An established site is out of Google’s Sandbox (probably at least six months old) and has a decent amount of content (at least 50 pages, say). When looking to improve an established site (without adding more pages) there’re a few logical questions to ask:
- What pages do the search engines have indexed?
- Are the pages properly linked?
- What search terms does my site target?
- Are my pages targeting the right keyphrases?
- Are users finding my site for the right keyphrases?
Your site won’t rank well if the search engines don’t see your pages. Users won’t find your site for the right keyphrases if your site’s pages aren’t targeting the right keyphrases. A lot of sites would be better optimized for the search engines if their webmasters started at this very basic point.
What Pages Do the Search Engines Have Indexed?
A quick search using site:www.domain.com will reveal the pages that a search engine has in its index. If most of your site’s pages aren’t in the index (Google should have most of them, MSN should have less, and Yahoo! should have even less), you might try getting more links to your site or to the pages that aren’t in the index; you might try submitting a Google Sitemap to get more pages in Google’s index; or you might try creating a regular sitemap if your site doesn’t have one already. The more links you have to your site, the deeper search engine spiders will crawl for content.
If this doesn’t help, it may be the case that the search engines can’t see your pages.
Are Your Pages Properly Linked?
Search engine spiders don’t see all content, including Flash and JavaScript. If your navigation is in Flash or JavaScript, you should have alternative ways to get to the pages being linked to. Ideally, these alternatives would pass link popularity properly. Look at the Google Toolbar at the top of your browser (download it from Google if you don’t have one) – do you have a page with PageRank 6 linking to a page with PageRank 0? If this link is old, the chances are you are using a feature that search engines don’t see, and they aren’t following the link.
Improper linking can leave pages invisible to the search engines, or cause search engines to misjudge the importance of a page.
What Search Terms Does My Site Target?
What keyphrases are in the title tags of your pages? These are the terms your site is targeting. Do your pages all have different titles that are repeated in the body text? Hint: they should.
Are My Pages Targeting the Right Keyphrases?
Are the keyphrases your site is targeting specific to what your site offers? Are the keyphrases relevant to your site, but too competitive for your site to show up for in the search engines? The best way to get listed is to be unique. Offer information or benefits that users are searching for that other web sites don’t offer. This will get you ranked well quickly. Otherwise, continue to be generic, but be generic in a less competitive way. Add descriptive terms to general keyphrases to make them more specific, and hope that a bunch of other sites aren’t doing the same thing.
Are Users Finding My Site For the Right Keyphrases?
Is your site showing up in search engines for the terms your pages are targeting? If yes, are people clicking on your listing and executing the actions you wish them to execute? If no, rethink your keyphrases. Research them in WordTracker or Overture’s keyword tool. If you’re showing up but nobody is clicking, be sure you are targeting the exact phrases that users usually search for. There’s no point to being ranked well for a keyphrase that never gets searched on. If they’re clicking but not buying, look into optimizing the site for users or try finding better keyphrases.
SEO is Simple
There are some details to know, but generally SEO boils down to titles, text, and links. Focus on these factors and try to be original – your site will probably do well.
