Why SEO
-
Hi Guys,
it's going to be a long one so thank you from advance for your patience.
First i wanted you to i am new to SEO world and this world excites me
In the last 30 days, i started to check my companies (i am employee not an owner) website in SEO point of view.
What we do: Online grocery shopping and home delivery
I will share with you some of the results:
5482 errors for duplicate page content
8850 errors for duplicate page title
37 title missing or empty
some pages had 4+ H1 tags
many more HTML errors.
page authority 42/100
domain authority 40/100
We have no listing
163 back-links domain to our Dallas & Chicago website
and much more
another thing i checked was where are we for the keywords that we are interested in:
"online grocery shopping Dallas" - position 1 in Google search
shop for groceries online Dallas - Position 1 in Google search
shop for groceries from home Dallas - Position 1 in Google search
And some more and the same for Chicago
I Did all the searches in new incognito window
My Question - how come we build our website so bad, with no Google+, we have very few back-links(compare to our competitors) and the page and domain rank are so low and still we are in the 2 or 3 highest position in Google search
One more question - Why to invest time in fixing all the SEO issues i found?
You are all welcome to have a SEO view in my website
Thank you vest much
Ivgi
-
Hi Ivgi,
I'm responding on this thread rather than on the first one I responded to. I received the email you sent me and took a very quick look at your company's website. Within the scope of Q&A, I'm afraid no on can do your keyword research for you - that's a big process that will require an investment of multiple hours of time. What I can do is give you my honest take on your situation in hopes that it will help your company to make a good decision.
-
I think there is a lack of clarity in the business model. I am not familiar with the online shopping business model and have not worked with this type of business before, but it seems to me that if your company only delivers groceries to two places, then you aren't just an 'online grocery delivery', you are in some way a local business. I'm not positive about this, but whomever handles the work for your business needs to totally clarify what the business model is. You've stated that you deliver to two cities. Then I see something on the site about nationwide delivery. Which is it?
-
The website is not giving me any type of value proposition. Why should I be shopping online? Why should I be shopping online with your company? What is the value? How do I get groceries? Who delivers them, when, etc? The site isn't telling me.
-
The website copy needs a complete overhaul. It appears to have been written by an ESL copywriter, and as the audience is likely to be primarily speaking English as their first language, the problems with the copy will not instill trust in the quality of the business.
-
It may be that the overall architecture of the website needs to be re-done, and for sure, the company needs a clear strategy for exactly what they are doing. The front entry page appears to indicate that there are 2 different sections to the site, one for each city. But what about the nationwide offer?
These are just a few of things I see in my brief glance at your website. It is my belief that your company's success depends on hiring a professional SEO and Usability team to do a complete audit of the website and create and implement a strategy, based upon market research, that will enable the business to clarify is model, message and promotion options. If they are expecting you to do this in-house, and you are, as you say, a beginner, then the company's expectations are not on-track.
I would strongly urge the business to choose the very best firm they can afford. You need real pros to do this right...perhaps check out the list of recommended companies here on this website.
http://www.seomoz.org/article/recommended
I hope my suggestions are useful. I truly do believe that your company needs expert assistance with their online marketing and should not be expecting an in-house novice to get them results. That is too much responsibility to put on one staff member's shoulders, given the size, scope and needs of the website and the business.
-
-
Robert and Chris,
First many many thanks for your answers, looks like you spent real time investigating my question and i really appreciate that.
Just to make things clear, i really think this website should be fixed.
I didn't mentioned that in my original question because i wanted to get answers that come "from the stomach" and not only answers that will try to help the "poor me" who don't have his boss OK to spend company time on fixing it.
I think that when you build something - first off all build it right - and with so many issue obviously this website wasn't build right.
Second - As mentioned before i am new to SEO and SEM - so Robert if you can explain how can i find better KW for this industry(as you mention in your replay) i will appreciate that.
BTW - what "marginal ranking" is?
Anyway - i am going to continue with my report, i am employee in this company not and outsider that they higher. i really want this website to succeed.
Chris, the traffic is very low, but these KW have low traffic to begin with so i cant expect high traffic, what i need to find are relevant KW for this industry in my local location(Chicago & DFW) that has higher traffic and that i can target.
Any ideas on how to work to find these KWs?
Thank you both again for your answers
IVGI
-
For question #1: You don't have that many direct competitors for those search terms and the overall strength of the homepage isn't bad, compared to those that you do have.
For question #2: If you weren't already being overwhelmed by traffic for keywords like "online grocery shopping Dallas" you may look to branch out and try to get traffic for terms like "online grocery shopping", "buy pistachio and cherry tart online", "online gourmet foods", etc. Someone in that scenario might look to eliminate all possible hurdles that stand in the way of ranking for those terms. Such a person might add some additional content to those pages, as well. But, if you're happy with how things are going for you now, then there's probably no reason to worry about any of those things.
-
In terms of the overall question, Why SEO, I would say don't. Just wait and see what happens.
Now, how did it feel when I said that? Shock maybe? Concern maybe?
That is the answer. If you don't what marginal ranking status (rankings are not as important as sales IMO) to go away, you will have to improve this.
**"how come we build our website so bad" **Typically, when it shows like this, someone was cutting corners and did not want to pay for a really funcional, fully SEO'd site with prior thought given to business model, strategy, most important items to sell and why, competitive analysis, a real web dev team, real web dev experience, real web design experience (not pretty sites, functional and pretty sites with good UI/UX). Sorry, but that is reality. I never cease to be amazed at how very bright business people end up with a ____ site because they got cheap on the one thing they should have spent money on. Think about it, it's an ONLINE grocery store...
Without going into a massive list (I just spent 10-15 minutes in research), I will say this you have more issues than you even realize. On top of that, the KW's you are ranking for are ok. But, they are not the best searched terms around your industry. So, where do you rank for those terms?
Here is the bright spot and I mean this: They hired you and you are digging and researching.
But, with companies that take this type approach, typically what we see is this: someone comes to us saying hey, we need help, blah blah blah, really ready to fix it, blah blah, blah, and can you give us a proposal? Sounds good so far! Early in my career as a marketing firm, we would detail what all needed to change, when, why, and cost. The business then takes that to India, cousin Wilbur who once worked the phones at GoDaddy, or says to their bright new employee who found it all:"You have the list of what needs to be fixed; go fix it!"So, that is all I can give you. Don't fix it at your own risk as others in your vertical are way ahead of you.
I sincerely wish you luck as you go forward,
Robert
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
-
38% of SEOs Never Disavow Links: Are you one among them or the other 62%?
Hi all, Links disavowing is such a advanced tasks in SEO with decent amount of risk involved. I thought many wouldn't follow use this method as Google been saying that they try to ignore bad links and there will be no penalty for such bad links and negative SEO is really a rare case. But I wondered to see only 38% SEOs never used this method and other 62% are disavowing links monthly, quarterly or yearly. I just wonder do we need to disavow links now? It's very easy to say to disavow a link which is not good but difficult to conclude them whether they are hurting already or we will get hurt once they been disavowed. Thanks Screenshot_3.jpg
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz1 -
Is Having Content 'Above The Fold' Still Relevant for Website Design and SEO
Hey there, So I have a client who recently 're-skinned' their website and now there is little to no content above the fold. Likewise, I've noticed that since the transition to this new front-end design there has been a drop in rankings for a number of keywords related to one of the topics we are targeting. Is there any correlation here? Is having content 'above the fold' still a relevant factor in determining a websites' searchability? I appreciate you reading and look forward to hearing from all of you. Have a great day!
Algorithm Updates | | maxcarnage0 -
Does using parent pages in WordPress help with SEO and/or indexing for SERPs?
I have a law office and we handle four different practice areas. I used to have multiple websites (one for each practice area) with keywords in the actual domain name, but based on the recommendation of SEO "experts" a few years ago, I consolidated all the webpages into one single webpage (based on the rumors at the time that Google was going to be focusing on authorship and branding in the future, rather than keywords in URLs or titles). Needless to say, Google authorship was dropped a year or two later and "branding" never took off. Overall, having one webpage is convenient and generally makes SEO easier, but there's been a huge drawback: When my page comes up in SERPs after searching for "attorney" or "lawyer" combined with a specific practice area, the practice area landing pages don't typically come up in the SERPs, only the front page comes up. It's as if Google recognizes that I have some decent content, and Google knows that I specialize in multiple practice areas, but it directs everyone to the front page only. Prospective clients don't like this and it causes my bounce rate to be high. They like to land on a page focusing on the practice area they searched for. Two questions: (1) Would using parent pages (e.g. http://lawfirm.com/divorce/anytown-usa-attorney-lawyer/ vs. http://lawfirm.com/anytown-usa-divorce-attorney-lawyer/) be better for SEO? The research I've done up to this point appears to indicate "no." It doesn't make much difference as long as the keywords are in the domain name and/or URL. But I'd be interested to hear contrary opinions. (2) Would using parent pages (e.g. http://lawfirm.com/divorce/anytown-usa-attorney-lawyer/ vs. http://lawfirm.com/anytown-usa-divorce-attorney-lawyer/) be better for indexing in Google SERPs? For example, would it make it more likely that someone searching for "anytown usa divorce attorney" would actually end up in the divorce section of the website rather than the front page?
Algorithm Updates | | micromano0 -
What is the impact of HTTP/2 on SEO ?
I think it's good for the user experience and speeds up websites, especially if your site has a lot of requests. But i'm not sure if there are other side effects, and if there's an impact on SEO or technical configuration. Most of my websites are built with Wordpress, some with Joomla.
Algorithm Updates | | Croco_Web_Solutions1 -
Shared Hosting - Bad for SEO? (exp. Godaddy)
There were a lot of questions and data on this a few years back and nothing terribly recent so i wanted to get the discussion going again and see if any new data has been published. Is hosting your website on a shared host like Godaddy or Network Solutions going to hurt your rankings because their holds a chance that you could be on the same IP as spammy websites? My gut feeling is no primarily because almost 90% of the worldwide web is on shared hosting but i do not have a lot of data to back it up. Id love to hear some feedback. Cheers - Kyle
Algorithm Updates | | kchandler0 -
What was the biggest challenge you faced as an SEO in 2012?
As an SEO (in-house, freelance, consultant, agency, entrepreneur) what was the biggest challenge you faced in 2012? Please be as specific as you can, and let us all know what you are doing to overcome this challenge in 2013. For me personally I would have to say the biggest challenge I had to deal with was Google+ Local. Obviously Google is putting a lot into G+L, but it has been so messy and at times I have just thrown my arms up in the air. Especially when it comes to multi-state locations and losing reviews.
Algorithm Updates | | clarktbell0 -
SEO Budgets, the million dollar question???
Hi All, I am currently looking to revamp my SEO strategy inline with Google's latest Panda and Penguin updates, and looking to appoint a new agency. With SEO changing so much over the years and so many players in the marketplace quoting all sorts, I simply need to determine the kind of money I need to be spending on my SEO, 2) what i should be getting for the money, or different budget levels what I need to be focusing on in priority order, a top ten in sorts Should i be looking to increase or decrease my spend over the long term. I am only a small business with a turnover of about 50 - 80k and need to really cement my strategy so it work long term but also shows a steady return. I have one guy quoting $99 a month, one £250 and one £750, you can probably see my problem. Thanks in advance.
Algorithm Updates | | etsgroup0 -
Multiple Listings in Results fading Local SEO
Lately I am noticing multiple listings for results seem to be fading away. Example is one domain being listed twice for a search phrase The Home page for example and an Internal Page. Is anyone else seeing this? Safe to say Google wants to see 10+ individual domains per results page?
Algorithm Updates | | bozzie3110