View Full Version : Search Engine Optimization - SEO, Web Traffic, Conversion Optimization
clivecorner
25-01-09, 16:09
I've done a brief search for the terms above on this forum but haven't found much if anything.
I'm not an expert on these matters but have been finding out more over the last week.
One issue with affiliate sites is that if they don't in themselves constitute original material, which search engines like.
Another is that the 'GET' parmameters in SW are merely numbers and don't indicate what type of content the site contains which doesn't help with search engines.
These are just a start
Is any body interested in looking/ finding out the issues associated with marketing an affiliate site.
Cheers
Clive
Hi Clive,
Quote from your page stuff4charity.co.uk/about.php "Clive Corner is a UK based developer with over 10 years experience of working with and on the Internet" I wouldn’t of thought SEO would be a problem for you :rolleyes: No seriously though Affiliate sites are in direct competition with one another, Quoting again from your page stuff4charity.co.uk/about.php "Many price shopping sites / comparison engines receive what is know as an affiliate payment from participating retailers for directing users that make a purchase to their websites". Really how much help are you expecting.
"Is anybody interested in looking/ finding out the issues associated with marketing an affiliate site". We all work dam hard at that one! But we are all competing for the same sales, hence the lack of information you have found on this subject.
clivecorner
25-01-09, 21:21
Okay Irna that's fair enough if that is what you think - you're obviously not interested in co-operating on this one.
I was looking to find people who were looking to work at SEO for mutual benefit and on reflection, thanks Irna, probably not in open forum.
Cheers
Clive
probably not in open forum.
Oh I don't know Clive, It's all gravy mate.
What you say is very true, but you have to realise that SW client is just a barebones system. It has very little SEO merit 'out of the box'. It's perfect for an established site, with an established traffic stream to gain a few sales, but if you dont already have the traffic, you need to work hard at getting it.
You'd be suprised at how many SW sites are out there, where someone has literally added a logo and left it. So even though we're all after the same traffic, we can discount a large proportion of the competition.
Infact, I don't like that "we're all chasing the same traffic" phrase as it's not strictly true and it's exactly what is preventing SW client from becoming the (GNU gpl driven) success it could be. Actually, I think that phrase is where we should start.
Those that install and hope for the best ARE all chasing the same traffic, as they'll rank for exactly the same keywords with exactly the same content.
Those that go Niche with their installs are chasing different traffic to the "2bit" sw sites. Different pages will appear in differing levels of the site structure with different products in less categories. Each page would gain a different level of page rank to the "2bits".
Everyone has a different set of merchants to play with too. Yeah, we all drink from the same fountain, but we sip from a different cup. This means we all have a different set of products on a category page.
when you go deeper than just niche, and alter titles, headings, layouts, add/remove text etc to give a different keyword density and a different code:text ratio than anyone else, you end up with a different set of keywords or phrases to rank for.
You can go even deeper than that and modrewrite your URLs. Actually, this is where alot of people try to start, but if your page titles still ask "Where do you want to shop today?", no amount of modrewrite is going to do anything for your rankings.
Deeper still and we get into the realms of unique content. If you're a niche site, it's quite simple to write a few unique lines related to each category. Depending on how small the niche, depends on how far you go with writing your own content.
There IS enough traffic out there for us all to share and play with nicely. You've just got to find a way of tapping into different search phrases than anyone else.
Think I need some help in this direction. I've registered my site on Google and when I do a search for my url it comes up but it's not showing as I would have liked. This is the Google listing ..
ShopWindow Client Time Gentlemen Please
Popular Searches. carat diamond yellow gold diamond half eternity ring white gold diamond half eternity ring white gold diamond eternity ring eternity ring ...
I had entered some meta tags in the head section of my index.tpl file with a description and keywords but instead of my description being displayed in Google I'm just getting the popular searches text. Also, I'm not sure where the "Shop Window Client" bit is coming from. I was hoping it would be as per the "Title" in my index.tpl (ie Time Gentlemen Please - Watches & Jewellery). If I browse to my site and do "View Source" I can see my meta tags are there but they seem to be ignored by Google. I'm wondering if I should have a simple Google friendly html splash page with a link to my Shop Window Client but I think this might be a retrograde step.
All comments welcome.
Thanks
John
www.timegentlemenplease.co.uk
Google nolonger use the Meta Description 100% of the time for the search results.
Being a law unto themselves and knowers off all, their algo decides what the best text to use in your listing is.
All you can do is make suggesstions in your meta desc and use known code to try and point them in the right direction.
For instance, I had nearly 50,000 pages in the index where Google had used the text from my search drop down box. That's not even text, its goddam code and very little to do with the page it's on.
So, to combat this, I used the Googleon and Googleoff tags like so:
<!--googleoff--><form action="etc"><input type="etc"></form><!--googleon-->
This tells google not to index that portion of the page, so it won't be used towards the relevancy and therefore cannot show up in the result listings.
I'm still monitoring the effects, it wasn't too long ago and Ive introduced other factors since.
I'm still monitoring the effects, it wasn't too long ago and Ive introduced other factors since.
I'd really appreciate you keeping us in the loop as to how that effects your site if you wouldn't mind please. I've pondered using the Google on and off bits, but never bothered as I get more traffic from Yahoo than I do from Google, but I would bother if it actually has a significant effect.
Google no longer list any of the drop down data in their search results, which was the aim.
I cant say what affect this has had on my placements, but if their engine isn't displaying crap beneath my link, then clickthrough has to be better (dont you think?)
I have had to get all those pages de-indexed and re-indexed under a different url, but the newer indexation doesn't contain the crap listings.
The secret is the content of you site and the relevant links to your site. Get these right and you will never work again.