Stumbling to the top

[mikebooth]

Dear Colleagues:

We're World Printmakers, a fine-art print site (you know, etchings, silk screen prints, etc.) and we've somehow gotten terrific search engine listings across the board. Last time I looked we were number one in 11 of 14 search engines (and 2 or 3 on the others) for our principal search term: "printmakers."

And I don't know how we did it. I'd like someone to explain how it might have happened. We never paid for any listings, we're not Internet experts, our web culture is at a very basic level. We prepared our metatags from a friend's template a couple of years ago, submitted to 8 or 10 search engines, and then forgot about it. The truth is we're so busy updating the site and attending customers that we don't have much time for search-engine honing and other e-commerce niceties.

So, would some expert out there please tell me what's happening?

Thanks.

Regards,

Mike Booth
World Printmakers
http://www.worldprintmakers.com

P.S. Don't believe me? Search for "printmakers" on any search engine.

[cyanide]

Well, it's not terribly unusual to fluke your way to a decent search rank.

You have 'printmakers' in your title tag and On your home page you have that term several times and considering there's not much other text there, then there's not too much surprise that this key-phrase is giving you good results.

However, you may have a difficult time with other key-phrases that you hope people are typing in.

[rlrouse]

Many of fundamentals of SEO simply equate to good web design. Pages that are created with the user in mind will often fare well without giving any conscious thought to SEO.

[minstrel]

cyanide is correct - if you aren't ranking pretty high for a word contained in your URL, you must be doing something wrong. Even if you rank high for one or two keywords, that's not going to be very helpful unless those are keywords people are likely to use when searching for your product or service. One of the more acerbic members here, carbonize, has a tagline that points this out - something like "I'm #1 on Google - for carbonize that is".

If I were looking for prints, I don't think "printmaker" or even "print maker" is what I'm likely to type into the search box. I just did a Google search using "fine art prints" and your site isn't listed within the first 100.

The moral is: optimize for words or phrases that people are actually going to use...

[alpine]

printmakers 35

There are 35 people searching for this keyword in Alta Vista per day.

So since Alta Vista accounts for let's say 3% of the web's traffic, conservatively, will multiply that by 33

So you should get about 1,000 people who will see your site per day.

Will they click on your link? That depends on your description meta tag.

Will they become a customer? That depends on your site's content.

[alpine]

"fine art prints" is 250 per day

If you are in the top 10 for this keyword you should get 3 million potential views per year.

That's of course an estimate, and not gurantted

[alpine]

When working with the real estate market one advantage you have that would ordinarily be a disadvantage is localization of the market.

Look at what one of my clients is doing:

http://www.producers1.com/

He is becoming a provider of local information for people in the south florida area. The site goes five or 6 links deep for different local information tidbits.

Another general business rule is diversification. You can try offering mortgages, appraising, property sales. If the Tampa market is too flooded for Real Estate you may try to use the keywords related to other similar industries.

[minstrel]

When working with the real estate market one advantage you have that would ordinarily be a disadvantage is localization of the market
That's a good point for anyone whose business is primarily (even if not exclusively) regional - include the region(s) in your title if possible and in your keywords.

For example, the title tag for my home page includes the phrase "psychologist, ottawa" and other parts of the page use keywords or alt tags with different combinations and sequences of "ottawa", "psychologist", "counsellor". These are obviously among common words that one would use to find a counselor or psychologist in this area. On Google, I don't know how many hits you get searching for "psychologist" but I know it would be a lot - but for "psychologist ottawa" I come in #1 and #2, and for "ottawa psychologist" it's #2. I'm sure I wouldn't even be seen for "montreal psychologist" or "boston psychologist" but ut wouldn't really help my business even if I did, since I doubt that people would be willing to commute that far for my services.

On the other hand, do NOT try the reverse of this strategy, i.e., if you are not a regional business don't expect your ranking to be helped by listing keywords for your product or services followed by 200 city names - it won't help and it may get you penalized.