How to optimise my web site?

[Mat Hibbert Designs]

Hello all, i am a young cabinet maker based in west sussex, i am in the early stages of building up my own company/reputation http://www.mathibbertdesigns.co.uk

I built the website usinga website builder HTML5 not flash based, and i am trying to find ways of improving my google ranking, currently if for example i type in furniture maker chichester i would only come up on the 4th page, as im sure you understand this is relatively useless. I rrealizethat a lot of it is to do with key words on your website etc... but is there anything else i can be doing to increase my google rating. Regards mat

http://www.mathibbertdesigns.co.uk

[wright_david1]

Hey Mat,

I run a marketing company in Atlanta, GA, USA. SEO is one of our "sweet spots". We've gotten to page one of Google in as fast as 15 minutes using only ethical "white hat" tactics and strategies.

It's good that you're not using flash. I see you used Wix, though, and frankly I haven't seen much SEO value from their sites - hopefully they've changed for the better since last time I looked. But since you've already got it up and running, and if you don't have the budget for a better site for SEO purposes, there are few things that can help.

1) Keyword research: Think like a customer - what would you be searching for if you were looking for custom cabinets? What terms would you be looking for if you were ready to buy, as opposed to terms you'd use if you were just browsing or researching? You mentioned "cabinet maker" and "furniture maker" - what about "Custom kitchen cabinets" and "custom bathroom cabinets"?
2) Change your background. The photo looks cool, but some of the text is hard to read with that image as a background. Why not showcase some of your work?
3) Add more text to your site - more specific text descriptions to accompany photos of your work, tell stories about the products - rich, detailed stories that include the "how" and "why" to what you do, not just the "what"
4) Add some more pages - aside from a main page and a couple of others (contact, etc.), each page should have a specific focus.
5) Get social: Google is really taking social media seriously, and they want to rank sites that people like and share. SEO is no longer all about keywords and links - the social aspect and the local aspect are more important than ever.
6) Google loves video - and they don't have to be slick, Hollywood-style productions. YouTube and reality TV have dramatically lowered the standards for what's expected with a video. Film some short videos of you in action, talking about your focus on quality, attention to detail, and other benefits. Then upload those to YouTube and embed them on your site.
7) Blog - Google loves fresh, unique content. You could even do a video blog, and add a summary or transcription on what the video is about for your blog (and for your video description in YouTube).

Grab as much "Internet real estate" as you can - e.g. build out a Facebook fan page, a Google+ business page, a LinkedIn personal and company profile, and look for local directories to build profiles (Yelp, citysearch, yp.com, and so on) and make those as complete as possible. Many of these will get found on their own, and will also allow links back to your website. Both are helpful.

There's a LOT more to it than this, but this should really help you get things moving in the right direction.

[Jake]

wright_d gives a good overall view of a complete 'SEO process, looking a bit more at on site optimization.

Killer bounce rates: one study reported that a 5 second load time caused a 20% bounce rate while a 1/2 second load time resulted in a 5% bounce rate. (People immediately exiting the site are Bouncing) Google's internal design guides are for a 1/2 second load time. From the U.S. there was more than a 15 second load time of your site with a 300k DSL connection. The 2.4Mb+ data download for your home page is not light, over a meg appears to be javascript. Try clearing your browser cache to get closer to a first time user experience (not everyone has optical) This may be your single biggest search engine ranking negative. I believe if one of the increasingly common Google human reviewers stop by that load time can be extra bad.

Keyword content, you need a diversity of industry related phrases in your content to match more searches, just write more comprehensive articles on the subject, How To, historical designer critics, whatever. You should have a list of 50 or more keyword phrases that are relevant, that will will consult when creating content, maybe picking one to be the theme of an article.

The Google keyword tool can help you identify real user searches, Local, [exact match]

[wilson]

You should be very careful about this decision because a single mistake can harm your website. I think you should try some professional seo service provider if you dont know about seo. I am refereeing a professional company and they are working for my websites. venturerepublic.net

[DreamDezigns]

Hi Mat..

It seems you got some basic idea about keywords. So do that but with little extra care considering the ongoing Google updates. I assume you already generated sitemap and submitted it to Google, Bing & other search engines. If not yet, kindly do that first.

Create your Company Brand Pages in Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin & also in your other local/ regional social sites. Remember to add your "website link" on the Description part of the profile page. Then initiate interesting conversations & actively interact with your potential prospects. This will gain you social signals which search engines consider while ranking your site. It can also help your new company to earn Reputation in your niche.

Create your company Blog and share useful content regularly that may add value to your niche audience. Also give them options to share your content across web via social buttons.


Hope it helps. Our Best wishes :-)