Help me improve my SEO!! Please:)

[brennasg]

Okay...so first of all my page is flash... I know I know... But it is gonna be that way for a while. Tons of people have flash pages with a high ranking..so it can be done!

My current ranking on google is 53 and yahoo is 3. Under Keyords Franklin Tn baby photographer.

What can I do on my site to improve.. I am brand new to the whole website game.. Thanks!

[tracknut]

One good way is to have incoming links. For example links from POTN to your site....

Dave

[TheHoff]

Okay...so first of all my page is flash... I know I know... But it is gonna be that way for a while. Tons of people have flash pages with a high ranking..so it can be done!

If they're all competing against other Flash sites, wouldn't using an HTML site be a smart move then?

Anyway, having other sites link to yours outweighs what you do on your own pages. So if you get other sites to link to you and they say --

Go check out this awesome <link to your site>baby photographer in Franklin</link>

then over time you will start ranking better for the keywords they used in the link (baby photographer in Franklin)

My current ranking on google is 53 and yahoo is 3. Under Keyords Franklin Tn baby photographer.

What can I do on my site to improve.. I am brand new to the whole website game.. Thanks!

Yahoo and Bing are easier to game (still) but Google is a harsh mistress. Get more links. Change to HTML, use lots of keyword rich info pages, etc. Nothing is rocket science, it is the getting other sites to link to you that is the tough part.


One good way is to have incoming links. For example links from POTN to your site....

Dave

Or even better, from sites that aren't forums and from people that aren't yourself.

[tracknut]

Or even better, from sites that aren't forums and from people that aren't yourself.

My point was that if we had a link here, not only would we be able to give actual feedback, but links to his site can't hurt...

Dave

[Todd Lambert]

I'd also recommend using Google's own webmaster tools.

Create a robots.txt file, a sitemap.xml file for the site, and tweak your crawl rates.

Their tools will give you a good idea of what Googlebot is seeing and where you can tweak things or even fix things that are holding google back or messing them up when spidering your site.

It's free and painless.

Also, make sure you're linking away from your site as well - Google looks for a mix of incoming and outgoing links.

No matter what, make sure your links (incoming or outgoing) are from decent sites - junk links will kill you.

The age of your domain name, how often it is registered (yearly vs 2 or more years in advance) all are accounted to increasing or decreasing your ranking.

[brennasg]

Okay... so a few things.

I have a link on my site that goes to my facebook fan page...and one from my fan page to my site.
I signed up for google local business/ analytics etc.. I also added my business on the map...and added a sitemap. But, I have no idea how to do any of this other stuff! haha...

What other sites should I be trying to link to? What is/ how do I do a robots.txt.file...and what do I need to be paying attention to in the webmasters tools.

Also...until I can get a mirror html page... should I have a splash page?? Do I need to put keywords on all of my pages individually?? I am so confused!

Here is my site... http://www.sparklingsealphotography.com


Also... If I have people set the site as their home page will that help any??

Thanks so much guys!

[Hikin Mike]

Okay... so a few things.

I have a link on my site that goes to my facebook fan page...and one from my fan page to my site.
I signed up for google local business/ analytics etc.. I also added my business on the map...and added a sitemap. But, I have no idea how to do any of this other stuff! haha...

What other sites should I be trying to link to? What is/ how do I do a robots.txt.file...and what do I need to be paying attention to in the webmasters tools.

Also...until I can get a mirror html page... should I have a splash page?? Do I need to put keywords on all of my pages individually?? I am so confused!

Here is my site... http://www.sparklingsealphotography.com


Also... If I have people set the site as their home page will that help any??

Thanks so much guys!

Until you make a HTML version, I do suggest adding some content on your home page. Without content (text), Google will most likely not rank you very well. I wouldn't spend a lot of time adding keywords, in the old sense as metadata keywords. Most search engines don't even bother with keywords. Content is king! :D

[Picture North Carolina]

Content is king! :D

Content that is updated and added to on a regular basis. Nobody likes stale crackers.... or content.! ;)

[Hikin Mike]

Content that is updated and added to on a regular basis. Nobody likes stale crackers.... or content.! ;)

True, that's why blogs are great.

[jonwhite]

A good quality flash website will also have a html back end for browsers that don't support flash and also for Search engines as they cant yet read flash content. Having a flash website shouldn't necessarily be a disadvantage so long as its a good quality one.

When you make links to your website make the link text relevant, so rather than just pasting the link address paste it into some relevant text like this Franklin Tn baby photographer (http://www.sparklingsealphotography.com) Inbound link text is a big thing for most search engines as is the content of the pages that the link is placed on.

[habsfan93]

This might just be me being dumb and unintuitive, but it took me several minutes to figure out that Franklin Tn wasn't the photographers name, but rather Franklin, Tennessee. You might want to be more explicit and expand the Tn - or at the very least, put Franklin, TN (note the added comma and full capitalization of TN).

[TheHoff]

^^ Google and other engines will ignore the comma and capitalization of the query. It will probably be smart enough to see that the user meant Franklin Tennessee and also pull up local business map results.

Ooo I was right ;)

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=franklin+tn+baby+photographer&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

[tracknut]

Here's a site (http://websitegrader.com/site/www.sparklingsealphotography.com/) that grades websites for SEO, that you may find useful. I think I found it on the long SEO thread here on potn. I'll qualify that SEO "grading" is not a science, and is certainly not something you can take as a fixed official score for your site, but as a snapshot it's a useful thing to have. They have lots of pointers as to why a site is graded low in certain areas, etc, so it gives you some stuff to do.

Dave

[Todd Lambert]

That's a great link tracknut. I've used that many times to illustrate SEO to clients. Clients always like to see that what you tell them you're doing, is actually being done.

For the record, here is my report: http://websitegrader.com/site/toddlambert.com

[Hikin Mike]

Yep, I've been doing this since last year. Neat tool.

Here's mine: http://websitegrader.com/site/www.imagesinthebackcountry.com

[tracknut]

http://websitegrader.com/site/www.pixf.com

I use it to pop in every few months and check my sites to see whether something's changed. I keep a little file with the numbers in it. There's one thing I don't know how to address - the "permanent redirect" of www.mysite.com to mysite.com. I've poked around on GoDaddy for some info on how to set this, and haven't found anything. Not sure I actually know what I'm looking for though.

Dave

[Hikin Mike]

http://websitegrader.com/site/www.pixf.com

I use it to pop in every few months and check my sites to see whether something's changed. I keep a little file with the numbers in it. There's one thing I don't know how to address - the "permanent redirect" of www.mysite.com (http://www.mysite.com) to mysite.com. I've poked around on GoDaddy for some info on how to set this, and haven't found anything. Not sure I actually know what I'm looking for though.

Dave

Not familiar with GoDaddy, but can't you just add a 301 redirect to your '.htaccess' file to your root directory?

[Todd Lambert]

Yeah, that's what I do... use a 301 redirect.

[Picture North Carolina]

http://websitegrader.com/site/www.pixf.com

I use it to pop in every few months and check my sites to see whether something's changed. I keep a little file with the numbers in it. There's one thing I don't know how to address - the "permanent redirect" of www.mysite.com (http://www.mysite.com) to mysite.com. I've poked around on GoDaddy for some info on how to set this, and haven't found anything. Not sure I actually know what I'm looking for though.

Dave

Not familiar with GoDaddy, but can't you just add a 301 redirect to your '.htaccess' file to your root directory?

http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

[tracknut]

Either of you have the syntax for your htaccess file handy? I tried that before, and got no change in what the report said, so perhaps I just had it wrong. I've got an htaccess file doing other stuff, so I know it is being used by Apache.

By the way, I note Mike's site is written with "Graduate Level" english. Todd's is "undergraduate" level, and mine is "High school/secondary". I guess my words is a bit dumber than yours :)

Thanks
Dave

[tracknut]

http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

Thanks, I'll try that one!

Dave

[Todd Lambert]

By the way, I note Mike's site is written with "Graduate Level" english. Todd's is "undergraduate" level, and mine is "High school/secondary". I guess my words is a bit dumber than yours



LOL... that's a good thing not a bad thing.

I tried tweaking mine, so that I could get "slower" people to understand and yet not bore the highly intellectual. HA! LOL

[brennasg]

Until you make a HTML version, I do suggest adding some content on your home page. Without content (text), Google will most likely not rank you very well. I wouldn't spend a lot of time adding keywords, in the old sense as metadata keywords. Most search engines don't even bother with keywords. Content is king! :D

True, that's why blogs are great.

Okay so by content then do you think I should have something written on the home page?? Or a splash page?

I was gonna try to avoid having a blog...but do you think it is necessary?



When you make links to your website make the link text relevant, so rather than just pasting the link address paste it into some relevant text like this Franklin Tn baby photographer (http://www.sparklingsealphotography.com) Inbound link text is a big thing for most search engines as is the content of the pages that the link is placed on.

I am an idot...haha can someone tell me how you make the link say something instead of the http..blah blah blah??

Here's a site (http://websitegrader.com/site/www.sparklingsealphotography.com/) that grades websites for SEO, that you may find useful. I think I found it on the long SEO thread here on potn. I'll qualify that SEO "grading" is not a science, and is certainly not something you can take as a fixed official score for your site, but as a snapshot it's a useful thing to have. They have lots of pointers as to why a site is graded low in certain areas, etc, so it gives you some stuff to do.

Dave

Thanks for that! Very informative! I will have to work on some things and check it out!

http://websitegrader.com/site/www.pixf.com

I use it to pop in every few months and check my sites to see whether something's changed. I keep a little file with the numbers in it. There's one thing I don't know how to address - the "permanent redirect" of www.mysite.com (http://www.mysite.com) to mysite.com. I've poked around on GoDaddy for some info on how to set this, and haven't found anything. Not sure I actually know what I'm looking for though.

Dave

I would like to know how to do this as well ^^^^


Thanks so much everyone keep the awesome advice coming!
My fiance just lost his job, so I am trying to get this business off to a good start! All this help is greatly appreciated!

[sctbiggs]

Okay... so a few things.

I have a link on my site that goes to my facebook fan page...and one from my fan page to my site.
I signed up for google local business/ analytics etc.. I also added my business on the map...and added a sitemap. But, I have no idea how to do any of this other stuff! haha...

What other sites should I be trying to link to? What is/ how do I do a robots.txt.file...and what do I need to be paying attention to in the webmasters tools.

Also...until I can get a mirror html page... should I have a splash page?? Do I need to put keywords on all of my pages individually?? I am so confused!

Here is my site... http://www.sparklingsealphotography.com


Also... If I have people set the site as their home page will that help any??

Thanks so much guys!

your using photobiz all you have to do is mirror an html site. I think it's an extra $20-$40? i don't remember. Though, i just did this a month ago. one time fee and it automatically updates, just do it. i added keywords to each page using their keyword feature but haven't gone through and done much else about getting onto search engines yet as I haven't had time.

[tracknut]

http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

Well look at that, it worked. I swear I tried it before, but maybe I just had the syntax wrong.

Thanks much
Dave

[brennasg]

Well look at that, it worked. I swear I tried it before, but maybe I just had the syntax wrong.

Thanks much
Dave

I just did this and it worked....but my page is white and now the text shows up at the top in black...how do I change it to white text??

[Svetlana]

Oh I loved the website grader site!
Here's mine: http://websitegrader.com/site/lanagurevichphotography.blogspot.com/ 70/100 - still have a lot to work on...

Lol and my site is written so even elementary school kids would understand! haha :)) no kidding! :)

[tracknut]

I just did this and it worked....but my page is white and now the text shows up at the top in black...how do I change it to white text??

The text you added was supposed to be in a separate file on your server, called ".htaccess". You've inserted it into your index file somehow, and it's just displaying text...

Dave

[Hikin Mike]

By the way, I note Mike's site is written with "Graduate Level" english. Todd's is "undergraduate" level, and mine is "High school/secondary". I guess my words is a bit dumber than yours :)

Thanks
Dave

I could never figure out that! You'd think because of my stroke from a few years ago (speaking/thought process) is much slower now, that my site would be "First Grade Level" english!:lol:

[Hikin Mike]

Okay so by content then do you think I should have something written on the home page?? Or a splash page?

I was gonna try to avoid having a blog...but do you think it is necessary?



I am an idot...haha can someone tell me how you make the link say something instead of the http..blah blah blah??



Thanks for that! Very informative! I will have to work on some things and check it out!



I would like to know how to do this as well ^^^^


Thanks so much everyone keep the awesome advice coming!
My fiance just lost his job, so I am trying to get this business off to a good start! All this help is greatly appreciated!

I don't like splash pages, so if you can edit your template (for the home page) and just add a short bio, you'll be set.

[brennasg]

The text you added was supposed to be in a separate file on your server, called ".htaccess". You've inserted it into your index file somehow, and it's just displaying text...

Dave


well I have my site through Photobiz...and that is the only place I could insert it. How would I go about finding this .htaccess file.. Thanks sorry!

[Todd Lambert]

You have to have ftp access to the root level of your hosting server (ie, www/ directory)

[tracknut]

well I have my site through Photobiz...and that is the only place I could insert it. How would I go about finding this .htaccess file.. Thanks sorry!

My recommendation is to pull out what you did, and pretend you never heard about this 301 redirect thing. It's not clear whether Photobiz allows you to add or change the .htaccess file, or whether you're on the Apache server anyway. There are plenty of other SEO things you can do at this point - 301 redirect is probably a very minor thing.

Dave

[Picture North Carolina]

For those who are self-hosted, I'm not looking at it right now, but if I remember correctly, the latest versions of cPanel allow you to easily configure redirects. Other control panels might also.

[brennasg]

Okay well I just left it in there..since it worked and just changed the background to black.

[brennasg]

I don't like splash pages, so if you can edit your template (for the home page) and just add a short bio, you'll be set.

I can't edit the home page:( Should I do a splash page then, or not worry about it?

[Hikin Mike]

I can't edit the home page:( Should I do a splash page then, or not worry about it?

If you have to pay for another page (Splash Page), then no, I wouldn't bother with it. You have a "decent" <title>, I would just leave it go.

[Picture North Carolina]

What is everybody using to generate xml sitemaps (hopefully free)? I was using xml-sitemaps.com, but need another service.

[tracknut]

Normally I use xml-sitemaps, but I've used http://www.neuroticweb.com/recursos/sitemap/ before.

Dave

[Todd Lambert]

I usually use a wordpress plugin since most sites I do are back-ended with it. Nice thing with that, is it's dynamically changing/updating it and notifying Google.

[Picture North Carolina]

Normally I use xml-sitemaps, but I've used http://www.neuroticweb.com/recursos/sitemap/ before.

Dave

I usually use a wordpress plugin since most sites I do are back-ended with it. Nice thing with that, is it's dynamically changing/updating it and notifying Google.

Thanks. I tried that Neuroticweb, and it came up with a sitemap that accurately maps the immediate site (about 12 pages). However, when mapping with xml-sitemaps, it aborted when it reached the 500 page (freeware) limit. Must be the php gallery application that's sending it off into space.

Edit: I took a look at the map. It appears that xml-sitemaps gets easily lost. It has mapped every image in the gallery as an item. Then it mapped the text description of that image as a separate item. Then the image thumbnail as a separate item, and so forth. So apparently xml-sitemaps is not the tool to use to map scripts.

[Picture North Carolina]

If anybody needs it: list of sitemap tools from google:

http://code.google.com/p/sitemap-generators/wiki/SitemapGenerators (http://code.google.com/p/sitemap-generators/wiki/SitemapGenerators)

[Alleh]

Get more links. Add your site into your signature on the forum here and start commenting on baby blogs and such with your website address. Also the most effective links are keyword links like mine in my signature. Rather than just putting AllehPhotography I put Advertising photographer portland OR.

[Hikin Mike]

What is everybody using to generate xml sitemaps (hopefully free)? I was using xml-sitemaps.com, but need another service.

I used to use one of the free Google site services, can't remember the site. Now I just add it by hand. Takes a few seconds and upload the new file.

[brennasg]

Get more links. Add your site into your signature on the forum here and start commenting on baby blogs and such with your website address. Also the most effective links are keyword links like mine in my signature. Rather than just putting AllehPhotography I put Advertising photographer portland OR.


can you tell me how to make the link say something other than http..blah blah blah??

[Hikin Mike]

can you tell me how to make the link say something other than http..blah blah blah??

For your website:
<a href="http://www.YourWebsite.com">What you Want to Say Here</a>

[Hikin Mike]

For your signature:

{url=http://www.YourWebsite.com]Text Goes Here[/url}

Just change the first and last {} to this [].

[brennasg]

First of all.. Thank you soooo much for everyones help and advice! I really appreciate it and it made me get a move on if ya know what I mean. So the exciting news is I am the 2nd listing on yahoos search engine! Now I am still 5 pages back on google...BUT... I just implemented a blog and did a splash page since it was free and my page is flash. I have a bunch of fans on my fb fan page....I have more traffic coming to the site. I have been posting on a couple of other popular blogs with my link in the comment. So I am hoping that once google picks up all this new stuff I will get a boost! What do you think??

Also....still wondering if there is any chance it would hurt me to have my site in my signature??

[TheHoff]

Putting a link in your sig shouldn't hurt. I do it; lots of people here do it. If anything, Google recognizes these as signature links (5000 links going to my page from POTN according to Yahoo) and ignores them.

If you're doing that well in Yahoo it means your on page optimization is going pretty well. Google usually takes more time. Sometimes it can be entirely dependant on the actual age of your domain -- when did you register it? This year? or 5 years ago? If the site has been up 5 years, Google trusts it more than one that just went up. So if your site is new, it may take a year or two to gain Google's trust for competitive keywords.

Keep doing what you're doing. Generating traffic from sources *other* than Google is always a good strategy.

[Hikin Mike]

My photography site is 10 months old. Within 2 months I'm on the first page and usually the first spot. I was very away with my SEO, so maybe that helped. Also my backpacking website has been there for about 8 yeras and very popular.....so I tried to "throw so love" between the two sites. :D

It wouldn't hurt to list your site here and other sites. I do. :D Good luck with it!

[TheHoff]

My photography site is 10 months old. Within 2 months I'm on the first page and usually the first spot.

Hey Mike, I know you know what you're doing, but to clarify for others -- it depends on the keywords and how competitive they are. Stuff like "viagra" or "hotel reservations" would take years of trust to rank for... so as you get down to phrases that are less competitive, you can certainly rank within a few months. Ranking for photography phrases in a large city, like NYC or London, would also take years as the other sites in the top 50 have been there and online for likely a while.

[brennasg]

Putting a link in your sig shouldn't hurt. I do it; lots of people here do it. If anything, Google recognizes these as signature links (5000 links going to my page from POTN according to Yahoo) and ignores them.

If you're doing that well in Yahoo it means your on page optimization is going pretty well. Google usually takes more time. Sometimes it can be entirely dependant on the actual age of your domain -- when did you register it? This year? or 5 years ago? If the site has been up 5 years, Google trusts it more than one that just went up. So if your site is new, it may take a year or two to gain Google's trust for competitive keywords.

Keep doing what you're doing. Generating traffic from sources *other* than Google is always a good strategy.

Yeah my page is very new... like a month old new. I will try out the link in the signature and see if it makes a difference.. I am just afraid it will show up and someone will look at it and see the worst picture I have ever taken! hahahahaha

My photography site is 10 months old. Within 2 months I'm on the first page and usually the first spot. I was very away with my SEO, so maybe that helped. Also my backpacking website has been there for about 8 yeras and very popular.....so I tried to "throw so love" between the two sites. :D

It wouldn't hurt to list your site here and other sites. I do. :D Good luck with it!

Thanks! I think its doing pretty good, and with all of the help here and the studying I have done. I will get there I just know it... oh and something I asked earlier that never got addressed.. people setting the site as their homepages..would that help at all?

Also, even though I have lots of competion in my area... I am totally going to take advantage of the fact that a ton of photographers around here dont even know what SEO is:)

[TheHoff]

people setting the site as their homepages..would that help at all?

Not really. And what is the likelihood of a random visitor setting a photographer's site as their homepage... instead of say, Google?

Also, even though I have lots of competion in my area... I am totally going to take advantage of the fact that a ton of photographers around here dont even know what SEO is:)

Good plan! Consider HTML instead of Flash.

[brennasg]

Not really. And what is the likelihood of a random visitor setting a photographer's site as their homepage... instead of say, Google?



Good plan! Consider HTML instead of Flash.

Well it would be more like family etc...

Yes, I am going to add an html mirror site as soons as I have the cash to spare.

[photoguy6405]

This website grader is great.

Here's my results: http://websitegrader.com/site/www.kensphotovision.com

[Picture North Carolina]

So the exciting news is I am the 2nd listing on yahoos search engine!

My photography site is 10 months old. Within 2 months I'm on the first page and usually the first spot.

That's good news and good work! It would be interesting to know what the keyword search phrases are.

[Hikin Mike]

That's good news and good work! It would be interesting to know what the keyword search phrases are.

It's going to depend on what you do and where you are located.

For me I'm a landscape/nature/wildlife photography...no portraits, weddings etc. Not a big demand for that. Coupled with the fact that landscape/nature is a BIG niche. I decided to focus on my local area, so I my <title> says "Atwater CA Landscape, Nature, Wildlife & Inspirational Photography". So anybody searching for a photographer in my town, my site comes up. :D

Using a <h1> tag on my home page reinforces "Landscape, Nature, Wildlife and Inspirational Photography". In each of the inside pages I use a different <h1> tag and <title> element to focus on that particular photo/area.

Hope this helps.

[TheHoff]

I'm still fluxing up and down a bit but I'm seeing on some datacentres that I'm on the 2nd page (#20) for 'vancouver wedding photographer'

http://www.google.com/search?q=vancouver+wedding+photographer&start=10

My domain has been up about a year and a half but I put this site up and started on the keywords about two months ago. I've had a continual building of inbound links and because my domain has the city name in it, and people usually suffix it with "photography", I'm getting very good inbound link text naturally.

[Picture North Carolina]

I'm wondering about another aspect of SEO. If you have an adwords campaign(s) and you pause them, I'm wondering if Google penalizes you in the organic rankings.

[Todd Lambert]

I don't think they do, but I do fully believe that using Adwords (and the Google Webmaster tools), especially on a non-ranked or new site is just about the best thing you can do to to get ranked in Google.

[silvex]

I am not sure if you read this thread http://websitegrader.com/site/www.sparklingsealphotography.com/

BTW your http://websitegrader.com/site/www.sparklingsealphotography.com is 28 and you have been online for a month?

Like other said webtools. My silvex.smugmug.com website is ranked 99.1/100 traffic rak 1,336 with about 7,000 indexed pages in google.

I would get rid of the flash like others suggested. Update the content at least once a week.

[Binning]

Get rid of the splash page. It is at best opaque to Google. I'm surprised you even appeared at SEO 5 pages back on a search.

Google reads words... not images (though they're getting there). Every image should have alternative text (and not BS, repetitive keyword text, but something that is reflective of the picture or subject). About 21 characters of text is the limit for an image search. Use the characters wisely.

The words that surround a picture (think layout) are considered descriptive of the image and will help your SEO.

Don't get too caught up into different web sites that want to measure your SEO efficiency. They can be helpful but are not authoritative. Use common sense -- it is what Google's algorithms try to do. The algorithms change but are constantly trying to reflect human intelligence. Your brain should be ahead of any site that is trying to anticipate Google's algorithm. Ultimately, the algorithm is trying to find honesty and consistency for the person doing the search.

Think keyword phrases then ask yourself: does my title have them, are they in the text of the page, do they appear throughout the depth of the site in similarly consistent ways. Name your files using keywords (not just the alt-text).

Register the copyrights of your photos and don't rely on blocking of right click on your pictures or page -- it doesn't help -- someone can easily do a screen print. If your shots are registered copyright, someone steals them at their own risk. I actually think there is a market for creating images, registering them and suing the fools who steal them online.

[birchtree]

It's been said before....keywords, links, and updated content. Really work on creating useful links back to your site...it will help! I moved from page 3 to 1 on google. But, it's a constant battle.

[TheHoff]

It's been said before....keywords, links, and updated content. Really work on creating useful links back to your site...it will help! I moved from page 3 to 1 on google. But, it's a constant battle.

Nice work. I see you on pg. 2, though, at #13.

I'm up from #100-something to #18 on some datacentres now.

[brennasg]

Okay so here is the word... I I moved from the 5th page to the 4th page! wow! hahaha.. BUT the good news is... when you type in franklin tn baby photographer.. I am the first listing on the local business results map! Is that good??? Now I did put up a splash page, so that I could have some text on it. I also started my blog, but it hasnt seem to be picked up by the crawlers yet. Also, on the website grader I went from 14 to 28 so that is a bit of improvement I guess.

[Hikin Mike]

Okay so here is the word... I I moved from the 5th page to the 4th page! wow! hahaha.. BUT the good news is... when you type in franklin tn baby photographer.. I am the first listing on the local business results map! Is that good??? Now I did put up a splash page, so that I could have some text on it. I also started my blog, but it hasnt seem to be picked up by the crawlers yet. Also, on the website grader I went from 14 to 28 so that is a bit of improvement I guess.

Absolutely. IMO, as long has you have a listing on the first page, you're good to go. I would continue trying to build your site towards the first page though, but congratulations! I see you put your logo on there. Good idea....I did the same thing. ;)

[TheHoff]

Yup, being 1st in local results is better than being 1st in the natural results but as Mike said, might as well go for both.

Getting better rank in the local results all depends on Google's impression of the location of your site. To determine that it checks various sources -- Yellowpages, Yelp, etc -- anywhere that would list your business name and address. It cross checks all these to build a trust rank for how focused your business is on the community searched.

[brennasg]

Okay so I am back! I have been ultra busy and focusing on a lot of other business related things than the website. I feel like I am doing everything backwards...I am getting all kinds of stuff done, business cards, logo, letterhead, gift certificates, etc.... and have hardly any business yet! haha I feel a lot more like a designer than a photographer right now! Anyway, I just checked my ranking and it went down to 66 :( ..not happy. I am still on the first page local business results, I got bumped to letter B by a ultrasound company! haha Anyway I have some more questions..and I just want to say thanks again for everything...this thread has been so helpful to me and hopefull others as well!

1- I keep checking and my blog and it still isnt registering on the search engines... it has almost been a month. Should I try to suggest it again? It just seems like my site picked up faster than that. For my key words the first page is basically all blogs so I really want to get it on there:) Also, could someone check my blog and see if the everything looks good on the outside for SEO?

2- Someone mentioned earlier about text for images...can someone explain that to me?

3- Sitemap... I submitted my sitemap awhile back..do I do anything else..do I resubmit? Exactly what does that do?

4- I still just have the flash page...everyone keeps saying to update content.. since I just have the splash page with content..do I update it? How would I handle this?

Thanks guys!

[TheHoff]

I've been busy lately but I'll get back to this thread soon.

[Hikin Mike]

Okay so I am back! I have been ultra busy and focusing on a lot of other business related things than the website. I feel like I am doing everything backwards...I am getting all kinds of stuff done, business cards, logo, letterhead, gift certificates, etc.... and have hardly any business yet! haha I feel a lot more like a designer than a photographer right now! Anyway, I just checked my ranking and it went down to 66 :( ..not happy. I am still on the first page local business results, I got bumped to letter B by a ultrasound company! haha Anyway I have some more questions..and I just want to say thanks again for everything...this thread has been so helpful to me and hopefull others as well!

1- I keep checking and my blog and it still isnt registering on the search engines... it has almost been a month. Should I try to suggest it again? It just seems like my site picked up faster than that. For my key words the first page is basically all blogs so I really want to get it on there:) Also, could someone check my blog and see if the everything looks good on the outside for SEO?

2- Someone mentioned earlier about text for images...can someone explain that to me?

3- Sitemap... I submitted my sitemap awhile back..do I do anything else..do I resubmit? Exactly what does that do?

4- I still just have the flash page...everyone keeps saying to update content.. since I just have the splash page with content..do I update it? How would I handle this?

Thanks guys!

I was going to respond last night, but I was too tired! :lol:

1 - Not sure if you can edit your title tag on your blog, but "Sparkling Seal Photography" isn't very SEO friendly. If you can at least add your location and a few of your keywords, that would help.

2 - Text for images means adding 'alt' tags and even 'title' tags on your <img> html.

3 - If you have a sitemap.xml, then your done. I just update it each time content is added/changed and then re-submit.

4 - Me personally, my home page is pretty static. I don't change it because I list what I do and location etc. I do change out the slideshow images every now and then.

[brennasg]

I was going to respond last night, but I was too tired! :lol:

1 - Not sure if you can edit your title tag on your blog, but "Sparkling Seal Photography" isn't very SEO friendly. If you can at least add your location and a few of your keywords, that would help. Thanks... I wondered about that. I have blogger and I can edit the html... where would I enter it and do I just type it in or does it have to have tags.. sorry I just know very little about html.

2 - Text for images means adding 'alt' tags and even 'title' tags on your <img> html. So I wouldnt be able to do this on my current site..but should I do this on my blog? If so... then would I add the text to the html code I get off of photobucket?

3 - If you have a sitemap.xml, then your done. I just update it each time content is added/changed and then re-submit. Okay thanks..so even if I am just changing pics its worth it to update?

4 - Me personally, my home page is pretty static. I don't change it because I list what I do and location etc. I do change out the slideshow images every now and then. Thanks so much seriously I really appreciate it!

[brennasg]

Okay so I figured out how to change the title tag on the blog... on the home page and on all the post pages as well:)

Now... on the image tags.. do I just keep putting my same keywords on the pics.. "franklin tn baby photographer", "franklin tn childrens photographer" etc??

[Hikin Mike]

...
Now... on the image tags.. do I just keep putting my same keywords on the pics.. "franklin tn baby photographer", "franklin tn childrens photographer" etc??

NO!!! Bad idea. If you have a picture of a fall scene, then the 'alt'/'title' tag should say something about THAT image, like alt="Pretty Fall Scene in Yosemite NP". ;)

[Hikin Mike]

Oh, BTW....I love your logo! It's almost as cool as mine! ;)

[brennasg]

NO!!! Bad idea. If you have a picture of a fall scene, then the 'alt'/'title' tag should say something about THAT image, like alt="Pretty Fall Scene in Yosemite NP". ;)

Oh, BTW....I love your logo! It's almost as cool as mine! ;)

So then is the point of image tags to add 'content'?

Thanks! Yours is pretty cool!

[Hikin Mike]

In my case, I sell nature, landscape etc so I use the alt tag to help people find a particular image. In your case, it may not be as important....but I'm not an expert in SEO.

[brennasg]

**UPDATE**

Hey guys! Okay so this is really weird to me... but exciting! My site was floating between 5-7 pages back...and now 13 days later and a template change...its The top of the second page!! I am still on the first page with the local business map. However my blog isnt showing up at all... I was relying on my blog to be the one that got up so far. Any ideas??

oh and I am on the top of the second page for both franklin tn baby photographer and franklin tn childrens photograher.

[brennasg]

Another update.......SO HAPPY.... made it to first page on all of the main search engines!! On google I have a spot on the local business results and the main link list! Yay!

However, my blog still doesnt show up..... any ideas??