Keyword 'website' - does Goggle ignore?

[Web-Design-Guy]

Seeking SEOs opinions...

1) I believe my homepage is quite well optimized for my three main service areas - two of my target keyphrases rank top of P1 but my third targeted keyphrase 'website design perth' is P2/P3 (google.com.au)

2) However I rank fifth on P1 for more generic 'design perth'

3) Webmaster Tools > What googlebot sees > lists 100 words from my site's content and 'website' is not in the list, despite being used quite a lot on the homepage and throughout the site (and more than many of the words in the list)

4) The keyword 'website' is #1 in the list of external links to my site (keywords) and 'website design perth' is the third (keyphrase)

Is Google somehow ignoring the word 'website' - perhaps because it's used 'out-of-context' on many sites eg: 'welcome to my website....', 'this website is about....' and so on?

Would I be better off refining to focus on 'web design perth' as a target keyphrase?

Any thoughts / tips would be much appreciated.

[Webnauts]

1. You pages are pretty well optimized but not what I would call 100%.
2. Google indexed 50 pages, but only 17 are in the main index and 33 are in the supplemental. More about that: Boost your rankings with Pagerank Sculpting
3. If you are primarly operating locally, the keyphrase web design perth would be the best to focus on.

Good luck.

[Web-Design-Guy]

Thanks Webnauts. Just re-read that article and I'll work through the 'common causes.'

I'm interested to know how/where I can see the 17/33 split.

[Webnauts]

If you search with google: site:igenerator.com.au you will get all pages indexed (main and supps).

If you search with google: site:igenerator.com.au/* you will get only the pages indexed in their main index.

Good luck,

John

[Web-Design-Guy]

Thanks again,

site:igenerator.com.au - gives me 52 results (all pages indexed)
site:igenerator.com.au/* - gives me 32 results (main index pages)

I suppose the variance must be datacentre related.

BTW - did you have any thoughts on the keyword 'website' or am I barking up the wrong tree (which often happens).

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by Web-Design-Guy

Thanks again,

site:igenerator.com.au - gives me 52 results (all pages indexed)
site:igenerator.com.au/* - gives me 32 results (main index pages)

I suppose the variance must be datacentre related.

You are correct there.

Originally Posted by Web-Design-Guy

BTW - did you have any thoughts on the keyword 'website' or am I barking up the wrong tree (which often happens).

The keyword website is just fine. I told you what to focus on. If you are wondering about the keyword website, have a look at my web site.

[seo4china]

Maybe you have overused "website" in the backlinks anchor text and this has raised red flags with Google.

[ami_iss]

For Keyword [website design perth] Google adwords set for Australian English (if it makes a difference) says there were 720 searches per month on average.
For Keyword [web design perth] there were 2,900 searches.
Not only that, but Google retrieves 787,000 pages for [Website design perth] (many pages, few searches) versus 540,000 for [Web design perth].
Read about Keyword Niche here: Niche
Obviously, more searches and less pages is better.

Catch - what I am getting for [Web design Perth] from Google is a list of local businesses at the top of the page - 10 links with a map of Perth. That comes above all the other listings. You get yourself listed in that for free here:
http://www.google.com/local/add/busi...gl=AU&hl=en-GB

It is probable that that local listing is getting most of the traffic. Advice - Optimize for Web Design Perth. Create a file name called Web_design_perth.htm and appropriate text and then link to it from a lot of pages with keywords or titles "Web Design Perth." It should have about 60-100K of text - the more the better, and get yourself listed in the local business center.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

[dburdon]

WDG,

I don't believe Google is ignoring "website". Rather, that "website" is word so frequently used elsewhere on the web, that you have try harder. I'd also agree with Webnauts remarks regarding web versus website.

[Tony_V]

you might take a look at Igenerator.com.au - I Generator for a bit of a score on your home page. I know it is not the authority, but can help a little.

[Terry Van Horne]

Look up what stop words are in a SE algo? Website was considered a stop word way back when I started now I'm not so sure but wouldn't be surprised to hear they still are. There is also the age old is it website or web site. Also I'd research the activity for web design over website design. Web is also a stop word if memory serves correct. In that case use all liberally with the thought that design is the primary term and web and web site are modifiers.

[Web-Design-Guy]

Originally Posted by seo4china

Maybe you have overused "website" in the backlinks anchor text and this has raised red flags with Google.

I was beginning to think the same but I have used a fair spread 'web design' 'website designer' 'web designer' - as well of course as 'website design'. And I've only really been making a concerted effort over the last 3/4 months, so there would have been quite a noticeable spike in IBLs.

Originally Posted by ami_iss

For Keyword [website design perth] Google adwords set for Australian English (if it makes a difference) says there were 720 searches per month on average.
For Keyword [web design perth] there were 2,900 searches.
Not only that, but Google retrieves 787,000 pages for [Website design perth] (many pages, few searches) versus 540,000 for [Web design perth].
Read about Keyword Niche here: Niche
Obviously, more searches and less pages is better.

Catch - what I am getting for [Web design Perth] from Google is a list of local businesses at the top of the page - 10 links with a map of Perth. That comes above all the other listings. You get yourself listed in that for free here:
http://www.google.com/local/add/busi...gl=AU&hl=en-GB

It is probable that that local listing is getting most of the traffic. Advice - Optimize for Web Design Perth. Create a file name called Web_design_perth.htm and appropriate text and then link to it from a lot of pages with keywords or titles "Web Design Perth." It should have about 60-100K of text - the more the better, and get yourself listed in the local business center.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

Useful tips, many thanks. I do have a business listing and it generally appears in the ten, for variations of 'web design'.

Originally Posted by dburdon

WDG,

I don't believe Google is ignoring "website". Rather, that "website" is word so frequently used elsewhere on the web, that you have try harder. I'd also agree with Webnauts remarks regarding web versus website.

Frequency was my thinking, but based on comments so far I will consider a slow and considered move to 'web.'

Originally Posted by Terry Van Horne

Look up what stop words are in a SE algo? Website was considered a stop word way back when I started now I'm not so sure but wouldn't be surprised to hear they still are. There is also the age old is it website or web site. Also I'd research the activity for web design over website design. Web is also a stop word if memory serves correct. In that case use all liberally with the thought that design is the primary term and web and web site are modifiers.

As it happens, I rank high on P1 for 'design perth' and 'designer perth' which is what got me thinking that perhaps 'website' is being ignored (despite liberal use of it on my homepage, doc names, titles, headlines etc).

Thanks all so far. Any more golden nuggets of advice are really appreciated.

[JenKumar]

the keyword "website" is considered as stop word and is not counted. But if you use keyword "web site" then, the "site" is not considered as stop word but "web" is.

[Terry Van Horne]

Originally Posted by JenKumar

the keyword "website" is considered as stop word and is not counted. But if you use keyword "web site" then, the "site" is not considered as stop word but "web" is.

I'm pretty sure "web" is a stop word as well.

[jana]

Sometime the keyword index is not recognized. Only the first few pages give u the real result the rest are just junk. Google seems to be lost when compiling larger search data.

[morestar]

I guess the one thing i would do, not that you asked or anything but, on your homepage, take away the "email marketing and more" part in the main heading, just keep it Web Design Perth.

Then add the email marketing text in the copy, at least twice with two links to those email marketing pages...

no?

[Web-Design-Guy]

Update:

I've made a first round of subtle tweaks (on-site and IBLs) - bit of a dance going on - but now P1 (#10) for 'web design perth' ... and up to #2 (+3) for just 'design perth.'

Interestingly enough, with regard to 'web' and 'website' being or possibly being stop words, all P1 'design perth' results are for web / website design firms.

Thanks again for all your help.


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[davidweb]

Google in the past few months is becoming too obsessive about particular set of high-traffic keywords.

These keywords do bring plenty of profits through Adwords/Adsense, therefore google will try its best not to grant immediate rankings for high traffic keywords.

In your case you need to optimize (off-page ) for website design related keywords. Further, keyword "design perth" cannot be taken as a parameter to gauge ranking/seo status of your website.

Since your website is itself a .com.au domain then it should have been ranking on top of Google.com.au

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by Web-Design-Guy

Interestingly enough, with regard to 'web' and 'website' being or possibly being stop words, all P1 'design perth' results are for web / website design firms.

I liked that one.

I was scratching my head when I read that...

[Terry Van Horne]

Originally Posted by Web-Design-Guy

Update:
Interestingly enough, with regard to 'web' and 'website' being or possibly being stop words, all P1 'design perth' results are for web / website design firms.

As would be expected because other types of designers are likely less competitive and far fewer in numbers than web designer. Would a clothes designer be targeting clothes designer the trade or would it be their brand? Would computer chip designers target the trade or an application/service they provide. Another thought is what SEs do with stop words? Are they ignored/not indexed or are they special 'word tokens' in the index. Only an engineer knows the answer to that. If it is a numbers and quality of competition then somewhere deeper in the results you'll find other types of designers.