Higher search engine rank?

[shmay]

I am updating this website for a sunglasses company

It's not done, but my boss wants to get it out there.

The sales will pretty much be determined entirely by the search rank when someone types in "sunglasses" or "ray ban" or whatever.

So any good software recommendations? My boss is willing to spend money. Besides that, any basic tips for raising the rank?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[stymiee]

You are targeting very c0ompetitive keywords. You will be looking at years before you even have a chance at being successful. I highly suggest that you try to target less competitive phrases if you want to have any hope for short term success.

Getting an ecommerce site to rank well in the search engines is very difficult. After all, the only content they tend to have is products which are the same products everyone else has. They've have a head start over you and that's very difficult to overcome. You will need to add content that they don't have usually in the form of a blog or article. Product reviews and step by step instructions for care and usage are always helpful.

Don't waste your money on software or SEO companies. They're a waste of money. You may want to consider paying someone to submit the site to some directories, though, to establish some backlinks.

Overall keep promoting it and seeking links to the site. You have an uphill battle on your hands but the sooner you start the sooner you'll get results.

[Karl666]

Why do you feel that SEO companies are a waste of money? I've noticed some are offering web "reports" for around $200. Do you consider these worthwhile?

[neuronimbus]

My boss is willing to spend money. Besides that, any basic tips for raising the rank?

Then go for some good paid directories having lots of traffic such as Yahoo paid directory...

And why not you use PPC advertising for your website, if its done...Its may help in instant hits to your website...(but not useful in organic ranking)..

[stymiee]

Why do you feel that SEO companies are a waste of money? I've noticed some are offering web "reports" for around $200. Do you consider these worthwhile?

No. Those reports they offer are not special and you can get the same information yourself for free and quickly.

[Hilton paris]

For high search engine ranking:Do Directory submission
Blog commenting
Forums Discussion
Article marketing
Press Release
Link exchange
Classified Sites
Digg

[stymiee]

Most of those will have no effect on your rankings.

[Hilton paris]

Do you tell me which factors helps in high search engine ranking .
Please send me suggestions.
Thank you .

[stymiee]

Follow these basic guidelines:

Before you write one line of code: Do keyword research to determine what keywords you want to target.
While constructing your website you should do the following: Use markup to indicate the content of your site Optimize your tags on each page to contain 1 - 3 keywords
Create unique Meta Tags for each page
Use header tags appropriately (H1 > H2 > H3)
Use and tags if appropriate

Optimize your URLs Use Search Engine Friendly URLs
Use keywords in your domain ( http://www.keyword1.com/ )
Use keywords in your URL ( http://www.example.com/keyword2/keyword3.html )
Use dashes or underscores to separate words in your URLs (keyword2-keyword3.html)

Optimize your content Use keywords liberally yet appropriately throughout each page
Have unique content
Have quality content

Use search engine friendly design Create a human sitemap
Do not use inaccessible site navigation (JavaScript or Flash menus)
Minimize outbound links
Kept your pages under 100K in size

Design the navigational structure of the site to channel PR to main pages (especially the homepage)
Create a page that encourages webmasters to link to your site Provide them the relevant HTML to create their link to you (make sure the anchor text contains keywords)
Provide them with any images you may want them to use (although text links are better)

Make sure your website is complete before launching it
Immediately after launching your site you should do the following: Create Webmaster Accounts Google Webmaster Tools
Yahoo! Site Explorer

Submit your site to all major search engines Google (Use a Google SiteMap )
Yahoo (Use the page list option)
MSN
Ask (Finds your site via incoming links)

Create an XML sitemap
Submit your site to all free directories DMOZ (also powers Google Directory)
JoeAnt

Submit your site to relevant directories Find more at ISEDB

Begin a link building campaign (attempting to get keywords in the link anchor text) Put a link to your website in your forum signatures (hint hint)
Reply to relevant blog posts (Don't spam please)

If you will pay to promote your website: Submit your site to pay directories Yahoo
GoGuides

Finally, as part of an ongoing strategy: Continually update your website with quality, unique content
Continually seek free links preferably from sites in your genre
Do NOT do the following: Make an all Flash website (without an HTML alternative)
Use JavaScript or Flash for navigation
Spam other websites for incoming links
Launch your site before it is done
Use duplicate content Do not point several domains to one site without using a 301 redirect
Do not make a site of duplicated content from other websites

Use markup inappropriately Style eader tags to look like regular text
Hide content using 'display: hidden' (for the sake of hiding text)

Use other "black hat" techniques (unless you accept the risk - Banning) Doorway/Landing pages
Cloaking
Hidden text

Additional Tips: Usable and accessible sites tend to be search engine friendly by their very nature
Be patient! High rankings don't happen overnight
Don't obsess with any one search engine. They are all worth your attention.

[erothchild]

I agree that in most cases SEO companies can be a waste of time, there is plenty of good information out there and if you have 1-2 hours a day to spare dont waste the dough...

BUT... If you have a day job and family you might want to use a REPUTABLE service, Definitely do your homework by:

Researching their rankings and listings
Look to see where their clients rankings are and see how they have been moving.
Get a checklist of everything they will be doing to promote your site and research that.

For most people, there are a lot of good free tools checklists that you can work your way through for an hour or two a day. For larger sites you can try find and replace for small simple adjustments like to create H1 tags or correct keyword placements and adding simmilar wording.

I have added a quick beginers checklist to my new php help forum.

If you have any questions about SEO let me know, I will happily answer them to the best of my knowledge.

[stymiee]

I had to remove the link to your website as self promotion is not allowed at Daniweb.

But I checked it out before I removed it. That checklist was pretty bad. It basically was full of advice based on myths. The checklist above offers not only far more information but far more accurate information.

[WebDave]

You need to have a good chemistry of your on- page and off-page activities. IMO if you have good on-page factors as mentioned by Stymee then only the off-page factors will boost your Rankings in SERP's.

[erothchild]

I rank very well, and as I said, it was a quick checklist for those with an hour a day to spare, and if there was no SEO done yet.

I took the time to write content for your site, I dont appreciate your trashing me without even paying attention to what my post said.

The list will work, I currently hold in the top 3 for the term marketing leads on google for over 3 years along with around 150 other marketing related words, my checklist got me my start at an hour a day.

[stymiee]

I took the time to write content for your site, I dont appreciate your trashing me without even paying attention to what my post said.

You need to relax. If you can't take criticism then you are in the wrong place as that happens in discussion forums especially when you offer information that you made up.

And I did read your post and I read your tips as well. And like I said the information was bad. You give advice based on myths or conclusions that you came to with no basis for saying so. That commonly happens with SEO and I called you out on it. If you think your advice is so good then post it here and defend it. Just be prepared for have someone challenge it as well.

[KeyDegree]

Generating good quality backlinks is hard. I think that once you are able to start building up your site with backlinks, it gets a little easier with time.

Good luck on your hunt!

[stymiee]

Building backlinks is a slow process. At first you start with low quality links because that is all you can readily get and they are better then what you have (which is nothing). Those links give you a little boost and should help you get some stronger links which in turn get you a bigger boost which in turns gets you stringer links, etc. It takes times which some webmasters don't want to hear and that is why you constantly hear of gimmicks and tricks to get links. That's the lazy people trying to get ahead. Patience is key.

[KeyDegree]

What do you think about buying backlinks? I was looking around at all different sites and found that you can buy them on high ranking sites. Are all those "buy backlinks" scams? Or is there some depth of quality to them?

[erothchild]

If you must buy backlinks make sure the actual page you are getting listed on has backlinks.

I think it might be better if you write articles on your sites topic and submit it to high pagerank article sites. I let a few go last year and have hundreds of backlinks from it. Not a lot get listed in Google but Yahoo site explorer shows them along with weblogs.

One of the best things you can do for your site right now is, believe it or not, get a tiny ad in the yellow pages, Google is using a lot of InfoUSA’s database and they get their data from the book.

I am currently running a few test sites on the paid backlinks from related sites and then niche directories, so I'll have more data in a few months.

[KeyDegree]

Interesting, thats a great point. I guess if you are buying liks, you had better make sure exactly where they place yours. That seems to happen alot where people want to exchange links even, and place you on a page with no rank or quality. Thanks good point

[erothchild]

I was even more suprised to learn that the Infousa status affects placement, its strange to see that my biggest competitor has actually become a big part of the way the internet works.