Google ranking and general site feedback

[ibscom]

Our site has been live now for over 10 months and even though we are now listed in most of the well known search engines for our keywords ( i.e internet voip phone ) we are still only listed in google for our domain name only.

I am aware of the theory that google sandboxes new sites for a period but should this still be the case after this amount of time? Does anyone have any ideas of any other reasons why google is not listing the site?

Also any other feedback would be greatly appreciated even if it is negative regarding the sites look, feel and design in general.

The site address is:

http://www.ibscom.co.uk

I hope someone can help

[adam1987]

I dont understand... it looks like a fresh install of oscommerce... but it isnt !!

[ibscom]

We are hosted through ekmpowershop. However we have customised the site a little though.

[JustOneUK]

Google has your indexed, you are not in the sandbox.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3Awww.ibscom.co.uk&btnG=Search

RE: "internet voip phone"
You just don't rank anywhere for those keywords :)

regards
James.

[ibscom]

I have analysed the sites that are in the top 10 for these keywords i.e. internet voip phone and there is not much difference between those sites and ours.

I have used an Seo package and for the most of it our site is comparable both in terms of content, keyword density and meta content. What I have noticed is that they have a lot of internal links within their websites which are listed under google, where as our site only lists a few and the rest com under a link which says 'repeat this search for ommitted results'. I can't understand why some of my links are recognised and others are not.

Cheers for the feedback though.

[awebapart.com]

I have analysed the sites that are in the top 10 for these keywords i.e. internet voip phone and there is not much difference between those sites and ours.
I've compared your site with another UK site that is in the top 10 and there are important differences:

1. The other site has been around since 2004
2. The other site has a lot more inbound links from other sites
3. The other site has a very different home page, offering more textual content and paragraphs of written text rather than product listings and the odd sentence.

I don't think there is anything wrong with your google listing, going through a ready mad online shop service like ekmpowershop.co.uk (or other similar services like easywebstore.co.uk, or awebapart.com) is a tried and tested way to ensure that your site is search engine friendly and is spidered OK, it's just that SEO is more than just your internal site, a lot of SEO is about your inbound links from other sites, history, content etc.

The ekmpowershop.co.uk solution is not based on osCommerce, it's actually a bespoke MS Windows ASP hosted solution. However it does look like a default osCommerce layout. Our awebapart.com online shop solution, however, is based on osCommerce, but we have already customised it so that it doesn't look like a default osCommerce shop!

A default osCommerce layout, with its over busy layout, or other shops that mimic this layout, can sometimes be bad for SEO in terms of keyword density/content.

[-TJ-]

might be worth your time signing upto lots of internet directorys as this will increase your links. I have a similar problem so went through a website which lists and ranks the best free and paid directories, and signed upto as many as i could. Just seems to take google an age to recognise them.

[c2webdesign]

Part of the issue, particuarly with Google, is that:

1. Your site has not been up and running long enough for a good generic keyword term. VOIP is a very popular term today so competition will be fierce;

2. The sites that appear on first page have good reputations or trusted linkbacks. For example Paramount Zone is recommended by Web User (o.k not tabloid news here but it's a popular website and articles from this can spawn reviews on the net) - plus Skype are there, with the publicity of these you can see why they have first page position - plus you have Actimax who has a linkback from the BBFC;

3. Your website does not have much good quality english written content - particuarly on the home page;

In fairness why do you believe you should be first place? Why do you feel you should be more of a trusted source than say ParamountZone, VOIPfone and Actimax? Why do you feel Google favours these sites but not your own?

The time factor may still come in to play a little here. A site we built in July 2005 was targeting quite a generic keyword with over 100 million results on Google. It took until December 2006 until we managed a first page result on Google - 18 months in total ! Our content was sound, loads of english written copy, crafted title and keywords - but it can still take time.

Write articles about the business, see if you can gain editorial reviews. Is there a new line or product you can write about - perhaps '5 New Ways Business Can Save £££'s Using VOIP' - etc... gaining media coverage will certainly help your cause.

Hope this helps,

[ibscom]

In fairness why do you believe you should be first place? Why do you feel you should be more of a trusted source than say ParamountZone, VOIPfone and Actimax? Why do you feel Google favours these sites but not your own?


I don't believe that we should be first place at the moment because in fairness to what you and all the others say, we need to improve a lot to get there. However I don't think there is anything wrong with targeting first place though! if my site and indeed my company are going to succeed we will need to get nearer to that ranking.

With regards to some of the competitors listed above. I looked at one of the above mentioned sites before Christmas and they only seemed to have one voip internet phone product listed on the site and that was out of stock. I have just looked on there now and it is still out of stock. So my thoughts are yes my site does need improving both in terms of content and with regards to search engine compatability, but why does a site which quite obviously is not selling this type of product get in the top five?

sorry to winge, I am just frustrated cause I feel like we provide better customer service and choice than some of the higher ranked sites but they are there cause they have history and a lot of expensive paid links.

rant over I'm happy again now!

[Aspect Investments]

You need some SEO work to rank for your chosen keywords.

Your pages are listed http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLJ_enGB204GB205&q=site%3ahttp%3a%2f%2fwww%2eibscom%2eco%2euk%2f

[hoobs]

I'm afraid time is the main thing you are lacking. Our site has been live just over 18 months and although we have page 1's in msn and now yahoo. Google is still holding us back. Just keep adding content and links and it will come eventually.

[ibscom]

I have similar rankings in msn and yahoo is slightly behind. Thats what is so frustrating because companies that have lots of money to throw at website promotion can go for large adword campains and gain and advantage.

I have just been reading about website copywriting? Does anyone think this is worth looking into?

[JustOneUK]

I have similar rankings in msn and yahoo is slightly behind. Thats what is so frustrating because companies that have lots of money to throw at website promotion can go for large adword campains and gain and advantage.
Welcome to the internet :D

regards
James.

[george75]

The answer is simple, google is picking up 2 links inbound to your site. You need many, many more to rank remotely well for your keyword. I am also sure that there will be experienced SEO'ers in this market, so you may find it very tough unless you have a) large marketing budget or b) a LOT of time whereby you can link build and see results in a few months.

George