Paid or Free Search Engines that really works

[spartiums]

I paid to have my site

http://www.spartium.com

included in Yahoo a few months ago (£299) - but I don't seem to be getting much traffic from it and can't see all of the pages in my site listed. This is very frustrating as it is a lot of money to get no benefit - I've tried contacting Yahoo - but not heard anything back yet. My pages are optimised and I have around 7,000 links to my site. Where am I going wrong.
Also, does anyone know of any paid advertising that really works? has any recommendations? My site doesn't appear on many of the search engines and I'm wondering whether it's worth paying on any of them to be included - or whether there is another way?
By the way, it's very snowy here today in the UK.... Brrrr

Tina

 

[ChrisHirst]

The £299 is not for inclusion in the search results this is an annual fee for directory inclusion.
This can be useful but it can also work against you, because Yahoo shows your directory entry title and description in their SERPs. If it isn't a very good entry you can loose out on visitors.

The only SE (of any note) offering paid inclusion is Yahoo via the Site Match program and it's an expensive combination of PFI and PPC. Results are quite varied though usually not very good in many marketplaces. Google adwords is really the best performer overall, and by careful choice of search terms can give an excellent ROI.

Personally where you are going wrong (IMO) is concentrating your efforts on copy etc for search engines and not enough for real vistors (see my comments in another thread).


Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.

http://www.cram-system.com

Nightclub counting systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[spartiums]

Hi Chris

Can you expand more on what you think I need to do?
Do you mean that I need to update my title, desc and keywords metatags for more 'specific' key phrases rather than key words?

For example, i have been trying to create a separate page for a separate theme, i.e 'Easter Gift Baskets' and I would have 'Easter Gift Baskets' in the title, description and keywords and also in the main heading on the page. The page itself displays all the Easter Gift Baskets I sell. Are you saying I should be more specific down to product level, i.e. 'Berry Gift Box with Chocolate Bunny'.

I really do appreciate all of the help.

Warm regards

Tina

 

[ChrisHirst]

Absolutely. very specific keyphrases convert far better than the (in theory) high count/traffic phrases. Being front page from several million results might get traffic but rarely gets buyers.
I have one ecommerce site at No7 from 32 Million in MSN, on a phrase that is supposed to get several hundred searches per day. gets quite a few hits but not one buyer when arriving for that phrase (as yet). Yet phrases that don't make a listing at WT get sales.

from your example;
"Easter Gift Baskets - Gift Baskets for all Occasions - Spartium Gifts" would be a good title for a category page. Gets in a current theme, a general theme and branding without going over 10 words.
Then link to a product page, use anchor text of "Berry Gift Box" and the page title could be
"Berry Gift Box with Chocolate Bunny - Easter Gift Boxes - Spartium Gifts"
where it's Exact phrase, Theme, Branding again in 10 words.

and use headings and nav text in a similar way, any one page can target 2 - 3 phrases ideally.
The basic principle is write for the visitors and it will work for SEs as well.


Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.

http://www.cram-system.com

Nightclub counting systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[spartiums]

Hey Chris

I'm going to try this straight away - and if it works - I'm gonna buy you a beer!

Cheers

Tina

 

[spartiums]

Hi Chris

I've made a start - can you see if I am on the right track.
If you take a look at '

http://www.spartium.com/chocolategiftbaskets.htm'

and look at the third product 'Chocolate Lovers Dream' you will see I have created a specific page for this - then when you click on the product it goes through to the affiliate site.

Will this also get rid of the problem you told me about with 301 redirects on my main pages?

Thanks

Tina

 

[ChrisHirst]

Yep that's the general idea it gives the product page a single focus and you can use 2 or 3 keyphrases for that product.

But it won't help with the redirects, and it's 302 redirects that are the problem on the tracking site. There is a possible way to fix them though, but it needs some server side coding.

One thing to do is to get rid of those keyword list under the left side navigation, they are pointless, and they could actually be having a detrimental effect on the optimisation of the page. Something like that is better used as navigation to other parts of the site.


Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.

http://www.cram-system.com

Nightclub counting systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[ChrisHirst]

You may (or not) find something useful in this HR thread on Keyword Density.





Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.

http://www.cram-system.com

Nightclub counting systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.