Calling computer geeks

[lauren.]

Hi, Ive recently set up my own website and made it live about 3 weeks ago. It is still not showing up on google, even though there is only one other freelance nail tech in my area listed. I have read other similar threads and followed the advice ie getting links to other websites listed etc. Ive added 'metatags' but tbh this confuses me and im not sure ive done it right. Im just wondering if anyone 'in the know' could just have a quick look and see if there is something obvious that is wrong with my site. Also wasn't sure if I was worrying unnecessarily - does it take longer than this for google to find new sites?

http://www.enamelnaildesign.co.uk

Thank you so much to anyone that can help.

Lauren

 

[nailzoo]

I googled enamel nail design manchester and you came up
I googled mobile nail technician manchester and you didn't
you need better search words and terms
like "mobile nails", nail artist" fake nails, acrylic nails.
You have to think like your clients/potential clients and how they will look for you, then put them in your keywords and content

 

[App'ment Diary]

You won't get much better advice than already said, but dont worry too much as Google is well known to take time to rank pages, it's been suggested that traffic going to your site also makes a differnce. Plus changing the content of pages can help so make sure you keep the pages up-to-date for this reason and to keep clients coming back.

 

[Verve Designs]

"You have to think like your clients/potential clients and how they will look for you, then put them in your keywords and content" - Absolutely.

Reverse engineer your search terms- think about what someone would type in to find you, rather than what you want to be found on.

Mix descriptive terms with geographical ones- but not too many! You'll be penalised for adding too many terms as Google sees this as spamming. "content is king" when it comes to a website- so make sure you've got lots of good relevant copy on there.

However, be realistic. Three weeks is nothing and it can take MONTHS to build a good page ranking- assume that all your competition is doing the same as you at the same time- and you're in a rather large city with (I assume) lots of nail tech's.

In the meantime get as many inbound links as you can- Google see's this as a validation that your site is worth reading. Also promote the site more traditionally while you're waiting for organic searches to kick in, add it to ALL of your marketing literature.

But- VERY importantly- dont fall foul of the vile snake-oil salesmen "SEO" companies who will inevitably find you.

p.s. If you've got a marketing budget you might want to think about Google Ad-words. This is a good stop-gap while your waiting for natural searches to start. You're displayed at the top of searches (dependant on what people have typed in, and on what you want to be found on) and you can set your own budget- so for example you can specify that you only want to spend £10.00 a month.

pps. This is what those bloody snake-oil people would do......only they'd charge a fortune for it.

 

[Verve Designs]

.......and more generally. People might find this useful.

Website SEO Tool | Website Grader

This drills down to look at your sites SEO- will let you know whats missing and what you might need to do.

Dont bother putting your email address in it..it'll do the report anyway when you click Generate Report.

If you dont understand what some of the terms mean, get a friendly IT geek to have a look and do some tweaking. But for goodness sake dont use an expensive SEO company- all of this can be done on the cheap.

 

[lauren.]

Thank you all for your replies. Ive done the website grader thingy but tbh I dont understand what the results mean. Would anybody be able to have a look for me?

Thank you in advance

 

[Verve Designs]

Hi,

I ran the report for yout site too- and theres a fair bit missing really.

You could do worse than contacting Ruth on here, but even if you dont the most important things to rectify are the inbound links (of which you have none), putting alt tags on the images, (this was originally for accesability reasons but is really good for SEO), and then getting a meta-description in there.

However, once you've done that, patience is the key- it might be a long process as there are so many different factors on why some people do well and why some dont (competition being the largest variable). and there are never any guarentees when it comes to SEO i'm afraid. It's a case of using methods that have worked in the past and hoping for the best.

 

[Mrs.Clooney]

Hi,

I ran the report for yout site too- and theres a fair bit missing really.

You could do worse than contacting Ruth on here, but even if you dont the most important things to rectify are the inbound links (of which you have none), putting alt tags on the images, (this was originally for accesability reasons but is really good for SEO), and then getting a meta-description in there.

However, once you've done that, patience is the key- it might be a long process as there are so many different factors on why some people do well and why some dont (competition being the largest variable). and there are never any guarentees when it comes to SEO i'm afraid. It's a case of using methods that have worked in the past and hoping for the best.

What are alt tags, if you don't mind me asking? Ta x

 

[Verve Designs]

When you hover over a picture or image (try it with the Salon Geek logo at the top) you'll see a yellow box. This was originally (and still is!) designed for visually impaired people to use the web, (using a screen reader which will "read" the page for them). The reader will let them know there's an image there- and tell them what its supposed to be- but the web-designer needs to put this informaton in there.

However, they're also very useful for SEO to get in more content to your site, as search engines will also "read" and rate this information.

If you have an "off-the-shelf" website- you probably wont be able to change the tags. If you've done it yourself you can Google how to do it.......and if you've got a pro site and you've noticed you've not got Alt-Tags...get your designer to do it

 

[lauren.]

I will go back to the website grader later on and try and get my computer head on (if I have one)!!! No harm in trying.

Thanks again for all the help, its much appreciated.

 

[KristaBurgess]

Most important part of your page is the <title> of the webpage, make sure you have your specific keywords for the page here. Have as many pages with as many different titles as possible and youll do well.

Also get as many links to your site as possible, making the link text (the bit thats blue and underlined) keyword orientated, ie exactly what you expect your customers to type in google.

Have a look and see how weve put keywords in the titles of my pages...

http://www.kristaburgess.co.uk/services/Bio_Sculpture_Gel_Nails/Hertfordshire/Harpenden/

 

[lauren.]

Thank you. On the very top of the first page of google after ive done my search there are about 6 nail techs listed under a,b,c,d etc and shown on a map (some of these are not in the area im searching under), how have they got listed there - is this through google adwords?

 

[Verve Designs]

Nope - thes one's on ad-words have "sponsored links" before them and they're the ones either in the yellow box at the top or down the right hand side.

The one's you've seen have added themslves to Google Maps. Click here to find out more- Although I think its probably more useful if you've got premises.

 

[lauren.]

Brilliant, Ive added myself to that aswell. Ive tweaked my site and I can now be found, I think Im about 5th or 6th (dont think local competion have websites!)

Just one more thing, when my website is googled the title is coming up as shown below but I want it to say 'Welcome to Enamel', how do I do this? Ive tried changing title and metatitle but nothing is changing it. I just think it looks unprofessional as it is at the moment

mobile nail technician in prestwich,manchester,creative nail ...

I hope you get what I mean.

Thank you again.

 

[lauren.]

Please can anyone help me with the below question...

When my website is googled the title is coming up as shown below but I want it to say 'Welcome to Enamel', how do I do this? Ive tried changing title and metatitle but nothing is changing it. I just think it looks unprofessional as it is at the moment

mobile nail technician in prestwich,manchester,creative nail ...

I hope you get what I mean.

Lauren

 

[Ruth Mills]

Please can anyone help me with the below question...

When my website is googled the title is coming up as shown below but I want it to say 'Welcome to Enamel', how do I do this? Ive tried changing title and metatitle but nothing is changing it. I just think it looks unprofessional as it is at the moment

mobile nail technician in prestwich,manchester,creative nail ...

I hope you get what I mean.

Lauren

It's your HTML title tag, currently it looks like:

<title>mobile,nail technician,prestwich,manchester,minx nails</title>

Sadly I have no idea how you'd set it using "do your own site" - but it should be possible if whoever designed that system is worth their salt...

 

[ConnectSEO]

Meta tags are tags that are embedded into your HTML code for your website that are primarily for helping the search engines index your site.

There are a few that are important:

1) Title - Manipulating this tag alters the title of the page in the title bar of your web browser. I would recommend cleaning your title tag up a bit.
2) Description - This should be a summary of what the page is about and should change from page to page.
3) Keyword - Google does not use this tag for indexing purposes, but other search engines do.
4) Robots - You'll probably want this one set to "index,follow"

If you have any further questions, feel free to PM me.

Regards,

ConnectSEO

 

[Ruth Mills]

Meta tags are tags that are embedded into your HTML code for your website that are primarily for helping the search engines index your site.

There are a few that are important:

1) Title - Manipulating this tag alters the title of the page in the title bar of your web browser. I would recommend cleaning your title tag up a bit.
2) Description - This should be a summary of what the page is about and should change from page to page.
3) Keyword - Google does not use this tag for indexing purposes, but other search engines do.
4) Robots - You'll probably want this one set to "index,follow"

If you have any further questions, feel free to PM me.

Regards,

ConnectSEO

Although, technically, the title tag isn't strictly a meta tag - as it starts with <title> and not <meta> - even though both occur in the <head> section of an HTML document.

They do accomplish similar purposes SEO wise though - the main difference being that the contents of the <title> tag are usually visible to the user at the title bar of the web browser, whereas the meta tags would only be seen if you do a "view source" to look at the underlying HTML code of the web page (which is usually only something that computer geeks would want to do).

In fact, I'd take a punt on saying that the contents of the <title> tag are almost certainly more important for SEO than what's in the keywords and description meta tags - and the description meta tag is probably more important than the keywords.

 

[angeleyes01]

First thing to do is to think about how people will find you - what search engine will the go to (most likely google) and what they will search for. Try this yourself and see what works or what you want to be found under.

Go to your websites metatags and put in the search terms you have decided on. THey go back into Google and check how it is working.

Google Ad words are a great way to go - you pay them for certain words. You only pay if someone looks up those words and clicks to get through to your website. It also gives you information on what people are searching for which can be valuable. Google also suggests words for you. You can set a daily limit and keep control of your costs.

You should set up a facebook or twitter account and link them to your site - this can increase your hits and your google rankings. They are completely free. This can also be a great way to keep in touch with existing customer and advise them of news or special offers.

It can takes weeks to get your site to where you want it. I suggest you look at it weekly for a certain amount of time. The best way to check progress or the effect of changes is to track them weekly or monthly. Best of luck with it.

 

[lauren.]

Thank you to everyone who has replied to my post, I have learnt a lot from reading your posts and I feel a little clearer about metatags, titletags etc.

Lauren