SEO tips

Someone on Buy it Sell it was concerned about her traffic so I gave her some suggestions. I thought it maybe helpful for others.

I'm no expert but I wanted to give you some input on your titles and stuff that might help you get more traffic. I have to admit I'm a bit bored at work and that's why I have time. :-)

I recently optimized my pages and my Google percentages went up by 2% (according to the BISI stats on our Dashboard. I was at 25% until I started tweeting a lot so that brought me down for google percentage but not down in Google search quantity. I used google adwords to find the best words for me. After I was done I went to SEOCetro.com and used the keyword analyzer to be sure page title is in sink with my keywords and description. Also you want to have the keywords you find in google adwords to be the first words in your title.

Let me give you an example.... You have this title for a product. Black and White silk/sheer hair clip. Double loop I would change to Girls Hair Clips Black & White Silk / Sheer I always put the spaces before and after the slash so the search engine sees the two words separately otherwise I think they are seen as one word. Most importantly the title I'm showing puts the Girls Hair Clips front and center. That's the keywords you're hoping people will search for. Why? Because in Google it shows people look for that phrase is 1,900 in a month AND there are 618,000 pages competing with you. Now if you change that to Hair Clip you get 301,000 searchers but you don't know if they are looking for women or girls. AND you are competing with 2.36 million other pages to get your page to the top of google AND to be clicked on by the customer. So with Girls Hair Clips you are targeting more of a niche group and they are more likely to be interested in sticking around. And take note when you go into Google that the S on the end of a word makes a huge difference. In your case, I would use the S exactly where I have them.

I know some people on Buy It Sell It think you don't have to add SEO attributes and they'll be added for you, but I think it's just added as whatever you have on your home page... that's not going to apply to all of your items. And when I see my percentage increase by 2% from optimizing I beg to differ with them that it's not necessary to add your own. I had always been adding to SEO, but I wasn't as diligent with my title.

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Where did all that motivation go???

It's funny how long I can be UN-Motivated and how briefly I can be motivated. I see that just a few days ago I was motivated enough to add some items to my store and I even got a sale yesterday, but somehow today I am just not feeling motivated. SO that's EXACTLY why I'm writing in my blog tonight. It will help me stay on track and MAKE me create a list of things to do. My goal tonight will be to contact 5 companies to see about a link exchange. It's kind of a tedious process, but it really is worth it because those incoming links are very important for a business's success on the internet. I should start Re-reviewing the SEO Class notes as well. There is so much to learn in the class that you can't possibly remember it all... well I can't at least. Off I go....

Need to Focus

So I've decided that prior to getting in front of the computer to work on my business I have to have a concrete plan in mind otherwise I don't think I'm accomplishing as much as I could otherwise. I feel like I spend half of the time needlessly trying to figure out what I want to do when I could already have that thought up and save so much time.

I have a few things on my immediate to-do list.
1. Create Unique descriptions for all of my items in my store. The ones I'm using right now are from my supplier and Google is strongly apposed to
duplicate content. I need to tweak those.
2. Link Exchanging: I need to get more places to link to me to get my visibility increased on Google.
3. I need to add items to my store.

There are many other things on my list of things-to-do:

• market via posting to dog forums
• getting a 1-800 number
• getting signs from vistaprint for my car and maybe some other merchandise from them (I'll have to browse when I order the car sign)
• making cosmetic changes to my site
• go back to Cricket's Marketing and SEO class to review for things I've forgotten about or overlooked the first time.
  

I started a Twitter account today. It feels kind of like Facebook in terms of making small updates rather than a large blog like on here. Seems fun so far. We'll see if I get any hits from it.
Everyone seems to be opening an account with them so I thought I'd better jump on that band wagon to see if I can gain some hits from that venue. I'll keep everyone posted.

I think I'll work on those unique descriptions tonight. It's been a long weekend so I should really turn in early. I'm starting early so I'm hopeful.

So I've decided to take the plunge and purchase the E-Book for the SEO class I'm taking. People report better results with it, and I figure the book is probably more organized than my notes.

I've been continuing to post new products in my Dog Dish Store. I have to admit that I'm getting a bit discouraged. On my to-do list currently is to get people to add my site to their site, and the response for this is VERY low. Kind of frustrating really. But it's one of those not so fun tasks of setting up this successful site. It's a job I don't want to do but really HAS to be done to get my name out there in Google. The more links the more likely Google is to crawl my site and the more likely I will move up in their rankings.

I think one reason why I've been discouraged is that the SEO class is coming to an end and while I feel like I've learned a lot I'm not at the top yet. And maybe unrealistic, but I think I expected to have more hits by now. It's only about 20 hits per day. That's nothing. I would love at LEAST 100. And for more to be coming from Google. I only get about 9 per day from google. The others come from buyitsellit community boards or Selling Lounge. All great people, but I guess I'd rather people get there without me putting the website right in their face.

I should also point out that I have found another fabulous online community full of sellers helping sellers called Selling Lounge. I only wish there were more posts on there, but once people start coming from buyitsellit.com and plumdrop.com hopefully it will pick up.

My First Sale

YAY ME!!! I have my first sale... well my first two sales! The first was a slipper dog bed. That was last Thursday. THEN a sale today for 8... that's right... EIGHT ceramic dog dishes. I'm so excited!!! I've been adding items daily and trying to get people to link to me on their sites. I'm also continuing with Cricket's class with anticipation for each new lesson.

Today I decided to add text to the website indicating when I last added products ... a tip from someone on buyitsellit.com. It lets everyone know it's an active site. I think I'll be changing that date everyday because I've been adding products non-stop for I don't know how long. I want to make sure I give variety and I want to become a one stop shop for people. I know when I buy from someone on the internet I'm thinking "do I need anything else they offer? Maybe I can save on shipping."

Time to get off the computer for tonight. I've decided of late to take some "me" time before bed and relax in front of the tv. I love working on the business but I need time away from the computer every now and then.

Dog Dish Store is coming along nicely

I've been busy adding content to my website to get it recognized by google. I had 10 pages indexed by google when I last checked... about a week ago. Now there are 70 pages indexed! I'm excited about that progress!

I've begun adding dog photos to my site. I've gotten from friends, family, and the great people at buyitsellit.com. If you have a photo to shared, please email me at customercare@dogdishstore.com. I'd love to add it to my site.

Another feature I'm working on is the pros and cons to the different types of dog dishes. I'll be using those to optimize with the site engine optimization class I'm working on. The teacher says not to start with the home page so I've decided to start there because there is pleanty of room for content. If I focus on the dog picture pages I'm not sure what I could add to those pages besides pictures. With some thought and research I think I could come up with something though. Maybe cameras to use or picture taking skills to use. There are probably a variety of things.

I've also gottena link to add to the links page I've started. I want to add lots but I can't add sites that are in direct competition with me. I think educational dog/pet sites that have link pages to post my site on. If you have one, let me know.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

My own Domain

I decided to take the chance today and buy my new domain name. It's dogdishstore.com. I'm so excited! Buy-It-Sell-It is hosting the site so I still get to use their posting tools. For me it will still look like a plane ol' buy it sell it account, but to all else it looks like a stand alone store. Much more professional and easier for Google for index you to the best of my knowledge. I also set up my company email address: customercare@dogdishstore.com. I like the customer care prefix that tells everyone that great customer service is priority for me. That's also reflected in my Terms listed on the website.

I received my first lesson for the SEO (Site Engine Optimization) Training. I've printed that so I can read it before I go to bed. It's been a long day today so I want to turn in relatively early tonight. It was a good day though. The kids sat with Santa for the first time. Dave and I were right there with them, but that's ok. They're making progress.