Am I invisible or have I been naughty?

[purex]

Hi All,
Over the past few months I have done just about everything these great forums have suggested to promote http://www.laserfume.com

My problem is I cannot get listed in Google for 'laser fume' and 'fume extraction' amongst others.

I have also been trying for months to get into DMOZ without success.

Could somebody please take a look at the site and tell me if I have done something wrong.

One thought I had is that my host www.plus.net might not be easily found or something? Can anyone check this out, I wouldn't know how?

Thanks a million, Jon--

[Andilinks]

You are not invisible, just "virtually invisible." A search on "'laser fume' 'fume extraction'" returns your URL at 188, which is a good news-bad news situation.

Good news: you're in there--Bad news: it's a very competitive field. Others here may be able to spot something you're doing wrong, I just thought I'd chime in with that to let you know you are visible on http://www.google.com/ie which is at least a start. Set your Google "Results per page" at 100 and it will be easier to check your visibilty (or lack of it) from that URL.

I waited well over a year to get listed in DMOZ in my category, I think the more competitive the field the longer the wait. DMOZ waiting times are uneven since each category has its own unique editorial situation. I can't see anything wrong with your site. Though as I said there are people here with more expertise than I. Maybe there is an undiscovered keyword that some people are searching on that your competitors have missed.

Best of luck.

Andi

[glengara]

Don't think you'll get into DMOZ, laserfume.com and purexltd.co.uk are just too similar, and could well also be the reason for the no-show in G.

Take a look at purexltd.co.uk with scripting off, don't know if that "text" helps much either....

[purex]

1. By text, do you mean:



This was added by a SEO company in the UK who told me this was good practice, is it not?

3. Is Glengara saying that DMOZ and Google think that my sites are mirrors / just too similar that they are dismissed? If so how do I get around this?

4. Is there a way of telling how good my host is at getting me found?

All comments very welcome.

Jon--

[Andilinks]

Is there a way of telling how good my host is at getting me found?

I ignored this before because it was too simple, but since you ask again I'll address it.

Other than providing 100% uptime so your site is there when the bots arrive, your host has nothing to do with this unless they made some SEO promises when you signed up with them.

It seems to work but I thought google would have smelled a rat?

If they haven't yet, they will. Best to keep rats away from your site.

Best to read this very carefully:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/
and avoid any advice that contradicts what you read there. Be especially wary of people who promise to improve your search engine results if only you sign up for their program... Usually any "tricks" that don't come from the search engines themselves end up getting you penalized in the end.

Andi

[purex]

Thanks Andi,

On the DMOZ thing, is there agreement that DMOZ includes the company int it's lists and not the site?

For example I could split my products into say five seperate websites rather than having the one all encompassing one.

Thoughts?

[cbp]

On the DMOZ thing, is there agreement that DMOZ includes the company int it's lists and not the site?

One company = one listing for one website.
There are lots of eg's of exceptions, but editors will use there discretion (the hurdle for unique content is reaised when it comes to other sites and/or deeplinks)

For example I could split my products into say five seperate websites rather than having the one all encompassing one.

If you do that to "pull the wool" over DMOZ editors eye and get caught, you may end up with no listing. - why would you want to do that just to get more DMOZ listings???? - if you want those sites to rank well in search engines, you will need links to all those sites etc --- better off putting the effort into one site.

CBP

[purex]

I've read that h1 tags are important to google, so I have made the text in the top table into a h1 tag.

<th height="70" valign="middle" bgcolor="#336699">
<h1><font color="#FFFFFF" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ensure Laser Safety with Purex.

Fume Extraction, Air Filtration and Air Purification systems for lasers.</font></h1>
</th>

But this just will not center vertically and it's driving me nuts.

Any ideas why it pushes to the top. I think the h1 tag is putting a return at the end of the second line?

Jon--