A little confused.

[parallelworlds]

I've built a site using joomla and everything seems to be going smoothly except the SEO part of it. I'm a little confused as to how all this SEO stuff works. I've placed, what I would consider, relevant keywords in my site however, whenever I do an SEO check I get a poor rating. Most my pages are dynamically driven... meaning that the products and product titles that show up on the front page are somewhat random, so the search engines will never be happy with my "fixed keywords" because my text and products are constantly changing within my home page... am I off in thinking this... or is this just how it has to be?

Oh, my site is WoodandLaine.com NCAA Licensed Merchandise - Home

Any help / feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[Webnauts]

The most important thing you need are backlinks!

[parallelworlds]

Well, I have a link exchange (backlinks?) on the site if that's what you are talking about. However, that still doesn't explain how to optimize my keywords for SEO... or if it's even possible with home pages that constantly have different products / text on the front pages.

[Rephrase]

As Webnauts said, you'll be fine if you have good backlinks. Link exchanges are good, just make sure you get an anchor text with the keywords you are optimizing for. Try to get one way links too, as they are more valuable than link exchanges. I love article submission to article directories (also a good way of getting free traffic).

[andyf]

Originally Posted by parallelworlds

Well, I have a link exchange (backlinks?) on the site if that's what you are talking about. However, that still doesn't explain how to optimize my keywords for SEO... or if it's even possible with home pages that constantly have different products / text on the front pages.

As " Rephrase " suggested you should use your keywords as anchortext while exchanging link, also oneway links are always better then exchange. Try to get relevant high PR backlinks. Directory submission, forum posting, and social networking site also help to get good traffic.
Try to concentrate on on-page optimization, submit your sitemap, check your robots.txt file.

[amar]

The best and safe way of getting back links is by submitting to top directories.

[rumblepup]

The best and safe way of getting back links is by submitting to top directories.

Nope.

When exchanging links, remember to keep it to something reasonable and relative. In other words, don't go nuts looking for every link exchange out there. Some, and I really have to repeat this, some RELATIVE reciprocals are not that bad. But think in these terms, would your customers benefit from the sites you link to? Would they benefit from a site that links to you? Since you sell NCAA sports related equipment, I'd keep away from sites talking about or selling quilts.

Go to bloggers who enjoy sports. Ask them for a review or your products and sites. Ask them to put you in their blogroll. Send them product to review. Stuff like that.

Use Google Product Search.

As for your site. It's a great looking site, however, your product category navigation is all javascript. Google can read a little javascript links, but why would you base such a deep offering on javascript links. Look up on your CMS for Text based links. Just better and easier for Google to follow. Remember, the language of the web is text + links.

Keep working at it. Search Marketing is an everyday thing. Pay for some traffic. Use Google Adwords to keep you going until you get better search results.


Your urls are really long. Normally, I would say forget about it, just stick with SEO'ing the heck out of your site. But just in case, look up the e-commerce app your using, see if there is an option to reel it in a little.

Just my .02

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by parallelworlds

Well, I have a link exchange (backlinks?) on the site if that's what you are talking about. However, that still doesn't explain how to optimize my keywords for SEO... or if it's even possible with home pages that constantly have different products / text on the front pages.

Backlinks are critical, content is critical *and* I hear you asking how to optimize for keywords on your page.

Assuming you have done your keyword research, here's a basic (but not necessarily comprehensive) checklist for on page keyword placement:

• in the first few words of the title tag;
• in an h1 tag at the top of the page;
• in h2 and h3 tags (longer tailed phrases are great here)
• in the first sentence or paragraph on the page;
• in bold somewhere on the page;
• in italics somewhere on the page;
• in the anchor text of a link from the page to another internal page;
• in the anchor text of a link from the page to an external page preferably of an authority site;
• in the anchor text of an absolute link from the home page to the home page;
• in the file names of graphics and their alt tags;
• in the file names of pages
• in a bulleted list

The italics are for the items I consider more important.

Right now, you do not have keywords in your title or your heading or the main text on the page. When I glance at your page, I have no idea what you sell! So I would start with those 3 places ...

So, where it says "Welcome to Wood and Laine" that heading should be in an h1 tag and it should have your primary keyword phrase in it, such as "NCAA Merchandise from Wood and Laine." Or perhaps: "NCAA Merchandise: Game Room Furniture" - both well searched terms that are appropriate for your site.

Have a look at some of the sites that come up well for 'NCAA merchandise" such as NCAA Merchandise, Shop for Officially Licensed NCAA Golf Merchandise at Football Fanatics College Basketball, Baseball and Football Merchandise : College NCAA Merchandise ... that title tag is "way too long" but they are #8 in G for the phrase.

Study all the top ten sites and see how they have incorporated the items from the checklist above.

And the advice on shortening up your URLs is good. I don't see very many pages in the SERPs with such URLS. Matt Cutts, in a recent
talk on SEO for blogs (transcribed here), said "keep the number of parameters low, like two or three."

Cheers, MJ

[incrediblehelp]

The most important thing in a back link is the authority and relevancy of the link to your website.

[coolguy27]

Originally Posted by parallelworlds

Well, I have a link exchange (backlinks?) on the site if that's what you are talking about. However, that still doesn't explain how to optimize my keywords for SEO... or if it's even possible with home pages that constantly have different products / text on the front pages.

Do one way links.....It is good for your site... Forum signature posts (excellent one way links), quality directories, join social bookmarking sites....

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

The italics are for the items I consider more important.

I do not agree. In terms of readability is is proved that they suck. If you want to rank in search engines using that font-style and you do not care about your visitors, then just use it. Anyway, I do not want to start an off-topic debate here. If you still want to use Italics, then use the <em> tag instead of the <i> tag. Just a tip.

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Have a look at some of the sites that come up well for 'NCAA merchandise" such as NCAA Merchandise, Shop for Officially Licensed NCAA Golf Merchandise at Football Fanatics College Basketball, Baseball and Football Merchandise : College NCAA Merchandise ... that title tag is "way too long" but they are #8 in G for the phrase.

Is that a reason to have such a long tag? Do you want to tell us here that search engines rank that site because they have a description instead of a title in the title tag? Come on please...

Here is one from many examples of the results of big companies SEO: German BMW Banned From Google

I personally to follow techniques of other sites, no matter how big they are, or how high the rank. PERIOD!

[parallelworlds]

Great feedback everyone! Thank you. I'll try to apply your suggestions to the best of my ability. I'll cut back on the link exchange and try to do more one way links... Thanks again!

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

I do not agree. In terms of readability is is proved that they suck. If you want to rank in search engines using that font-style and you do not care about your visitors, then just use it. Anyway, I do not want to start an off-topic debate here. If you still want to use Italics, then use the <em> tag instead of the <i> tag. Just a tip.

Sorry, John, I was not clear ... I meant that the terms that I had italacized in my bulleted lists were what I considered to be the more important items.

MJ

[mjtaylor]

Oops, I hit Post too soon ...

Originally Posted by Webnauts

Is that a reason to have such a long tag? Do you want to tell us here that search engines rank that site because they have a description instead of a title in the title tag? Come on please...

I didn't say that, John. I said look at the site, the title tag is too long, but they are well ranked. By which I meant: they must be doing something right, so their site is worthy of study.

Originally Posted by Webnauts

I personally to follow techniques of other sites, no matter how big they are, or how high the rank. PERIOD!

No need to shout - even without the verb I got your point.

BMW's issues notwithstanding, there is always something to be learned from the techniques of well ranked sites. Looking at other sites is not my first approach by any means, it is usually my last step, if even necessary. But if a webmaster has done everything they know to do and can't budge a site above a certain place, a comparison with the competition above makes a lot of sense.

Now you may be so good at SEO that it isn't ever necessary, John, but for people who are as new at SEO as this fellow seems to be, looking at how other people optimize a page can be very instructive.

Cheers, MJ

[Old Welsh Guy]

If you are using Joomla, then make sure you have the search engine friendly plugin Joomla will create multiple routes to the same page also so you will run into duplicate pages also.

do a search for 'search engine friendly joomla' in google and you will pick up the various help plugins etc.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Oops, I hit Post too soon ...



I didn't say that, John. I said look at the site, the title tag is too long, but they are well ranked. By which I meant: they must be doing something right, so their site is worthy of study.

Up to a point, you are right. But that would be helpful for people with experience in SEO, as beginners cannot make a difference what could be right and what can be wrong.

For example, did you follow the thread here about Danny Sallivan whose site is ranking well, and was implementing spamindexing techniques? If I had not have the SEO knowledge and experience, I would have implemented that technique on my site too; and then: Bingo!

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

No need to shout - even without the verb I got your point.

Sorry for that Mj. Not met to offend you. Sometimes I might loose control when I get the feeling that a co-member may be misled.

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

BMW's issues notwithstanding, there is always something to be learned from the techniques of well ranked sites. Looking at other sites is not my first approach by any means, it is usually my last step, if even necessary. But if a webmaster has done everything they know to do and can't budge a site above a certain place, a comparison with the competition above makes a lot of sense.

That is exactly what I met above.

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Now you may be so good at SEO that it isn't ever necessary, John, but for people who are as new at SEO as this fellow seems to be, looking at how other people optimize a page can be very instructive.

Then they should try to find out which ladies and gentlemen are competent SEOs and look at the sites to learn and make the best out of their web site too.

Just my ... you know what.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Sorry, John, I was not clear ... I meant that the terms that I had italacized in my bulleted lists were what I considered to be the more important items.

MJ

To make something more clear for all, as I mentioned above not to use the <i> tag.
Use <em> for "local emphasis", to emphasize words in a particular context.
Here you might would like to read an excellent article about this issue:
Semantics vs bold and italics | 456 Berea Street

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by rumblepup

Nope.

With all respect do you mean that submitting to related categories of Web Directories without giving them back a link is not a good idea?