New Site Search Critique
-
Hi
I am a huge fan of the SEOMOZ site and this great community which has helped me learn the current SEO skills I have now which are still very basic compared to the pros on the forum.
I have tried to follow best practice regarding onsite and technical seo when developing my new site www.cheapfindergames.com and I would really appreciate it if experts on the forum could spare a minute to critique the site from a search perspective please
This will give any elements of what onsite and technical SEO I done well and what aspects still need work.
I am currently trying to build quality links and social mentions into the site which will take time, and the site has been designed around usability and conversions.
Many Thanks
Ian
-
Re: item 1 - the answer can be found in the first response to this Q&A: http://www.seomoz.org/q/i-need-help-with-htaccess-redirect
If you would like to learn more about htaccess, an excellent resource is here: http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/other/the-ultimate-guide-to-htaccess-files/
Re: item 3, no damage
Re: item 7 - I did share a suggestion. I prefer to use the home page to target the site's brand. I use inner pages which are 1-click from the home page to target the site's main keywords. Your site can target 100s of keywords so unless one particular keywords is highly dominate over the others, this approach is my preference.
Re: item 10 - no. The W3C is the governing body for HTML/CSS code. I was referring to using their validator tool to ensure the code used on your site is valid.
Re: sitemaps, there are numerous software apps available to create a sitemap. Find one you like and set a CRON job to run as needed to generate a new sitemap.
-
Hi Ryan
Thanks for the great feedback. Coming back to some of your points
1.) How can I resolve this in the .htaccess file - what script is required so that it points to http://www.cheapfindergames.com therefore reducing canonical urls.
3.) Would this cause any damage if it is left as it is?
7.) Any suggestions on what you feel would work? Perhaps
Video Games Price Comparison - Cheapfindergames.com ?
10.) Do you mean putting javascript and css in external files rather than inline?
+ What would you recommend to create an XML sitemap, as the site is a dynamic site which changes throughout the day
-
Hi Ian,
As you requested I have taken a look at your site and would share some initial items which can be improved from a SEO perspective:
1. You have duplicated pages. You shared your home page URL as http://www.cheapfindergames.com. If you select your logo in the upper-right corner of your page, it shows the URL as http://www.cheapfindergames.com/index.php. Both URLs load which is an SEO issue. Note: the HOME link in your footer has the same issue.
2. Your site lacks a 404 page. Provide a helpful 404 page with your site's navigation and search box.
3. Your robots.txt page blocks the /retailer.php page which is unnecessary since you have a redirect in place.
4. Drop the technology extension from your URLs. For example your "About" page URL is http://www.cheapfindergames.com/aboutus.php. It is not helpful to users nor search engines to know it is a "php" page. Additionally the technology may change in the future causing unnecessary redirects. Try the following URL instead: http://www.cheapfindergames.com/aboutus
5. Organize your social engagement. You have a large facebook block, a tiny twitter widget and then over off to the side is your G+ block. Try offering a single clean block for all your social sites.
6. Your home page text block has grammar issues "...from the major uk retailers to bring you’re the best price and deal."
7. As Kieran shared, the title should be adjusted. It's often best for your home page to focus your brand "Cheap Finder Games" and allow an inner page focus each of the many keywords you wish to target. If you decide otherwise, pick one keyword focus for your page.
8. Your mailing list seems to be the primary means for you to keep in contact with visitors. You may want to offer a clearer Call To Action for signup.
9. Your meta description is too long and a bit unfocused.
10. You can do a bit of code clean up and allow your code to validate.
These tips will hopefully give you some initial direction with your site. Best of luck.
-
Thanks Kieran I understand now
Totally agree and every day I try and improve it, I was just looking for additional insight into perhaps things i might have missed that would have an affect on rankings.
-
In the footer of the page you have 3 links to these loactions but the links are just to the existing page.
Also when you say you have 99% covered the fact of the matter is that you never have everything covered and for a nice like yours I would spend time every day looking at my content working on various aspects, checking my keywords, and a host of other items.
-
Thanks yes the keywords are xbox 360, PS3, computer games, Wii and then the long tail keyphrase would be the likes of Best Price of Fifa 12 Xbox 360 which I cover in the details page
http://www.cheapfindergames.com/games-fifa-12-xbox-360/B005A2BDZY
- you mention " Wii/ PS3 / Xbox links are only directed to the home page" could you explain what you mean by this please?
ALSO if any other experts can locate anything I have missed with regard to onsite and technical SEO it would be great to know, or have I covered the 99% of what's required.
-
From a conversions point of view I do not think the landing page encourages immediate action for people arriving there.
Your Title tag
Compare Prices – Best deals offers on computer games for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC | Cheapfindergames
looks a bit wordy and I am not sure if it is focused on your keywords (which you don't mention but I assume are games.
Plus as an FYI our Wii/ PS3 / Xbox links are only directed to the home page at the moment so might be worth correcting (actually I wouldn't have them twice on the page
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Link's that are an internal site search?
Hi hope your're all well. I sell Red, Blue, Green Widgets within each color I have many sub types, the subtypes change all the time,and a sub type has many variations in itself. I'd like to set up links that direct customers to popular searches of sub types say: widgets.com/red/blue-spots....search string... Will Google crawl these search links and see that there is good content behind it? How does Google handle links that are also a site search? Can it be bad and should I "no follow" them? Hope someone can give me some direction on these, many thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | Thea880 -
Partner Sites
Hi All, Within our company we have a media group that publishes magazines and videos, the sites have footers that link to our shopping site, one of them has 118,459 links to one URL, domain authority 23, and the other 17,726 to seven URLs, domain authority 52, (there are some articles which link organically). My question is are these links because they're from identifiable companies with the same ownership worth keeping or are they detrimental? The site being linked to has a DA of 39 Cheers Stew
Technical SEO | | StewMcG0 -
What is the value of having an HTML sitemap on site?
For years now whenever we recreate a site we always set up both an xml sitemap and an html sitemap page. Stupid question maybe - but what is the value to having an html sitemap on site?
Technical SEO | | Pete40 -
301 redirect of one site version to new domain
Hello all. I today have domain.com that has 10 language versions and the structure is by folders: domain.com/ru/
Technical SEO | | Gregos
domain.com/pl/ etc. Soon I plan redesign,new CMS and I plan to register 9 new ccTLDs. My question is: Can I 301 redirect domain.com/ru/ to domain.ru without having some bad effect on domain.com? I mean,the main domain,com is not going to be affected by permanent redirect of one url to completly new domain right?0 -
Google Search memory
Hi we have had the following statement from a member of our Japan office with regards google displaying search results, would anyone be able to give us a definitive answer on this. Google remembers previous non-mobile related searches For example, we already know that we come up on the first page if you select “kaigai keitai” (mobile phone for use abroad) and “UK” where as we don’t for searches where you replace the UK with the US or other countries. This means that if a customer, for example, does a search just on the UK e.g. using words like UK travel, London, millennium dome, etc. and then does a separate search just using the words “kaigai keitai” that google could show us as a link on the first page. However, if an individual did a search on Paris, France, Eiffel Tower, and then did a search for “kaigai keitai”, our link might not appear on the page. I don’t know if we have tested this already, but Google seems to have a very long “memory” and I could see this kind of aspect of Google resulting in us missing significant business from people going to the US, France, Italy, etc. Any thoughts?
Technical SEO | | -Al-0 -
I'm redesigning a website which will have a new URL format. What's the best way to redirect all the old URLs to the new ones? Is there an automated, fast way to do this?
For example, the new URL will be: https://oregonoptimalhealth.com/about_us.html while the old one's were like this: http://www.oregonoptimalhealth.com/home/ooh/smartlist_1/services.html I have redirect almost 100 old pages to the correct new page. What's the best and easiest way to do this?
Technical SEO | | PolarisMarketing0 -
.me vs .com for new personal blog site
Hi guys, this is my first ever post on SEOMoz (woo!) I have researched and I did see someone else ask something similar but I still wasn't clear, so i hope this question is not considered a duplicate and can go on to help other people too Enough waffle For various reasons I am moving our company blog to startup a personal blog instead and I have bought a couple of appropriate domain names in a firstname/lastname format for the new blog, basically: myname.me and iammyname.com My question is, which would you consider 'better', if either, for SEO? (bonus point: are there any other non-SEO factors I should consider?) Obviously the second name is longer, but it is a .com and I hear all the time that .com is king and .me is waaaay behind Ultimately I want to rank #1 for my name If it was your site and your blog and you had my choices which one would you go for? Many thanks for your help. I'm looking forward to being part of the SEOMoz community and learning a lot from you guys, cheers, Nick
Technical SEO | | NickDavis0 -
Prevent mobile site from appearing in the sitelinks of desktop search
Hi, IWe have this mobile page that keeps on appearing in the google search. I even try to put it in the robots.txt to disallow the crawler but still it keeps on popping on the search results. How can I prevent it from displaying?
Technical SEO | | shebinhassan0