Basic SEO for wordpress site

[Davek0974]

I'm just starting to tweak the SEO for my new site build, I have the Wordpress SEO plugin by YOAST.

If I follow the scoring and suggestions in the SEO box and aim to get my score as high as possible, is that adequate or should I be doing more???

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Not even close really to be honest, the SEO by Yoast is Ok but it works on a single exact match phrase. it is also very limited in what it does. It is a great plugin however, and is better than nothing. but it just doesn't handle the SEO for a site at all. it handles a couple of elements of SEO on a single page, and for a single exact match term.

 

[Davek0974]

Ok thanks

Any recommendations??

 

[fisicx]

Research. And lots of it. Read the Google SEO guide, the MOZ guides, get SEO for Dummies and keep reading.

SEO is a skill to be learned like anytrhing else. It's a long term project that will need constant tweaking and adjustment. Which is why people use the services of OWG and others to do it for them.

Or do Ray's excellent Fresh Bananas course: http://www.freshbananas.co.uk/

 

[toastking]

I've not used my affiliate link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-SEO-The...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426750850&sr=8-11&keywords=seo

This is a great place to start but the MOZ website is well worth the effort. I've been reading forums, MOZ and then a few books over and over to get the general feel for what I should be doing. I think in reality research and experimentation is going to give the best answers.

 

[Davek0974]

Or do Ray's excellent Fresh Bananas course: http://www.freshbananas.co.uk/

Sounds good but waaaay beyond budget

I already have the dummies guide on order

Is there any software that analyses sites and highlights what is missing/wrong??

 

[fisicx]

There are loads of free tools. But most of them are useless. The ones that are any good aren't free and will probably cost you more than Ray's course would.

There are no quick SEO fixes anymore. It's a long term investment that needs lots of care and attention.

 

[Davek0974]

Thought as much, I'll plod on as I have been. Read the book when it comes

 

[AllUpHere]

Don't forget that if you want SEO to work for you on a site like yours, 90 % of the work is going to need to be done before you even think about the content for the site. As we discussed on another thread, the old site you had (or more specifically the range of products) would be setting you up for a long hard struggle from an SEO point of view (and a marketing one generally).

Get your business and marketing plan in place first, then think about SEO.

 

[Davek0974]

Yep, I realise that my products are so ridiculously divergent that life would not be easy

It's just the way the beast developed over the years, not much I can do about it really.

I would be happy with a couple of conversions a week - I'm not really pushing for mega sales here

 

[AllUpHere]

Yep, I realise that my products are so ridiculously divergent that life would not be easy

It's just the way the beast developed over the years, not much I can do about it really.

I would be happy with a couple of conversions a week - I'm not really pushing for mega sales here

If you are happy with just making a few hundred quid per week, forget all this SEO and go back to basics. If you were to sacrifice your Sunday morning lay-in, you could get yourself off to a car boot sale or small market and get your few hundred quid. You could then give everyone who looked at your products a card with your website address on it, and details of how to contact you if they wanted a custom order. You could easily do a grand a month in this way without breaking a sweat.

In my eyes, that's a much more enjoyable way to run a small hobby business than getting yourself stuck behind a computer for hours.

 

[Annoying Donkey]

You might also want to invest in the Brain Audit, Sean D'Souza. I think the kindle book is a few quid. Full course around $30...

 

[Davek0974]

If you are happy with just making a few hundred quid per week, forget all this SEO and go back to basics. If you were to sacrifice your Sunday morning lay-in, you could get yourself off to a car boot sale or small market and get your few hundred quid. You could then give everyone who looked at your products a card with your website address on it, and details of how to contact you if they wanted a custom order. You could easily do a grand a month in this way without breaking a sweat.

In my eyes, that's a much more enjoyable way to run a small hobby business than getting yourself stuck behind a computer for hours.

Yes, it's a commendable idea, we have a small market in town twice a week, i can easily see about that.

The point with the website is I want it to be "as good as i can get it" basically. I dont need a world-breaking top ranking site, waste of time, what i want is a site where i can send people without fear of them laughing and running away - just a decent, tidy, fast loading, flexible site.

I think I am near my goal now, thanks to this forum.

I think some SEO is going to be better than no SEO for any site?

 

[AllUpHere]

I think some SEO is going to be better than no SEO for any site?

That's where you need to start considering targeting. You are either targeting clients in the way I described above, or you are trying to convert visitors who have found you via a web search. They are going to be different types of customer (with different needs) who will be 'converted' by different things. A site designed and SEO'd to convert web traffic wont necessarily be suitable to convert the vistitors who have been given your card at a market stall.

Anyway, we are over complicating this now, when in reality your business is the easiest in the world to market. Just design and write your site based on what your target market would want to see and you won't go too far wrong. I wouldn't get too caught up in thinking you need to SEO your site. Once you have decent traffic, test and tweak until you get it right.

 

[businesswebsites.eu]

SEO is more time consuming every year, for some niches is better switch to AdWords for example than waste of time and money on SEO. Tools are just tools, most of the people using them and most of the places you could drop the link are spammed to death, so these days only no standard solution pays of. Try to read something about Zennoposter, it`s not a tool for anyone, but once you learn how to use it you can build backlinks wherever you want in places most of the spammers can`t even touch , it`s perfect tool for automate many processes not only backlinks building, I am using them for ads posting, ads responding fully automated, and many many other things.

 

[SEO Lady]

To follow on from the last reply please DO NOT use Adwords.

I'll send you a PM now.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I am curious now, why do you say 'DO NOT use adwords'? I need to know

 

[SEO Lady]

I'm assuming that as the OP cannot afford the freshbananas SEO course the only way OP would try Adwords would be to set up the account himself and therefore would not get an ROI.

Maybe I should have explained further in my post the number 1 reason I'm quick to jump in and dissuade OP.

 

[Davek0974]

I am in no rush to try Adwords again, at present it does not work for my site/product. I think I can get better ROI from social, referral and a direct approach.

 

[Davek0974]

I'm assuming that as the OP cannot afford the freshbananas SEO course the only way OP would try Adwords would be to set up the account himself and therefore would not get an ROI.

Maybe I should have explained further in my post the number 1 reason I'm quick to jump in and dissuade OP.

You are correct in your assumptions. I did set it up myself, then had numerous chats with Adwords tech etc and yes I know they are only interested in selling clicks but we did manage to fine-tune the campaigns to remove a lot of wasted clicks that my basic approach collected, however, over the period of a month (not long I know) it resulted in zero conversions. Lots of site hits but no conversions.

This was what led me to the latest redesign of my site. My wish of 1-2 conversions a week sounded good to me but when put down on paper, the numbers would not have added up anyway as those conversions would have cost me dearly - working for nothing.

My next approach is probably going to be direct leaflets in local area and/or a market stall in town.

 

[altonroot]

Hey Dave, there are hundreds of tools give you variety of data but how you read them and interpret is important. For example, SEO by yoast plugin tells you about keyword density and keyword proximity. But what actually Panda Optimization is altogether a different point.

 

[CWT2k1]

There is numerous ones in your Wordpress plugin section. I recommend using grader.com to get an overall snapshot of your web presence's health.

 

[Davek0974]

There is numerous ones in your Wordpress plugin section. I recommend using grader.com to get an overall snapshot of your web presence's health.

Thanks for that, I scored 56/100 with only two points missing -
Apparently I need to set up a twitter a/c - this is done anyway but only linked to my FB account not to the page
I also need marketing automation, but thats a step into research i think.

Everything else was 10/10

 

[Luckythelion]

There is numerous ones in your Wordpress plugin section. I recommend using grader.com to get an overall snapshot of your web presence's health.

Thanks for sharing, will use this tool to check my sites.

 

[Xenforo]

I also have a wonder like this

 

[fisicx]

Apparently I need to set up a twitter a/c - this is done anyway but only linked to my FB account not to the page

And how is this going to help your visitors? Do you want them to buy your stuff or read your tweets. I've tested SM linking a lot and removing them from your site can (in many cases) improve conversions.

Take a look at Amazon - they have sharing buttons but no links to their SM feeds. Or be like Tesco and put the follow me links right at the bottom. Keep the people on your site, don't let them wander off to Facebook.

 

[Davek0974]

I don't think it will help, I was merely repeating what the Grader.com app felt was lacking on my site.

I have no interest in twitter at all really, Facebook is proving useful in getting people to the site but I have no links on my site to send them out to facebook, the only thing my social buttons do is allow people to like a page or product so there is no path for visitors to be led away on really.

The buttons are at the footer so hidden below the fold.

I think that is a reasonably safe way of using SM????