Better placement on Google
What can I do to get better placement on Google. I have good rankings on Yahoo, MSN, Altavista etc and most of my visitors come from those engines but Google doesnt seem to be doing much - or am I still in the sandbox a bit.
The main area is Ireland, not too bothered about other countries.
www.eatdrinkandsleep.com
The main area is Ireland, not too bothered about other countries.
www.eatdrinkandsleep.com
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"I didnt know about the offplaninvest.com being the same, so I'll have it removed."
You don't necessarily have to remove it. I just point it out because the fact that it has the same C class IP means the link will probably be devalued by Google. If it's a legitimate link (rather than part of some cross-linking scheme), there's nothing to be lost by leaving it in place.
"I had only just changed the alt tags of the home page links as you described thinking this was better, will have to rethink that one."
Alt tag content is relevant, but the thing to remember is that the content should be (or more importantly - appear to be) naturally occuring. Repetition of the same set of keywords can certainly appear to be keyword stuffing. Also, alt tag content isn't as relevant as title, header, and body content - ie. a keyword in a page title or <h1> header is worth far more than a keyword in an alt tag.
"As for targetted keywords, things like 'hotels in dublin' I know I have no chance of getting high rankings due to the amount people spend to be at the top of the engines and its too generic a term."
That makes sense. Competing for search engine position with very competitive keywords is difficult. In one sense, you are limited because you need to target keywords that accurately reflect the content and function of your site even if they are competitive. In such a situation it makes optimizing your internal pages for more specific keywords all the more important. At the same time, the keyword selection methods that are linked to above both lend themselves very well to selecting keywords that reflect your specific niche and as such can assist in selecting legitimate, but less competitive, keywords.
"I keep trying using divs but it keeps going all to pot :o)"
I can relate to that :) Unlearning and relearning something so fundamental is a real pain and who has the time anyway? There are many good design reasons for doing so and also some real SEO benefits, but realistically you can accomplish more with less work by focusing on the other elements discussed. It is still a good idea to learn CSS at whatever rate your schedule allows and, when you start to see the benefits first hand, you will be motivated and ready to think about a redesign of your existing sites.
You don't necessarily have to remove it. I just point it out because the fact that it has the same C class IP means the link will probably be devalued by Google. If it's a legitimate link (rather than part of some cross-linking scheme), there's nothing to be lost by leaving it in place.
"I had only just changed the alt tags of the home page links as you described thinking this was better, will have to rethink that one."
Alt tag content is relevant, but the thing to remember is that the content should be (or more importantly - appear to be) naturally occuring. Repetition of the same set of keywords can certainly appear to be keyword stuffing. Also, alt tag content isn't as relevant as title, header, and body content - ie. a keyword in a page title or <h1> header is worth far more than a keyword in an alt tag.
"As for targetted keywords, things like 'hotels in dublin' I know I have no chance of getting high rankings due to the amount people spend to be at the top of the engines and its too generic a term."
That makes sense. Competing for search engine position with very competitive keywords is difficult. In one sense, you are limited because you need to target keywords that accurately reflect the content and function of your site even if they are competitive. In such a situation it makes optimizing your internal pages for more specific keywords all the more important. At the same time, the keyword selection methods that are linked to above both lend themselves very well to selecting keywords that reflect your specific niche and as such can assist in selecting legitimate, but less competitive, keywords.
"I keep trying using divs but it keeps going all to pot :o)"
I can relate to that :) Unlearning and relearning something so fundamental is a real pain and who has the time anyway? There are many good design reasons for doing so and also some real SEO benefits, but realistically you can accomplish more with less work by focusing on the other elements discussed. It is still a good idea to learn CSS at whatever rate your schedule allows and, when you start to see the benefits first hand, you will be motivated and ready to think about a redesign of your existing sites.
ASKER
It gets worse with Google, the PR has dropped to 2 :-/
Have a look at http://www.eatdrinkandsleep.com/Dublin/index.html if I do something like that for the index page as well but about Ireland and ditto for the other counties will that help.
I will have another attempt at using divs, have already played around and moved all the stuff at the top to the bottom of the page. For some reason NS totally screws it up. If you look at the source you'll see the first thing that comes up is the actual blurb about Dublin. Good?
Have a look at http://www.eatdrinkandsleep.com/Dublin/index.html if I do something like that for the index page as well but about Ireland and ditto for the other counties will that help.
I will have another attempt at using divs, have already played around and moved all the stuff at the top to the bottom of the page. For some reason NS totally screws it up. If you look at the source you'll see the first thing that comes up is the actual blurb about Dublin. Good?
"If you look at the source you'll see the first thing that comes up is the actual blurb about Dublin. Good?"
A positive step. What keywords are you hoping to optimize this page for? You can check keyword density for any given page with this handy tool - www.webmaster-toolkit.com/keyword-analysis-tool.shtml.
"For some reason NS totally screws it up."
Sadly, it doesn't render properly in Firefox. Cross-browser compatibility can be tricky. BTW - one of the best resources I know of for learning CSS is the tutorial at www.w3schools.com/css. Ultimately, though, the best way to learn is over time and through experience.
A positive step. What keywords are you hoping to optimize this page for? You can check keyword density for any given page with this handy tool - www.webmaster-toolkit.com/keyword-analysis-tool.shtml.
"For some reason NS totally screws it up."
Sadly, it doesn't render properly in Firefox. Cross-browser compatibility can be tricky. BTW - one of the best resources I know of for learning CSS is the tutorial at www.w3schools.com/css. Ultimately, though, the best way to learn is over time and through experience.
ASKER
Thanks for the excellent response.
The site has been live for just about a year now.
I didnt know about the offplaninvest.com being the same, so I'll have it removed.
I will look at getting the anchor text and keywords of the inbound links changed to something more random. I was planning on getting these to target through to Ireland anyway - so kill two birds with one stone
I had only just changed the alt tags of the home page links as you described thinking this was better, will have to rethink that one.
As for targetted keywords, things like 'hotels in dublin' I know I have no chance of getting high rankings due to the amount people spend to be at the top of the engines and its too generic a term. I'm happy with getting visitors searching for actual hotel, restaurant etc names, or for places not quite so well known.
I was going to make the home page Irish specific, and in fact I'm in the middle of writing a page of blurb for the home page with the idea that I target specific areas as hyperlinks within the text, e.g. the Irish capital is Dublin, which is .... and make Dublin an hyperlink to the Dublin specific content.
I keep trying using divs but it keeps going all to pot :o)