Markets and how your website can open them

[ctabuk]

This is my debut post as a mod in this forum and my 1,000 th official post here at WPW.

So you have your website, you have worked hard at it, it's getting listed but it is not making the sort of money you had really hoped for. Ring any bells?
I know that when I started my site, I made all of the classic mistakes, I submitted to SE's, I did not know about Directories etc etc. So here is an idea designed to help you make the most out of your website.
I now have over 700 page 1, 2 or 3 listings in all of the major SE's. Our Mortgage book lending stands in the 100's of millions over the last few years, we do not advertise. People find our website by natural searches. We do not use PPC.
The first simple rule for new posters is to make sure that your URL is listed in your profile, that way as the spiders weave their way through all of the posts here they will find your site and spider it.
Check your backlinks are good or it will throw the spiders off course. 2 choices www.SiteReportCard.com or the more sophisticated but also free http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

You may think you have the best site on the planet, but in this forum, you will have a bonus free package. I'm going to e mail you your top ten competitors websites free of charge for your given first keywords I find in your search.
I then want you to visit those websites and see what your competitors are doing that maybe you have not thought of. I will show you how to track the Directories they are listed in and how to follow their suit.
We will discuss content, news updates, tips and everything that you are likely to need to succeed, because if you succeed, this forum succeeds. The intention is clear, we want to demonstrate that we can create the best marketing forum on the planet. So after reading this, I want you ll to start talking, inviting friends over to visit. Spread the word, this could be great, but it takes two to tango, OK? David

The New update means that you can now see posters e-mail addresses by holding your cursor over (email) the address will apppear on the bottom of your browser. So No e-mail addresses please.

[wrmineo]

ctabuk:

Foremost, congrats on your much deserved MOD status; this forum and its constituents are in awesome hands. Also, a nice milestone to begin with post #1000.

Now on to business:

Great information, resources and more over, phenomenal offering of your time and services to we peons of Internet marketing - thank you!

One of the first websites I built when I started out a little over a year ago was a local Elizabethtown Ky Information site. It is still full of marginal pages, design and content. Oddly, it ranks very well, but that is not good enough for me. I will be redesigning in the coming days and want to make sure that the code is given the best leg up possible in regards to keywords, content, etc.

I'd love, and certainly appreciate, the use of your offerings here.

Thanks!

Rob
w®m

[ctabuk]

Hi Rob, done and sent 3 minutes LOL

[wrmineo]

That's what I call fast!! Thanks.

However, I will have to reinstall Adobe now to read :) I'd taken out that and some other programs during a clean up recently after some hacking attempts.

Thanks again!!

[cspelts]

Okay, ctabuk, I'll take you up on your offer - but I'm going to do it in another thread. My problem is too big to highjack your thread!

Surely we've got some other website for display. There are always ways to improve sites either through layout and design, content, SEO, etc. The rockband site looks pretty good. What else have we got going on?

[Steve W]

CTABUK

Thanks for the offer of help, please consider working your magic on Open Choice Mortgages, which can be found at: http://www.openchoicemortgages.co.uk/

As you know it's a 'fresh out the box' site launched 3rd July 05, and although I've done my best, I know my limitations and look forward to implementing your advice!
Cheers
Steve

[ctabuk]

Done and with you. Cheers David

[Steve W]

Hi David (also posted this at your bb),

I've been busy trying to implement the changes your reports recommended, but I have a few questions if that's okay?

I got lost about your 'mortgage' vs 'mortgages' pm comment - should I include both on a page or just one (guessed both)?

Also, using the 'wordtracker' and 'digitalpoint overture' links the other members were kind enough to post, I couldn't find any results for the search terms you picked, or 'gwent' in general and was worried I'd be optimizing for unsearched phrases (technically gwent no longer exists, its now monmouthshire).

Using those resources I came up with the following phrases and have optimized a page for each using the reports you made as guidelines for what to put where, how long, how often etc:

home 'mortgage choice' & 'remortgage choice'
mortgage 'mortgage remortgage' (content yet to be added)
defaults/ccjs 'mortgage arrears'
repair credit 'adverse credit mortgage'
reform 'credit rating repair'
stop repossession 'house repossession uk' & 'mortgage repossession'
loans 'secured personal loan' & 'commercial mortgage loan' (content again..)
commercial 'buy to let mortgage wales' & 'commercial mortgage'
about 'mortgage broker wales'
mortgage glossary 'financial glossary' & 'mortgage terms'

I've also ammended the meta keywords to reflect the chosen keyphrases.

The reports recommend changing the <h1> tag to reflect the search term, which I've done for each page, but as I use css 'image replacement' for the header, could this be regarded as cloaking as the header image does not repeat the tag wording? Am I being over the top with my concern, there's no intent to deceive, the <h1> page content is far more accurate than before (just said Open Choice Mortgages - Independent Mortgage Broker)?

At one point, the <title> <h1> <h2> and <h3> tags were identical which I guessed was a bad thing? So I've mixed things up a little.

So although I went through every page of the reports and tried to implement them, because I changed the search terms from your original ones, I'm not sure how effective I've been at interpreting the recommendations?

Kind regards
Steve

[ctabuk]

Hi Steve. Sustitute Monmouth or Monmouthshire for Gwent. People tend to search in plural for Mortgages as they are looking for choice. More technical stuff on its way. Cheers David

[Steve W]

Hi and thanks for clarifying the 'plurals' thing for me.

I'm not turning up any search results for monmouthshire or monmouth either (1.2/day overture for monmouthshire mortgage, 0 on wordtracker).

Looks like people use 'wales' or 'south wales' more often (6.1/day & 21/day for overture and wordtracker respectively).

Would I be better off optimizing for 'mortgage broker wales' ?

I also looked at 'south wales' which in some cases gets more searches but there is also more competition in terms of no. of sites returned.

Is it better to go for a less searched term with fewer competition so long as the amount it is searched is not an order of magnitude less or worse? Isn't that a niche of sorts?

Cheers
Steve

[carol]

Hope you can help with this site, Emergenuity. The interior pages all have Google page rank (a measly 2, but at least it's not 0!), but the homepage has 0. I'd really appreciate if you could give me some direction as to how to locate quality directories to submit the site, over and above the obvious search engines/Yahoo/DMOZ/etc. I've used Site Report Card and Weblink Validator, and provide a sitemap accessible from the homepage. I know the Flash intro takes a while to load.

Any comments to help market this site will be most appreciated. Thank you for your kind offer!
carol

[ctabuk]

For that smile anything is possible. The report is done, I need your e-mail address as I cannot attach the file through the forum. I liked the audio, just for once it was clear and concise. Simply post your e mail, or if it is private PM me.

[carol]

Sorry to take so long to get back to you! That's quite a report! I've made some changes regarding the title and META description. I think the most valuable part of it, however, is identifying the competitors, which are different from the ones I had identified originally. In fact, several of them are not what I would expect - one is not a healthcare company per se, and another is describing a webinar from 3 years ago. However, those pages (and many more!) are all competing for many of the same visitors that my site is.

One useful thing I have observed from the competition is to publish links to industry articles on our "In the News" page, not just articles pertaining to Emergenuity, but articles written about the industry.

A newsletter is also a good idea.

I'm not sure, however, how to "track the Directories they are listed in." Any additional direction would be super!

Thank you, carol

[SteveAZ]

This is a great thing you are doing for everyone. You are very generous. I would appreciate it if you would take a look at my site Copperstate Collectibles and let me know your findings. As for a email addy, just use sales@copperstatecollectibles.com and thanks in advance.

[carol]

OK, now I see (I think) how to identify directories. I downloaded the IBP tool - incredibly useful. Thank you SO much David, for pointing me in the right direction!

[ctabuk]

Just doing my job maam, where would we be without John Wayne quotes?

[wrmineo]

Originally Posted by ctabuk

Just doing my job maam, where would we be without John Wayne quotes?

Ah yes ... my wife knows them well:

"Here's a stick to beat the lovely lady ... " or something like that?

One year for Valentine's I bought her a collection of John Wayne movies - how romantic! Actually, she loved it - the box came with popcorn and chocolate!

Your thread here is going great David - I can't believe more folks are leaping at the opportunity to gain this valuable and free insight coupled with the comprehensive IBP report. I guess priceless seems to pricy?

[wlodi]

hi CTABUK,

how about my site. you shall find its URL in my profile.

thanks,

michal