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Do I have to optimize every page on my site?
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Hi guys I run my own photography webstie (www.hemeravisuals.co.uk Going through the process optimizing my page for seo. I have one question I have a few gallery pages with no text etc? Do I still have to optimize these ? Would it rank my site lower if they weren't optimized?
And how can i do this sucessfully with little text on these pages ( I have indepth text on these subjects on my services & pricing pages?
Kind Regards
Cam
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Hi there! Yes, you've definitely received some great responses! If your question has been answered, please mark up to three responses as a "Good Answer" and mark this question answered. Thanks!!
Christy
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Would just like to say a big thanks for everyones input here has gave me alot of food for thought and also alot more to do
hahaThanks again !
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I would optimize the pages that you want to drive traffic to for keywords that are naturally relevant to each page. Never stuff a page with keywords (use your gut to determine the right amount) and always write copy so that it is completely readable and not awkward for your visitors. I would also avoid creating multiple pages just for the sake of targeting similar keywords with no other purpose (e.g. you have a page that targets "red apple" and a page that targets "red apples"). I've seen sites get smacked by Google Panda for doing this.
Sites with poorly-written SEO copy seem spammy and will be an instant turn off to whoever's showed up at your virtual doorstep.
Pages such as Contact Us and About Us don't really need optimization per se. However, all pages should at least contain unique and relevant h1s, meta titles and descriptions. Also, always avoid duplicating text between pages. This helps your website be more search engine friendly. I find that the Screaming Frog SEO Spider and Google's Webmaster Tools HTML Suggestions are great for diagnosing which pages on your site need these unique elements.
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Some great answers people thanks very much Smart Cow what did you mean when you said
''That said there are always things to improve Have a look at H1 and H2 settings you have on the home page.'' What have I done wrong ?
Cheers Cam
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Good Morning!
Google is about content, and SEO is more and more about marketing.
Optimizing is important of course, but even Matt Cutts said it wouldn't be worth your time to go back and optimize old pages that were not optimized. That being said, I personally feel that optimizing the gallery as far as the meta tags are concerned as was mentioned above is more than enough.
If you have the time to go back and optimize everything, it certainly will not hurt to do it. However, if you have limited resources, I think you are better off writing blog posts about images that are in your own gallery, developing your Google authorship, etc.
Google wants content. Show Google you are an Expert, Trustworthy, and an Authority (EAT) http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2355230/google-search-quality-guidelines-now-reward-expertise-authority-trust
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Generally, optimizing a page means that you are targeting a specific key term you want to rank for. While you might not see measurable "negative" SEO effects of having pages with no content, I believe that you could use those pages to target key terms. Images rank as well as pages. You can use image alt attributes and add some content to those pages which may help drive some traffic. I like to play safe rather than sorry. It takes a little bit of work, and you might not have keywords for those pages yet, but you could use the images as ranking tools.
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There are many level to ensuring your site is optimised that is not just text on the page. Page load speed, page name and page bounce must all surely play a factor. This is a nice site that engages with nice images and not ruined by extra text to try an please a search engine.
For keyword content, keep your blog up-to-date with honest genuine content, maybe pointing to a gallery when you update the images.
As far as I can see SEO will become (is becoming) something that reflects good honest and engaging content rather than making sure you have scientifically optimised your site.
Show your passion for your subject and it will be rewarded with visitors interested in your service and products. Try to second guess and over optimise a site and you will be found out , maybe not today or tomorrow but eventually.
That said there are always things to improve Have a look at H1 and H2 settings you have on the home page.
Also notice at the top I did not say it was a quick site have a looks at speeding this up http://www.webpagetest.org/result/141126_61_VQT/ people may bounce away even before viewing your page whatever the great keywords you may have optimised with.
Just my 2 pennies worth, hope it helps
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I see you got a answer from someone that knows more than me. I recommend that you take Kevin's advice, and apologize for my bad advice.
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There are many ways to optimize gallery pages (optimize H tags, optimizing file size of images, adding short descriptions, good page titles, implementing proper tags on the image, good ux and so on). There is an excellent tutorial here. Good luck!
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Disclaimer: I am definitely not a SEO expert, but i cannot see any reason for why you should get penalized for having a few gallery pages on your site. That would just give people another reason for doing "bad" SEO by using shady methods to get their gallery-pages and similar pages with no/minimal text to rank better.
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Thanks very much ! I had wondered this and wasn't entirely sure how the page rank worked in terms of optimization on every page. As I have 4 Gallery Pages & 1 Home Page for the Galleries 'hemeravisuals.co.uk/galleries/weddings. But that makes sense really enjoying moz feeling i'm finally getting to grips with this SEO !
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Yes, you can have unoptimized pages. They will naturally not get a very good pagerank, but as far as i know it does not hurt to have some pages with no text as long as you have enough content on the rest of your site.
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