstoyou.com/CheckLinks.htm
You should enter the term 'www.margesbraidedrugs.com/index.html'
The backward links returned by this search, although valid, may not
reflect links *which Google is yet aware of*, however it can provide a
useful 'radar' to check on how well linked your page actually is - it
can be comforting.
When I checked your URL using this search, I found the following
results:
AltaVista -- found ? links to you.
AltaVista -- found ? links to you excluding your own links.
Hotbot ----- found 8 links to you.
Fast ------- found 0 links to you.
MSN -------- found 6 links to you.
This is quite low; you would most definitely benefit from increasing
these numbers.
There are a number of ways to do this:
1.
You may join a link club or 'farm', which will attempt to
automatically create links pointing at your site.
2.
You may join a banner, or an exit, exchange program.
3.
You can make approaches to other site designers, asking them if they
would consider adding a link to your site, from theirs, perhaps in
return for a similar link.
4.
You can sign guestbooks. Although these pages tend to have a lower
page rank, they certainly generate traffic; I've noticed this when
checking my own logs.
5.
You can add your site's URL to link lists and directories:
For example:
Connecticut Directory and Internet Start Page:
(follow the link at the bottom: 'Add your CT Site')
http://www.connquest.com/
Connsearch.com - Connecticut's largest search engine and directory:
(submission by email)
http://www.connsearch.com/
Of the above methods, I would tend to stay away from items 1 and 2.
The reasoning behind this is the statement by Google:
'...setting up pages/links with the sole purpose of fooling search
engines may result in permanent removal from our index...'
Found on the useful page:
My Web Pages Are Not Currently Listed:
://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html#A1
This page is part of a very informative set:
Google Information for Webmasters:
://www.google.com/webmasters/
Also, in the case of banner and exit exchanges, apart from the
'clickthrough rate' being extremely unsatisfactory, they can cause a
level of visitor irritation which more than nullifies any benefit that
might have been brought by participation in the program.
I personally enjoy using method 3. Use Google to compile a list of
sites from which you feel a link would be worthwhile, then work
through the list over time, just sending one polite email to each
webmaster, asking to consider a linkswap. A large proportion of site
designers welcome this approach - you are helping them as well as
yourself.
Go here for an example:
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=118600
Other possible beneficial changes to your index page:
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
I'm looking at your index page source code, and can see, immediately
after the opening body tag, a number of table cells containing the
same small image - I'm unsure why you should be using this. It's only
a small point, but this could be removed. Is this the 'extra code' you
refer to in your question?leaving it in would not probably not pose a
huge problem as far as indexing is concerned; it simply appears to
have no purpose other than to provide an invisible line at the top of
the page. Possibly you have this code in readiness for a future
feature?
One thing to note about images, such as those referred to above, is
that if possible, it's good to include the alternative text tag for
each one; it may help indexing, especially on a specific image search:
<image src="http://foo.gif" alt="woolen rug">
<image src="http://bar.jpg" alt="hand braided">
Also, for similar reasons, it's useful to give your images decriptive
names:
Instead of:
<img height=329 width=247
src="http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/az1a.jpg" border=0>
use
<img height=329 width=247
src="http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/traditional braided rug.jpg"
alt="image of traditional braided rug" border=0>
... as appropriate.
Monitoring visits to your index page
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
I can see some tracking code at the very bottom of your page; it
appears to be Yahoo / GeoCities based; I cannot identify it further.
Does your current tracking service allow you to monitor the
searchterms visitors are using, to find your site?
Often, a phrase which you were completely unaware would generate
traffic, and which just happened to be part of the natural flow of the
body text on the page, will identify itself through a tracker with
that capability.
For instance, I currently maintain one site for a local plumber. I
picked upon the keyphrase 'ormskirk plumber', thinking that would be a
likely term that people would use to try and find the services he
offers. However, in the several months his site has been online, I
have discovered that almost nobody has found his page by typing in
'ormskirk plumber' - rather, most of his visitors have been using the
term 'plumber hourly rates'!
If you think you could benefit from such a service, I've found that
the following gives good basic value, with a good range of features:
GoStats tracking:
http://gostats.com/
A range of other services to choose from:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=website+statistics+counter+tracker
---------------------------------------------
Moving on & looking at your subsidiary pages:
http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/*.*
---------------------------------------------
Your subsidiary pages, stemming from your index page, are a real
opportunity for increasing your site ranking and visitors.
At the moment, the indexable content on these pages is essentially
wasted. For instance, here are a few titles I noticed:
<title>Picturerugtemp</title>
<title>starfishfront</title>
<title>fruitharvest</title>
<title>construction</title>
<title>compareflatnew</title>
These words are in absolute prime position for Google and other search
engines to pick them up and index them. In fact, I'll just try an
experiment...
Yes. Picturerugtemp, and compareflatnew, when typed into Google, bring
up your pages, all by themselves with no competition at all. This is
because they're unique - nobody else is competing against you on these
keywords. Of course, there probably aren't too many people out there
who decide to type these words into the search, however - so ideally,
it would be very much worth your while to experiment with different
keyphrases here. Try to target keyphrases which are commonly typed,
but which aren't over-targeted by your competition. This is the rub!
On this point, I refer you once again to Robert Woodhead's advice:
http://selfpromotion.com/pageprep.t
As a starting point, here are some possible alternatives for the
titles of your subsidiary pages, in the same order as the originals
given above:
<title>round area braided rug - handmade starfish design</title>
<title>circular braided rugs - country design</title>
<title>braided rug construction</title>
<title>hand braided rug braid image</title>
Treat each one of your subsidiary pages as a separate website, each
with it's own individual primary keyphrase. Each one has the potential
to be listed and assigned a page rank - by 'casting your net wide',
you can expect to greatly increase your traffic.
In addition to fully researched title tag content, each page should
have it's own individually researched set of meta tags, and should
have keyphrases strategically distributed through the body text, of
which there should be sufficient to 'feed' the search engines'
indexing robots. Also, endeavor to gain external links to each page,
in the same way as to your index page.
It might be useful to design some form of navigation palette, which
could be placed on every page. You could use anything from a
straightforward list of links to every other area of the site, to an
HTML table containing images used as links - the good thing here is
that the navigation palette will only have to be designed once, and
then simply placed on each page. This way, not only will visitors be
able to skip around your pages easily, but also, if a search engine
indexing robot happens to travel down one external link to any one of
your pages, it will then find it easy to rapidly spread throughout all
the pages of your site, creating fresh listings as it goes.
There are two linking methods it's probably best to avoid when
designing a navigation palette - 'flash movies' and 'image maps'.
Whilst these methods have their uses, they don't index well.
============================================================
How long after a site is "found", is it indexed?'
============================================================
Please see the following URL for some background information:
How Do I Get My Site Listed on Google?
://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html
See also, Webmaster World's Google section:
This resource contains a vast amount of useful information concerning
the minutiae of maintaining your listing:
Home/Forums Index/The Search Engine World/Google News:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/
Essentially, Google updates it's index on a monthly basis - so that
the time between being 'spidered' and showing up in the listings can
range from a few days up to a month. The update is not rigidly fixed
in time, and occurs over a period, as you are aware - 'the Google
Dance.'
There appear to be two forms of the Google indexing robot. One is the
main, 'deep crawler', the other is a 'temporary' indexer which appears
to visit new sites some time prior to the main one. It is rumored to
be capable of dynamically updating the current index:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/7485.htm
I know from my own experience that the time around an update can be
traumatic. Occasionally sites *do* fail to appear in the updated
index, only to reappear the next month with no changes having been
made - I tend to think, therefore, that if you're in full control of
your site, i.e. you don't use a third party to maintain & 'optimise'
your pages, and you're certain you've not intentionally broken any of
the major rules, such as repeatedly submitting, or using 'smoke &
mirror' tactics such as cloaking:
Search Engine World/Misc/Cloaking Overview:
http://www.searchengineworld.com/misc/cloaking.htm
then it's often a good idea to just wait maybe six or seven weeks.
Don't go 'chasing the dials', just wait & hope things improve in the
next update. The danger is, that in desperation, you actually *do*
make a damaging change!
============================================================
Current inter search-engine paid listings:
============================================================
Although you have set up a pay-per-click arrangement with Overture,
Google is not one of the search engines which partners with them.
Overture can put you on 8 of the top U.S. search sites:
MSN, Yahoo!, Lycos, AltaVista, InfoSpace, Netscape, CNET and Netzero:
http://www.overture.com/d/USm/about/advertisers/ays_reachP.jhtml
http://www.overture.com/d/USm/about/advertisers/ays_affpartnersP.jhtml
Your listing from Overture will appear on the affiliate sites listed
at the URLs above, but not on Google.
Google runs it's own paid listing programme:
://www.google.com/ads/
============================================================
Am I going to have this problem every time I make changes
or is there some level of change that I can make w/o
getting booted?
============================================================
You do need to make regular changes. The best keyphrases for your
enterprise will slowly shift over time, so it's definitely worth
keeping abreast of them and switching around from time to time.
Watch the competitions' figures for keyphrase density, be careful not
to overuse keyphrases, and spend a little time each month
re-researching which terms are likely to bring you traffic - follow
the advice at selfpromotion.com regarding keyphrase selection - and
make small adjustments to suit. Above all, if a major calamity seems
to have happened, don't jump immediately to the conclusion that your
site has been dropped, or that there's some other serious problem -
wait it out for a little while to let things settle.
Realistically, you're likely to follow a slightly bumpy road - one
month you'll be overjoyed with your listing, another month, a little
disappointed. But on the bright side, being totally excluded from the
index is rare as long as you follow the rules, and take steps to keep
ahead of the competition.
Less scrupulous site designers use a method known as page-jacking: in
an effort to damage the competition, they 'steal' your pages' HTML,
and put up many copies around the 'net. This has the effect of causing
the search engines, including Google, to see all these differently
located, but identical, pages, and think 'spammer'. All of a sudden,
your page disappears from the index completely, banned under the
impression that an attempt is being made to artificially increase
product exposure. So it's well worth making a regular change to head
this problem off.
Apart from anything else, a change of scenery probably helps to keep
visitors interested & returning.
___________________________________________________________________
Search strategy:
Searchterms used on Google:
site tune up
meta tag generator
I hope you find the above information useful, and can use it to
successfully regain and maintain a high ranking for your site, with
your chosen keyphrases.
If anything is unclear, any links seem not to operate, or you would
like further information, please do not hesitate to ask me for further
information before rating my research. I will be glad to clarify
further should you require.
Best regards - and good luck -
gan. |
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