Not being found on search engines

[kpoyser]

I am new to SEO and I am trying to learn. I had someone create my website and after researching SEO and not finding my site on any search engine explains why I am just getting repeat business.

Can you please look at my site and see what I can do to show up on the first 2 or 3 pages of google, yahoo etc.

www.announcementshop.com/

I just discovered I have no meta tags in place. Is this to be done for each and every product?? And is the description each product description that is listed under each item?

Sorry, I know these questions sound stupid to some of you.

Thank you so much!!

[d_host]

Re: Not being found on search engines

You don't need meta tags as much - most search engines pay little to no attention to them anymore. You do need CONTENT that can be indexed, though. Your site suffers from complete lack of it - there's hardly any text whatsoever, which is what normally gets indexed (human readable text descriptions). Even your individual product pages only have the product image with attributes one can select, with no text at all.

If you want your site indexed - you need more than just images on every single page. Add some text, write-ups, product descriptions, etc - anything that can be indexed - then submit your site to the popular search engines for re-spidering.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: Not being found on search engines

What Remik said...and...you especially need content on the Home page. At the very least, your images need 'ALT=""' tags so SE have an idea of what the links are.

Personally I'd ditch the large rotating images in the frame...its a bit amaturish what with the gilded frame and all...and it leaves the importent links "below the fold". At the very least, make it smaller.

[kpoyser]

Re: Not being found on search engines

Thank you both for your input! I am new to all of this and I am trying to do whatever I can to help my site. Like, the content thing... I had no idea. So I will take your responses and add content and make the frame smaller maybe even loose the frame all together.

The content on the home page; should it just be general information about the product??

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: Not being found on search engines

The content of the home page should be an introduction to your business with a secondary emphasis on the general nature of your products. You many also want to highlight specific products, especially those sought out by customers using search.

[HighRank]

Re: Not being found on search engines

There are many other items that are either broken, irrelevant or missing.

For example: the product pages have "Announcement Shop: Customer Create" as title. You also do not have Google Analytics configured on the site. This tool will help you to get a vast report on your site statistics and the taste of your customers.

Compare your site with your competitors in terms of SEO, features, functionalities, etc. For example see : www.hallmark.com

There are many other things that are missing in terms of Search Engine Optimization.

[eMediaSales]

Re: Not being found on search engines

Hi Kristen,

First, I'd like to say I do like the design. It's nice, clean, friendly and warm and - inviting. But it's not quite done yet. If you don't mind a few constructive criticisms let me point out some flow and content issues, then as you resolve these (and address some of the SEO items), I believe your traffic - and more importantly - your conversions will increase.

First of all - you need to tell me your story. On your HOME page. You're not Hallmark - don't try to be. You can search engine optimize like Hallmark, but the beginning of the story you have at blogspot tells your passion. If I feel that passion the minute I step virtual foot in your shop, I'm going to want to buy from you instead of Hallmark.

Kristen says:

I have always had a passion for anything that is made with paper. Rather it was cards or scrapbooking I love paper! I also love photograpghy. So I put my 2 loves together and created the Announcement Shop. I have an amazing husband of 7 years and two beautiful and healthy boys. Life is good! On top of all that goodness I am blessed with an amazing family and friends. I thank God every day for all that I have been given!

Follow this up with a little more of why you put your heart, mind and soul into this venture, ie: "This little online store represents the culmination years of working to create a story about everything I love - family, holidays, weddings, babies! So please browse our selection of Wedding cards, Save the Date cards, ..... [etc]". This content makes your site personal AND it gets indexed and cataloged by the search engines. Once the content is there THEN the SEO work can begin.

So here are some tips:

1. You have a coding issue somewhere, and it will definitely HURT your rankings. This page has duplicate HTML and HEAD tags. Actually I think you have 3 or 4 HTML/HEAD/BODY tags, you've probably used them throughout each section which isn't right in Miva Merchant - each section gets compiled into one big page which should only have one HEAD and one BODY:
   http://www.announcementshop.com/mm5/...gory_Code=WPCB
2. Ditch the category entry pages with "circles" - and drive DIRECT to category pages with product in them. This page has no purpose but to introduce extra clicks and dilute your site:
   http://www.announcementshop.com/mm5/...egory_Code=WPC.
   Where as THIS page looks GREAT, every page on your site should be like this (except maybe the home page which is similar but tells your story too):
   http://www.announcementshop.com/mm5/...ry_Code=WPCSTD
3. Use category headers to describe the product you're showcasing in a particular category. This content is usually up towards the top of a page and helps the search engines understand what the page is about.
4. Turn on and use the Miva Merchant SEO features. Short links, customize your page titles, customize your meta tags.
5. Make your category CODES and product CODES more descriptive. Once you turn on short-linking URLs you'll see why. They'll become the URLs to your categories and products, and URLs are extremely important in SEO.
6. Get wordpress installed locally on your server, blog there. Match the look and feel of your blog to Miva Merchant (see the example on our site) and it will all feel like one website. Then hook up your blog engine to Twitter. Leslie (our web production manager) is magic with this stuff, I honestly don't know how she does it or keeps on top of twitter, but hopefully she'll chime in here to help out. If you don't want to do it all yourself, we can help!
7. Finally - and maybe this should have been first - "Announcement Shop" as the URL is great, but I'd love to see "Kristen'" pasted into the logo so it's "Kristen's Announcement Shop".

I hope the tips get you pointed in the right direction. If you need some help along the way, please reach out to Leslie, Ben, myself or Abe at eMediaSales.

ps: please remove the music loop or give me a mute button. :)

[Biffy]

Re: Not being found on search engines

Can anybody suggest me on how to efficiently put keywords in the articles? I know that if the keywords are properly put in the page, the ranking in the search engines go up. But how do you know that the keyword is correct and would help in the rating of the site?

First, you have to do keyword research. Then you use those keywords for everything. They are the essential foundation of good SEM. Then you track the keyword metrics and revise them where needed.

It's an extensive subject with a lot of important details. There's also a lot of misleading and false information available on the subject. Only through empirical testing and real case studies can one develop a feel for SEM. I am not aware of any reference materials that come close to predicting the real-world results we see and most don't include the processes and practices where one obtains good results. In fact, I get the idea that a lot of SEO/SEM authors have never made a living doing what they write about.

So, start with keyword research then select the keyword you want to target for each page on the site. Create pages where good keywords don't already have a place. Deciding on a good keyword is a subject all its own and is a bit more complex than one might imagine.

Taking care of all these onsite factors (SEO) is just the start. You still have to do the marketing or you have nothing but a bunch of carefully crafted (and expensive) files sitting on a server that no one ever sees or links to. Even though SEO is a ridiculous amount of work, it only prepares your site for the marketing part, which is where tangible results are finally obtained.

[dcard]

Re: Not being found on search engines

As a general rule, keywords are typically placed within some or all of the following:

The Content Of The Page
Title Tags
Description Tags
Keyword Tags
Heading Tags
Navigational Structure
Link Text
Anchor Text
Alt Text
Site Maps
Domain Names
Page Names

[surveillanceguy]

Re: Not being found on search engines

I notice I can add meta tags and keywords in the products ,but as far as storefront there not really any thing to add discription or key words ,what the best way to do this ,,should I just add to the htlm instead to get it noticed better ,or do I have something set wrong

[Leanne]

Re: Not being found on search engines

You can add meta tags directly into the storefront page. Just go to Pages > SFNT and put them between the <head> and </head> tags.

[surveillanceguy]

Re: Not being found on search engines

I finall added mega tags and key phrases in ythe store front and now I finally getting about 100 key phrases on the first page of google ,but before it alway said there was no key words or mega tags ,also using a site map has helped a bunch too,but bre sure your tags match something of importance that some one would search for on your page too ,I been told a lot but have had to find out by trial and error ,expecially since the store front doesn't seenm to have a place for description or keywords

[Pete McNamara]

Re: Not being found on search engines

since the store front doesn't seenm to have a place for description or keywords

Leanne explained how to to do this but I'll expand on her explanation.

For the Storefront page (and custom pages) you need to create the actual meta description and keywords tags and then copy them into the SFNT page template, between the <head> and </head> tags.

Do you see the Title for the SFNT page template? If so, insert your meta description and keywords tags underneath the Title. If not, let us know.

[surveillanceguy]

Re: Not being found on search engines

Thats what I ended up doing ,figured it was about all I could do compaired to like the products and catagories ,sort of like a regular ole web site set up for that one ,but works good I hope ,and hoping some new one way back links I got will help too plus we made a few videos and going to try to get merchant tuts to make some tutorials on some equipment install tips too hoping that all helps
Thanks

[Dan - Glendale Designs]

Re: Not being found on search engines

This question pops up a lot, so we have implemented a new tutorial, via our blog, that covers this topic: Content Page Title & Meta Tags

Hopefully it helps someone out in the future.