Adding new content wanted to see if we are correct path

[scamper]

Hello SEO’ers.

This is my second post here on SEOmoz and I have a question / look it over type of deal.

I have been reading through the information I have found here on SEOmoz from the community and it has been very informative and helpful.

My question deals with my site http://www.tacticalbootstore.com

One of the things we have learned is we needed better content as what we had was too thin.

We have completely rewritten all of the manufacturer pages and are uploading them now 10/14 complete.  This content I believe is about as unique as it will get.

New Example here:  http://www.tacticalbootstore.com/belleville-boots-m-74.html

Old Example here: http://www.tacticalbootstore.com/altama-boots-m-86.html

From these Manufacturer pages we have also written 3 other pages that are linked to from the manufacturer page

Buyers Guide Example here: http://www.tacticalbootstore.com/belleville-boots-buying-guide-a-98.html

FAQ Example here: http://www.tacticalbootstore.com/frequently-asked-questions-about-bellville-boots-a-96.html

Sizing Information Example here: http://www.tacticalbootstore.com/belleville-boots-sizing-chart-a-97.html

I believe this creates a virtual silo?

We are in the process of rewriting all of the item product descriptions as well as that content was too thin.

New Example here: http://www.tacticalbootstore.com/blackhawk-83bt02de-mens-desert-ops-boot-p-3916.html

Old Example here: http://www.tacticalbootstore.com/altama-mens-inch-exo-boots-p-4086.html

Please take note we have only uploaded the 1 new item description the rest of them still have thin content.  We hope to have all of the products written and posted by week’s end.

Would you guys mind checking what I have submitted here and tell me if we are on the correct path or not?

Do you have any other ideas we could implement?

I really appreciate your time in looking at this for me.  I hope one day to be able to contribute to the community as well with the knowledge I will learn here.

Thank you,

Chris

[scamper]

Egol,

Kind of the manufacturer pages was to create a virtual silo for that particular set of keywords.

I love the idea of the bigger pictures and we will implement this.

I also love the idea of the product pages linking out to "How To pages" as you state.

Now I just need to think of some How To's for Boots.

Thank you again for your comments they are very informative and much appreciated.

[EGOL]

I think that you are making major improvements in your content.  That should bring you long-tail keywords and help you avoid panda problems.

I am taking a different approach on my sites.  For example, you have category pages with lots of paragraph text and not much written for each product an no buy buttons  Instead of that I have no paragraphs above or below my products, however, each of my products has a two-to three sentence mini-description and a buy button.  I also do not paginate my category pages.  All of the products are on those pages.  I might paginate if I had several dozen products... but if I have 50 or fewer I don't paginate.

I believe that makes a richer page for search, a page with more word diversity to pull long tail traffic, customers don't have to click through pages, they can buy quickly if they don't need more information, it makes a site with fewer pages and I believe that a compact site competes better than a site with a lot of pages.

Most of my product pages have a very large photo at the top of the page with description below and links to pages where "how to use" "how to select" "how to maintain" information can be found.  Often a video.  These have increased conversions and the informative pages rank very well in the SERPs.

[scamper]

Michael you have made a great point that I will not forget.

I know I think of content as the text only.  Thanks for reminding me that it is also the pictures, videos etc....

[scamper]

Egol,

Thank you also for taking a look at this.

Can you make any other recommendations that you see that we could implement?

Thank you for your time.

Chris

[EGOL]

This page has a nice improvement in content depth.

http://www.tacticalbootstore.com/belleville-boots-m-74.html

One thing that you might consider is how that new content pushes your boot selection down the page.  Maybe only the most essential above the boots and the rest below.

The new product pages look good too.  Just be sure that they are all absolutely unique.

This hard work should pay,   Keep at it.

[MichaelC-15022]

You're very welcome...and don't underestimate the boost rich content can give a site.  Do a Google search for "bmw m1 at monterey" and see who's #1 in both the image results and the organic results...with a super-weak link profile (it's just my own personal photo gallery site)...ahead of the big car magazines who covered that car

[scamper]

Michael,

Again thank you for your time in answering our question and providing us with additional info.

Chris

[MichaelC-15022]

Hi Chris,

Yes, your text content looks good, and there's plenty of it.

And you're correct re: embedding the video.  I usually use the option on YouTube when getting the embed code to "use old embed code", which gives you an <object>etc.; I do this simply because it's not clear to me that Google pays attention to what's in an iframe (the "new" embed code on YouTube uses an iframe).  They might, but it seems to me that if Google (Panda) is mechanically inspecting your page to see what kinds of cool content you have, things that are easy to spot are embedded objects (which are probably interesting interactive elements, like a video or a virtual tour); I'm not sure that they'd go to the trouble to follow the iframe's link and then analyze what kind of content is in that iframed page.  They SHOULD, but that may be too processing-intensive.</object>

[scamper]

Michael,

Thank you for taking the time to look at this.  We will definitely work on your suggestions

The content is all fresh completely re-written to our site and is unique.  It is not the standard manufacturer description. The new content was all written in house in the examples I showed.  We should be done loading it all onto the site this week ending. Do you think it is enough?

We were looking at shooting our own videos and getting them to look like this Example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmaoAzoIUa8

We were going to add a voice over though to point out the features of the boots.  I apologize for not knowing when you say embed.  Is it OK to take our own video post it to you tube and then embed it in our site?

Taking our own pictures we never thought of doing this but is definitely something we have the abilities to do and will work on it.

Any other ideas or suggestions or constructive criticism we are open to.

Any other creative minds out there see anything they could suggest to us?

[MichaelC-15022]

Looking good, in general.  Note that you have an opportunity to get a ranking boost by adding rich, original content...things like large images, embedded videos, etc.

Consider shooting a 1-2 minute video where you talk about the various features of the boot, what you like about it, significant differences, etc., and embed that in related pages.

Consider taking your own photos of the boots.  Google most certainly knows whether you're using the same image the manufacturer has given out to all of your competitors.  A quick check with Google Reverse Image Search shows many, many sites with the exact same image.  If you want to make the Panda happy, show him both original TEXT and original IMAGES.