I am struggling with some web SEO stuff...read a lot, listened to different opinions...faffed for months and months...with not too much success...

Does anyone have a pos 1 or 2 ranking for a term that generates about 300 visitors a day?

If so, please drop me a mail at webmaster(at)africapic.com

I would really like some sound advice. I don't need too much, but just a tweak here and there. Nothing major. I have done most of that. Just looking for a few small pointers. If you view my site, you can see that it add value to the internet and is not spam or promoting something stupid.

I have taken a whole lot of the photos on the site, so I could very easily offer their use for web pages to whoever is able to offer some sound advice and help me achieve my goal.


Many Thanks

Alex

What exactly are you asking for? Are you asking that someone gives you a term (any term) that will generate 300 visitors? or are you asking that someone looks at your website and picks you a term (suited to your website) that will generate 300 visitors?

Does anyone have a pos 1 or 2 ranking for a term that generates about 300 visitors a day?

Safe to say, that is most everyone you've talked with here! Forget about 300 visitors, in our world 300 orders is just any average day.

Do as we have suggested and watch what happens!

Ok actually read the post correctly this time :) It's cold it's wet and there are a million spotty teenagers running around throwing fireworks outside!

dam I wish they were in range!

africapic, just post a new thread with your queries

Thanks for the help...

I appreciate that I can ask some questions and get some answers here...

There are far too many opinions on the web on what to do by people who know the theory but don't have the results!

Hence the remark that I want someone who runs a website that gets over 300/visits a day from Google organic to offer advice...makes the advice a lot more credible!

I will start a new thread with some of the questions I have.

Later

Alex

there are a million spotty teenagers running around throwing fireworks outside!

Not Guy Fawkes Day yet!

Ah...V for Vendetta - helped us Yanks learn about Guy Fawkes Day....

lol, yeah it certainly put a different but interesting spin on it

We have over 200 clients and many of them get much more traffic than that. What's your issue?

How to get traffic/rankings! I have a number of landing pages, like the cheetah one you saw, but they are all around pos 20 - 30, and to honest, that just isn't being seen!

So, I am looking for some plan of action (from someone who is successful in it) to get traffic through organic listings of various landing pages. Or any good ideas for me. I am quite new to this all and learning quickly.

How to get traffic/rankings! I have a number of landing pages, like the cheetah one you saw, but they are all around pos 20 - 30, and to honest, that just isn't being seen!

So, I am looking for some plan of action (from someone who is successful in it) to get traffic through organic listings of various landing pages. Or any good ideas for me. I am quite new to this all and learning quickly.


Time and advice costs money ;) When we could be putting it into our own sites.
I think you have aleady had a lot of free help. its time to start reading more and applying the advice given

I'm applying most of the advice that I am getting here!

It has helped so much! I am now at pos 8 for "wildlife pictures"!

So thanks to everyone for their advice! (I am often reading on all kinds of SEO) I have spent over 8 months (4 months full time) trying to get traffic - with almost no success! (I still only get about 50 visits/day! Read all kinds of odd SEO advice that hasn't worked. This forum has really helped though. So thanks to everyone for their input.

ALex

You need to develop positions for well trafficked terms - do more homework on generating keywords - use the impression numbers which means number of searches.... look for ones where you have a shot to get good positions... usually is there is a small number of PPC ads it is less competitive

So thanks to everyone for their advice! (I am often reading on all kinds of SEO) I have spent over 8 months (4 months full time)

Well, now you dont want to spend all that time online right? You gotta go out and take more pics too!

Come back and tell us new techniques you've learned.

Of that time, I have wasted so much of it, reading about things that don't work! So I feel quite frustrated! :-)

I haven't taken many photos at all recently...cryptblade, you're right...far too much time online! I wish I was out taking photos.

But I decided that I would first get this thing ranked, than take more photos. It's too easy to do what I find easier, and leave the whole web thing unattended.

What have I learnt?
1) the web is big, you get lost big time.
2) there are lots of people online! Some people actually make some money online (haven't met too many of them yet, but figure a few people on this forum do)
3) everyone has a say on things, even if it is not always accurate
4) as I'm learning about this all...it is vital that I get advice and help from some more experienced people. In particular, two or three that are involved on the web successfully.:-)
5) the web is a harsh judge...if it is good, it will be really good, but if it is average, you can spend hours and hours promoting and not make much progress. A good thing, gets talked about and promoted by others. I haven't had one person say the pictures are average. All have marvelled at how beautiful the pictures are.
6) I'm taking on some very large image libraries!
7) I'm in a niche, so I should at least be able to get some business. (but will need to ask and listen to some more advanced web gurus)
8) A great site, without traffic, means absolutely nothing. Anyone can make a great site, but few can really get traffic. (this is where I need help)
9) Flickr is a scary competitor!

On the SEO side of things:
1) internal structure is vital! Little things like a 301 redirect, and the correct title tag, work wonders. My site still has a long way to go.(I don't do much coding myself - hence a lot of my ignorance)
2) Google is irratic!
3) Promoting pictures is different to a content site.
4) Patience.
5) Links are not too easy to come by. It's a viscous circle. If you have traffic, you get links, and if you have links you keep traffic. It takes a lot of pushing, before any momentum is created! (This is the stage where I am at) :-)

Learning about H1, H2 titles and such like. But still a little unclear. There is no one formula that works, (at least I haven't got it yet!) So, I figure just create a few good pages, with great pics and people will come.

ok. You are definately headed in the right direction. But there are priorities you need to address ;)
Firstly, no one is going to spoon feed you (totally) all the info you require!
There is no magic recipe but instead there are tried and trusted methods that will certainly help. Are you a relatively wealthy person? if so then pay a good SEO firm to take your site and try and turn it round...

If not, carry on reading!
I have several sites, and while I wouldnt say Im Serge Brin or Larry Page, (google founders) I do ok from them and I have been in this game a while...

Flikr is not a direct competitor. But instead The number one site (http://www.wildlife-pictures-online.com/) is this.

So what you should do now is look closely at their site. See what they are doing that you arent.

Now go here (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=link%3Awww.wildlife-pictures-online.com&btnG=Search&meta=) and request a link from every site possible on every page (that is not wildlife-pictures-online.com)

and then post back ;)

another thing. Dont worry about your competitor (yet) They are irrelevant at this time. And forgive me if I am wrong but I had you in 45th position in google for 'wildlife pictures' just now?
That too is irrelevant. Read the link building forum, and act on it Here (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2616)

it is not easy and takes a LOT of time. This is the best way though unless your content is good enough to get others to link to you.

and google is indeed irratic. Position can change or fluctuate from day to day (unless you are top 3 and it seems to be more stanble!)

Thanks Whitehat...

Nope not too wealthy...spent much of my savings on having the backend to the site created...didn't realise SEO would take so long...but this is a long term effort.

I want to learn myself about SEO, and getting a site to the front. Hence, my reading.

I have been to the competitor site a number of times. Are you wanting me to look at its structure? Or what specific area do you want me to examine? The content? The code?

Will build up other links. Thanks for the list of links to ask for. :-)
I have gone through all of their links. 95% are internal and the remainder are once off articles that their link is in.

How come when I put my URL instead of theirs in the link: it only shows once in Google, while theirs it shows 78 times! I have asked this in another thread and the consensus was not to worry about it. (when i use firefox, it shows i have 800 links). Google does recognise my links.

I'm still link building...

Thanks Whitehat...

Nope not too wealthy...spent much of my savings on having the backend to the site created...didn't realise SEO would take so long...but this is a long term effort.

I want to learn myself about SEO, and getting a site to the front. Hence, my reading.

I have been to the competitor site a number of times. Are you wanting me to look at its structure? Or what specific area do you want me to examine? The content? The code?

Will build up other links. Thanks for the list of links to ask for. :-)
I have gone through all of their links. 95% are internal and the remainder are once off articles that their link is in.

How come when I put my URL instead of theirs in the link: it only shows once in Google, while theirs it shows 78 times! I have asked this in another thread and the consensus was not to worry about it. (when i use firefox, it shows i have 800 links). Google does recognise my links.

I'm still link building...

Well I got stuck into this (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2616) and I have still not finished reading the resources it offers....and there is a heck of a lot in there.
You need to slow down a little and read more first.

if you had read and understood, you would know what direction to take ;)

Dont worry about the google link results for your site.
With thats said, I have seen a direct correlation with how many links a site is seen to have by google (using the link command) and how good a PR the site has.
So you need google to find more of your links (in other words get better links!)


Re examining their site. Look at page title.
in internet explorer click the 'view' > 'source' button (or any browser) and see what their META keywords are and what the Meta description is.
See if you are missing something.
See how they name their images. See how they name their categories. Study their sites link structure (do all pages link to one another?)

I have gone through all of their links. 95% are internal and the remainder are once off articles that their link is in.

Well why not write a few of your own quality articles about wildlife including a link to your site in them and submit them to article sites.... its not a great way but it works.

goarticles.com for example

Thanks for the encouragement everyone and for all those that have gently guided and offered their advice.

I realise that I have got to number 7 for "wildlife pictures" but it only gets a 100/searches a day....very low...(I think)

For those who have seen my site, do you think that I can take on "animal pictures" which I estimate gets a 1000/day searches?

How would I do this? Option 1 or 2?

1)Do I scrap wildlife pictures, and rename everywhere that says wildlife into "animal"?

2)Or do I create another page called www. africapic.com/animal-pictures.html and then point all my pictures with a link called "animal pictures" to that page too?

Thanks

Alex

Thanks for the pointers.

P.s. Whitehat --> my competitor has much better photo directory structure than me. Am looking into that. My first area to improve from a contrast analysis. (Thanks for your pointers) I'm also reworking my homepage to be more user friendly.

Animal pictures looks tough but definitely not impossible - you will need to dive down and find out exactly how many pages you will be competing with - at quick glance, the national geographic is one but 22.5 million results is not an accurate measure of your competition.

IMO, keep your pages and optimize any new additional pages you would like to add. You can always change things later but there is no point in wasting what you have been working hard on.

While you are optimizing for "animal pictures" your current pages will continue to rank better and you can get out and take more pictures :)

So keen to go out and take photos again!!! I've been online far too much... :-)

Thanks for advice. Where do I point all my internal links? At homepage or new "animal" page?

Start another page for the new term.... use internal linking to help focus for the term as well as every thing you have bveen told here.... then get some links to the page with the specific keyword as anchor text... plus a couple that use synonymns

Thanks.

Will add a new page called animal pictures and see how that fares.

Will slowly work that one up the rankings to the top! I hope!

Am working on a plan of action for that.

Alex