Website Listing

[Crafty Juls]

I have registered with Google, etc. but when I search I either cannot find my link or am way down the list. Obviously if I put the web site name in the search bar I am first but if I just use a general word/words I am no where near the top.

Does anyone know how to get to the top of search engines lists?

[CuteDesigns]

How long ago did you register with google? Sometimes it can six weeks or so for your site to appear.

[Crafty Juls]

I registered approx march time.

[ArtCards]

Getting to the top of Google is fraught with difficulty and very complicated. Some companies offer services designed at improving rankings but to be honest its very expensive and unless you've got very deep pockets not worth it!!

[Christine]

Yep i found that as well, to get yourself in the top of the list it costs so much :(

I was going to try some of the other search engines not sure if they charge as much.

However i was on a link...........can't rem where it was now, if i find it again i will post it on here..........and it gave you a promise to be on google within 48 hours.........haven't tried mine yet have to do that oh and it was free.

Christine

[mandijane55]

Please can I remind everyone that if you are posting links to external sites in your signatures then please place a recipricol link back to craft.co.uk somewhere where we can check and find it easily.
If we cannot find a recipricol link when we check then your signature links may be removed.
Advertising is free on craft.co.uk so please be courteous and return a link to us.
Many Thanks

[ArtCards]

Mine's on every page Mandi.............. Hope that's OK??

Karen xx

[mandijane55]

Karen it's perfect....:-)

[splatcat]

You are going to have problems with search engine listing as your site is being run in a frame, prob something to do with a redirect from your domain name to your free space... the keywords you put in (prob too many) are NOT being read by the search engine as it will be reading the tags in the top frame which come first. You can see this by going "View / Page Source" in Firefox, the Meta tags which come up aren't your pages, they are the redirecting frames. Solution... get your domain name and site on the server, make sure there is no frame, cut down on the number of keywords and make sure your meta tags content and your index page content compliment each other.

[english-paper-co]

Your keywords and description META tags aren't optimised for search engines.

Go to http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/tools/topword.html (http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/tools/topword.html) and type in your website address in there, that tool will analyse your home page and show you the contents of your META tags. As you can probably see, your keywords tag is stuffed full of keywords but your description tag (which is what Google looks at) has got hardly any relevant keywords.

I would suggest rewriting the text on your home page so that it includes loads of keywords relevant to your website and then from there you can optimise your META tags.

[drrubina]

How can i promote my website . Please tell me so that i can post mor work.

[mandijane55]

Generally or on the forum here?

[blinky465]

Google is obviously the search engine where everyone wants to be top, as most people use Google first - but if you can't get top of the first page, being near the top of the second and third pages isn't bad (since many users "flick through" the first few pages of Google after submitting a search).

Beware companies that offer to put you top of Google rankings - they invariably use an approach which at best "exploits" and at worst "abuses" the Google ranking algorithm. As such, Google is always changing the way it ranks pages and the techniques you've paid hundreds (if not thousands) of pounds for can become redundant overnight! (the company I work for had this happen - we went from third in the rankings to page three overnight)

It can take up to six months for your website to be properly indexed by Google. In the meantime, have you tried the Google Webmaster tools? The Analytics package is excellent and shows you where customers have come from, what words they used to find your site etc.

Make sure your meta tags include a description and keywords, and make sure that these words and phrases appear near in the top half of the text of each web page (otherwise Google regards them as irrelevent keywords).

Google likes links (until everyone abuses this, and then they'll probably drop the idea) and links from similar sites give your website more credibility. So get your website name out there and link back to the site/forum you name-dropped on - the reciprocal link idea on this forum is excellent and your site will gain more credibility by linking back to this one so there's no excuse not to! Of course some unscrupulous web design companies create four or five similar looking/sounding sites, register a dozen or more domain names for £1.99 each, then make all the sites link to each other. The Googlebot follows the links and decides "this site links to lots of similar looking sites, they look like good quality links because each site has similar content, so give the site a higher rating". It's something you could try if you have the time, money, and are that bothered about Google ranking!

[CraftyGal]

There are so many craft shops out there and to come top of the Google ranking for a very general words is probably not going to happen unless you can afford to pay for enough advertising. Personally, I think you'd be better off spending your time searching out crafter themselves rather than trying to get them to find you. Posting on craft forums and providing reciprical links is a good way of getting your name known as a craft supplier. Add youself to craft directories - there are lots out there. This will also inprove your Google ranking but will also be more likely to help potential customers find you.

Lisa x

[kwa50]

pretty useless myself when it comes to anything techie, as I understand certain words and phrases etc can take you to the top of the google search, but as stated the next day you drop some places. Dont understand it really, my guy doing the website has told me time and time again but it doesnt really register!!!!

I think forums are great but it is a very competitive industry.

Regards

kwa50
www.craftchallenge.co.uk (http://www.craftchallenge.co.uk/)

[CreativeFabrics]

There are so many craft shops out there and to come top of the Google ranking for a very general words is probably not going to happen unless you can afford to pay for enough advertising. Personally, I think you'd be better off spending your time searching out crafter themselves rather than trying to get them to find you. Posting on craft forums and providing reciprical links is a good way of getting your name known as a craft supplier. Add youself to craft directories - there are lots out there. This will also inprove your Google ranking but will also be more likely to help potential customers find you.

Lisa x

You hit the nail on the head Lisa.... you don't have to have loads of money going into advertising to get your site ranked higher. Although it might make it easier to pay someone else to advertise your site, not everyone can afford it. So while you should definitely tweak your site for good content and keywords, including your site title and product/page titles, you should also keep doing link exchanges and adding yourself to the directories - they take some time, but there are free directories, and it's free to exchange links.

But make sure you are getting quality link exchanges too. Don't link up with spam type sites, or even low ranking/no ranking sites. I would at least try to link with a google pagerank of 3 site.

If you aren't sure on all this, then it's definitely homework time. Google some terms like SEO, website optimization etc and do some reading.

If you do decide to pay for advertising, do your homework there as well. Make sure the website you will be advertising on is doing it's job of promoting their own website, or you'll be wasting your money. Don't part easy with your hard earned cash. Once you do advertise on a website, keep track of the hits you get coming in from that site. You do this by using statcounter, or adfree stats, etc. Then you'll know if you should continue to keep your ad there.

uugghh... sorry, I think I just kept rambling on there. Hope there's some bits that you find useful :D