Hi there,
There are a number of things you can do to improve your web site's
position in search engine results. Here are my suggestions, in order
of importance:
1. Get Linked To
================
An integral part of Google's ranking algorithm is link popularity.
Basically, the more web sites that link to yours, the higher yours
will rank. If they are "important" sites like Yahoo, their link to you
is a more impressive vote for the quality of your site.
The importance of a web site is measured by PageRank. The best way to
see the PageRank value (between 0 and 10) of a web site is by using
the Google Toolbar:
http://toolbar.google.com/
Your site already has a PR of 5. This is almost totally due to being
listed within Open Directory and Yahoo:
http://dmoz.org/Business/Transportation_and_Logistics/Moving_Services/Directories/
http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Shipping/Movers/Directories/
To improve your PR you need many more links to your site, preferably
from sites with a PageRank of 4 or more. Try and get into Open
Directory twice by submitting to this category:
http://dmoz.org/Home/Moving_and_Relocating/
See who is linking to the sites that rank above you in search results,
and try to get links from any quality sites that appear (avoid
link-swapping schemes). Use the Google link: command, like this:
link:www.somewebsite.com
Try and get your site mentioned wherever your higher-ranked opposition
are mentioned. If the links pointing to your page have any or all of
the keywords in, or next to the link, that is better.
2. Keywords on the page
=======================
Have a look at this list of phrases containing the word relocation, as
searched for at Overture last month:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Note how many place names are in there. Your customers are most likely
to enter a word like relocate, shift, move and a place name like
Florida. Or the will search for "relocation service" or "relocation
company".
I don't see the phrase "moving relocation" there. I realise it is your
site's name, but if no-one searches for it, it is wasted in your
title.
It appears that you use the same title for every page within your
site. Having a unique title for each page is the single best
improvement you can make. Especially when you include the name of an
appropriate state. On pages that are not place specific have a title
like these:
Relocation Services: Furniture
Relocation Company: Animals
For a state, something like:
Animal Transportation Companies In Maine
Webmasters tend to cram keywords into the title tag. Google prefers
shorter titles. I recently reduced the title lengths at one of my
sites and the pages are now ranking higher. I suggest 2-5 words.
Place the keywords within H1 tags at the top of your pages, instead of
the plain text you presently use. If you don't like how the words
look, use CSS to change how an H1 is displayed. Don't change the H1
tag to ordinary sized plain text - that would be cheating.
Have the keywords appear a second time in the page. Try and do this
naturally, in a sentence.
3. ResourceLinks.net
====================
If you have placed their little graphic on your pages as a reciprocal
link requirement, you need to weigh up how many visitors this gets
you, versus the possiblilty of getting penalized by Google:
"Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's
ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or
"bad neighborhoods" on the web as your own ranking may be affected
adversely by those links."
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
4. Create Content
=================
The more sentences of information that appear on your site, the more
visits you will get. Hunt around for articles about moving house, or
even anecdotal stories. Ask permission to post them on your site, and
offer to link to their site in return. Or write your own articles, or
pay someone to do so. If a search engine believes your site to be an
authority on a subject, it might give it a higher ranking.
5. Target a variety of keywords
===============================
Your site has a lot of pages; use some of them to experiment with.
Change the text and title each month and re-submit the page to Google.
See if it gets better results. Play around with other keywords. Most
webmasters target a single phrase. If you look at your referral logs,
you will notice a wide variety of searches that ended up at your site.
Targeting less searched for keywords and coming in at number one, is
better than being on page two of a more popular keyword.
Use a keyword suggestion tool like the one at Overture:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/?term=bahamas
The best for deciding on keywords is WordTracker, which has a free
trial:
http://www.wordtracker.com
Don't!
======
Don't join any link exchange schemes.
Don't use any search engine submission service which promises to
submit your site to hundreds or thousands of search engines.
Don't use Web Position Gold (or any similar software) to check your
ranking at Google.
Do!
===
Be patient. Whenever you update your site, re-submit it to Google. Any
changes you make now will probably not change your ranking until
roughly the start of April or even May.
Visit http://www.webmasterworld.com - free and easy registration opens
up the best resource for search engine optimization there is... the
experiences of others.
Search strategy: personal experience
If you have any further question on this topic, just ask for a
clarification, and I'll do my best to help you out.
Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga |
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