Can't find business on search engine

Alison_B

I have recently launched my business after months of sourcing suppliers. I have had it registered with 10 search engines - but when I type key words into the search engines, I have been through 45 pages and still found nothing.

What am I doing wrong that my site isn't showing up?

Browntoa

was it the free Search Engine Registration ??

it takes up to 6 months to kick in !!

you need to get links from relevant web sites for google to pick you up higher in its rankings , but they also have a history of changing the way they search (I've had a web site drop from number 2 to nowhere because they tweaked their search)

I see you've used Meta Keywords which is good for a start

Alison_B

Six months :eek:. Yes, it was the free registration. Thought that would be sufficient. That must have been disheartening to have been dropped from No. 2.

Browntoa

they call it the "Google Dance" there is an article about it here

http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2216081

my newest site has the same problem as yours, very low ranking

greencat_2

Alison - you are making some classic search engine optimisation mistakes. So here are a few suggestions for you.

Make sure your content is working for you. The home page text contains none of the keywords in your meta tags. Try giving an overview of the goods you are selling in the body text - using headings (H1, H2 etc) where appropriate (it helps if these use the keywords you want to score highly for.

I clicked on several links and there was no text on the displayed pages. Every page on the site should work for you - use the blank pages to give an overview of the range of goods.

Home is nearly useless as a heading for the home page - use your businesses name instead (or keywords)

Hate to say it but frame based sites are going to have to work harder to get into search engines. Search engines don't think the same way as us.

Some of the images don't have alt tag information (including ones with the name of your shop!). This means they are invisible to search engines.

How do you know what words people are searching for? Go to https://www.wordtracker.com and use their demo to try and identify some niche keyphrases (ie phrases people search for a lot but that don't have many competing websites). Liberally sprinkle them through the site's content.

Frontpage - the software used to produce this site - sticks loads of rubbish in the page which also doesn't help. If you can - get aquainted with Dreamweaver or something like Nvu (which is free). Both of these produce cleaner code than Front page.

Get other sites to link to you - using the keywords you want to be found with.

It helps if you have unique content - so try to think if there is any knowledge or advice you could provide online for free that might attract people who would want to buy your goods. Content that is useful rather purely describing the products is much more likely to get picked by search engines too - and it helps to build buyer trust in your site (you've helped them - so they're more likely to want to help you).

I've never had any problems getting sites listed in search engines - the last one I did took just a couple of days to make it into Google.

greencat_2

Oh - and make sure your listed in http://froogle.google.com/

(see the information for merchants link at the bottom).

koru

Another way to skin the cat would be to get a google ad. https://adwords.google.co.uk

It can work out pretty cheap. The cost will depend how many competitors you have and what they are prepared to bid (you pay for each time someone clicks the link to your site), but in my case my business is in a rare field and most of my competitors are too big to piddle around with Google, so it doesn't cost much.

This ensures I am always in the first three ads for my key words (in the right hand column on google) and it costs me only £5-10 per month.

When you sign up and specify the key words that will trigger your ad, you can experiment with the amount you will pay per click. Google forecasts how high your ad will rank, how many clicks you will get, and how much you will have to pay. You can try different amounts and if you see a scenario that looks OK, go ahead.

black-saturn

Another good way of getting your site a little higher on the search engines is by getting other sites to link to you. So for instance, if you have a regular supplier or any other companies you use you can do a link exchange. The more sites linking to you the better.

Alison_B

I just want to say a huge thank you to greencat. I have followed your advice and I am now in the top pages on an MSN search, even though we didn't register with them. I cannot thank you enough. Hopefully the business will start rolling in soon.

greencat_2

Alison_B wrote:

I just want to say a huge thank you to greencat. I have followed your advice and I am now in the top pages on an MSN search, even though we didn't register with them. I cannot thank you enough. Hopefully the business will start rolling in soon.

Hi Alison - I've only just found this thread again. That's fantastic news - well done.

lellie

One important thing to note is CLEAN CODE - greencat mentioned it about frontpage.

If your code is semantic and XHTML compliant it's more likely to have the correct headings and things - see w3.org for more information.