SEO.... It works!!

[ChristopherCoy]

OH HOLY HELL!!!! I went 'live' with my new website - The Modern Mutt - on April 9th I believe. According to websitegrader.com, at the time of lauch it had a score of 23, and on woorank it had a score of 19. Within two weeks those scores were raised to 33 on websitegrader, and 28 on woorank. Today woorank is showing a slight increase to a 32.8, and wesbsitegrader is showing me at a 71!!!

In addition, of the 2.3 million websites that have been graded on websitegrader.com, originally I was in the 2.1 million rank range. As of this morning, it is showing me around 700,000. So I'm moving up slowly but surely!

Now there is a very big gap in the websitegrader and woorank scores, but I can say that websitegrader.com has been recommended by multiple SEO companies and experts that I've spoke with. I'm hesitant to rely on woorank all that much, just because it seems like it bases it's score on very minute things instead of the overall site. But either way, the improvement is there. And in only 1 month!!!

[Flea77]

That's great! Just keep a few things in mind....

1) Website grading is a great start, just remember that search results for your keywords in your area matter much more.
2) SEO is not a one time thing, it is a continuous job.
3) Also important is how your competition (especially those that show up in results before yours) rank as this will give you an idea of who will rise and who will fall now that you are there.

Hope this helps,

Allan

[ChristopherCoy]

I search keywords like dallas, pets, photography, fort worth etc. periodically. When I first started I was nowhere to be found. Lately, depending on the keywords, I've been showing up on the first to third pages of a google search. And I agree about the continuous job, its almost like an ongoing game.

ETA: I also watch my google analytics very closely... I think that has helped me the most.

[srwatters]

The only measure of success that really counts is contacts from new potential clients. SEO tools can give you bragging rights, but to quote Cuba Gooding Jr... "Show me the money!" Of course YMMV.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by srwatters

The only measure of success that really counts is contacts from new potential clients. SEO tools can give you bragging rights, but to quote Cuba Gooding Jr... "Show me the money!" Of course YMMV.

Agreed... but good search results is the key to showing you the money... LOL

[JohnT]

Not trying to "rain on your parade," but I think what Scott is saying is that SE ranking doesn't matter if it doesn't result in an increase in sales. However, this is a great start! Keep us posted.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by JohnT

Not trying to "rain on your parade," but I think what Scott is saying is that SE ranking doesn't matter if it doesn't result in an increase in sales. However, this is a great start! Keep us posted.

True... but hopefully this will help the increase.

[Flea77]

One other thing I might point out is that those minute details on woorank can be important as they rely a lot on how search engines perceive your website. For example (and only one example), the W3C markup validation can make it hard for some engines to read your code, and you could be penalized for that.

Just a thought,

Allan

[ChristopherCoy]

Wasn't W3C a robot on star wars? LOL

What the heck is W3C and how do you fix it?

[Concisus Cognatus]

Congrats on the good rankings. Hopefully this will translate into good exposure which then translates into increased traffic leading to more sales, etc.

[Flea77]

Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy

Wasn't W3C a robot on star wars? LOL

What the heck is W3C and how do you fix it?

No, that was C3PO :-)

W3C is basically (and I mean very loosely) the group who says what is, and what is not, valid HTML. Running your page it shows there are 19 errors in your code, and 3 warnings.

To fix it, on your woorank results click the plus next to W3C validity, then click on W3C validation service, that will take you to a page that lists each problem.

Note also that it does not show that you are using flash, and gives you points for not having flash, which since you have a landing page you need to subtract points manually which means your score is actually lower than you think.

Lastly, the hidden text on your landing page can actually come back to bite you when search engines figure it out, then subtract points for it.

SEO is not for the feint of heart

Allan

[ChristopherCoy]

I dont have hidden text on my landing page. Where'd you find that?

And I'm being serious too! I didn't know about hidden text, unless it was built into the template.

[Flea77]

OK, maybe hidden was the wrong word, below the margin? There is a huge white space between your Enter{Site} stuff and your "Pet Photography | Dog ..." stuff, such a large amount of white space can be seen as trying to "hide" it below the bottom of the browser window because most people will never scroll down and see it. Some search engines are very anal about wanting to see all the text the user sees, and NOTHING else. If they think it is there just for the search engines, they can penalize you.

Of course the same idea may hold true with flash, by using a landing page with no flash, they may think you are just hiding the flash from the search engines. This is just speculation on my part but from what I have seen it is a logical assumption especially given the above is true and well documented.

Allan

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by Flea77

OK, maybe hidden was the wrong word, below the margin? There is a huge white space between your Enter{Site} stuff and your "Pet Photography | Dog ..." stuff, such a large amount of white space can be seen as trying to "hide" it below the bottom of the browser window because most people will never scroll down and see it.

I noticed that too, but it wasn't done on purpose. I have an html section built into my splash page template. I put one </br> at the top to seperate the buttons from the text. If you look at it on a normal square monitor it shows up. But if you look at it on a wide screen, it doesn't.

I used to have that text colored white in order to hide it... until I discovered that you could actually be penalized by search engines for doing that. So I changed it to a normal color. The only reason for the </br> is so that it doesn't crowd the buttons. It was purely asthetics.

[rages4calm]

Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy

Wasn't W3C a robot on star wars? LOL

What the heck is W3C and how do you fix it?

WC3 has become one of the more important things these days when designing a compliant website.

Like alot of people are saying it is good that you are doing well on the SEO side of things but at the same time the clientele is what your looking for.

When I use to work for A&M University as the Web Master one of the biggest things was ADA and WC3 Compliant Designs/Content of the website. It is important that people of all sorts can find and navigate the website without a struggle.

This is a great place to start for checking compliancy/valdiation
WC3
The W3C Markup Validation Service

CSS
The W3C CSS Validation Service


Enjoy