Search engines

[yes]

I have just launched my website www.candidate.com.au which relates to Australian elections and would like any advice relating to the site being identified in search engines. As mentioned on this forum, I have looked at inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion.

[yes]

I was sent this list of search engines which was a great help. If anyone would like it in html format please email me direct on [email protected].

[quickcat]

Hey there!

Neat site! It appears an attempt has been made at SEO (search engine optimization), but it is incomplete and lacks focus.

For instance, your Home page title meta tag reads "Candidate - Have Your Say About Australian Local, State and Federal Government Issues and Elections"
the description meta tag is "Have your say via the message board / forum about Australian local, state and federal government issues and elections as well as view the election campaigns for candidate’s running for Australian Federal, State and Local government election."

Your message here states "...relates to Australian elections"

and your #1 keyword meta tag phrase is "Australian Politics".

Of the meta tags, the title tag is most important and the beginning of the title carries more weight than any other position in the tag. You wasted the first 5 of 14 words in the title on words that are of no value in getting the site well-listed under a useful key phrase.

Think about "Australian government issues & elections forum for political candidates & the public covers Federal, State & Local elections in Australia. View campaigns of Australian candidates for local, state and federal government." for a description tag and "Australian government issues & elections opinion forum for political candidates & the public." for a title meta tag.

Rework the Home page text to use the same phrases used in the meta tags by simple substitution.

If the phrases 'Australian government issues', 'Australian government elections', 'forum for political candidates', etc. are searched phrases (which should be verified by research), you should see better listings.

Also VERY important is using a unique, descriptive meta tag title for each page on the site.

Best of luck,
Kathy

[yes]

Thanks Kathy, I really don't know anything about websites I just had an idea and thought the web people would do the rest - Oh well, with people like yourself and this excellent website/forum I will soon be saying "I know a lot about websites".

Will give your suggestions a try over the next few days.

[Dan Langevin]

There are a lot of options for getting listed on Search Engines. There are some websites that automatically submit your site to literally thousands of Search Engines. These are sometimes effective, but not always.

Hand submissions are the best but are, of course, more expensive. You can hand submit to Search Engines like Yahoo (which is a directory).

From there, there are many things that you can do within your actual website to optimize it. The Search Engine "spiders" that crawl through your site have trouble navigating through certain types of sites. Flash sites are notoriously troublesome for spiders. Certain coding techniques are used to optimize websites.

If spiders can crawl through your site effectively, they will search the content. You need to have content that is very relevant to your keywords.

If you were looking for someone to actually optimize the site for you, the pricing is around $1500 per month to start. This price usually decreases over time as the process turns from optimization to upkeep.

My company actually offers professional Search Engine Optimization and if you would like to learn more about it you can visit our site www.eXoloop.com to learn more about the process and how it can work for you.

Hope that was helpful,

Dan Langevin

[quickcat]

the pricing is around $1500 per month to start

I assume you meant to say your pricing is around $1500 per month to start. I have optimized hundreds of websites in the last 4+ years and $1500 per month is not, in my experience, the going rate.

Basic optimization and submission services can be obtained for $400 to $1000 depending on the extent of services provided which can include copy editing, key phrase selection, site analysis and meta tag creation. You will generally pay extra for reciprocal link programs and content written exclusively for your site.

There is certainly no need for monthly optimization.

If you consider paid advertising (Google AdWords) and PPC (pay per click) programs on Looksmart or Overture, $1500 per month for the startup period is reasonable. These services are part of a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign which may include, but is not limited to, search engine optimization.

I suggest you try a search on "search engine optimization forums" and "SEO forums". There are a fair number of forums frequented by competent professionals who are willing to educate you. My favorite is ihelpyou.com which is very friendly.

Kathy