How Do You Get Your Website On Search Engines?

[markyb 0]

Hi guys,

 

Last month I put together a website, however although it has been online for a month, search engines do not seem to find it. I had the site designed professionally, including some basic search engine optimisation, however even when I type the full name into search engines I get no returns.

 

Ive hear you need to "wait" until Google web spiders come across the site, and I've also heard that if you link from other sites this enhances your chances of getting on search engines.

 

So, my question is does anyone have any practical advice for anything else I can do? The person who designed the site said they can add some more search engine optimsation for a cost, but I would rather not spend anything else until I start doing some bookings!

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Mark

Edited April 8, 2010 by markyb

[Robster 0]

It does take time , have you submitted your site to google directly?

 

http://www.google.co.uk/addurl/

 

i submitted every page of my site took three weeks to show properly on goggle but i believe it can take longer

 

as always Jason is a genius in these matters

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vokf 0]

One thing you can do, is to get your website reviewed in the forum. Click for details;

http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=26041

 

Once this is done;

a) you'll get constructive feedback that you can ignore or use to tweak your site. Not much point being top of google is the site is badly presented (poor spelling, etc)

b) you can then link to the forum from your site, and then add a signature link.

 

Each post you make will contact a link to your site, and this forum is crawled by google very frequently, and so your site will have more inbound links.

 

What else...

Google Local - Submit your business details (including telephone, email and www address). Its free and easy, and the results often appear at the top of a Google Search.

 

Link swap with other DJ's - when my new site is up, I'll be linking to Robster, Dukesey and others who don't really cover my area.

 

 

Give Google Content to read. Pictures are good for humans, but Google would prefer text. If your site is flash based, you will need to think about text content.

If you're using modern CSS tricks, you should be fine though.

Make page titles relevent to the content on that page, set a page description- this is what searchers will see, if you don't have a page description, google will try to provide one from the page content, which is not normally good enough..

 

SEO is not something I specialise in, and there are lots of companies willing to take £££ for this type of work.

Most of the above will help, and if you have good, readable content (ie venues worked with descriptions etc) then you'll have a better chance than a pretty site with no real content.

 

Cheers,

Jas

 

[markyb 0]

Hi Jas,

 

Many thanks for the advice - really useful! Im just dashing out now (and will be away for a few days on my brother in laws stag weekend), but will follow some of your suggestions when I get back.

 

In the mean time, I followed your link to submit my website, but the forum was locked? In case I can do it here, my site is www.celebrationsounds.co.uk. To be honest, I was amazed that the domain name was not already taken!

 

If anyone has any advice on how to improve this site, please let me know. I have 3 bookings now for May, where I hope to get some photos for the gallery. I will also put a photo on the home page.

 

I was thinking I would like to add a page for testimonials when I have done a few bookings, is there anything else I could do to improve the site? I didnt design it myself, but I could probably get the person who designed it for me to make a few slight changes etc if neccesary.

 

If this post needs to be moved to another section, please feel free to move it if required.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Mark

[Robster 0]

I am no expert at all but i might be right in that if you name your pages to do with the content that helps

 

for example my site has

 

http://www.robstar.co.uk/

http://www.robstar.co.uk/mobile-disco/karaoke

http://www.robstar.co.uk/mobile-disco/karaoke/where-we-go

all the way to ....... http://www.robstar.co.uk/mobile-disco/kara...onditions/links

 

so if the page title has mobile disco in the title and then in your content it has stuff and keywords mobile disco etc this all seems to help google when it crawls your site but i may be wrong.

 

I also believe google doesnt look so much at metatags any more but again i maybe wrong.

 

every forum i am a member that allows signatures i post my website link

I hve joined as many free directories i can and i have a links page

 

I believe this has helped my ranking

 

but i am a complete novice and i am just guessing that this helps

 

[vokf 0]

Hi Mark,

have a good one!

 

I'll post a "review request" after the weekend. In the meantime, remember the gaffa tape and cling-film :devil:

 

Cheers,

Jason

[AlexEntertainment 0]

Hi Mark,

 

Some excellent suggestions from the other guys :)

 

Here is some tips from me... that I've found Extremely helpful...

 

Google recently updated their search engine and now ignore "Meta Keywords" to some degree.... they now focus on CONTENT and it's relevance to the SEARCH QUERY.

 

I've found a good equation is :

 

C + (PT+PD) + UA = HGR

 

C = Content

PT = Page title

PD = Page Description

UA = URL Address ( ie, alexentertainment.co.uk/blog or alexentertainment.co.uk/wedding)

 

 

If you have access to your pages, it's worth having a look at the page titles and tailoring them to your local area... for example "Mobile Disco Portsmouth - Birthday Party" and "Mobile Disco Portsmouth - Weddings"

 

Then use your page description to get certain keywords for your site in there... : " Mobile Disco and DJ Services covering Portsmouth. Book now for your birthday, wedding ...etc...."

 

In your content, try and get certain keywords in your articles/pages as often as possible WITHOUT over doing it! Google will penalise you for over doing it!

 

-------------------

 

Some other tips :

 

1) Google Maps - Create a google map listing for the areas you cover. You can have multiple listings as long as they are in different areas. You can assign certain keywords to EACH listing (Max 5 per listing)

 

2) Linking - Linking is a good thing, however again, Don't over do it! It goes back to the relevance of the link.

Having a link from a cake shop website will not help you, having a link from another DJ will help you. A link from a venue will help you.

Avoid OVER linking as this can be deemed as a bad thing.... signatures in forums are usually only counted a few times by google (since their engine updates) so don't worry there :)

 

3) SIGN UP FOR GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS and SUBMIT A SITEMAP!

Sign up for webmaster tools via the google website, and then set up your site... they offer tutorials on how to use their services.

 

Google will need to navigate your site when it's listing it, you can help them out by giving them a site map.

You can create a sitemap for free here : http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

Once created upload it to you site... then go back to your webmaster page in google... and inform them where they can find it!

This will massively speed up your listing.

 

4) Pictures - Google can't see a picture, it can only read the "ALT" or "INFO" tag assigned to the image. This means editing the HTML of the site directly. If you can change the Alt Descriptions on your pictures, this will help!!!!

 

FINAL TIP - Register another domain.... some people wont agree with me on this but I've found it helps.

Create a near clone of your site on another domain... and then tweak the pages to cover other keywords

But remember the equation :

 

C + (PT+PD) + UA = HGR

 

I sincerely hope that helps.... so sorry for such a long post!

 

Like I said, some people may not agree with some of the techniques I use and advise, but I find they work :)

 

ALSO.... FINAL THING.... Guys and Girls google will be updating they way they index again in September! I'll post more info about this a bit later on, and I'll show you how to use their new system.....

 

[DJMickeyk 0]

Hi guys, Mark sorry for hijacking your thread but would you guys mind reviewing my site too, it's

 

http://www.dingledjs.com/

 

I did it myself using weebly, I was going to use joomla but found it a bit overcomplicated for me. I also find that link is broken. I haven't really finished and used pics from the net as I haven't gotten into the habit of taking snaps at gigs but I will replace them as I go (and I know the DJ Hero header will have to be changed I am just waiting to get the right pic, actually think it looks ok though). Any feedback, whoever brutal is welcome, this is really wedding focused and will be approaching the hotels I play at to link shortly, as soon as it is finished. Thanks in advance

[vokf 0]

Guys - please READ THE PROCEDURE at;

http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=26041

 

If you are unable to PM due to low number of posts, please contine to contribute until your post level has increased.

 

Thanks,

Jason

[DJMickeyk 0]

Apologies

 

PM sent

[kenny wisdom 0]

MarkyB - a very small point to add - when you get a sec, one small spelling amendment to make in FAQ:

 

"Will your lights dazzle the guests?

 

Not at all – we use sophisticated, controlled lighting to suite the occasion."

 

Change Suite, to "suit"!

 

Otherwise I thought it a very clean and tidy site.