Done.  Done.  Done.  Done.  Done.  Done.  Done.  Done.  Done.  Done.

(For some reason, I was thinking of the Darth Vader Theme just then.)

craigb

sharke


Looks far too sensible, easy on the eyes and easy to navigate. What you want is a patchwork quilt of garish colors and animated GIFs that makes people's eyeballs explode  Like Ling's Cars. http://www.lingscars.com/  

I thought we were over the antiquated idea that websites should actually be helpful to the person using them!

Seriously though, it might be worth getting a good book on search engine optimization (SEO) because there are lots of tips and tricks you may not have thought of, and the people whose job it is to specialize in this kind of thing have figured out a lot about Google's page ranking algorithm. 

To be honest I'm not sure the unique visitor count has a lot to do with it. The reason? Google has no way of knowing that number for sites unless it has their analytic code embedded in it, and I don't think they'd get very far as a search engine if they openly favored sites that contain their javascript. 

My site ranks on the first page of Google for the most popular keyword search for my kind of business, so I've come to learn a thing or two about SEO - although I'm certainly anything but an expert. One or two tips I can give you though:

• Links to your website are important. However, some links are worth more to Google than others. The relevance of the page the link is on to the keywords you're trying to optimize for is very important. For example, if you're trying to optimize your site for the keywords "auto parts" then a link to your site on a cat website isn't going to score many points (likewise, a link on a music related forum isn't going to be worth much). When evaluating the weight of a link for a particular keyword, Google will take into account the page ranking of the page containing the link. So for example, if you managed to get a link to your site on the site that is ranked #1 for "auto parts," that's a BIG bonus. 
• Links are far more valuable when they consist of keyword phrases, rather then the URL itself. You probably know that there are two kinds of link, those which consist of a URL, e.g. "www.mysite.com," and those which are text like "My site" -- the latter is what Google is looking for in page ranking, and you should make sure the text consists of the keywords you are optimizing for. For example, the link you've included in your original post consists of the URL. You'll get more points for that link if it's in the form of relevant keyword text, like "Portland Auto Parts." And if this was a forum related to cars, even better. One thing some people do is to participate in a forum related to their site, and include a keyword link in their signature (although I'm not sure how highly Google ranks forum links, given the potential for abuse these days). 
• Decide exactly which keywords you want Google to rank you for. And be realistic. You're never going to rank highly for just "auto parts" because the competition is too great, but you have a good chance of ranking highly for "Portland Auto Parts" or something similar. Use a keyword tool (Google has one) to research the popularity of certain keywords and find out what search phrases people are using when they're looking for sites like yours. This is probably the most important part of SEO. Once you've learned a thing or two about what people are searching for, you can optimize your site for that. 
• Now that you have an idea of what keywords people are using, you can set about optimizing your site's content for that. The most important thing is to give your page a title using those keywords (don't know what you used to make your site but there should be a place where you can set the title, or if you're just using HTML then it's whatever's in the "title" tags. The title of your page should be the keywords you're optimizing for. If you have settled on "Portland Auto Parts" then make that your title. Next, optimize your page's headings. In HTML, these are the text between the tags H1, H2, H3 etc. The H1 tag is the most important, Google awards the most rank points for that, followed by the lesser heading tags H2 and H3. The H1 tag is the largest heading, at the top of your page. H2 and H3 etc are the sub-headings and sub-sub-headings and so on. 
  
  Your top heading in this case would be "NW Clips - From Ace Body Shop Supply" -- however, looking at the page source I see this is not wrapped in an H1 tag. Consider wrapping this text with the H1 tag, and perhaps replacing it to something more search friendly (according to the keywords you've researched as above). For example, if those keywords are "Portland Auto Parts" then you could have something like "NW Clips - Portland Auto Parts." I know it makes less sense than what you have now, but sometimes you have to sacrifice the copy you think makes sense, in order to please Google. 
• The trick now is to include the keywords you're optimizing for in the content of your page,  without making it look like you're being spammy. Google will give more search weight to keywords that are underlined, in bold or italics (not that much, but it all adds up). Consider using this kind of formatting for your keywords, while trying to make it look natural. 

To be honest that's just scratching the surface....there are many other hints and tips, like making sure that all of your pages have links to each other, making sure all of your images have "alt" tags with keywords in them etc. And it's also seriously worth considering changing the URL of the site to incorporate keywords, since Google ranks URL keywords very highly. There are some excellent SEO books out there written by people in the SEO business, also well worth browsing SEO forums for tips and advice. Good luck!

Just going over this in more detail.  I've actually done pretty much everything on here (including spending at least 30-40 hours using the Google tool you mention above).  Ironically, the Home page (and the Best Sellers category) are two of the least important pages for us.  The bulk of our customers will be searching for a specific part and will find an individual product page first so those got the first treatments.  I DO thank you for mentioning the Home page though because I hadn't updated it with any new information.
 
I've only got a few more of the original products to update to the newest format then I'll run a few SEO reports to see how I rank (the last scan had me at 89 out of 100 even though I knew I had about 80 products with all sorts of content and duplicated meta tag data).  Then, the site gets resubmitted to the search engines (along with some other tricks) and we wait until it gets released from Google's sandbox (the first time it took 11 days - this time should be much quicker).
 
Once we're waiting for the search engines to re-crawl the site, I can "relax" by creating an online/printable catalog with a (print-only) price list and scanning new, high-definition, images of all the products (with an nwclips.com watermark for all online versions of course!).  Then some inventory system updates, relabeling and restocking.  Oh joy.
 
Thanks once again for your help and everyone else that gave it a visit!
 
 

Sounds like you have the SEO thing down. One thing I would definitely consider for the future - and I know it's drastic - is to change the URL to include a relevant keyword. I know that's a pain if you've already distributed your current URL - although you can of course do a redirect. The reason I say this is because one of my competitors who ranks #1 on Google for the most popular keyword in my location has an absolutely atrocious website that isn't SEO optimized at all, in fact it hardly has any content. I'm sure he's #1 because his URL IS that keyword. I think Google weights URL keywords very highly indeed. 


Also, remember that your site will be ranked higher with time. Google considers older, more established sites to be "more relevant" or something. 

sharke

craigb

sharke


Looks far too sensible, easy on the eyes and easy to navigate. What you want is a patchwork quilt of garish colors and animated GIFs that makes people's eyeballs explode  Like Ling's Cars. http://www.lingscars.com/  

I thought we were over the antiquated idea that websites should actually be helpful to the person using them!

Seriously though, it might be worth getting a good book on search engine optimization (SEO) because there are lots of tips and tricks you may not have thought of, and the people whose job it is to specialize in this kind of thing have figured out a lot about Google's page ranking algorithm. 

To be honest I'm not sure the unique visitor count has a lot to do with it. The reason? Google has no way of knowing that number for sites unless it has their analytic code embedded in it, and I don't think they'd get very far as a search engine if they openly favored sites that contain their javascript. 

My site ranks on the first page of Google for the most popular keyword search for my kind of business, so I've come to learn a thing or two about SEO - although I'm certainly anything but an expert. One or two tips I can give you though:

• Links to your website are important. However, some links are worth more to Google than others. The relevance of the page the link is on to the keywords you're trying to optimize for is very important. For example, if you're trying to optimize your site for the keywords "auto parts" then a link to your site on a cat website isn't going to score many points (likewise, a link on a music related forum isn't going to be worth much). When evaluating the weight of a link for a particular keyword, Google will take into account the page ranking of the page containing the link. So for example, if you managed to get a link to your site on the site that is ranked #1 for "auto parts," that's a BIG bonus. 
• Links are far more valuable when they consist of keyword phrases, rather then the URL itself. You probably know that there are two kinds of link, those which consist of a URL, e.g. "www.mysite.com," and those which are text like "My site" -- the latter is what Google is looking for in page ranking, and you should make sure the text consists of the keywords you are optimizing for. For example, the link you've included in your original post consists of the URL. You'll get more points for that link if it's in the form of relevant keyword text, like "Portland Auto Parts." And if this was a forum related to cars, even better. One thing some people do is to participate in a forum related to their site, and include a keyword link in their signature (although I'm not sure how highly Google ranks forum links, given the potential for abuse these days). 
• Decide exactly which keywords you want Google to rank you for. And be realistic. You're never going to rank highly for just "auto parts" because the competition is too great, but you have a good chance of ranking highly for "Portland Auto Parts" or something similar. Use a keyword tool (Google has one) to research the popularity of certain keywords and find out what search phrases people are using when they're looking for sites like yours. This is probably the most important part of SEO. Once you've learned a thing or two about what people are searching for, you can optimize your site for that. 
• Now that you have an idea of what keywords people are using, you can set about optimizing your site's content for that. The most important thing is to give your page a title using those keywords (don't know what you used to make your site but there should be a place where you can set the title, or if you're just using HTML then it's whatever's in the "title" tags. The title of your page should be the keywords you're optimizing for. If you have settled on "Portland Auto Parts" then make that your title. Next, optimize your page's headings. In HTML, these are the text between the tags H1, H2, H3 etc. The H1 tag is the most important, Google awards the most rank points for that, followed by the lesser heading tags H2 and H3. The H1 tag is the largest heading, at the top of your page. H2 and H3 etc are the sub-headings and sub-sub-headings and so on. 
  
  Your top heading in this case would be "NW Clips - From Ace Body Shop Supply" -- however, looking at the page source I see this is not wrapped in an H1 tag. Consider wrapping this text with the H1 tag, and perhaps replacing it to something more search friendly (according to the keywords you've researched as above). For example, if those keywords are "Portland Auto Parts" then you could have something like "NW Clips - Portland Auto Parts." I know it makes less sense than what you have now, but sometimes you have to sacrifice the copy you think makes sense, in order to please Google. 
• The trick now is to include the keywords you're optimizing for in the content of your page,  without making it look like you're being spammy. Google will give more search weight to keywords that are underlined, in bold or italics (not that much, but it all adds up). Consider using this kind of formatting for your keywords, while trying to make it look natural. 

To be honest that's just scratching the surface....there are many other hints and tips, like making sure that all of your pages have links to each other, making sure all of your images have "alt" tags with keywords in them etc. And it's also seriously worth considering changing the URL of the site to incorporate keywords, since Google ranks URL keywords very highly. There are some excellent SEO books out there written by people in the SEO business, also well worth browsing SEO forums for tips and advice. Good luck!

Just going over this in more detail.  I've actually done pretty much everything on here (including spending at least 30-40 hours using the Google tool you mention above).  Ironically, the Home page (and the Best Sellers category) are two of the least important pages for us.  The bulk of our customers will be searching for a specific part and will find an individual product page first so those got the first treatments.  I DO thank you for mentioning the Home page though because I hadn't updated it with any new information.

I've only got a few more of the original products to update to the newest format then I'll run a few SEO reports to see how I rank (the last scan had me at 89 out of 100 even though I knew I had about 80 products with all sorts of content and duplicated meta tag data).  Then, the site gets resubmitted to the search engines (along with some other tricks) and we wait until it gets released from Google's sandbox (the first time it took 11 days - this time should be much quicker).

Once we're waiting for the search engines to re-crawl the site, I can "relax" by creating an online/printable catalog with a (print-only) price list and scanning new, high-definition, images of all the products (with an nwclips.com watermark for all online versions of course!).  Then some inventory system updates, relabeling and restocking.  Oh joy.

Thanks once again for your help and everyone else that gave it a visit!

Sounds like you have the SEO thing down. One thing I would definitely consider for the future - and I know it's drastic - is to change the URL to include a relevant keyword. I know that's a pain if you've already distributed your current URL - although you can of course do a redirect. The reason I say this is because one of my competitors who ranks #1 on Google for the most popular keyword in my location has an absolutely atrocious website that isn't SEO optimized at all, in fact it hardly has any content. I'm sure he's #1 because his URL IS that keyword. I think Google weights URL keywords very highly indeed. 


Also, remember that your site will be ranked higher with time. Google considers older, more established sites to be "more relevant" or something. 

Heh, well...  We, um, just did that (it was abodyshop.com - horrible).  Not exactly sure what you mean since the primary thing we sell are called "Clips" to every repair shop and we just happen to be based in the NW...  Any other possible easy to remember yet product specific URL was already taken.

Location: NW
Product: Clips

Hehe...

Anyway, most will do a search by OEM number (I've got them with and without hyphens), others will enter a competitor's product number (I've got many of those in there too) and the rest will usually type in something like "Honda Bumper Fastener" (which, naturally, is also covered).  Add to all that many of the misspellings for all the best keywords (which I have buried in hidden content) and I'm hoping we're set!

I've got 20 more products to update and I'm mostly done with the main grunt work.  Sheesh!  I need a break...

I notice you have some hidden text at the bottom of each brand page, outlining which models that brand encompasses. Google's going to spot that and may penalize it, but I'm not sure how that penalization works - whether it only subtracts points for the keywords hidden in the text or if it subtracts for the whole page in general. IMO, I would unhide that text - it doesn't look out of place on the page anyway. 

I've heard it a number of times when researching SEO, and I think I even heard Matt Cutts from Google talk about it in one of his SEO videos. It used to be a very popular way to stuff pages with keywords and they caught onto it very quickly. 

It's amazing some of the lengths the Google algorithm will go to to spot hidden text. People have tried using very sneaky and clever javascript and yet Google still catches it because their parser executes it and understands exactly what it's doing. So one thing to bear in mind is that having the text the same color as the background is probably the easiest thing for Google to catch, whether you set the color in the HTML or in a CSS style. 

Knowing Google, they probably go so far as to measure the contrast between text and background color. So if your background is $FFFF and your text is $FFFE, they're going to know that it's a very low contrast that is invisible to most people. 

Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about having that text visible It doesn't detract from the content and people are used to seeing some kind of small print at the bottom of the page. Besides, it's actually relevant content. You have a page which is for a particular brand of car, and you're just clarifying which models that brand encompasses. It's not as if it's a nonsensical list of keywords. But yeah, it's probably going to look better in a lighter color than the main content...just not too much lighter. 

One thing I came to terms with through designing a couple of sites over the years is that there is always a trade-off between your ideal design and SEO considerations. It affects the style of your copy and also the layout. Your SEO optimized page is never going to look or read exactly how you'd prefer in the absence of SEO. The art is to balance the two so that you get good ranking while at the same time making sense to the visitor. 

Yep - just did some checking...  Oh well, it's for the use of the customer so I guess they'll just have to live with some fine print.  What sucks is that I now have an addition 3-4 hours of busy work (at least)...

I just finished cleaning up the categories...

Now I "only" have about 160 products that need to be fixed and are going to look like crap.  Google says if it's hidden it's not what the users want it's only there for SEO.  Well, in our case, it's defiitely there for both.  The customer wants to find exactly the part they need but, even people in the business, call the same part by a lot of different names!  Add to that all the misspellings (like the dealership guy who found us by using "fastner" instead of "fastener").  So, yeah, the customers DO want this, but they don't want to have to see it messing up their screens...

Stupid Google nonsense...  I wanted to go to sleep hours ago.

Hi Craig,

Done.

Nitpicking: "This website is... but..." these clauses should be reversed and possibly re-written.  Get your positive in first, those in a hurry might not pass  "but".

Regards,


Vincent.

I'm not sure if you even need to include spelling mistakes for SEO purposes these days, because Google automatically corrects them when you search. For example, if I search for "Justin Bieber is a bufoon" Google delivers me results for "Justin Bieber is a buffoon" instead. It works for brand names as well, e.g. "Kodac Cameras" is automatically changed to "Kodak Cameras." Might want to look into whether or not Google is automatically correcting the misspellings you're including as hidden content, because if it is then there is no need to get yourself potentially penalized by hiding stuff.