Web site optimising advice required

missymugwump

Hi all

Have been asked by an elderly couple who have a retail outlet & a website (just a web presence really) to help them try to get more hits etc
They have no money to throw at this but are trying to survive this recession
I felt sure there must be some good online help but so far it all seems to want money or is american

Can anyone recommend a decent resource ?


Thank you

pcombo

well what is the site lol.

[Deleted User]

Tell them they should have invested before the recession...

And you should read this:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

debbie42

Google has some useful (free) advice on its "webmaster" pages.

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en

debbie42

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Tell them they should have invested before the recession...

What, in RBS shares? :rolleyes:

kwikbreaks

Have they coded the site themselves? To optimise it they'll need to modify the pages at the html level.

It is impossible to give a complete answer to your question in a forum - people have written (and sell) whole books on the topic but as a basic start...

The home page should ideally contain a short phrase in the title description and page itself that you feel people would search on to find the business. They need to ensure that every page contains content for the title and description tags that matches the page content. This should be different for every page in the site - perhaps a slight variation on the chosen phrase. The phrase and words from the phrase need to be repeated in a natural way within the text in the page and should certainly appear in an H1 tag near the top of the page.

Don't be tempted into tricks like keyword cramming for the benefit of the search engine crawlers and which are not visible to visitors.

Consider creating a sitemap and registering it with google.

missymugwump

Thanks all the site was proff done about 18 months ago
It has 8 pages
Rubbish links to obscure search sites on the links page
They are using google ad words which I have looked at and updated the ad words for them as they were outdated
It is a non transactional site selling mother of the bride stuff
They are not at all computer literate
They can't really afford to continue paying the lady who updates it to do the day to day stuff
I was going to try to get them linked on relevant sites etc... simple stuff
I was really looking for recommended resources as there is so much dross out there
And clicking around blindly on these so called free resources often get you viruses etc.. I believe

Thanks for the link Debbie