HELP me with seo on my website please

[momo88]

Hi I have been learning about seo and done all i think i can to try and get a better ranking in google but i am pulling my hair out. Am I doing seo right? Feels like i am getting no where can anyone have a look at my website and guide me as where I am going wrong please?

My website is http://www.belfastcomputerrepair.co.uk/

[Captain Spaulding]

No one can answer if you’re doing seo right if you don't tell us what you’re doing in the first place.

My company is a new one, my website has been live for approx. 6 months and it's ranked no 1 on Google for 8 of my keywords, rank 2 for 3 of my keywords and rank 3 for 8 keywords. Keywords are the important ones "computer repair <town>", "laptop repair <town>", "pc repair <town>" etc etc...

It's possible to rank well quickly but it's not easy, here is what I did in no particular order of importance:

Get social - you need a Facebook, twitter, Google+ page etc... all linking to your main site
Onsite optimization - make sure you build good internal links to several pages, have good alt text and titles. Using a good wordpress theme and an seo plugin worked wonders for me.
Page content - good content onsite with relevant keywords but don't stuff them and make sure the site is good, no point being no 1 on Google if people leave your page after one look. Have a blog on your site with unique content you update at least once every few months. Have a nofollow newsfeed on your main page to keep fresh content.
Check your competitors links (http://www.belfastlaptoprepairs.com) on Google (IMPORTANT) you want to make sure you have a link on EVERY site they appear on and then some.
Backlinks - aim to get AT LEAST 5 .edu backlinks, it can be from blog comments just make sure they are not too spammy and make sure you use good link text in your backlink. As many other backlinks as possible. If you can get a .gov backlink do it, I have one and it made a big difference.
Directories - you want a link on yelp, 118, scoot, hotfrog etc etc...
Article submission - submit your blog posts to sites like ezinearticles.com, www.squidoo.com etc etc.. and make sure each article contains a few good keyword rich backlinks to your site.
Contact info - make sure you have your physical address and contact numbers etc in text format on every page on your site (even if it's just in the footer)
Google paces - create a page

IMPORTANT - Monitoring:

- Get a Google analytics account setup correctly
- Get a Google webmaster tools account
- Start a Google adwords campaign if just to use their keyword tool and you can easily find a free £50 voucher to get started
- Install "Free Monitor for Google" from http://www.cleverstat.com to check your progress (IMPORTANT)
- Install awstats

Once you have done ALL the above then you should start to see your site move up the rankings quickly. Hope this helps you and others.

SEO really isn't a black art and there is no magic bullet, it takes hard work, lots of typing and keeping a close eye on your competitors.

I expect I missed some of the stuff I did but thats all I can remember at the moment.

Good luck!

P.S - Backlinks are VERY important, for example ask yourself why you are posting in a forum with a pagerank of 5 that allows dofollow backlinks without adding a few keyword rich backlinks to your own site????

[bigmike2974]

Captain,

How do I get to put links to my web site in my signature. Right now it tells me I am not allowed.

Is it a because I am a newbie on the forum?

*15 post is the limit before linking is allowed - I better get cracking.

[neil]

I'm trying to improve the SEO for my site too, and came across a tool yesterday which helps you focus on the key things that search engines look at on your site. Check out:-

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

There is a paid for version, but also a free trial which I think will be good enough for the size of site most of us have.

Found the link on a podcast "SEO 101: Learning SEO basics".

Neil

[mason]

another thing is start simple if you know nothing about seo -

Look at the basics, Your keywords. Add keywords to your web site, have different ones on different pages, Make sure your title states what you do on all pages. Links find local companies or other local web sites to add you and you link back.

The very simple things help. Also look at what your competitors are doing with the keywords they use.

also listen to captins post

[Simon Yates]

Hi Mo,

I don't consider myself an expert in SEO, but over the past couple of years i have learned a thing or two about the topic.

Here are a few suggestions for you to consider:

Quality content is king!
Clean up your text and fix spelling errors.
"Hassel Free" should be Hassle Free
"Mafee" should be McAfee

Those were just a couple of errors that jumped out at first glance.

Your on page SEO passes most items suggested by the SEOquake plugin for Firefox. It did flag a few items that should be addressed. I suggest installing it and checking over your website yourself. Nice little tool by the way, and easy to use.

I personally think you could get a little more creative in getting your keywords into your page text.

For example the line "Here at Computer Laptop Repair Belfast we do..."

It is unlikely a person will search that exact phrase, and to someone visiting your page it doesn't read very naturally. so maybe try "At Mo's Computer Repair we provide computer and laptop repair in the Belfast area."

Your website is your online storefront and it should look professional. Write your content with the customer in mind rather than focus on optimizing for the search engines.

Lastly, you need quality dofollow back links.

Don't hire a cheap "SEO Company" and have them spam the internet with thousands of worthless back links from private blog networks and forum profiles. Been there, tried that and it's a waste of time. It takes work, but getting a handful of links from a high PR page can do WONDERS for your ranking. Cutting corners is just not worth it!

I suggest spending some time looking around this forum and maybe over at the warriorforum as well.

Good luck!

Simon.

[Eric@noware]

Very helpful thread, thank you so very much.

I found this article from SEOMOZ pretty helpful as well.

Woorank.com is a nice tool as is the SEO site tools extension for Chrome.

[hondablaster]

OP

When asking to improve SEO you need to think what you want to enhance. Many times folks want to improve SEO and then get a flood of information that makes things more confusing. Pinpoint what your looking to do!

It likes asking "I want to improve myself" how mentally, emotionally, phsically? and even those can get broken down further.

For now what keyword do you want to rank for?

[expertcomputing.co.uk]

Hi,

If you're a small business with a limited budget, i would not advise you to hire a company because it's a waste of money. I have tried various different so called SEO companies and - to an extent - they do some good work, like manual directory entries, writing articles and submitting them and so on.

However, if you have a few hours a day ( not everyone has of course! ) you can do all this yourself with a bit of organisation and save a lot of money. In particular, a basic strategy i use is to do the following:

1. Be patient. SEO takes a few months to even kick in.

2. On Site SEO - landing page optimisation, choose correct keywords, put plenty of internal links between pages with the right phrases.

2. Put good backlinks in all quality directories. See what your competitors are doing by using tools like opensiteexplorer

3. Try and write a good 250 page article once a week on your website. Target a particular keyword.

3. Stay on top with tools such as cuterank (monitor progress for keywords per domain), google analytics and webmaster tools.

4. Be social! Join forums, participate in discussions, update your facebook and twitter feeds regularly.