Am I on the right track -- still not seeing results in rank, traffic, etc.
-
I am a complete novice, but I tend to learn quickly.
My site is one year old, and I have very low traffic. I also rank poorly. I have recently learned a ton, and made some changes:
1. Put in meta no follow, no index tags on certain pages
2. Found and fixed some horrid content -- I had forgotten to finish certain pages (!) and they had been left up for months -- a good example is /California-homeschool.html basically said "Washington homeschool, blah, blah, blah" for about 8 months before I fixed it (!)
3. Added new content, changed the look and navigation of the site, added social media links and have been working to build those up (FB, Twitter, etc)
4. Started blogging regularly.
Those are the main things I have done.
I plan to continue to add content, tweak the navigation, and blog regularly. From what I can tell, link building should happen organically.
My question is: Am I on the right track?
Here is a link to my site: http://www.i-school-at-home.com
Am I missing anything -- there seems to be so much info out there. Because there is a time lag between making changes and seeing results, I just would love to know if I am on the right track, before I devote more time to this strategy.
What I would like to do is be the #1 homeschool website (long term goal) and generate revenue (eventually) from affiliate marketing and creating my own curriculum and resources.
Thank you!!!!!!
-
Thank you for the encouragement, Rob. I am really glad I posted this question, and I think I just have to chalk it up to "this is odd"
I have checked my site out at Google webmaster tools, and also at Bing's webmaster tools - and with SEO quake -- I do read a lot.
I can get traffic -- I see my own searches show up. But most days it is zero, other than that -- yesterday there were three other search visits, and I am pretty sure at least one was in response to this question.
It seems as though it's just "bad luck" -- my content needs to be better -- it isn't that bad, I don't think : )
I thought to as this question mostly to see if there weren't some glaring thing I missed about SEO -- but I think, in the end, that I do need to keep plugging away...
Thank you!!
-
That is unusual Wendy - that you have recieved no traffic to date
Have you checked the robots.txt file to see the Search robots are coming through ?
You can check https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools for any problems with the site access.
You seem to have the basic grasp of Seo and you have the ambition to learn and ask questions, it should not be too long before your on track - wish you good fortune with it
Rob
-
Thank you so much -- I actually rephrased my question here:
http://www.seomoz.org/q/rephrasing-my-question-i-have-no-search-traffic-i-would-love-some-feedback
The thing is, I have read the beginner's guide -- and do think I know the basics (basics!)
My main concern, which I didn't put in this question, is that I receive no search traffic -- none. It's odd. I know I have recently done a few things to improve my site, and I know it takes time, but I guess my question is better phrased as "I would really like some feedback, specific to my site"
I so appreciate the responses, too -- I have read, and read, and read about SEO for awhile, and this forum and SeoMoz in general, is the best I have seen, by far.
I very much appreciate this community -- Thank you!!!
-
I would start here SEOmoz beginners guide It will give you a basic understanding of what you should be doing.
-
I do have a site map and submit it regularly.
I have a sub-question -- this is kind of weird. So, I get zero search engine traffic -- zero...and I get some from direct and referral traffic.
Traditionally, my bounce rate was hovering around 50% ,which was okay with me.
Recently, and today is especially bad, I have received 13 visitors so far (it is 12:00 noon) and 11 of them are direct traffic, with 100% bounce rate...and I checked, and all of them are from Lebanon. That just kind of seems weird.
Any ideas? What am I doing wrong? My site isn't the best in the world, but it is over 100 pages of (I think) not too bad content...what's up?
-
Of course. SEO is basically about 2 things:
1. On site optimization
2. Off site optimization (link building)once you have optimized your site with good content and a great site structure, you should start promoting and marketing your website. I don't know if you have done it or not but I would make an site map and robot.txt file for the webstie. Once you finish the onsite, move on the marketing it and thats when youll start to see ranking improvements. While good content will drive links being built it doesnt hurt (well it can) to give your website a kick start. If you are ready to move on to the off site optimization I would start learning about link building which is the hard part.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does anyone know how to find functions/codes/etc in WordPress?
Right now, I'm working on solving a relatively easy WP issue (easy, because someone told me what to do. Thanks iNetSeo). I have to replace: <span class="post_date"></span class="post_date"> and replace it with <span class="post_date date="" updated"=""></span class="post_date> But, I can't find the "_<span class="post_date">"</span class="post_date">_For a number of my WP problems, the hardest part is just located the code/function/markup I need to replace. Does anyone know where this might usually be stored on a website? Also, does anyone know if there's any tool that would allowed to just put "various function" in a search box, and wordpress take you to where it was on the backend of your site, so you could edit it? I included a screenshot of our editors, but I already opened them all, pasted the code in Ctrl-F to no avail, but maybe I missed something. Thanks for helping with my frustrating scavenger hunt! Ruben ASTPPfA
Web Design | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Best Approach to Rank For Multiple Locations With Similar Targeted Keywords
I'm trying to determine the best way to set up a website to rank for a similar set of keyword phrases in three different cities. The keyword phrases I want to rank for are all pretty much the same with the only difference being the city associated with the keyword phrase. For example, "Austin water restoration" vs "San Antonio water restoration" vs "Houston water restoration". Each city needs about 7 or 8 pages of unique content to accurately target the group of keywords I'm trying to rank for. My initial thought was to write up unique content for each city and have each city act a site within the main site. For example, the main navigation for xyz.com/austin would be Austin specific, so when you land on xyz.com/austin and go to Services - Water Restoration, it would be all Austin specific content. The same would be true for San Antonio and Houston. The only problem with this approach is that I have to build up the page authority for a lot of different pages. It would be much easier to build up the page authority for one Water Restoration page and just insert a little "Areas we serve" on the page that includes "Austin, San Antonio, and Houston" and maybe work the coverage area in again at the bottom of the page somewhere. However, it would be much more difficult to work "Austin, San Antonio, and Houston" into the title tags and H1s though, and I couldn't logically work the cities into the content as much either. That would be a downside to this approach. Any thoughts on this? Wondering how large companies with hundreds of locations typically approach this? I'd really appreciate your input.
Web Design | | shaycw0 -
Main page redirect affecting search results?
Question.... A recent change was made to our page www.BGU.edu by a marketing person. So now when you type in www.BGU.edu it actually redirects to a different page www.BGU.edu/inquiry This is a really bad idea isn't it? I do not know enough about SEO to know a lot, and just joined SEOmoz but do I need to tell the admin to change it back?
Web Design | | nongard10 -
3 Brands, 3 Services, 3 Different Websites Right?
My client was told that having 1 website for 3 different brands/services is better than having 3 websites. I need your help to prove my value to a new client. This client has worked with Reach Local on PPC for some time and when they first got started the Reach Local Markering Consultant told this cleint that they needed to have one site for better SEO purposes. The client was told that Google ranks websites higher if they have more paid traffic going to them. I've been doing this for long enough to realize this does not help ranking, at least not enough to make a difference. Keep in mind this is for 3 different companies. One company does plumbing, another electrical and the last one does air conditioning. They also have 4 locations but only two locations have mutliple services opperating out of them. I understand these 2 location will not have there own Google+ Local / Places listing. Using the same address for 2 different business and expecting a first page ranking is just not possible. Right now when you visit the clients website you see a logo that rotates with a banner section that follows the logo rotation. First you see the AC Company and then the Plumbing etc. I see this as confusing to the end user and it is more work to get it ranked for SEO. I recommended that we build 3 speerate websites for each service and just list out all the addresses that the company services on the contact page. I would also design inside the footer links to the other services for branding purposes. Please share your thoughts on how you would handle this if you were doing the SEO for your own 3 different business services. I really appreicate any input/insight to this. Thank you so much in advance!!!!
Web Design | | 1SMG0 -
Website Updates, will this affect my ranking/ DA or PA?
Hello All! My website is due for a big update soon, my current site is doing ok, however I want to update all of the content, structure, style and look of my whole site. I feel that with the way it's been going lately that it's time for an upgrade, my question is, will this affect my ranking? Will my page ranking's be affected? Will my DA be affected? I intend to optimize this new website perfectly too with all the things I've learnt since joining this forum. All the best, Paul
Web Design | | Paul_Tovey0 -
Duplicate home page /index.asp /index.php etc
We recently moved www.devoted2vntage.co.uk to shopify but seem to have multiple home page variants still in google index. I am concerned that these will be causing duplicate content. I have redirected the offending URLs below to www.devoted2vintage.co.uk/ and have set up a canonical URL but need an expect to tell me if I have taken the current steps and if not, exactly what I need to do. www.devoted2vintage.co.uk/index.php www.devoted2vintage.co.uk/index.htm www.devoted2vintage.co.uk/index.html www.devoted2vintage.co.uk/index.shtml www.devoted2vintage.co.uk/index.aspx www.devoted2vintage.co.uk/index.cfm www.devoted2vintage.co.uk/index.pl www.devoted2vintage.co.uk/index.asp
Web Design | | devoted2vintage0 -
Is this causing me to drop in rank?
Today I noticed I was dropping (pretty big jump) for some keywords, so I checked out the source of a page, and noticed that my source code has two canonical urls. One to the home page, and one to the /page-title. I just changed themes recently, and the dropped happened after I changed themes. Is this what's causing me to drop in rank for certain terms? You can view the source here: http://noahsdad.com/physical-characteristics/
Web Design | | NoahsDad0 -
XML SiteMap - Right Away or Delay?
So, I have a new client whose web designer declined to create an XML site map. They said that they would rather wait a year and let Google create one. I am wondering what the opinion of other SEOMoz members is about this--do you create an XML right away or think there is an advantage in delaying? Personally, I always prefer to have one right away--What is the best practice in your experience and why?
Web Design | | TheARKlady0