12 replies to this topic

[ScottSalwolke]

http://www.newenergyinc.com

General
Is this site completed or under construction? Yes, the site has been up for a while with this design.

If completed:
How long has the site been up? The site has been up for quite a few years.

SEO
Do you have incoming links? Yes, a few hundred, although I'm adding more each day.

What keywords are you targeting? Wood burning fireplaces, gas stoves, fireplace inserts

Do you want your code reviewed for errors or improvements? Yes

Marketing
Who is your target audience? Homeowners looking for fireplaces or other hearth products.

The more you tell us about your target audience, the better. We don't know them- you do!

Why is your site different from sites selling/offering similar info/goods/services? Why will someone want to do business you?

How important is usability? Important, but

What is the purpose of the site? (inform, sell, online community, support B&M business, contact info only, etc) Sell products online. Most interested buyers contact their sales department when ready to make a purchase.

Design
Do you want design suggestions? Yes, if you discover problems that could be creating problems with spiders.

This site has been up for a while with this design. It’s a client I’m supplying content for on their product pages. There is plans to put up a new design, but not for a while.

The main problem with this site is that Google isn’t updating their pages. Most of the pages haven’t been revisited since July, including most of the pages I’ve provided copy for. I’m looking for people to see if they see something that is preventing the spiders from accessing all the pages. It has a sitemap.xml that Google has verified and a regular sitemap as well. When the pages are indexed they rank well for their keyword phrases.

[Jill]

Google has indexed 361 pages. Are there more than that?

If not, the problem is that the javascript mouseover menu at the top is invisible to search engines. Put the page URLs into a noscript tag and that should solve the problem.

[ScottSalwolke]

Jill, I thought from the beginning this was a problem, especially because this type adds so much code to each page. Yet, most of the new pages are included in links at the bottom of the page. And it does seem as if most of the pages are indexed by Google. But if you go to site:www.newenergyinc.com in Google, of the first ten pages listed only four have been spidered recently. The rest have had new content added to them two months ago, including new titles, but these aren't updated.

[Jill]

Usually that's a symptom of Google not feeling they are very important. You probably need some sort of full out linking campaign.

But it could be your internal linking which is causing it as well. Pages linked only from a footer seem to be discounted somewhat by Google as people put their doorway page links there.

[ScottSalwolke]

You probably need some sort of full out linking campaign.

Pages linked only from a footer seem to be discounted somewhat by Google as people put their doorway page links there.

Jill, I've been developing new links to the site, thinking this would help. And I had some concerns about the links being at the bottom. It's this reason we wen't with the sitemaps. But it seems as if they're finding the pages. Just not returning to them on a regular basis.

[Jill]

But it seems as if they're finding the pages. Just not returning to them on a regular basis.

Right, because they don't believe they're important enough to come back to on a regular basis. You've told them that because they believe they're only in the footer.

Why not do the noscript thing so that they can see your actual main navigation menu?

[nethy]

Why not do the noscript thing so that they can see your actual main navigation menu?

Thinking less can be good. If they see the full navigation then they see how you prioritise pages. As long as there is no discrepency between what pages you want users to go to & what pages you want SERPs to list, just showing engines your regular navigation lets them know how you prioritse your pages (main pages, sub pages, pages that are not linked to from navigation, pages that are linked to multiple times in navigation...).

[ScottSalwolke]

Why not do the noscript thing so that they can see your actual main navigation menu?

Jill so I'd have him put this around code that doesn't relate to the copy or the bottom links?

[Jill]

No. You'd take the links that are in your javascript menu and place them within <noscript>tags</noscript>. See the source code of the main pages of the current highrankings.com site for an example of how to do it.

[ScottSalwolke]

I'll give that a try.

[ScottSalwolke]

You'd take the links that are in your javascript menu and place them within <noscript>tags</noscript>. See the source code of the main pages of the current highrankings.com site for an example of how to do it.

Jill, I had the site owner incorporate this code, but he wasn't sure where the menu ended. When he used the closing noscript tag (</noscript>) it ended up making everything below the tag as invisible on the page. The code for this page is just so screwed up it's hard to find where things begin and where things end.

[Jill]

Sounds like you need a new developer.

[ceuyan]

i dont want to say anything to harsh to get me band or hated but the only thing i can suggest is to take a look at this site

woodburnerwarehouse.co.uk