Hi All

I have been working 10 months on a site and haven't got far...been reading lots and bringing changes slowly...far too little traffic to make it worthwhile! Most of time was on site development...now I need to learn how to rank.

I can do good traffic research now...I now need to learn how to get traffic...I've also learnt about SEO and think that my site is SEO optimised now??? well at least the basic SEO principles are in place.

It's just how to get from pos 20 to pos 5. This is where I could really do with some help

I really don't understand why I am not ranking well. I was ranked well, but then really got kicked out. from Pos 3 to 103! Kinda got to pos 3 with luck...otherwise I would go back to what I had. But this was for a relatively unsearched keyphrase!

I have two questions:

1) how do I get my images ranked in Google images?
2) is there some big flaw in my site? The content is good, it's easy to navigate and logical, but Google just isn't giving me favour?

My site is africapic.com. Sorry about putting URL here, if it's wrong to do that sorry...just not sure how else to direct people to look at what I am doing wrong. (BTW - when you view my site, the URLS look ugly and dynamic, but actually they are static and pretty (i hope)- the URLS Google sees can be seen by going in through the sitemap)

Many Thanks

Alex

Just taking a VERY quick look you have yourdoman.com/index.php
and yourdomain.com as different home pages. Also, once you go to yourdomain.com and click on the site map links at the bottom, each logo link at the top goes to a dead home page (it is misspelled on every page).

Need more content on all pages and quality backlinks.

I have two questions:

1) how do I get my images ranked in Google images?
2) is there some big flaw in my site? The content is good, it's easy to navigate and logical, but Google just isn't giving me favour?

My site offers free <snip> and wildlife pictures for web use. Sorry about putting URL here, if it's wrong to do that sorry...just not sure how else to direct people to look at what I am doing wrong. (BTW - when you view my site, the URLS look ugly and dynamic, but actually they are static and pretty (i hope)- the URLS Google sees can be seen by going in through the sitemap)

Many Thanks

Alex


Some fantastic pictures on your site by the way :D
Back to SEO though.

](BTW - when you view my site, the URLS look ugly and dynamic, but actually they are static and pretty (i hope)- the URLS Google sees can be seen by going in through the sitemap

I dont understand what you mean by this at all :confused:
but you are incorrect in thinking Google is somehow finding static URLS!!
Google is seeing the same URLs as the browser.
Im guessing the site is based on a photo gallery script correct?
if so the URl generation will need to be recoded (if its possible) and you may need to use URL rewrites using modrewrite

A few tips for you (my site also has issues so I know how you feel! I am now recoding a new site as I gave up on trying to customise someone elses script I was using!)

ok.
<title> Pictures | Photos | Stock Photography | Africa Pictures | Wildlife Stock Photography</title>

Each page should have a different page title, and page description.
This is CRUCIAL to ranking well....
For example your 'contact us' page has the same title and description as your rates and prices page..and so do all other pages on the site that I viewed.

Have you done an XML sitemap(s) for google? if not this is a good move for you.

And your page rank is currently predicted to be PR4 at the next update with 800 or so backlinks.
This is pretty good but try and increase good quality inbound links as well.

if you have an htaccess with rewrites in already post up the contents if you want any help with it :)

I tried to look at your site for you, but found it difficult. Why? You have white text on black background. That is a very VERY big design FAUX PAS.

Never, EVER use white text on black background. You can use a Gallery page/section where the background is black and just focus on your pictures.

But when you have, links, etc. that is white on black background, it hurts the eyes.

Even if you were ranking, you wouldn't get too many visitors because they'd be turned off by the white text on black, the navigation, etc.

Ranking is one thing. Usability is another. Technically speaking, you can get a site to rank and still have it look ugly. But usability closes the deal.

Ranking without conversion is bad and so is white on black. Some users could have black as their default and may not see any text.

Post your link within your profile so we can visit it.

As for getting your images listed (not ranked) in Google you need to employ some image optimization. Not sure if you've done this as I cannot visit your site without it being listed in your profile. According to SES San Jose a few months back now is definitely the time to start image optimization. Proper file names, alt text, and format.

Post your link within your profile so we can visit it.

As for getting your images listed (not ranked) in Google you need to employ some image optimization. Not sure if you've done this as I cannot visit your site without it being listed in your profile. According to SES San Jose a few months back now is definitely the time to start image optimization. Proper file names, alt text, and format.

His site is africapic dot com

Thanks =)

You're not going to get your images listed properly the way they are. The filenames are for the most part unrelated. The only 3 photos on the home page are poorly named and the alternate text are identical (and too long). Going into the gallery same problem, filenames are random like 'gallery_TimGaunt_011047.jpg', and the alt text is not specific but generic like 'pictures of Cheetah'. A few of the photos are a little more specific but you keep doing 'cheetah Images' and 'Cheetah pictures'. Use specific short titles like 'Cheetahs Playing' or 'Cheetah Fur Pattern'. Also in regards to capitalization, choose one or the other. Every image seems to have one word capitalized and one uncapitalized--but with no rhyme or reason. Pick a pattern and stick with it.

As for why google isn't giving you favor I can't really say without closely examining your site. But I can guess...two major problems I see right off--no quality text in the gallery pages and no quality incoming links.

First the text, I'd recommend a small description under each photo and highly modifying the top text area. It seems you tried to cram a lot of keywords (or rather keyword Cheetah) in a small area. It doesn't read naturally. If you were to distribute the terms cheetah, photos, pictures, fur, cubs, etc. in the descriptions of the photos it will appear much more natural to your visitors and search engines. It will also make indexing much easier. People will search specific and you can optimize for that. Don't optimize an image for cheetah photo, optimize for what the image is: cheetah cubs, cheetah fur, cheetah spot patterns, playing cubs, etc. And for thumbnails don't include the term cheetah for EVERY photo. Mix it up, it's going to look a little strange for a keyword to appear in every single photo. Tie the terms in the alt text into the description and BAM--a big step towards optimizing. =)

Second, the links. I only looked at the first 50 incoming links, and I see a pattern. There's nothing wrong with social bookmarking sites, in fact they are an important part of any online marketing, but when all you links are coming from either social bookmarking sites or directories the search engines will see this as less than stellar. Remember, the idea of incoming links isn't just to drive direct traffic but to hopefully get a little link juice. This comes from quality sites, in your genre, with few outgoing links, linking to your website, with the right anchor text. I didn't see a single site within your top 50 incoming links that could qualify. Consider writing a very in-depth article for each animal you have a gallery for. Make it a quality article on the particular animal you have a gallery for. Document the difficulties in photographing the animal. Just make sure it's a good, high quality article people would want to read. Then start promoting the articles at forums, websites related to the animal, etc. Not sure how people around here feel about link baiting, but when it's done properly it's a successful tool that not only benefits the reader (goal 1) but your direct number of visits (goal 2) and will start drawing incoming links on their own (goal 3).

Good luck with the site mate.

Thanks for the tips... I have sorted a few of them out.

I can't really change the black and white...will remember that for next time.

www (dot) africapic.com/cheetah_pictures.html this is the page that I am trying to get a top 5 for. Any more tips? It would be greatly appreciated.

Also fixed the broken links.

Alex