Many Search Engine Question, From a newbie... Options

[Ynhockey]

Well, at the title says, I'm a complete newbie in this field (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Still, I've read SEO tips on many websites and have done certain things to supposedly increase my rank.

My website is about web development, mainly HTML (but also CSS, JS, ASP, PHP and whatnot).

I've used different keywords over time, but the site is still pretty new. However, in every title/header there has been the word Ynhockey (my name). I'm pretty sure this is bad SEO-wise, but is there's a better replacement ? You must also understand that my site was originally intended to be my own personal page, hence the domain name.

Also, for my top text logo, I've used the H1 heading with CSS. All my text is bold, but there isn't a B tag, just the CSS "font-weight: 700" property.

This is the best I could do by still keeping the design clean. But I still don't think it's enough... because, there might be some little ins and outs that i've never heard of. Please tell me the ones you can think of after looking at the site.

Another question - I originally used a few hidden H tags to 'boost' my ranking, but i can't even find my page on Google when searching for just 2 keywords (unless Ynhockey is one of them). I've read somewhere that these tags can get you in trouble (i.e., banned from the SE or something), so i've removed them. But was what i read true ?

Also, my site can only be found on Google, AllTheWeb and Yahoo. How do i submit it to other engines ? I've tried doing it both manually and automatically, but Altavista still doesn't list my site, and I believe lycos doesn't either... btw, it's been weeks since i've submitted to search engines, the listing should've been there by now. My logs show the Google crawler in there all the time, but not other crawlers.

And (probably) the final question - what about DMOZ (Open Directory Project) ? I've submitted there twice with 1-month gaps and still nothing - in fact, my logs show that they visited my site (unless it was some automatic thing), but i've never got feedback. Maybe because the site is new or something ??? Anyway, I badly want to get into this directory, if will help boost my traffic potential as much as it usually seems to (on Google). The site has a fairly big HTML guide to offer, lots of HTML sites on DMOZ have much much less than that... so, does anyone know what their criteria are for accepting sites ?

Thx in advance (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

This post has been edited by Jill: Sep 11 2003, 04:58 PM

[TheGreatDane]

Hi Ynhockey,
first of all I think you could benefit very much from reading the newsletters, that Jill previously sent out - you will find them here. And additionally subscribe to the coming newsletters of course.

And have a look at the advisor articles as well - there is lots of good stuff in there.

I was a complete newbie in SEO before I started reading this stuff and has now achieved very good results. But there is not one or two things you could do to get high rankings. There's a lot of work to be done, but it pays off in the end.

You should probably be a bit more patient regarding when to expect to see the outcome of any changes you have made. Most search engines need maybe up to 8-10 weeks (in general) before your changes will be visible. And this time frame also goes for dmoz - maybe even longer.

Your title should hold your keyword phrases and maybe also your name, if thats important. But more weight on the keywords.

[Jill]

Welcome, YnHockey! (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)

After you've got enough posts under your belt, feel free to post a request for a site review in that area of this forum.

For now, what TheGreatDane is telling you is good advice. Read up on my past newsletters, browse through the forum, read my articles, check out searchenginewatch, and get a feel for what SEO is all about.

Good luck!

Jill

[fred]

Hi

some personal experience :

for one of my site it took google 3 months too see the changes.

you have to be really patient.

for some hints :

don't use hidden text or hidden input text tags they won't help in the long run
use only ethical techniques there are plenty to chose from

also for your h1 and bold text

using headers is a good idea even if you modify them with css, the point is you are highlighting part of your copy.

for your bold text , well if all the page is in bold your keywords won't stand out so there is not point to doing this

hope this helps

[Scottie]

I just posted some Resources for Newbies that you may want to read!

(IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[maggieB]

Hello, newbie here too, I have seen one of my websites rank very nicely on google sat-man.com under the search terms "Northern Virginia Satellite" but then from time to time it completely disappears, sometimes for 24+hrs, and going on two days now. I read that they update their databases and are using older ones. If that's all, then no problem but its still kind of nerveracking (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/omg.gif) . Could someone please tell me if this is possibly the case?

[Scottie]

Welcome Maggieb! (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)

Yes, Google does update their databases and they make changes to their ranking algo on a regular basis. It's not a monthly update like it used to be.

As to being nerveracking, you really need to have alternate sources of traffic other than relying on Google's free results. I'm sure you already do offline advertising and you may want to consider a PPC campaign as well.

Google could turn everything inside out on how it ranks sites at any time... they could get it horribly wrong and end up with non-relevant sites at the top of the listing, they could decide to rank on totally different criteria than what they are using today. You can't count on an editorial/organic listing to always be there.

Search engine optimization (technically) is about optimizing the page for search engines. Search engines change. What more of us here do is User Optimization which is almost always good for search engines as well. Building a great site that is easy to navigate helps both.

Sorry for the length of the post but people who say that Google makes them nervous worry me! Your web presence and marketing plan should incorporate a lot more than Google.
(IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[maggieB]

Wow thanks for the insightful info!

We seem to get most of our traffic from "superpages" which is a paid listing, and the actual phonebook etc. I guess I am hypothesizing the actual results from this experience to future scenarios and also learning not to blame myself if my client's site disappears from google for some unknown reason. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)

[Scottie]

Wow- you get traffic from Superpages?

Sorry- my rambling wasn't directed at you as much as the past parade of people who are surprised and devastated when Google decides to make a change... every now and then I like to remind people that counting on Google results is a gamble.

LOL- don't blame yourself if the site disappears for a day or two! That's not unusual these days and there are more changes on the way. As long as you've got some relevant incoming links and aren't doing anything sneaky, you should be fine.

(IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)