Wanting to move website up from page 2 of Google

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Original Message Added : 17 Jun 2011

Hi, could you please take a minute to review my site. Before you do, please be honest but be aware that I have built this from scratch and for free. I have days on the site trying different things, changing, hopefully improving the site.

www.coopers-castles.co.uk

I know that i need to invest some money into this but we are just starting out and have very limited funds this year.

The people i have asked so far have been friends and family and i think they have found it hard to be honest!

Please let me know, i have worked hard to get our website up Google and are currently on page 2 which i know isn't good but has been an achievement in itself as i have had zero previous experience in setting up or designing websites or google rankings.

The analytics have been steady for the site but not great.

Any help advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

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	Angela Lynn from Coopers Castles
Location :	Leeds
Joined :	14 April 2011
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	4 ( 0)

Reply : 17 Jun 2011 - (Edited : 17 Jun 2011)

for me the colours good , meta description is too long , content seems ok but that will develop over time when you think of more stuf to add ,

i know what you mean about limited funds and you can get quite a few free tips (youtube) about web sites and see what works for you

i find when i get reviews my customers write the keyword content for me and i think other customers trust other customers more so than any thing we can write on our sites

best of luck to you

i do like this tho :)..... home to the bounciest castles in Leeds.

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	DJM Bristol Plumbing from DJM Bristol Plumbing, Drainage & Property Maintenance
Location :	Bristol
Joined :	09 April 2010
About :	Dedicated to providing plumbing services in a professional and ethical manner.
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	44 ( 14)

Reply : 18 Jun 2011

Hello,

You have an image not showing on your home page - dreaded red cross is showing instead.

Your meta keywords are in your meta description.

I would add a picture to each of your pages - at the moment the colour coding is a bit drab and it's text content heavy so an image of one of your bouncy castles would liven each page up.

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	Jacqueline Drury from Painter Jack
Location :	Nuneaton
Joined :	25 April 2011
About :	Painter & Decorator, Artist & Designer, Web Design & SEO
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	626 ( 259)

Reply : 18 Jun 2011

Thanks for your replies.

Not sure what you mean 'Your meta keywords are in your meta description'. Where should they be?

Sorry for the lack of knowledge.

Angela

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	Angela Lynn from Coopers Castles
Location :	Leeds
Joined :	14 April 2011
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	4 ( 0)

Reply : 18 Jun 2011

Can't offer any technical advice, only an opinion on how it looks. I agree that pictures on each page look good help keep the visitor in a 'fun' frame of mind - which is what your business is all about. Also, you have used 3 different fonts for the text, which I always think looks a bit unprofessional/amatuer, but that is just a personal opinion. Be intersting to know what others think.

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	Albert MacGregor from Acacia Wooden Floors Ltd
Location :	London
Joined :	20 April 2009
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	1 ( 0)

Reply : 18 Jun 2011

Hello Angela,

In your meta description area should be a description of what you do in full sentences - a normal paragraph of text, but containing your keywords such as 'what' you do 'where' you do it and 'how' you do it and for 'who'.

Somewhere within your Googlesites control panel there will be a place for you to add keywords or meta tags to your pages - that's where you should copy>paste everything that you currently have written within your description.

I don't know much about Googlesites so can't tell you where you will be able to locate this place but if you go to where you added your keywords it should be there.

You do have good information about what you do on your website so it just needs tweaking.

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	Jacqueline Drury from Painter Jack
Location :	Nuneaton
Joined :	25 April 2011
About :	Painter & Decorator, Artist & Designer, Web Design & SEO
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	626 ( 259)

Reply : 18 Jun 2011 - (Edited : 18 Jun 2011)

Hi Angela

It is always a bad idea to start a business without allocating funds for your marketing.

That is a bit like stocking up a shop and leaving your windows and doors boarded up.

Your website is your shopwindow and it should look its best. (You'r trying to build a house without any prior knowledge - not easy)

Please read-up on DIY websites, creation, SEO, and online marketing, (Google it) or get someone to help you, the success of your business depends on it.

(Don't use Frames - pick a Google-friendly template)

Feel free to ask questions, but you won't have much time left to run your business.

Take care.

Gil

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	Mr Gil Sluis from Business Website SEO
Location :	Hull
Joined :	21 February 2010
About :	Google SEO Services, Website Promotions, Website Content Advice
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	321 ( 127)

Reply : 22 Jun 2011

Hi Angela,

The site is an impressive start for a beginner. I see it was made using Google Sites which can be a handy tool for someone who doesn't work with the web to pull something together quickly. They automatically append the "Powered by Google Sites" banner to the bottom of the page and I can see that has been partially hidden but not fully. Google usually have guidelines in place with some systems that say that you're not allowed to hide their boiler plate text in any way, i.e. colouring it black so it doesn't show, or by making the container that the text is in invisible via stylesheets. I'd agree with one of the earlier posts that if you're serious about your business, you must really try and reflect that in your website.

A quick bullet point list of things that I noticed on your site.

Image on home page is out of proportion, aspect is wrong. It's like looking at a normal tv picture on a widescreen. If you need the image to have more height to get in the whole bouncy castle, you could possibly use it as a background image for your header or use a more dynamic slideshow element that scrolls horizontally to show the full image without it being squashed like it is. I think some kind of slideshow would be a good way to show the fun the kids are having bouncing without it just being the one image.
home on the navigation should be "Home" - keep your cases consistent
Latest Weather should maybe not be in your primary navigation as it points off to an external site. At the very least you should be putting a target="_blank" so that the BBC Weather site opens but the user is not taken away from your site!
About Us has what looks like a breadcrumb at the top whereas the other pages don't have this.
The links on your feedback page are very long and verbose - you can still point to the same underlying link but have just simple text to describe where the link is taking them, e.g. FreeIndex.
The image which you have in the header which contains your logo, telephone and email address is not very good quality and you can see that it has been compressed too much when saved from your image editor.
The image in your header contains the phone and email but in doing this, you're restricting search engines from being able to detect that text. Not only this, but if I wanted to email you, I can't just select, copy paste the email address out of your header as it's not selectable. Obviously I can go to the contact page to get in touch but that defeats the point of having your email on every page.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coopers-castles.co.uk%2Fhome&.. - go to this url and it will show that there are 83 problems on your page. Most of these are caused by scripts which Google Sites has inserted in, I'm guessing the majority of these you're not even using at all.
The BIHA member image when you click on it could load up in a nicer way rather than taking you through to a page containing only the image. Check out a thing called Lightbox - there's loads of variations of it out there and it's just a case of finding the one you like best.
The site could do with more images, even if it's just some random kids bouncing about! It helps break up large amounts of text better, although I don't mind reading your content as you've emphasised key words and that helps break it up too.

Hopefully some of that helps, nice effort getting this far on your own!

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	Mark Parker from Digitaltide
Location :	Dunfermline
Joined :	18 June 2011
Contact :	Send Private Message
Posts :	5 ( 2)

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