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Optimizing our website

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  • 10-10-2010 4:53pm
    #1
    Eire-Dearg
    Registered Users Posts: 8,900 ✭✭✭


    Hi all,

    You may have come across our football website in the past, http://backpagefootball.com, which originated out of Boards.ie. Things have been going well over the last year, but we've recently been looking at SEO and trying to get our name higher up the search lists.

    We're absolute n00bs when it comes to all this, so we're just looking for some advice on what to do. There a lot of sites that offer services (eg. Ineedhits.com) to get your site higher up the searches, would you recommend these or are they just trying to rip money?

    For example we see "Football blog" gets 40,500 global monthly hits on Google. This is something we should be looking to get in to, would such a site provide this or is it simply easier said than done?

    Thanks

    ED


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    #2
    waynefrancis
    Registered Users Posts: 10 ✭waynefrancis


    I have been a noob on seo before but when I stumble an ebook that teaches the real seo from areal experience seo webmaster,I tried to develop it.I test few of my sites,at least 7 of them including a .info tld which is doing well,not on the top 10 on google.com yet but it is getting there.One of the is on top 10-12 on google.com and top 1 on yahoo.com,this site is only below 3months old.I also have 2 sites which is below a month which is now flactuating from first page to first ten which is ok,it is what is called google dance.Remember only a few weeks old.And .info tld which is on top 10 pages.

    Basically there are 2 types of SEO:
    1. On Page SEO
    2. Off Page SEO

    And Getting the Pull of your site,there are 3 stages

    1. Gaining On page Leverage
    2. Setting up the Pull Foundation
    3. Executing the PULL

    If your interested an assistance just let me know.


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    #3
    tomED
    Registered Users Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭tomED


    Hi Eire

    Firstly, great looking site and some excellent content - good job.

    To respond to your question about SEO, my first question to you would be - do you really want to focus on SEO as a strategy for getting your blog out there?

    The reason I ask is, because with all that great content, your probably better off focusing on building your base of regular readers. People who find blogs through search engines tend not to be those who stick around and therefore your efforts in terms of SEO would probably be best spent elsewhere.

    I'm not saying that you should overlook SEO, but that you continue to focus on delivering quality content in a way that is easy for search engines to find your website. Sticking this to this strategy, although a long process will be hugely beneficial to the growth in numbers being loyal to your blog.

    Another point worth discussing is your point about "football blog" having over 40,000 searches per month and how you'd like to appear for this. I personally think the effort required to get listed for this will also be a massive waste of your time.

    In Ireland, there were only 250 odd searches for "Football Blog", so I would assume that the majority of those searches are in the US, who of course call our football "soccer". So you would be putting a lot of effort again into delivering traffic to your site that will benefit you little.

    Just to reiterate, I'm not saying that you should ignore SEO, but plan it properly and have clear goals. Your website is pretty good already so anything you do should really focus on improving on what you have.


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    #4
    pixeldesign
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 188 ✭✭pixeldesign


    If you need someone to help you optimize your website, just drop me a pm.I have 3 years experience in SEO and SEM ,Good luck!


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    #5
    link8r
    Closed Accounts Posts: 387 ✭✭link8r


    My only advice is to take a wholistic approach. I doubt anyone knows all 200 signals on an intimate level, many people pick things that come naturally.

    Blogs present an interesting challenge. There is a myth/misunderstanding/misrepresentation doing the rounds (for years, like 6/7) about "fresh" content and sites being updated. Certainly sites should be kept up to date, content should be refreshed.

    But refreshing isn't the same as replacing - which is quite often what happens on a blog. Websites plus blog can work better. You need a certain amount of static content. Bear in mind that when a post is moved from the home page (depending on whether you have the most recent 7, 9, 10, xx posts), it is essentially relegated to a static T2/T3 level (this is where architecture and PR shaping becomes important).

    Another issue is that people don't understand or check where their highest points of authority are - thus they don't know how to shape it. There's also the loss of flow on internal links (this goes back to the shaping issue)

    I'd suggest that an SEO should rank in some shape or form - so many SEO's have popped up recently, its becoming funny. Also, check that an SEO has a PageRank - I'm not saying its critical, but an SEO with -0 PageRank is highly questionable - but that's my Opinion.

    My best advice - don't gun for top 1- or 2-word phrases. What would you really expect to find if you typed in "football blog" - why would you randomly want a football blog? What would people check for? Try to build a list with friends/associates and see where you rank for those. Schedules/fixtures, channels, results, players, teams, leagues, scandals, coaches, clubs - these are things I guess people search a lot for.

    Talk to lots of people on SEO - develop your own strategy and have fun!


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    #6
    waynefrancis
    Registered Users Posts: 10 ✭waynefrancis


    In my opinion page rank sometimes doesn't apply with regards to traffic,I know some people having page rank 0f 3 or so but their traffic still not enough.My concenr about building a site is to get traffic,not paid traffic but organic traffic coming from big sources like google,yahoo,bing and others.Yes,pagerank might help if you want to sell your site,page ranking site will be valuable than zero pagerank,but we're here to make a site and making money.That's why seo come in place,and that's the reason I go mentioned it earlier this basics:

    Basically there are 2 types of SEO:
    1. On Page SEO
    2. Off Page SEO

    And Getting the Pull of your site,there are 3 stages

    1. Gaining On page Leverage
    2. Setting up the Pull Foundation
    3. Executing the PULL


    Am not an seo expert, I have read ebooks on seo but not a lot since I found the right thing to do seo on the site with the help of the real seo guy.As I mentioend earlier I have some sites,which are on pages one on google.com,and google.ie and .co.uk and this sites are only fresh sites and having organic search,having 30,000 searches per month/exact and have a site with 60000/mo/exact.Am saying this,because I am so greatful for the past years I am online and making some site,never seen like this now.I have found the real gem,seo for some is very difficult.Some seo company will say,I will help you to rank your site and charge you hundreds each month until you have dried up.But for me now seo is an easy as 1-2-3,as long you follow the one I mentioned above.If you want a sample of my site, I will let you know.Tell you the truth there's no secret in seo,as long as you follow what I have mentioned.Again,I am notan seo expert but a doer of what other seo expert suggest what will I do,and I did.:)


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