I've tried but it's not working out

[melaniejk]

Hi. I've been trying the last three months to use SEO techniques to help my web site. I've had a site for years, but I didn't know anything at all about SEO.

I've been reading alot online and thought I was doing it right.
My PR went from PR3 to PR5 and I went from like 10 links to 63 backlinks.
And, I did see a little improvement in my search term ranking.
But, I'm getting disapointed because sites with lower PR and less backlinks and less keyword density are ranking higher than me in the results.

I do have a few not relevant backlinks that I got last month, but even though they are still listed, the site is no longer linking to us. But, I did do a lot of work getting some new relevant links to replace them. Hopefully, that will make up for the loss.


Am I doing something wrong that is causing a problem?
I'd really really appreciate an SEO review. Pretty please?

Thank you.


The url is in my profile (don't want to get in trouble for spamming)
The keywords I've tried to optimize for are:
genealogist, professional genealogists, genealogy researchers,etc

Sincerely,
Melaniejk

[seo guy]

Hey look at my piece of junk spammy URL at this adress >>>> URL HERE, is spamming.

Your question and contribution to our forum is completely genuine and you are more then welcome to post your URL in public. In fact we are honored to have you as a member and you may feel free to post it in your signature so that you get backlink credit when you post, I would suggest using the kw "Genealogist" as the anchor text. And by the way Welcome to the forum Mel (I hope you dont mind if I call you mel :)

Many people are often confused as to why a site with seemingly less SEO and backlinks ranks better then their own site so I would like to make a statement about search engines first and then offer a few pointers.

First: Search engines are not concerned with ranking the best SEO'd sites, search engines are concerned with ranking the best sites. Although we do our best to manipulate their opinions of our domains we must always remember this.

Now on to your case:
First of try to keep it as clean as possible
I would remove:

<META name="Publisher" content="Ancestral Branches Genealogist">
<META name="revisit-after" content="15 days">
<!-- Genealogical research company. A professional genealogist can build your family history. Discover your family tree and your ancestry from a genealogy researcher. -->

They take up code space and are irrelevant to search engines with regards to ranking and not necessary with regards to usibility.

Next I would suggest trying to get your keywords a little higher in your code, if you can make it the first thing the SE sees then obviously its the most important. A great example of this is logobee.com Not the first bit of text is their main kw "logo design" and they have integrated it very nicely into their design.

Next I would remove all the H2's that do not contain keywords such as <h2>Welcome</h2> and redefine those tags using normal font style and size application. The reason is H1-H2 are in my mind given special consideration by search engines because of their natural size and prevalence, thus if you dont have your keyword in it, dont use it.

You might also consider making the top image bar clickable and have it point back to your index page with your main keyword in it

<A href="http://www.ancestralbranches.com/"><img border="0" src="menu-left.jpg" width="183" height="27" alt="genealogistr"></a>

I notice you dont incorporate many links within your actual written text to other related pages you might want to consider doing so with a keyword of course as the anchor example:

<a href="/research.html">Genealogy research</a> can help you learn your family's unique history, traditions, their overseas origins, medical history, and the contributions toward the creation of your life.

[seo guy]

Now as for backlinks I only count 12 unique sites showing up so you will want to improve on that for sure, I know some may not even have that many but it is the combination of quantity + quality that will help you win so go for as many relevant links as you can.

Also remember your competition may have low PR and very few backlinks showing but what if they have 1000 PR 0 pages linking to them all which are relevant? This would certainly be a larger benefit then 20-30 PR 4 or above page that actually show in the google backlink check. Just because you cant see them doesnt mean they are not there or that they dont count. :-)

[seo guy]

From my initial glance you certainly have not done anything wrong in fact you seem to have a very nice site, with our help hopefully we can help you get to the top.

[melaniejk]

Thank you Seo Guy for all your help. It's much appreciated. And, thank you for the warm welcome. Yes, Mel is fine. Lots of people call me Mel. Some call me Melly because they say I remind them of Melly from Gone With the Wind, but I don't care for that.

I have some newbie questions regarding the suggestions. I trust your suggestions I am just trying to understand some things better.

You mention that I should make the top image bar clickable and that I could
incorporate many links within the actual written text to my other relevant pages. Does it make a difference if I already have the navigational links to those pages? Is having several links on Page A to Page B better? Won't that make the PR spread out unevenly to my other pages?


I'll get to work on changing that <h2> stuff right away. It didn't even occur to me that I could just alter the font size and not have to worry about it being thought of as an important word on the page.

You mention removing the Revisit Meta tag. Will this affect how often the other SE spider my site? I thought that tag would help keep my site current in the listings.

I didn't realize that it mattered if the backlinks were from unique sites.
Thank you for mentioning that. I hadn't read it anywhere before. I just watched the total number given. I've been finding it difficult to get relevant backlinks. They have always asked for reciprocal links in exchange. But, that wouldn't help my PR right? So, I've been staying away from that. I even made an award that people could apply for (that I ask they link to the homepage). But, I've only gotten a few requests.

Also, is there a way to optimize the site for G* and Yahoo at the same time? I've noticed the ranking for my keywords are very different on them.
The site is never good for a keyword on both of them. By optimizing for G am I hurting the Y ranking?

Thank you again for all your wonderful help.
Sincerely,
Mel
http://www.ancestralbranches.com

[melaniejk]

Ok,
I think I got this signature thing figure out...

[morgan]

"Is having several links on Page A to Page B better? Won't that make the PR spread out unevenly to my other pages?"

No Google only counts the first link to a destination page for PR and backlink credit so your PR spreads the same, what it does do is ensure that the first link to say your "Genealogy research" page has the specific anchor text "Genealogy research" in it. It also embeds your link within relevant content which I think is important.

The revisit tag does nothing for you at all, Google will visit you as often as your backlinks and PR dictate, the more links you have the more google has a chance to happen across your site, the more PR you have the more google will want to go there.

Now for reciprocal links, DO IT :-) But only with related websites, dont go exchanging with casinos etc but linking to a quality related resource can do nothing but help you especially if you get a link back :) One mistake a lot of people make is turning their websites into PR sinks, Google doesnt want you to go out and get as much PR as possible just to make your site a deadend for it, they want it speading naturally throughout the web via a network of both inbound and outbound links, this is how great sites are found and ranked.

lastly can you rank in both Google and Yahoo? Go to both and type in "SEO Company" heh
Good luck!

[melaniejk]

Morgan,
Thank you for clearing that up for me about putting a link with the anchor text in my site.

Ok, out with the revisit tag..tonight.

Wow, number one in Yahoo and Google...
Astonishing. You guys are the best.

[melaniejk]

Hi.
I did some work on the site and I've already seen some results. Yea!
For the keyword, "professional genealogists" the page moved from 11 to 9.
For the keyword, "genealogy researcher" the page moved from 7 to 6.

G* revisited my site and updated an inside page (berks.html), but not the index. It kept the index cache. That never happened before as far as I know. Wierd.

I have a question about Meta Tags. I was wondering if I was repeating a word too often. But, it's used different ways. Here is what I have:

<META NAME="keywords" content="genealogist, genealogy researchers, professional genealogist, family tree, genealogy, finding ancestors, Pennsylvania genealogist, family history, genealogical research service, family tree research, professional genealogists">

Am I repeating the word genealogist too often? I have it alone and then with professional genealogist and then Pennsylvania genealogist and then professional genealogists. That's a total of 4. Do I need to put the plural version of the word?


After adding keywords to my text, it doesn't sound that great anymore. Does it sound overdone? Do you think it will be a turn off to visitors?


Thank you.

Sincerely,
Melanie

[melaniejk]

Hi.
After do some SEO changes suggested to my pages they have dropped a lot in the SERPS. Backlinks haven't changed, PR hasn't changed.

genealogy researcher: was at 6 for long time now at 8
professional genealogist: was at 9 now at 14
professional genealogists: 18


Any suggestions?

Melaniejk :confused:

[melaniejk]

For anyone who may be interested, (yah right) I think I figured out why my SERP dropped. The number of backlinks didn't change. But, many of their PRs did. For instance, a genealogy page with an index PR5 and rest PR 4 dropped one PR on all pages.

So, that probably was responsible for the drop.

Melaniejk

[morgan]

I care actually, can you do me a favor and reverse 1 thing. The alt tag of your image (I know I know I told you to do it, but this is a hunch based on some interesting new developements discussed at http://www.seo-guy.com/forum/showthread.php?t=333

Take your main kw out of hte alt tag pointing the the homepage, currently you have
<A href="http://www.ancestralbranches.com/"><img border="0" src="menu-left.jpg" width="183" height="27" alt="genealogist"></a>
Just remove the kw altogether so it says alt="" with nothing inside.

I also notice you dont mention the word "researcher" anywhere on your page or in your title try putting "genealogy researcher" at the end of your title and perhaps try to get researcher on your page at least once (Dont go overboard)

Remember before making any change note the way things were so if they get worse you can put them back.

Google rankings right now are a work in progress right now so its trial and error such as thing that will make our community members adjust to changes quiker and come out on top!

[morgan]

Please keep us posted on progress

[morgan]

Oh yeah and btw, IT honestly doesnt have that much to do with your PR, the # of links you have thus your link popularity has likely not changed much

[irish_ladie]

Hi Mel.......I cant find a links page or helpful resources page on your site - I would gladly recriprocate a link - we have a small genalogy section on our links page.......I am sure you have Irish genalogy........either way I will put a link to you.......if you dont recriprocate thats no problem! pm me with details....

[melaniejk]

HI Morgan.
Well, I've tried to optimize my index.html page for the keyword phrase, "professional genealogist" and the research.html page for the keyword phrase, "genealogy researcher". Sorry, I should have mention that.

I've changed the alt like you suggested. We'll see what happens.