I'm sooooo confused....

Talltom1 · 02-25-2011, 02:31 PM

OK - I need a bit of direction here. One of my sites is about 2-3 years old (Triathlete & Ironman Triathlon Training & Race Information) and it has about 1000 pages indexed in the big K.

I have about 5 specific keywords I'm optimizing it for, but when I do a ranking check on those keywords, my site isn't picked up in any of the big 3 engines. Your thoughts and insights....?

Talltom

Jonathan Beaton · 02-25-2011, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talltom1

OK - I need a bit of direction here. One of my sites is about 2-3 years old (Triathlete & Ironman Triathlon Training & Race Information) and it has about 1000 pages indexed in the big K.

I have about 5 specific keywords I'm optimizing it for, but when I do a ranking check on those keywords, my site isn't picked up in any of the big 3 engines. Your thoughts and insights....?

Talltom

I don't have time to do a complete analysis but here are my initial impressions:
-You only have 11 linking domains
-You don't have a single nofollow link pointing to your page
-The warrior is the only respectable domain linking to your page

yukon · 02-25-2011, 03:10 PM

First on-page seo:

1) Remove the <h1> tag from the image slider on each page, change it to an <h3>, you might need to tweak the CSS to make the <h3> look the same as the <h1> tag.

I count 5 <h1> tags on this single internal page [link].

I suggest a single <h1> tag per page, keep it short & include your best keyword per page (rank the page not the site).

2) I know a lot of people say they don't use the meta keyword tag, I use the tag on my sites & I also see that you use the tag.

This is what you have in your meta-keyword tag [link]:

Code:

<meta name="keywords" content="you, to, triathlon, if, for" />

Four of those words are stop words [info], everything except the keyword triathlon.

3) No offense, your link structure is horrible, what's going on here?

hxxp://www.my-triathlon-training.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1872: how-long-should-you-train-before-participating-in-your-first-triathlon&catid=27:front-page-articles

Why is the url so long, with characters that you don't need & shouldn't have?

Keep the url as compact & on subject as possible.

I would be surprised If a human could follow that url let alone Google (just sayin

).

4) You have 22 image alt tags & not a single keyword or keyword phrase. Images rank in Google Image Search similar to organic text search (get them ranked).

5) Titles - Correct the punctuation for each titles (looks better). Make your titles as compact as possible, make them read good for both people & Google. Read each title to yourself, & you'll see they can be tweaked. It won't hurt to make any edits now, If your pages are not already ranking.

6) Something like this:

Code:

<h3>Serious Information for Serious Competitors</h3>

Should be an <h1> tag, not an <h3> (maybe like this):

Code:

<h1>Information for Serious Triathlete Competitors</h1>

7) Correct your strong/bold tags, from this:

Code:

 <strong>I am not very fit - can I still manage a triathlon?</strong>

To something like this:

Code:

I am not very fit - can I still manage a <strong>triathlon</strong>?

You have a lot of on-page seo to do before you start working on external seo (backlinks, etc...)

Just take each step above a little at a time, correct each issue before starting the next.

Good luck,

Talltom1 · 02-25-2011, 03:28 PM

Awesome Insight guys. I appreciate the time you took to evaluate the site. Couple of quick comments, this is a site running on Joomla. I'm concerned about the link structure too. Anybody have experience with Joomla and SEO? Right now I'm actively wondering about switching over to Wordpress instead.

Also, you're probably going to tell me that I need to SEO optimize each and every article right? Some of your suggestions Yukon were relative to the one article you linked to.

Many thanks guys for your observations. The help is greatly appreciated.

Talltom

yukon · 02-25-2011, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talltom1

Awesome Insight guys. I appreciate the time you took to evaluate the site. Couple of quick comments, this is a site running on Joomla. I'm concerned about the link structure too. Anybody have experience with Joomla and SEO? Right now I'm actively wondering about switching over to Wordpress instead.

Also, you're probably going to tell me that I need to SEO optimize each and every article right? Some of your suggestions Yukon were relative to the one article you linked to.

Many thanks guys for your observations. The help is greatly appreciated.

Talltom

Yes, seo each page, not just articles (example: category, tags, index-page, etc...), I just used that one internal page as an example. Most times all internal blog-post pages structure is setup the same.

I would look into correcting the URLs with joomla since you already have 887 pages indexed in Google SERPs with the site [link]. If you can't get the URLs in joomla corrected, I would move to Wordpress (WP).

I've never worked with joomla, so I'm not sure what the url issue is. All my sites are WP.

Gibbzee · 02-25-2011, 03:57 PM

It also depends on what your keywords are which you are actually trying to rank for. Keywords such as iron man and running etc are going to be very competitive, so you would be better targeting long tailed keywords.

02-25-2011, 02:31 PM	#1
Talltom1 HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Detroit, MI Posts: 449 Thanks: 34 Thanked 79 Times in 33 Posts	I'm sooooo confused.... OK - I need a bit of direction here. One of my sites is about 2-3 years old (Triathlete & Ironman Triathlon Training & Race Information) and it has about 1000 pages indexed in the big K. I have about 5 specific keywords I'm optimizing it for, but when I do a ranking check on those keywords, my site isn't picked up in any of the big 3 engines. Your thoughts and insights....? Talltom

02-25-2011, 03:10 PM	#3
yukon SEO Strategist War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 6,532 Thanks: 355 Thanked 1,992 Times in 1,273 Posts	Re: I'm sooooo confused.... First on-page seo: 1) Remove the <h1> tag from the image slider on each page, change it to an <h3>, you might need to tweak the CSS to make the <h3> look the same as the <h1> tag. I count 5 <h1> tags on this single internal page [link]. I suggest a single <h1> tag per page, keep it short & include your best keyword per page (rank the page not the site). 2) I know a lot of people say they don't use the meta keyword tag, I use the tag on my sites & I also see that you use the tag. This is what you have in your meta-keyword tag [link]: Code: <meta name="keywords" content="you, to, triathlon, if, for" /> Four of those words are stop words [info], everything except the keyword triathlon. 3) No offense, your link structure is horrible, what's going on here? hxxp://www.my-triathlon-training.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1872: how-long-should-you-train-before-participating-in-your-first-triathlon&catid=27:front-page-articles Why is the url so long, with characters that you don't need & shouldn't have? Keep the url as compact & on subject as possible. I would be surprised If a human could follow that url let alone Google (just sayin ). 4) You have 22 image alt tags & not a single keyword or keyword phrase. Images rank in Google Image Search similar to organic text search (get them ranked). 5) Titles - Correct the punctuation for each titles (looks better). Make your titles as compact as possible, make them read good for both people & Google. Read each title to yourself, & you'll see they can be tweaked. It won't hurt to make any edits now, If your pages are not already ranking. 6) Something like this: Code: <h3>Serious Information for Serious Competitors</h3> Should be an <h1> tag, not an <h3> (maybe like this): Code: <h1>Information for Serious Triathlete Competitors</h1> 7) Correct your strong/bold tags, from this: Code: <strong>I am not very fit - can I still manage a triathlon?</strong> To something like this: Code: I am not very fit - can I still manage a <strong>triathlon</strong>? You have a lot of on-page seo to do before you start working on external seo (backlinks, etc...) Just take each step above a little at a time, correct each issue before starting the next. Good luck,

02-25-2011, 03:28 PM	#4
Talltom1 HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Detroit, MI Posts: 449 Thanks: 34 Thanked 79 Times in 33 Posts	Re: I'm sooooo confused.... Awesome Insight guys. I appreciate the time you took to evaluate the site. Couple of quick comments, this is a site running on Joomla. I'm concerned about the link structure too. Anybody have experience with Joomla and SEO? Right now I'm actively wondering about switching over to Wordpress instead. Also, you're probably going to tell me that I need to SEO optimize each and every article right? Some of your suggestions Yukon were relative to the one article you linked to. Many thanks guys for your observations. The help is greatly appreciated. Talltom

02-25-2011, 03:57 PM	#6
Gibbzee Warrior Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 8 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: I'm sooooo confused.... It also depends on what your keywords are which you are actually trying to rank for. Keywords such as iron man and running etc are going to be very competitive, so you would be better targeting long tailed keywords.