I have a website at handspunhats.com. I was doing Ok with the help of a website optimization company that was submitting my website to all the major search engines every couple of months. They had also written a whole bunch of mega tags, etc. But in November I lost my position on Google. They said this was because Google had increased their listings by 30,000 and were "over extended." They tried re-submitting me and still no findable listing on Google. So I fired them. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do next. I've added a links page and got about 25 links, but am clueless about how to get my Google listing back. I use the most recent version of Front Page, know very little html and am very low tech.
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Lost position on Google 5
- Thread starter kundrol
- Start date
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2
- #2
ChrisHirst
IS-IT--Management
Absolutely right to sack the bunch of half-wits and shysters who were doing nothing for whatever you were paying then and then lying to you for the privilege.
What utter garbage. No one knows the exact state of Google's index at any one time and that probably includes many of Googles engineers. The index extends over several data-centres, estimates of the actual vary between 120 and 150 and these are rarely in sync. So no one DC has the exact number.
Your site needs a serious review and overhaul to bring it into a Search Friendly kind of site. A quick look over the code and there are several HTML issues with missing or unclosed tags.
The copy strikes me as pretty good for the target audience although it could do with being a bit less "me" oriented.
My 0.10 GBPs worth would be to start with a new template and design to give the site a more consistent "look and feel", with a much improved and intuitive navigation menu, having to scroll down a long page to find the navigation is probably doing nothing for the sales. Having spaces in filenames is another no-no it can cause problems for some browsers and URLs look odd with %20's in them here and there.
A quick look at the phrase I expect you would be targeting and nothing strikes me a competitive, so a good all-round optimisation job on the site should yield pretty good results and a marked upturn in ROI.
Chris.
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
What utter garbage. No one knows the exact state of Google's index at any one time and that probably includes many of Googles engineers. The index extends over several data-centres, estimates of the actual vary between 120 and 150 and these are rarely in sync. So no one DC has the exact number.
Your site needs a serious review and overhaul to bring it into a Search Friendly kind of site. A quick look over the code and there are several HTML issues with missing or unclosed tags.
The copy strikes me as pretty good for the target audience although it could do with being a bit less "me" oriented.
My 0.10 GBPs worth would be to start with a new template and design to give the site a more consistent "look and feel", with a much improved and intuitive navigation menu, having to scroll down a long page to find the navigation is probably doing nothing for the sales. Having spaces in filenames is another no-no it can cause problems for some browsers and URLs look odd with %20's in them here and there.
A quick look at the phrase I expect you would be targeting and nothing strikes me a competitive, so a good all-round optimisation job on the site should yield pretty good results and a marked upturn in ROI.
Chris.
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
ChrisHirst
IS-IT--Management
whoops! hit submit instead of preview.
A reduction in the number of products on each page would be a good move as well. This will increase the number of pages and therefore increase the phrases you can target.
Moving to a decent catalogue/shopping cart system would also cut down massively on the site maintenance as products could be added without needing to write any code or upload new pages.
It also makes SEO a much simpler option to work on a database driven site, contrary to populat belief.
Chris.
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
A reduction in the number of products on each page would be a good move as well. This will increase the number of pages and therefore increase the phrases you can target.
Moving to a decent catalogue/shopping cart system would also cut down massively on the site maintenance as products could be added without needing to write any code or upload new pages.
It also makes SEO a much simpler option to work on a database driven site, contrary to populat belief.
Chris.
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
- Thread starter
- #4
Thank you for your help Chris! Lots of stuff to consider here. Like the html tags missing. I'm wondering if there is some quick way to find them. I'll also review the copy, which I haven't done in awhile.
I guess I could put the navigation bars at the tops of the pages, too. But a new template would probably be pretty difficult. Like re-doing the whole darn thing! I kind of like the Ludite look, since that's what I'm about. I don't really want a slick looking site, just one that works and will be searchable.
I'm guessing the the spaces in file names is something that FrontPage is doing when I add an image that's a copy rather than an original? Not at all sure what causes this with some files but not with others. Anyhow I'll have a look and see if I can fix it.
I don't understand what you mean by reducing the number of products on a page, though. I've got all the hats currently in stock on one page so as to make it easier for people to distinguish between what's current and what's been sold. The number varies a bit. Then there's the pages for each style with examples. Too many examples? I guess I could have an archive page or something, but seems like I've already got enough pages. Dunno. I use Paypal shopping cart, so not sure what you meant about that. Not good? And I don't know what a database driven site is. Way over my low tech head!
I am glad to have fired those bums! I just don't know if I should look for someone else to optimize or try to go it on my own.
I guess I could put the navigation bars at the tops of the pages, too. But a new template would probably be pretty difficult. Like re-doing the whole darn thing! I kind of like the Ludite look, since that's what I'm about. I don't really want a slick looking site, just one that works and will be searchable.
I'm guessing the the spaces in file names is something that FrontPage is doing when I add an image that's a copy rather than an original? Not at all sure what causes this with some files but not with others. Anyhow I'll have a look and see if I can fix it.
I don't understand what you mean by reducing the number of products on a page, though. I've got all the hats currently in stock on one page so as to make it easier for people to distinguish between what's current and what's been sold. The number varies a bit. Then there's the pages for each style with examples. Too many examples? I guess I could have an archive page or something, but seems like I've already got enough pages. Dunno. I use Paypal shopping cart, so not sure what you meant about that. Not good? And I don't know what a database driven site is. Way over my low tech head!
I am glad to have fired those bums! I just don't know if I should look for someone else to optimize or try to go it on my own.
ChrisHirst
IS-IT--Management
Yes FP is definitely the culprit for the spaces. The auto naming takes the first heading of the page and uses that initially.
Template/Re-design;
"Proper" SEO begins at the root of the site, the design, anyone who tells you they can get you more sales without changing the design is being "economical with the truth" or don't really know the score. SEO isn't a science, the real "art" is taking a site and knowing what will work for that site and audience. Yep, maintain the "Luddite" look as it fits in with the product, but it needs making slicker without looking slicker, It's all about usability. Personally I'd be tempted to change the font to Comic sans as well to maintain the overall feel. BTW I do like the site as it is, It simply needs making better for all users (real and bots) without destroying it in the process.
There is an excellent book by Steve Krug called "Don't make me think" on the subject. The end aim of optimising is not to get traffic, but to get sales, so the less work and thinking you make a user do to get to the sales counter the better.
On the catalogue/shopping cart, Taking the in-stock pages as an example. What you have currently is 75 items on the one page, So visitors click a link and end up on another page where they have to search through again, Impulse buy gone. liken it to a real world scenario, a shopper comes by looks in your window, Thinks I'd like that one, they walk in the shop and you hand them a box and say it's in there somewhere. Now for some target buyers in the real world that would work, but Internet shoppers are the impatient bunch where it wouldn't. Again it's the usability aspect. My daughter would fall in to your target market and I know what she is like when internet clothes shopping. A DB based catalogue would allow you to take them to a page with only the style they are looking for on it. If it is out of stock, and the system does basic inventory management (many don't) the customer knows which is available without you having to edit a page, then upload the page, therefore saving you time. The right shopping cart should be able to let you "skin" your pages by allowing a different look to be used for any page without "breaking" the overall feel. Few and far between, so I wrote my own, taking inspiration from the way CSS Zen Garden works. The trick is to use CSS to layout the pages then by making a few changes to one file you can switch things around or change colours for each page.
The number of phrases that a page can be usefully optimised for is two ideally, with three to five for lower competition phrases. Now currently as your site is not optimised in any major way the pages compete for what could six or more terms. So by categorisng products and reducing the numbers per page you improve the usability and the "crawlability" of the page.
The paypal shopping cart is fine, it's the catalogue side of the operation that will be the thing to work on.
Initially I would hiring a SEO with the mindset of educating you in the "art" of SEO. There are a few of us around who consider this is the important part rather than keeping it as a "black art" and ripping people off by making them think that it's some kind of "magic" or there are some secrets to it. There isn't. It's 75% common sense 25% experience.
When you have built up that 25% then you can carry on your own. Personally it's a good feeling when someone "gets it" and can maintain the rankings and sales I got them with very little if any input from me. Probably because I know that when their site grows bigger there is every chance they will be happy to re-engage me.
just done a quick check with NicheBot for custom hats some good phrases there with little competition and some proper word research will bring up a lot more.
Chris.
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Template/Re-design;
"Proper" SEO begins at the root of the site, the design, anyone who tells you they can get you more sales without changing the design is being "economical with the truth" or don't really know the score. SEO isn't a science, the real "art" is taking a site and knowing what will work for that site and audience. Yep, maintain the "Luddite" look as it fits in with the product, but it needs making slicker without looking slicker, It's all about usability. Personally I'd be tempted to change the font to Comic sans as well to maintain the overall feel. BTW I do like the site as it is, It simply needs making better for all users (real and bots) without destroying it in the process.
There is an excellent book by Steve Krug called "Don't make me think" on the subject. The end aim of optimising is not to get traffic, but to get sales, so the less work and thinking you make a user do to get to the sales counter the better.
On the catalogue/shopping cart, Taking the in-stock pages as an example. What you have currently is 75 items on the one page, So visitors click a link and end up on another page where they have to search through again, Impulse buy gone. liken it to a real world scenario, a shopper comes by looks in your window, Thinks I'd like that one, they walk in the shop and you hand them a box and say it's in there somewhere. Now for some target buyers in the real world that would work, but Internet shoppers are the impatient bunch where it wouldn't. Again it's the usability aspect. My daughter would fall in to your target market and I know what she is like when internet clothes shopping. A DB based catalogue would allow you to take them to a page with only the style they are looking for on it. If it is out of stock, and the system does basic inventory management (many don't) the customer knows which is available without you having to edit a page, then upload the page, therefore saving you time. The right shopping cart should be able to let you "skin" your pages by allowing a different look to be used for any page without "breaking" the overall feel. Few and far between, so I wrote my own, taking inspiration from the way CSS Zen Garden works. The trick is to use CSS to layout the pages then by making a few changes to one file you can switch things around or change colours for each page.
The number of phrases that a page can be usefully optimised for is two ideally, with three to five for lower competition phrases. Now currently as your site is not optimised in any major way the pages compete for what could six or more terms. So by categorisng products and reducing the numbers per page you improve the usability and the "crawlability" of the page.
The paypal shopping cart is fine, it's the catalogue side of the operation that will be the thing to work on.
Initially I would hiring a SEO with the mindset of educating you in the "art" of SEO. There are a few of us around who consider this is the important part rather than keeping it as a "black art" and ripping people off by making them think that it's some kind of "magic" or there are some secrets to it. There isn't. It's 75% common sense 25% experience.
When you have built up that 25% then you can carry on your own. Personally it's a good feeling when someone "gets it" and can maintain the rankings and sales I got them with very little if any input from me. Probably because I know that when their site grows bigger there is every chance they will be happy to re-engage me.
just done a quick check with NicheBot for custom hats some good phrases there with little competition and some proper word research will bring up a lot more.
Chris.
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
- Thread starter
- #6
Thanks again, Chris. That NicheBot site is sure useful! Wish I'd known about it before. Just as I suspected, the only way my site comes up in Google is with the keyword 'handspunhats,' which of course nobody would ever use in a search. On the other hand I'm on the first page under 'handspun hats' on MSN, Yahoo and AOL, or at least was the last time I checked a few days ago. This is why I believed the story about Google being overextended. I'm on quite a few other search engines also, but without Google I get very few customers.
I'll also check out the book by Steve Krug.
I sort of see what you're saying about the way my site works. What I've always wanted was a way for my links between pages to go from a hat on the in stock page to the same hat on one of the style pages. Front Page doesn't seem able to do that. Their thumbnails are too limited in what they can do, and there doesn't seem to be any other way.
Front Page seems limited in other ways, too, though I like the program in general. I have a great banner that a very kind online person made for me so she could use it on her links page. She made it using my logo, and it switches from the logo to three images to a short blurb. Awesome! I tried to use it to replace my logo on my home page, and it's there on my computer version but won't publish. Probably because the banner wasn't made using the Front Page banner manager.
As for hiring somebody to educate me, I would love to! But because I'm a one person operation,(I actually do spin and dye all my own yarn and then design and make the hats with it), I can only make a limited number of hats. So this obviously limits how much money I can expect to make - even with the best of websites. My goal has always been to sell exactly the right amount so that I don't end up with carpal tunnel while still making enough money to make it all worth while. "Enough money" usually works out to be about $800 a month average, which doubles in August and more than triples in December. When I'm not making hats, I'm working on the website. Definitely a full time very low paying job!
I was paying the ripoff guys about $40 a month, which I guess is pretty cheap compared to some other services I've looked at. They were doing a more or less decent job up until November, when they say the "changes" at Google happened. At that point, hits dropped from about 10-15 a day to 1 or 2, and no Christmas orders at all. I made it up at crafts fairs, but still ended up paying for a service that wasn't getting me any business for several months until I finally gave up on them.
I would love to learn how to do it myself, though I do have a low tolerance level for learning technical stuff!
I'll also check out the book by Steve Krug.
I sort of see what you're saying about the way my site works. What I've always wanted was a way for my links between pages to go from a hat on the in stock page to the same hat on one of the style pages. Front Page doesn't seem able to do that. Their thumbnails are too limited in what they can do, and there doesn't seem to be any other way.
Front Page seems limited in other ways, too, though I like the program in general. I have a great banner that a very kind online person made for me so she could use it on her links page. She made it using my logo, and it switches from the logo to three images to a short blurb. Awesome! I tried to use it to replace my logo on my home page, and it's there on my computer version but won't publish. Probably because the banner wasn't made using the Front Page banner manager.
As for hiring somebody to educate me, I would love to! But because I'm a one person operation,(I actually do spin and dye all my own yarn and then design and make the hats with it), I can only make a limited number of hats. So this obviously limits how much money I can expect to make - even with the best of websites. My goal has always been to sell exactly the right amount so that I don't end up with carpal tunnel while still making enough money to make it all worth while. "Enough money" usually works out to be about $800 a month average, which doubles in August and more than triples in December. When I'm not making hats, I'm working on the website. Definitely a full time very low paying job!
I was paying the ripoff guys about $40 a month, which I guess is pretty cheap compared to some other services I've looked at. They were doing a more or less decent job up until November, when they say the "changes" at Google happened. At that point, hits dropped from about 10-15 a day to 1 or 2, and no Christmas orders at all. I made it up at crafts fairs, but still ended up paying for a service that wasn't getting me any business for several months until I finally gave up on them.
I would love to learn how to do it myself, though I do have a low tolerance level for learning technical stuff!
ChrisHirst
IS-IT--Management
Nichebot is quite handy for quick checks, Though the main tool to use is Wordtracker and even WT doesn't get the whole picture. And being well ranked in other SEs and sales being limited if pretty much the norm, Google traffic does drive 90% of sales on the commercial sites I work with.
Google's November update which was reinforced in February was all about targeting link schemes and also looked as if it targeted what are known as "run of site" links. Your site because it is under optimised would simply be "collateral damage" it is unfortunate that many sites do fall by the wayside in these updates that don't use the tricks, but simply get hit because upstream sites get pulled and the domino effect takes over.
However it is relatively easy to recover the situation in your case. I would suggest starting your education with the High Rankings Tips for Newbies thread, and the IHY new member forum. We don't bite at either forum, BTW and you can just skip over when we get too techy. Some of the best SEOs in the business participate at one or the other or both, and will quite happily share their knowledge and expertise for free.
The main thing you need right now are some backlinks from directories and quality sites, You are really a niche market and as such good backlinks should be easy to come by. One thing to be very aware of with a small amount of good optimising the orders could soon outstrip production![[lol]](/data/assets/smilies/lol.gif "[lol] [lol]")
Something I always recommend is to start and learn the basics of HTML and CSS rather than rely on M$ FP. I would suggest downloading and playing with 1st Page 2000
There are a few simple changes to be made that should make a big difference, but I'll do a bit of a site review and post some ideas.
Chris.
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Google's November update which was reinforced in February was all about targeting link schemes and also looked as if it targeted what are known as "run of site" links. Your site because it is under optimised would simply be "collateral damage" it is unfortunate that many sites do fall by the wayside in these updates that don't use the tricks, but simply get hit because upstream sites get pulled and the domino effect takes over.
However it is relatively easy to recover the situation in your case. I would suggest starting your education with the High Rankings Tips for Newbies thread, and the IHY new member forum. We don't bite at either forum, BTW and you can just skip over when we get too techy. Some of the best SEOs in the business participate at one or the other or both, and will quite happily share their knowledge and expertise for free.
The main thing you need right now are some backlinks from directories and quality sites, You are really a niche market and as such good backlinks should be easy to come by. One thing to be very aware of with a small amount of good optimising the orders could soon outstrip production
Something I always recommend is to start and learn the basics of HTML and CSS rather than rely on M$ FP. I would suggest downloading and playing with 1st Page 2000
There are a few simple changes to be made that should make a big difference, but I'll do a bit of a site review and post some ideas.
Chris.
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
- Thread starter
- #8
Thanks Chris. I just finished changing all the fonts and putting a navigation bar at the top and bottom of every page. I also revised and updated the text on each page.
Yes, I've had no problem finding fiber and art related sites willing to link with me. I think I've got about 25 so far. Guess I need more. It's slow work, but apparently worth it, as I seem to be getting more hits already.
I really appreciate all the info!
Yes, I've had no problem finding fiber and art related sites willing to link with me. I think I've got about 25 so far. Guess I need more. It's slow work, but apparently worth it, as I seem to be getting more hits already.
I really appreciate all the info!
ChrisHirst
IS-IT--Management
I love it when someone "gets it" straight off ![[smile]](/data/assets/smilies/smile.gif "[smile] [smile]")
Makes it worth all the times I have to beat it into paying clients with a blunt instrument
Link building done well is a laborius process but is well worth the effort for the right site, It is best looked at as a long term prospect for the site and spend maybe a day a month on it. For your market it's not a highly critical part of the overall work so a few good links will show excellent results.
surprising sometimes how the smallest changes can make a difference to the feel of a site, Comic just takes the edge off Arial or Courier.
Chris.
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Makes it worth all the times I have to beat it into paying clients with a blunt instrument Link building done well is a laborius process but is well worth the effort for the right site, It is best looked at as a long term prospect for the site and spend maybe a day a month on it. For your market it's not a highly critical part of the overall work so a few good links will show excellent results.
surprising sometimes how the smallest changes can make a difference to the feel of a site, Comic just takes the edge off Arial or Courier.
Chris.
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
- Thread starter
- #10
Yup. I've tried a lot of different fonts, but this one looks the best. It really lightens things up. I just hope it doesn't revert to default in other browsers. I use Firefox, with IE for backup and editing single pages in Front Page on another website.
I do know a little html - only just about enough to make simple changes. Guess I've got a lot of reading up to do. I'll also be taking the spaces out of the file names ASAP.
Thanks again.
I do know a little html - only just about enough to make simple changes. Guess I've got a lot of reading up to do. I'll also be taking the spaces out of the file names ASAP.
Thanks again.
-
1
- #11
Probably help with google, but ... what's the point of having "Hat Now in Stock" linked to the shopping cart ... all the other links, just pictures of hats no cart.
And since you have so many varieties of hats, it might be helpful to give each hat and style some type of Item # to keep things straight. Make the numbers meaningful. For example, ski caps could have numbers SKxxxx ... rainbow caps - RBxxxx.
And since you have so many varieties of hats, it might be helpful to give each hat and style some type of Item # to keep things straight. Make the numbers meaningful. For example, ski caps could have numbers SKxxxx ... rainbow caps - RBxxxx.
- Thread starter
- #12
Hi Kjonnn,
The Hats In Stock is where all the hats are that are now available for sale. So that's why a shopping cart on that page only. I could put an "add to cart" button on the hats on the other pages that are in stock, but the text on each of those other pages explains that the Hats in Stock page is where to buy a hat - unless they want a custom order. The other pages have a mixture of hats now available and hats that are meant as examples only - like for people to use as ideas for custom orders. The hats now for sale on those pages are linked to the Hats In Stock page with more instructions to go there to buy the hat. I realize this requires some scrolling down to find the hat, but most people don't seem to have a problem. Of course I'd probably never hear from the ones that do!
What I would like to be able to do is to link each hat on the In Stock page with the same hat on the corresponding styles page using a hyperlink, but FrontPage doesn't seem to be able to do that. I agree that I could say something like "see #A on the skull caps page" or "see #20 on the Hats in Stock page" and that would solve some of the problem. It's just sort of awkward. The hats on the style pages are labelled with letters instead of numbers as identifiers. That distinguishes them as hats not on the In Stock page and helps me keep it all straight.
If you know of any way to make a hyperlink between specific cells on two different pages, I'd really love to hear about it!
The Hats In Stock is where all the hats are that are now available for sale. So that's why a shopping cart on that page only. I could put an "add to cart" button on the hats on the other pages that are in stock, but the text on each of those other pages explains that the Hats in Stock page is where to buy a hat - unless they want a custom order. The other pages have a mixture of hats now available and hats that are meant as examples only - like for people to use as ideas for custom orders. The hats now for sale on those pages are linked to the Hats In Stock page with more instructions to go there to buy the hat. I realize this requires some scrolling down to find the hat, but most people don't seem to have a problem. Of course I'd probably never hear from the ones that do!
What I would like to be able to do is to link each hat on the In Stock page with the same hat on the corresponding styles page using a hyperlink, but FrontPage doesn't seem to be able to do that. I agree that I could say something like "see #A on the skull caps page" or "see #20 on the Hats in Stock page" and that would solve some of the problem. It's just sort of awkward. The hats on the style pages are labelled with letters instead of numbers as identifiers. That distinguishes them as hats not on the In Stock page and helps me keep it all straight.
If you know of any way to make a hyperlink between specific cells on two different pages, I'd really love to hear about it!
ChrisHirst
IS-IT--Management
Use a named anchor on the in stock page
<a name="hat_49"></a>
and place this in the bottom of the cell above the hat it is marking.
Then link to it with
<a href="hats in stock#hat_49">Anchor text</a>
While you are changing this, change the anchor text from "Hats Now in Stock" to a short phrase that includes the keywords for the hat, so hat #49 and #50 the text would be "Wool Skull Cap"
----------------------------------------------
Also at this point you could actually start to build and structure your site in a way it begins to be optimised.
Instead of linking to the one page with all hats on have a sub-folder, call it in-stock say and use a page in this folder for each style of hat you have available, so for skull caps call the page skull-cap.htm (use a "-" rather than a space).
Optimise the title, page headers, meta description, meta keywords and the copy to suit
for example.
title:
<title>Wool Skull Caps - Skull Caps in (add two or three materials)</title>
header:
<h1>Woolen and (one other material) Skull Caps</h1>
Meta desc:
<meta name="description" content="Skull caps hand spun in Wool, Mohair, Linen and Hemp from HandSpunHats">
Meta KW:
<meta name="keywords" content="skull caps hand spun wool woolen mohair linen hemp">
repeat the above for each style
In the in-stock folder create a index.htm file and create some navigation that links to all the pages that are in the folder with appropriate anchor text. put your main site navigation on it and some body text, use something like your home page copy on how the hats are created, and link the folder into your main navigation. Do not link to "/in-stock/index.htm" use href="/in-stock/" instead. The idea here is this becomes the "site-map" for your instock items, only now it's just become a shopping cart where each page can be crawled and ranked on it's own merit, and visitors from SE results will land on a page relevant to their query and where they can buy the item they found without having to think about it
now you need to edit your page links and instead of going to the one in stock page you point the to the appropriate page with only a few hats on.
When you have moved all your instock items take everything off the instock page and just have a "this page has moved to" link pointing to the in-stock folder, remove it from the site navigation to leave it "orphaned". eventually it can be deleted.
here endeth the first lesson
Chris.
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
<a name="hat_49"></a>
and place this in the bottom of the cell above the hat it is marking.
Then link to it with
<a href="hats in stock#hat_49">Anchor text</a>
While you are changing this, change the anchor text from "Hats Now in Stock" to a short phrase that includes the keywords for the hat, so hat #49 and #50 the text would be "Wool Skull Cap"
----------------------------------------------
Also at this point you could actually start to build and structure your site in a way it begins to be optimised.
Instead of linking to the one page with all hats on have a sub-folder, call it in-stock say and use a page in this folder for each style of hat you have available, so for skull caps call the page skull-cap.htm (use a "-" rather than a space).
Optimise the title, page headers, meta description, meta keywords and the copy to suit
for example.
title:
<title>Wool Skull Caps - Skull Caps in (add two or three materials)</title>
header:
<h1>Woolen and (one other material) Skull Caps</h1>
Meta desc:
<meta name="description" content="Skull caps hand spun in Wool, Mohair, Linen and Hemp from HandSpunHats">
Meta KW:
<meta name="keywords" content="skull caps hand spun wool woolen mohair linen hemp">
repeat the above for each style
In the in-stock folder create a index.htm file and create some navigation that links to all the pages that are in the folder with appropriate anchor text. put your main site navigation on it and some body text, use something like your home page copy on how the hats are created, and link the folder into your main navigation. Do not link to "/in-stock/index.htm" use href="/in-stock/" instead. The idea here is this becomes the "site-map" for your instock items, only now it's just become a shopping cart where each page can be crawled and ranked on it's own merit, and visitors from SE results will land on a page relevant to their query and where they can buy the item they found without having to think about it
now you need to edit your page links and instead of going to the one in stock page you point the to the appropriate page with only a few hats on.
When you have moved all your instock items take everything off the instock page and just have a "this page has moved to" link pointing to the in-stock folder, remove it from the site navigation to leave it "orphaned". eventually it can be deleted.
here endeth the first lesson
Chris.
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
-
1
- #14
Then, and ONLY then, have a nice cup of tea. ;-)
Good advice there.
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
Good advice there.
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
- Thread starter
- #15
Wowsa, oboy, now I've got my work cut out for me! Thank you so much, Chris. It's going to take some time for me to figure all that out, but I get the basic idea. Fortunately I have a nice housemate who is studying all this stuff at UC. He's a great fan of CSS and is presently working on how to make a template. He thinks Zen Garden is "beautiful" I expect he could probably translate some of those instructions.
Thank you also Foamcow. I think I'm going to need several cups of tea just to get started!
Time now for some 'hands on' work - like make product and go out and sell it on The Ave. Hopefully all this website work will eventually make it less necessary to do the going out and selling part.![[thumbsup2]](/data/assets/smilies/thumbsup2.gif "[thumbsup2] [thumbsup2]")
Thank you also Foamcow. I think I'm going to need several cups of tea just to get started!
Time now for some 'hands on' work - like make product and go out and sell it on The Ave. Hopefully all this website work will eventually make it less necessary to do the going out and selling part.
- Thread starter
- #16
I've been trying to get FrontPage to publish to my website all day and it's totally screwed up. The tech support at my webhosting service doesn't respond. That's Successful Hosting, BTW - supposed to offer tech support 24/7 and I've been unable to reach them all day by phone, email or chat.
I suspect that taking the spaces out of the files may have caused a link problem, but I can't seem to fix it. I've even re-installed FrontPage. I've downloaded the online version to my computer, reloaded the missing images, gone over all the hyperlinks but the changes don't publish. It's a total mess. Half of the images on the index page aren't showing, plus you can't navigate from there to half of the other pages, but if you navigate from the working pages, then the index page looks normal.![[sadeyes]](/data/assets/smilies/sadeyes.gif "[sadeyes] [sadeyes]")
I suspect that taking the spaces out of the files may have caused a link problem, but I can't seem to fix it. I've even re-installed FrontPage. I've downloaded the online version to my computer, reloaded the missing images, gone over all the hyperlinks but the changes don't publish. It's a total mess. Half of the images on the index page aren't showing, plus you can't navigate from there to half of the other pages, but if you navigate from the working pages, then the index page looks normal.
- Thread starter
- #17
![[glasses]](/data/assets/smilies/glasses.gif "[glasses] [glasses]")
Although I am an (over)opinionated advocate of CSS and Web Standards, I would say that you would probably be better off sticking to a table based layout for now.
Use CSS for styling text etc, but don't go down the CSS layout route just yet. The stuff on Zen Garden is advanced CSS (and some of it is not particularly good use of CSS imho). Wow, I never thought I would ever "diss" Zen Garden!
You would also do yourself alot of favours in abandoning Frontpage and learning some basic HTML coding. Then use an FTP program to upload your pages.
You will find that the fact you are getting below the surface means that you have a much better understanding of where things are and what they are doing.
If you can stomach the cost, get a copy of Dreamweaver or something similar which will ease the transition between WYSIWYG editing and "proper" coding.
It's really not anywhere near as hard as people think to hand code good HTML.
If you don't want to go anywhere near the handcoding then perhaps take a look at Macromedia Contribute. If you can get someone to build the page templates for you (your housemate?) you can use Contribute to edit them in a simple to use WYSIWYG environment. Contribute uses technology from Dreamweaver and produces MUCH better code than Frontpage ever will.
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
Use CSS for styling text etc, but don't go down the CSS layout route just yet. The stuff on Zen Garden is advanced CSS (and some of it is not particularly good use of CSS imho). Wow, I never thought I would ever "diss" Zen Garden!
You would also do yourself alot of favours in abandoning Frontpage and learning some basic HTML coding. Then use an FTP program to upload your pages.
You will find that the fact you are getting below the surface means that you have a much better understanding of where things are and what they are doing.
If you can stomach the cost, get a copy of Dreamweaver or something similar which will ease the transition between WYSIWYG editing and "proper" coding.
It's really not anywhere near as hard as people think to hand code good HTML.
If you don't want to go anywhere near the handcoding then perhaps take a look at Macromedia Contribute. If you can get someone to build the page templates for you (your housemate?) you can use Contribute to edit them in a simple to use WYSIWYG environment. Contribute uses technology from Dreamweaver and produces MUCH better code than Frontpage ever will.
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
- Thread starter
- #19
Thanks. I agree I might should stick to the table based layout, though I'd like to try some of Chris' suggestions.
FrontPage has really got me peeved. You would not believe the load of garbage that had got onto the server. As soon as I edited the bad index page, that seemed to open up a way for all the garbage to show up in the list of files on my computer. There were files I had never heard of, files I had deleted months ago, and three index pages, including the one from the webhost when I first signed up four years ago. Incredible. Looked like somebody had hacked in and had a party.
I think the reason I was having the publishing problem was that the site was overlimit in size because of the garbage, but they usually email me when there's a problem like that. I still haven't got a reply to any of my emails to them.
I work on another site that used to use Dreamweaver before I got involved. They hated it and switched to FrontPage, but I'll get some other opinions. FTP might also be a good option, so at least I'll know that I'm publishing accurately.
FrontPage has really got me peeved. You would not believe the load of garbage that had got onto the server. As soon as I edited the bad index page, that seemed to open up a way for all the garbage to show up in the list of files on my computer. There were files I had never heard of, files I had deleted months ago, and three index pages, including the one from the webhost when I first signed up four years ago. Incredible. Looked like somebody had hacked in and had a party.
I think the reason I was having the publishing problem was that the site was overlimit in size because of the garbage, but they usually email me when there's a problem like that. I still haven't got a reply to any of my emails to them.
I work on another site that used to use Dreamweaver before I got involved. They hated it and switched to FrontPage, but I'll get some other opinions. FTP might also be a good option, so at least I'll know that I'm publishing accurately.
Frontpage is a diabolical mess.
Well, to be fair, it's an amatuers tool.
You are selling things from your site. You need something serious.
Anyway back to SEO.
This does relate to SEO in a way since good code is easier to spider.
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
Well, to be fair, it's an amatuers tool.
You are selling things from your site. You need something serious.
Anyway back to SEO.
This does relate to SEO in a way since good code is easier to spider.
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
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