Starting SEO
-
Hi everyone, I am new to SEO basically learning as I go and trying to catch up on all of the information needed to successfully move a website up the search engine ranks. The website I am trying to optimize is www.luxurylifestylevacationhomes.com/. Right now I have determined which keywords I want to use, I have saturated them into the website in an organic way and have submitted the sites to various engines, also I have created a Facebook fan page which has 606 active monthly users in it's first month ( I don't know if that's a great number), as well as started writing a blog where I am putting links to the page in each relevant blog. My question has 3 parts 1. what else should I be doing to improve my ranking? 2. how do I find quality relevant websites that want to link exchange? 3. What is the best way to really get volume/ quality links to a relatively unknown site?Any advice or Ideas help and are very appreciated. Thanks
-
Hey,
First of all. I do like your website it looks good.
But, google images, really increase the view of your website if u use him as your advantage.
Your website has many photos, unique photos, right?
So why you don't try to optimize them?
look this one for example: http://www.luxurylifestylevacationhomes.com/custimages/7699front.jpg .
and look to the ALT in the IMG tag... alt="" ...
ppls love images, so optimize them as well...
hope it helps.
-
That's an extremely large question and it's going to depend on a lot of things.
It's great that you're taking action, but as Big Bazza said, be careful as you do so. SEO has changed a lot in the last couple of years, and will continue to do so until it becomes a more mature industry (which will be many many years in the future.
Rather than us tell you what your course of action should be, I would recommend educating yourself and developing a continuous education system for yourself so you stay up to date - reading blogs like SEOMoz, Distilled, Search Engine Land, etc.
After reading the beginner's guide and getting a feel for what SEO is really all about in June 2011 (it may very well be different in July 2011) and becoming familiar with the bascis, I would recommend reading Danny Dover's (a former SEOMoz employee) SEO Secrets. It'll take you down the intermediate road to SEO methodology.
You may also want to check out the newest Search Engine Ranking Factors report from SEOMoz - http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#predictions-2
As well as the Webinar which will cover it - which takes place tomorrow!! - http://www.seomoz.org/webinars
SEO is a very broad skillset, but if you really like it, you can become really great at just a couple of parts of it and be an extremely valuable asset to any organization.
Good luck and glad to have you on board.
-
Hi Scott, I am not far ahead of you in the SEO journey. I can recommend ex Seomoz Danny Dover's book SEO Secrets to guide you along (although much is aimed at wannabe SEO companies)
1. Have you had your site crawled by Seomoz to detect errors such as duplicate content, broken links, etc?At first glance one are you can make quick wins is by optimising your title tags. Title tags and h1 tags are probably your first stop and more important than saturating your content with keywords. I would recommend wrtiting your main body copy with only a little deference to keyword density. Thats a little 'old hat'
2. I wouldn't spend too much time searching for link exchange ( I assume you mean reciprocals) as these are discounted to a great degree by Google. I would first look at some quality directories. You can also list at qype, yelp, google places usng www.getlisted.org
3. The key to links is writing good linkable content and then making contacts. Create relationships and the links will happen.
Good luck with it. I recommend reading a couple of books and using the Q&A here and you will see your organic rankings rise...
-
1. Start here: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo
2. Avoid keyword stuffing! (Don't overuse the same keyword within your pages! Do use diverse keyword variations - There are at least 7 uses of the keyword 'Vacation Homes' on the first page alone! THIS IS WAY TOO MUCH!
Create content with the end user in mind - not just Google! If that was an article in a newspaper or a magazine your reader would soon tire of reading it and look elsewhere for more informative content which flows more naturally. Google will recognise what your page is relevant for (and rank you accordingly) if you give if a few subtle signals i.e. some use of the main keyword in important areas - URL - page title - Meta Description H1 tag heading and variations within the body text. But shouting and repeating yourself will not get you any more attention from the search engines as a result.
Do take heart from the fact that one of the first things people learn about SEO is keyword use - and as such we all stuffed them everywhere when we started off ;o)
See also:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/perfecting-keyword-targeting-on-page-optimization
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to understand if a certain company doing SEO or not?
Hi guys, I am wondering how we can tell that the certain company doing SEO or not?
Competitive Research | | ahmetkul0 -
Which SEO Metric is the most Important?
Hello There are many SEO metrics like DA or MozTrust and even Other metrics such as cognitive SEO metric.
Competitive Research | | siteBaNa0 -
Pre Launch New Website SEO Best Practices
Hi All, I am currently mid development of a website (no testing page yet) and want to make sure I am doing my due diligence in regards to SEO. Are there best practices to always complete while a website is being built? If so what are they? I've gotten to the stage where I've read every blog on the planet and now maybe too much info. I am also focusing my Keyword Analysis around competitor research to write great copy from, but seem to be falling down a rabbit hole of way too many keywords. Is there agencies/services that would just be hired to do Keyword Research for my needs? Thanks a lot!
Competitive Research | | Krackle0 -
Choosing an SEO agency
Is this the place to find an SEO agency?
Competitive Research | | Johnnyh
We are a car leasing company based in the UK and need an SEO agency to help us rank in a very competitive market. We have a relatively small budget of £2500 - £4000 per month. I appreciate this not a massive budget but that is where we are at. Any input would be much appreciated. Regards
John0 -
Keywords and Getting Started with them to the top of the Search Engines
We are an online Saas Based startup. Strongly 70% of our daily users come directly to us since they know us by the url . Now there these 30% who scout for software's like ours online. Get to us by some hook or crook and then maybe end up giving the trial a shot. Our Main site is only of say 5-6 pages. These pages have basic info about our product , pricing and contact etc. What I wish to understand is that when one says" getting those keywords to the top of the engines rankings" who do you mean by these - I presume one means that get the keywords you want to compete for and then push in "Adwords" or better content pages? So If I want to rank well - then my websites should have good content pages you mean? Is that correct-? That means now I have to write good content on those keywords or around those keywords- without that there is no hope to come on good on engines right? Correct me here if I sway away from the actual meaning. Next I wish to have campaigns setup in google adwords keeping in mind those competitive keywords - here again does content on my website play a role? If I have no content and then have google adwords setup does that help? Please advice How long before I add good content pages and expect them to show up in my analytics etc? Thanks
Competitive Research | | shanky10 -
Crazy SEO question (maybe I'm missing something?)
OK - so one of our customers just called us and told us an interesting story: A local SEO company called her yesterday to try to sell their services to her. She's in the process of starting SEO services with us, so she told them she wasn't interested. The sales guy told her that they were better (without even asking who she was currently using) and asked her for a term that she'd like to rank higher for. She said she'd like to rank higher for "spray in bedliners northern ky" and he said "Gotcha, call you tomorrow" He called back just now and told her to look at Google. She's now ranking number one for that term. He didn't have access to her site, so he wasn't able to change anything on her site. He won't tell her what he did, and told her it was legitimate - but it seems to me that with only off-site tactics, it'd be nearly impossible to white-hat her site to number one overnight... Any ideas what he's doing? First of all, we want to be able to tell her what he's doing, because she's curious. More importantly, we want to be sure he's not doing anything black-hat that's going to hurt our client's site. Thanks for your help, Mozzers!
Competitive Research | | Greg_Gifford0 -
International SEO
My client just launched a german version of their site: English Version:
Competitive Research | | kchandler
www.domain.com/en/.... Germain Version:
www.domain.com/de/.... Is there a best practice to get the new section of the site indexed in www.google.de? Are you able to submit a different sitemap to each Google domain? How do you go about doing keyword research, its got to be different search trends than google.com, right? A am complete beginner when it comes to international SEO so any advice would be greatly appreciated! Regards - Kyle1 -
What's the best SEO practice to get conversion rate up?
If you want to get conversion rate up what is the best method to do so?
Competitive Research | | blackrino0