Search engine issue with my site

jaiye · #1 (**permalink**) 03-30-2006, 08:24 PM

Hello gurus,
I need someone to give me some advice on how to make my site rank well on major search engines. I have been selling art and poster on my http://www.soulposter.com/catalog/ since 2003. But my problem is, it's sometimes hard to find me in some search engines. Can some gurus give me some advice

Kind Regards

Faglork · #2 (**permalink**) 03-31-2006, 01:50 AM

You've got serious HTML errors. The <head> section of http://www.soulposter.com/catalog/ is completely broken. This may well prevent the spiders from correctly spidering your site.

I suggest you validate you pages and take out at least some gross errors.

hth,
faglork

Paul B · #3 (**permalink**) 03-31-2006, 02:41 AM

You'll have your work cut out getting an old version of osCommerce to validate.

But isn't this a big problem??
www.soulposter.com/
or http:soulposter.com/ as you have in the 'home' link present an empty page!!

Why have a Google search box in the most important part of your site when osc comes with a comprehensive search function?

MikeinFlorida · #4 (**permalink**) 03-31-2006, 12:00 PM

Sorry to break it to you but...The site loads slows, it's confusing with too much content on the home page, not easily navigable, lots of coding errors, and essentially should be redesigned.

Aside from that increase the size of the text and cut down on the amount of pictures. A site needs to load in 10 seconds or less on the net to get the surfers there in the first place on dsl and cable.

It's not a bad start. Don't take this wrong please, but you've got your work cut out for you. Good luck!
Guess what, overall I like it, but it needs a redesign desperately.

cyanide · #5 (**permalink**) 03-31-2006, 12:11 PM

Having an empty front page is definitely a serious problem lol

So is the session id on every page

Faglork · #6 (**permalink**) 03-31-2006, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul B

You'll have your work cut out getting an old version of osCommerce to validate.

I know, but there is no need to validate the whole page. Just have a look at the header - it is a big mess:

Code:

</title>
<base href="http://soulposter.com/catalog/">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css">
</head>

It is almost "decapitated" ...

faglork

jaiye · #7 (**permalink**) 03-31-2006, 05:39 PM

Thanks guys, I really do have my work cut out for me. It's always great to have a second or even a third opinion.
All feedback appreciated.

bhartzer · #8 (**permalink**) 03-31-2006, 06:11 PM

jaiye, I've just added an article here that might address some of the issues you're having. Specifically, there's an issue with possible duplicate content and title tags/meta tags on the site.

jaiye · #9 (**permalink**) 04-04-2006, 02:13 PM

That was a great article. It gave me the kind of pointers, I really needed. I am still tweaking the site. If any of you still have some info that will help, send it my way.

Thanks a whole lot bhartzer.