Can't get listed in target key words in Google...

[cookiefan]

Hi. My website is at http://www.homesalediy.com/ and I've started my website last year and was finally indexed by Google around October.

I've tried to target my site to get listed under key words like 'for sale by owner' or 'home for sale by owner' but can't seem to get there at all...Which is really depressing after months of trying...Not yet even mentioning about big key words like 'real estate' or 'home sale'...

The same situation with MSN and others.

I've tried changing meta tags, heading, and web content but nothing seems to help. Please visit my site and provide any comment you might have. Anything would be helpful!

Thanks a bunch in advance!

[AlexB]

I would recommend to place <h1></h1> or <h2></h2> text which contains keyword.
Also have backlinks with this keywords ? It is very important if you want be on top positions.

[Mel]

Hi Cookiefan

Surprisingly for sale by owner is quite a competitive term with over 6 million pages ranking in google for that term. In addition for and by are common words which google discounts in a search for that term.


In order to rank for these terms you will have to optimize your site carefully.


Start off with some keyword research at Wordtracker or Overture to see what search terms searchers are using, then select no more than two or three keyphrases for use on each page and target ONLY those terms in your page title, meta description and meta keywords tags.

Then make sure that you use the keywords or phrases in the anchor text of your inbound links, and add them to your page text h tags and alt tags. I would suggest that you have at least 200 words of well written text on your home page.

These searches are useful in google for determining how your competitors are doing:

allinanchor: keyword
Allintitle: keyword
allintext: keyword

Most top ten ranking sites for a particular keyword willalso do well in all these searches. Learn from them.


Then spend some time here asking questions.

[ronniethedodger]

I think that some of the problems may lie in the organization of your site. You have a very well ranked Home Page (PR6) and are not using it to your advantage.

For instance, I noticed that you have your Link Directory smack dab in the middle of your Home Page. I am not sure what these links actually go to. When I click on some of these, they keep coming up with another screen that breaks it down by State. Then you click on a State, it returns you back to a category list or to a page that has no content. They never seem to go anywhere.

I might suggest that you simplify this directory by removing the States breakdown of each of your categories until you start filling up your directory with more listings. Basicly right now you have 50 states times each category page which have no content.

After glancing through some of your pages that do have content, I noticed (quite frankly) that they are written with very poor English. From a personal point of view, it looks unprofessional. It also may be one reason you are not getting results for some of your keywords....because I also have noticed that the poor English is also in your Titles and Descriptions as well.

You stated that you have made changes to your title, description, keyword, heading tags and nothing changes...it appears to me that you have done a lot of it and hastily too. I think with a little more organization of your site and using targeted anchor keyterm text you can turn that around very easily.

And just for your information you also have this text appearing at the top of your home page in "near invisible" and tiny print. ----> Home for sale by owner, real estate for sale, home for sell by owner, real estate for sell, buy home, buy house, buy real estate, free real estate home. While it is visible, you would be better served to turn them into text links to a page that would be relative to this text.

[cookiefan]

Thanks to all you guys' feedback!

AlexB: Will definitely try to add more heading & useful content


Mel: You are right. I'll start paying more attention to some of the things my competitors are doing that I'm not. I'll try to use:

allinanchor: keyword
Allintitle: keyword
allintext: keyword

It is new to me. Even though I'm not familiar with their usage, I'll see what I can find out.


Ron: Thanks for all the advice! The content has been out-dated for a while and mostly done in a hurry without checking for error. I guess I was trying to fill up space more than trying to make sense...I guess getting 'C' in my English classes have really taught me a lesson now!

I do admit the link directory seems to be out of place. By placing in the middle, I was hoping the spiders would notice it quicker and give them each some pagerank. Because I'm really not a 'designer' type of a person, I often have hard time figuring out what to place at where.

One of the new thing I tried is the text line which you revealed at the top of the page. I've notice some of the web site have used it and they are ranked quite well in many major keywords. For example, http://usa.homesalez.com/ has really jumped in ranking and it is a fairly new website.

Incredible thing I've learned online is that any new website can easily enter the market and quickly climb up and knockout some of the older web sites off the list. Just like that! Each month I can see changes in players in the top ten. Some are new and some are gone for good. Is there a particular reason for this to happen?

I'll be adding new stuff this evening. I hope it is for the better...