Is my new website optimized?
Clint
website (I'm not a programer) with Dreamweaver. It is still new so I
haven't started a links campaign yet. I'm wondering if any of the experts
in this newsgroup could take a quick peek at my site and tell me if it is
adequately optimized for search engines despite the lack of links from other
sites for now?
The URL is http://www.FreeSpiritGallery.ca
Thanks
Clint
Big Bill
wrote:
Without looking at it (yet), is it optimised for what exactly? Do you
have a particular phrase in mind? Have you done any research into
keywords people are searching for to find sites like yours? Or have
you just put it together the best you can, and now since you've heard
about this optimising thing you have to do these days you want our
opinions?
<schoolmaster>Well? Speak up, boy! Speak up!</schoolmaster>
BB
Clint
searchers in my area will use the keywords 'inuit art' and 'native american
art' most of the time. So hopefully I have designed my website to optimize
it for the SEs with those main keywords in mind. There are other keywords
but those two are used the most by far. I'm sorry if I seem a bit naive but
I am new at this.
Clint
Free Spirit Gallery
http://www.FreeSpiritGallery.ca
Exquisite Inuit (Eskimo) & Native Art
jmk
"Clint" <pep...@videotron.ca> wrote in message
news:BjSOc.71994$Vp1.1...@weber.videotron.net...
First question: are your prices competitive? How do you know if they are?
SEO Dave
wrote:
They are selling original art work, the concept of competitive pricing
doesn't apply. It's not like you can nip down to your local
supermarket and purchase the same item at rock bottom prices. So if
you want the item you pay the price listed.
When I was looking for an internet based business one of the first
ideas I had was selling the work of unknown artists online. What
appealed to me is the premium you can add to unique items. Didn't have
the skills then to pull it off, so never went anywhere.
Regarding the site.
Make better use of the images you have, since you are lacking in text
content. For starters on all pages change the top logo image into an
image link to the home page and add your most important keyword phrase
to the alt text.
On your home page you currently have two large images. Link them
directly to the products page and add relevant alt text (ideally
keyword rich). This is for SEO reasons and if a visitor like those
items they can get to the ordering page right away.
Try to turn all images into image links with appropriate alt text. The
alt text of image links will help your Google rankings, the alt text
of non linking images will not.
You've made the classic mistake of adding the alt text "Home" to your
home image link. Again add relevant keywords to all links, the home
one could be Keywords Home (for example "Free Spirt Art Gallery Home"
or even better "Inuit and Eskimo Art Gallery Home Page").
Your How to Order image links alt text could be "How to Order Inuit
and Eskimo Art Work". You get the idea, do this with all your menu
links.
Try to add some headers in amongst the content of the pages, start
with a h1 near the top and as many of the others you can fit without
ruining the look/feel of the page. Use CSS to bring the headers in
line with the look of your site (non CSS'd headers are ugly), don't go
over the top with the CSS though, keep a h1 looking bigger than a h2,
a h2 bigger than a h3 etc... and them all bigger than standard body
text (so they still look like headers).
A h1 would work on the home page under the two large images.
i.e- <h1 align="center">Inuit and Eskimo Art Gallery</h1>
Extend your copyright notice a little to add a few keywords-
Original Inuit and Eskimo Art Work from the Free Spirit Gallery,
Copyright © 2004.
As you can see it's quite easy to add relevance to a page with out
changing what it looks like.
Long term try to add more descriptive text along with your deeper
pages. Think about what a potential buyer might search for and include
this in the body text or part of links.
The title of a page is very important, so limit it to relevant phrases
you'd like to be found by.
For example the title of this page
http://www.freespiritgallery.ca/inuitcarvings.htm is-
<title>Inuit art soapstone Eskimo carvings sculptures from arctic
north Nunavut Baffin Island</title>
At this stage you are unlikely to get all those phrases from one page.
Try to add one phrase per title, more pages you have more phrases you
can go after. When you have many more links you can then think about
adding another phrase to the title if the original phrase is in the
top 3.
When you have the title right, optimise the rest of the page to
enforce that title and try to get all links to that page to include
that phrase as the anchor or alt text.
So you might go with Inuit Art Carvings for that page. the title would
be <title>Inuit Art Carvings</title> the h1 would be <h1>Inuit Art
Carvings</h1>. All links to the page would use Inuit Art Carvings as
anchor/alt text and if you can manage it have a few links off the page
use that phrases as well as alt/anchor text (i.e. a couple of those
image links).
Then consider what related phrases might attract visitors. i.e
Original Inuit Art Carvings, add the Original a few times to the body
text etc... ideally as part of the phrase, but if you can't manage
that anywhere in the text. Do this with as many highly relevant
phrases (extra words like Unique) you can find since google will
combine separated words into a multiple worded phrase.
These tools will help with this-
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
http://www.wordtracker.com/
That's my good deed for August complete, 31 days until September and I
have to do it again :-))
David
--
http://www.search-engine-optimization-services.co.uk/
Big Bill
wrote:
>Well, I have used this function on Overture and determined that most
>searchers in my area will use the keywords 'inuit art' and 'native american
>art' most of the time. So hopefully I have designed my website to optimize
>it for the SEs with those main keywords in mind. There are other keywords
>but those two are used the most by far. I'm sorry if I seem a bit naive but
>I am new at this.
>
>Clint
I didn't mean to make it appear I thought you naieve. Sorry if it
seemed that way. I just wanted to know what approach you'd taken. SEO
needs to function on a lot of levels.
BB
Big Bill
Big Bill
In fact, and still withoutlooking at the site here, I'd agree with
Dave and suggest further that you make the ordering facility highly
visible on every page. What you very much need to avoid is the
scenario sees a picture they like, decides to buy it, and then gets
fed up wandering round the site trying to work out how to actually
order and then pay for the item. You get this everywhere and it's
bloody annoying. You don't need to do any "hard sell" or anything,
just a tasteful but conspicuous link will be fine.
>Try to turn all images into image links with appropriate alt text. The
>alt text of image links will help your Google rankings, the alt text
>of non linking images will not.
>
>You've made the classic mistake of adding the alt text "Home" to your
>home image link. Again add relevant keywords to all links, the home
>one could be Keywords Home (for example "Free Spirt Art Gallery Home"
>or even better "Inuit and Eskimo Art Gallery Home Page").
I'd leave out gallery. We could argue that though.
>Your How to Order image links alt text could be "How to Order Inuit
>and Eskimo Art Work". You get the idea, do this with all your menu
>links.
Yeah, he's right there.
>Try to add some headers in amongst the content of the pages, start
>with a h1 near the top and as many of the others you can fit without
>ruining the look/feel of the page. Use CSS to bring the headers in
>line with the look of your site (non CSS'd headers are ugly), don't go
>over the top with the CSS though, keep a h1 looking bigger than a h2,
>a h2 bigger than a h3 etc... and them all bigger than standard body
>text (so they still look like headers).
>
>A h1 would work on the home page under the two large images.
>
>i.e- <h1 align="center">Inuit and Eskimo Art Gallery</h1>
>
>Extend your copyright notice a little to add a few keywords-
>
>Original Inuit and Eskimo Art Work from the Free Spirit Gallery,
>Copyright © 2004.
>
>As you can see it's quite easy to add relevance to a page with out
>changing what it looks like.
>
>Long term try to add more descriptive text along with your deeper
>pages. Think about what a potential buyer might search for and include
>this in the body text or part of links.
Well, don't just think about it, go to www.wordtracker.com and
experiment with the trial and find out what search terms people are
actually using to find Inuit art sites.
Hmph. Anyhoo, I'm wondering if he'd be overdoing it if he did a
uniquely worded link-to-us on main pages. Can we detain you long
enough for an opinion?
BB
Eric Johnston
I agree with all David's advice above.
I don't know how Dreamweaver works.
If possible, I would try to switch off all the javascript, as I can't see
anything on the page that need javascript at all.
If Dreamweaver has an option to look at and edit the html code if you read
through it you will find:
<p><font color="#FFFFFF" size="4">Just for your information, the term Eskimo
is now considered derogatory and has been replaced by the more
acceptable
term Inuit. Eskimo is used in this website only as a reference term for
our
international customers who may not be aware of the term
Inuit.</font></p>
<p> </p>
The line <p> </p> is a possible problem as it prints a 'black' space
character on the black background, which may be interpreted as spam. If you
inserted say
<p>This black text is not visible</p> you will see what I mean.
Best regards, Eric.
jmk
"Big Bill" <kr...@cityscape.co.uk> wrote in message
news:962qg01j6r3fdq51c...@4ax.com...
Bill, intuitively and factually are not the same. Way to many people set up
e-commerce site just because they "know" that they have great products. This
may be true because in their geographic area they are well-priced. But when
they are going global they find themselves going up against a whole new
class of competitors.
PeterMcC
<HM7Pc.15112$lW3.1...@wagner.videotron.net>
> "Big Bill" <kr...@cityscape.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:962qg01j6r3fdq51c...@4ax.com...
>> On Sat, 31 Jul 2004 20:57:19 -0700, "jmk" <comp...@videotron.ca>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> "Clint" <pep...@videotron.ca> wrote in message
>>> news:BjSOc.71994$Vp1.1...@weber.videotron.net...
>>>> I just started an online art gallery and spent the last month
>>>> creating a website (I'm not a programer) with Dreamweaver. It is
>>>> still new so I haven't started a links campaign yet. I'm
>>>> wondering if any of the experts in this newsgroup could take a
>>>> quick peek at my site and tell me if it is adequately optimized
>>>> for search engines despite the lack of links from other sites for
>>>> now?
>>>>
>>>> The URL is http://www.FreeSpiritGallery.ca
>>>
>>>
>>> First question: are your prices competitive? How do you know if
>>> they are?
>>
>> He knows intuitively.
>
> Bill, intuitively and factually are not the same.
Weak pun on "inuit" ?
--
PeterMcC
If you feel that any of the above is incorrect,
inappropriate or offensive in any way,
please ignore it and accept my apologies.
C.W.
<eric.j...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>If Dreamweaver has an option to look at and edit the html code if you read
>through it you will find:
><p><font color="#FFFFFF" size="4">Just for your information, the term Eskimo
> is now considered derogatory and has been replaced by the more
>acceptable
> term Inuit. Eskimo is used in this website only as a reference term for
>our
> international customers who may not be aware of the term
>Inuit.</font></p>
> <p> </p>
>The line <p> </p> is a possible problem as it prints a 'black' space
>character on the black background, which may be interpreted as spam. If you
>inserted say
><p>This black text is not visible</p> you will see what I mean.
Eric,
Out of curiousity - others have stated, with invisible text thoughts,
that Google would likely manually look at the site to see if this was
being used. Why would Google penalize or ban over someone using
[which is not really text but creating a no-break space] if there is
no actual words being used for 'hiding'?
To me this just sounds a little extreme that someone would be
penalized over using that special character [for spacing] just as if
the person had listed 10 to 200 keywords instead. Has this actually
happened and Google stated being used regarded bythem the same
as 'hidden text'?
Reason I ask is that this is the first I heard of being
included and, secondly, there are an awful lot of sites that use
solely for spacing thoughts - which may not know they are
risking running afoul with Google's guidelines even though they do not
have any actual text or links 'hidden'.
Carol
C.W.
wrote:
Art and artists though are not the same as someone setting up an
ecommerce site to sell something like - say cameras or dvd players. I
can't charge $100 more for a Fuji digital camera than most of my
competitors - that's a given.
Part of the pricing may be based on the artist's background. Susie
painting pictures in her backyard an hour or two a week to sell at the
local church bazaar may not be able to demand the same price for a
similar sized picture that Joe Blow, who spends more than a couple of
hours a week working on paintings and may have also had a couple great
shows in his 'resume' -- so his name, background, niche, and maybe
even a following he has developed may be able to help him set a higher
price for his works than Susie may be able to consider charging.
Look at photographer's sites. Some professional photographers have a
nice price tag on what they offer for sale. While some hobbyists, who
may have an equally nice critical eye for composition and such, may
charge 1/4 the price, in comparison to mid-priced professional
photographers, for prints. Some others may have even lower prices or
offer .gif or .jpg files for free use.
I went to an art festival in Pittsburgh one year and saw an 8 x 10 pen
drawing - I think it was literally done with a Bic blue ink pen - of a
stick figure walking up a 'hill' [or maybe it was supposed to be a
mountain?] that looked like maybe it took 10 to 15 minutes to 'create'
and the price was $500. No kidding! And it was part of a series ...
and oddly enough, some of them sold.
I took my toddler son home, handed him a small stack of computer paper
and an ink pen, and told him to draw all the stick figures he wanted
and make mommy rich. LOL!
Carol
SEO Dave
wrote:
>>That's my good deed for August complete, 31 days until September and I
>>have to do it again :-))
>
>Hmph. Anyhoo, I'm wondering if he'd be overdoing it if he did a
>uniquely worded link-to-us on main pages. Can we detain you long
>enough for an opinion?
>
>BB
Do you mean providing the code for the ideal text link for when a kind
webmaster decides to add a link to a page?
It wouldn't hurt the SEO (could help a little since you'll include
your keywords), but I've always seen those as desperate measures to
get links.
Fine if you have it on a reciprocal links page where you ask they add
your link before contacting you for theirs, but generally I don't like
them, so have never tried it.
David
--
http://www.search-engine-optimization-services.co.uk/
Clint
Clint
"Eric Johnston" <eric.j...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3e7Pc.43358$28....@fe1.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
Clint
well as online galleries offering similar items.
Clint
"jmk" <comp...@videotron.ca> wrote in message
news:KdXOc.75987$Vp1.1...@weber.videotron.net...
Clint
Clint
"> SEO Dave wrote:
Clint
I actually didn't intentionally put these   things in - I'm still not
exactly sure of what they are. I used Dreamweaver's design mode to do most
of the programming for my website. I guess the software added these in.
Should I be deleting all of these just to be safe?
Clint
Antipodean Bucket Farmer
<dNCPc.54687$_21.12...@weber.videotron.net>,
pep...@videotron.ca says...
The "nbsp;" means "non-breaking space." It is normal
and standard. It prevents lines of text from wrapping
down when you don't want them to.
--
Earn Money With Your Web Site
http://www.WebSponsorZone.Net
Web Site Advertising Directory
Big Bill
wrote:
>
>I actually didn't intentionally put these   things in - I'm still not
>exactly sure of what they are. I used Dreamweaver's design mode to do most
>of the programming for my website. I guess the software added these in.
>Should I be deleting all of these just to be safe?
>
>Clint
They're spacers. Just to improve the overall look of the layout. I
imagne that you can leave them in since Google is unlikely to be
penalising everyone who uses a Dreamweaver design. If they banned all
<spit>Front Page</spit> designs, now that would make sense, but with
DW you're ok.
BB
Eric Johnston
Yes, it is a little extreme, but I am paranoid and try to avoid putting any
text characters that are the same colour as the background. It is fairly
easy to do this with a default white background but with a plain black
background or image background, mistakes can happen if you don't read
through the html very carefully.
Incidentally, on this same subject, someone recently suggested that text and
background should be visibly distinctly different, and that differences
within one low order 4 bit nibble were too small to be acceptable: i.e
background 000000 and text 00000f is not a big enough colour difference.
Best regards, Eric