I Have tried and tried to list items on my website. i know that prices on my website are actually pretty good. but my website would be better off on the moon because no one visits. i have used all the free search engines. any suggestions? my website is not high dollar items to warrant having a company come in and pay for search nor buy google ad-words. i have worked on this for a long time and need imput. any imput whether negative ofr positive is apreciated. website is www.daves45s.net thanks dave

Mind you my site looks crude compared to your nice shop but I do get hits ,my site is setup for search.


Looking at your site

The Description relevancy to page content is 45%
It needs to be at least 12% higher if not 40% higher

Keyword relevancy to page content is terrible.Relevancy to page content is 25%. It needs to be up another 20% to 50% higher

Your page content is weak

Your links are pathetic , only 1 Google considers any good , and less picky sites like Yahoo you score under 50 links ,your not mentioned in MSN search

According to google page rank , your site is a flat line (while on Google I'm not doing well but still have some green on my bar)

For the term 45 records , rare and vintage records......your not even on the map.And those are terms in your Meta Tags

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1. Have you considered a name change to something like "Vintagerecords" (vintagerecords.ws is not taken yet $9.00 at GODADDY , if you get it registered for multiple years that will help in Google search)

2. Get some word content on your main page with your biz statement ,it could be just a paragraph that says exactly what you sell ,why your the best for that product or service. Include content thats is relevant your title ,description and keywords.Include something for local as well.

3. Some people poo poo meta tags , but I don't...you could have a half dozen more keywords .slightly larger description and titlle ,dont go overboard

4. May want to make your title bigger such as Daves 45s Records Shop (or Dave 45's Collectible Records ,Dave 45s Rare Vinyl , whatever has the most pop in your niche you should research it.

5. Submit your site to MSN Search
http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx

6. Get in the google directory under this category
http://directory.google.com/Top/Shopping/Entertainment/Recordings/Audio/Music/Vinyl/

7. Submit your site to Gigablast ,Wisenut ,spaltsearch
http://www.gigablast.com/
http://www.wisenut.com/
www.splatsearch.com
www.accoona.com

On gigablast if you have giga search bar on your site you get a boost over other record shops that don't

8. Submit your site to the Jade Directory
http://www.jayde.com/

9.Submit your store to the powersellers unite user storefronts page
http://www.powersellersunite.com/links.php

10, In your Powersellers unite signature and profle include links to your store

11. Setup a blog for your site and link the RSS feeds to "Feed Blazer" and technorati

12. Participate on forums on records in a non spammy way and show off your skillz in your field (with links in your signature and profile) This will alos help link relevency as well as social networking links

Lastly have fun and do thing like Yahoo groups , it helps links for the site , and will help you in most search engines , google can be cranky.

Get listed in more quality directories but avoid the bad ones that will actually HURT your ranking ,or so they say


Oh by the way you still won't light up the web with hits the above might just get you started !

Hi Dave -- you have a very nice looking site. Can you tell us what shopping cart program you are using?

Sorry I can't give you any advice about uplifting your store hits. I'm sure others here can help.

I agree with lammergeiernet above. Also get come content on the site. Do a page on the best or correct way to clean and store records. Do articles or information sections on some of the older record labels including there history and other information people may find interesting. Look at my site I know it still needs a lot of work but I am adding all kinds of information to help get and keep the customers attention. We went live in November and it was slow for the first few months but traffic has been doubling for us the last couple of months. I keep adding information and some of the searches that I get hits from are for this info.

It takes time and a lot of work, but it is beginning to payoff for us.

Hope this helps,
Terry

thankyou for all your help. my son created the website, i just stocked it. as for the shopping cart i have no idea but i'll check into it. i see he needs to do a little fine tuning on this so i can make it go(he doesnt pay rent so this is his purgatory). all suggestions are greatly appreciated. dave

Dave,

One Thing that is not mentioned above:

If you are selling or previously sold on an auction site, locate all of your old customers email addresses from those sites and your address book and email them a short note about your site.

We sell records also and this worked wonders for us....

On another note:

You should consider using some sort of image editor and cropping your pictures and also get closer when you take them. Set up some sort of easel, so you can take the photos at eye level instead of shooting down at something on a table.

There are several free image editors available on the web. We use one from www.irfanview.com and are very happy with it.

Check our site out at www.boogiebobsrecords.com and see the difference in the image layout.

There is a contact us text link on our home page if you have questions...
We would be glad to help you out any way we can...

Bob @ Boogiebobs Records

Bob is right... no reason not to have an image editor, it is free but obviously takes a little time for editing - but it's worth it.

... and just a little tip - the easel is a great idea, but if you need to move foreward with a "no money" solution - take the covers outside into the sunlight. Propped up on porch railing or something eye-level, with the flash off, you will elminate glare and shine-spots while achieving perfect light for the picture capture.

...but if you're like me, and live in a location where Sun Light is not always available, it could be problematic - hence the easel idea!

Marty

Thank You and Thank you all for all the help. I see I Have Alot of work ahead of me. sold on ebay for years and was doing fine till they dropped stores from being recognized. my son informed me today that he knew my pictures were terrible....ya think he would have notified me in the coming decade. started my store years ago because of marrying oldest son, one other son going to college, and for some reason they want to eat everyday lol. it has been hard leaving ebay, but waited till the fees overcame the profit. i thank you all for the advice now i need to get working. anymore advice is greatly apreciated. thanks dave

Oh by the way , join my Squidoo coop campaign , where we make Squidoo lenses and rate each others ,join groups to boost traffic and promote our sites !

http://www.powersellersunite.com/viewtopic.php?t=10851l