And now it's time for some SEO...

[stacks]

I just had some tweaks done to my site and I'm now going through making sure all the products have all the right information and re-doing a lot of the images but I need some SEO work done.

My site is www.moseyonline.co.uk (http://www.moseyonline.co.uk)

It sells various home interior products and has been going now since June last year. We did reach about 300 visitors a day but recently it's dropped off. The redesign was put up just over a week ago and although I've already got a list of things that I want changed in a phase 2 I realise I also need to be thinking about getting some SEO work done.

If anyone can take a look at the site, perhaps doing a free review and to come up with a set of recommendations and prices then I'd like to hear from you. I've dabbled in Adwords with not much sucess so all the traffic and sales we get at the moment are just through Google searches. I've got a Google Base feed too.

Feel free to PM me.

Thanks!

[IainW]

Not bad, Quite a good job so far.

Your internal page titles could be more specific to the category or product rather than how much delivery is.
Take off "much more" of the title and meta tag description - they're doing nothing.
Now add some text possibly at the bottom of pages talking about the product - obviously with "call to action words", internal links. Maybe at the bottom of product pages you could also recommend other products with that customers would like, and link to them.

On the product pages, all it says is delivery - fill that with test and keywords.

Iain

[PointandStare]

1 question.
Why are you only considering SEO now and not right at the beginning?

[fisicx]

1 question.
Why are you only considering SEO now and not right at the beginning?

Exactly. What are you going to do if your SEO consultant tells you that the page/site sturcture needs changing or that your core code is working against you or the page title generator needs rework. And when the SEO is done are you going to emply a usability consultant to help improve your conversions and then a copywriter to work on the product descriptions.

All of the above is part of the design process, not something you do after the new layout has been published.

[stacks]

Are you really trying to tell me that a new start up company is going to have the money available to do all that right from the start???

Back in the real world 99% of new business (especially in todays climate) are having to get off the ground with very little cash. I actually did my initial website at zero cost, used Paypal instead of a Merchant account (again because it was free) and got sales within the first 2 weeks of being online.

To me this was all part of my busienss plan, test the water bit by bit, get some experience and build on that. Some might even say that as my business is only 9 months old I am actually doing this right from the start.

As you point out the SEO person might well come ack and say the page/site sturcture needs changing or that your core code is working against you or the page title generator needs rework (I dont think they will). And yes I probably will hire a usability consultant to help improve your conversions later in the year and then a copywriter to work on the product descriptions........thats the sign that my business has grown, is sucessful and I have the money in the bank to pay for it all from the profits I've already made.

Are you telling me that I've gone about this the wrong way?






Exactly. What are you going to do if your SEO consultant tells you that the page/site sturcture needs changing or that your core code is working against you or the page title generator needs rework. And when the SEO is done are you going to emply a usability consultant to help improve your conversions and then a copywriter to work on the product descriptions.

All of the above is part of the design process, not something you do after the new layout has been published.

[IainW]

Don't worry about the comments Mark - no one gets it right first time, people don't allow for you not knowing what they know.

We've all made mistakes or decided to start up something on a lite version because we didn't have the funds or were unsure.

Plough on - you're get there

Iain

[petera]

That's what really hacks me off about this board - people come on here asking for advice and get reprimanded or made to feel stupid. Surely that's not what this forum is all about.
More often than not the companies that come on here are small and don't have the budget or the knowledge to approach an SEO professional to consult on their website build from scratch.
That doesn't mean they should be made to feel like they've done something wrong FFS. They've probably got more pressing concerns, like trying to get their business off the ground without bankrupting themselves.

We all love to work on websites that have been build to rank from the ground up, but we don't live in a world where that is the norm.

[fisicx]

Are you telling me that I've gone about this the wrong way?

Quite possibly. Effective websites have less to do with the layout and more to do with the content and navigation. This is what the SE wants to see as well (it can't 'read' images). So you need to ensure that your page titles describe the page, that you have a good meta description to increase clickthorughs, that your product names and sun headers introduce the product then you have full (uniques) descriptions, alternate views of the furniture and pictures of the furniture in situ.

None of this exists on your site. THe SEO guy is going to reccomend all sorts of changes and a usability/UX consultant will ask for a load more. This means you will have paid for your website, paid for the tweaks, paid for SEO and paid for usabuility changes. And even then you will still have more tweaks as you start to analyse your visitors over the next year or so.

I agree with Iain that nobody gets it right first time but doing some market research and user testing before you go live can make a huge difference and save you loads of cash.

[stacks]

Thanks Iain, I'm not actually concerned about the other comments but just wanted to make a point that business is not black and white and there are many ways to get there with some hard work.

SEO was a factor in what I chose as the platform for my online shop but as I've explained in my opinion the majority of new businesses dont have the money to spend on an SEO expert with a 12 month plan right from the off-set.

If I could go back right to day one, would I change that way I've done things and committed to spending more money up front to cover all this.....no way. Like I said I've now got the profit to pay for these improvements rather than spending the money up front that would have been begged or borrowed.

[fisicx]

SEO was a factor in what I chose as the platform for my online shop...

If this is the case then you can do most of the work yourself. Write unique page titles and meta descriptions for each product, rewrite the product names and sub headers and write unique product descriptions. If you do all this then you don't have to pay anybody anything.

Ymoseou have a link that says see more images but doesn't. You need to change this or get more images.

[sirearl]

Are you really trying to tell me that a new start up company is going to have the money available to do all that right from the start???

Back in the real world 99% of new business (especially in todays climate) are having to get off the ground with very little cash. I actually did my initial website at zero cost, used Paypal instead of a Merchant account (again because it was free) and got sales within the first 2 weeks of being online.

To me this was all part of my busienss plan, test the water bit by bit, get some experience and build on that. Some might even say that as my business is only 9 months old I am actually doing this right from the start.

As you point out the SEO person might well come ack and say the page/site sturcture needs changing or that your core code is working against you or the page title generator needs rework (I dont think they will). And yes I probably will hire a usability consultant to help improve your conversions later in the year and then a copywriter to work on the product descriptions........thats the sign that my business has grown, is sucessful and I have the money in the bank to pay for it all from the profits I've already made.

Are you telling me that I've gone about this the wrong way?

If your getting sales then you have done something right.:)

I think that what is meant is that for a site to do really well it usually needs to be structured and under the control of an SEO.

But for testing the water ,you have probably done OK.

Although an experienced SEO can test the water without needing to implement a website.

Earl

[Maslins]

I do sympathise with the OP. I put on a thread a few days ago along the lines of "How do you analyse your visitors" and I got a couple of replies of effectively "your website's rubbish"...I wasn't even asking for comments on my website!

Guys, if you don't think a website is great, it's far more useful (& friendlier!) to say why suggest ways to improve it!

[PrettyPaws]

1 question.
Why are you only considering SEO now and not right at the beginning?

Exactly. What are you going to do if your SEO consultant tells you that the page/site sturcture needs changing or that your core code is working against you or the page title generator needs rework. And when the SEO is done are you going to emply a usability consultant to help improve your conversions and then a copywriter to work on the product descriptions.

All of the above is part of the design process, not something you do after the new layout has been published.

Very helpful guys... :rolleyes:

I'd say you've done very well to get 300 hits per day if you are only just thinking about SEO! It took me months of SEO work to get that high. :D (as long as you ain't paying for them that is! lol)

Personally I think the site needs a lot of work however. Starting with the category titles, "Bathroom" for example that's really not helping. "Chic bathroom furnature" maybe? Without doing the keyword and competitor research it's hard to say but you need something a little more specific. I'd also say in terms of content again on the homepage and category pages you need much more, again containing your targeted phrases.

I'd say your URL structure seems a little odd too but you're pretty much stuck with that unfortunatley.