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rtgreen Inner circle Portland, Oregon 1322 Posts |
Hey guys,
I know we are discussing SEO in another posting, but I want to be notified about replies for this question so I started a new topic. I am making a drastic changes to my marketing for next year and that includes a new web design. My current url, http://www.smallmiraclesentertainment.com will stay the same, but the presentation will be changed making things more focused to specific offerings. It will also be more video focused as opposed to text based. Currently, I have a very good Google rating in my local market. I have been #2 or #3 in results for the term "Portland Magician" for the last couple of years and a lot of my business comes from my web site. With the new design, I don't want to lose this ranking, but the new design will be less text intensive. I have thought of leaving the old copy hidden in the site and of course keeping the meta tags as is, but is there anything else I should be looking at that could help? I was pretty savvy when it came to SEO a few years ago, but I haven't kept up as well as I should have. Thanks for any ideas, Richard |
Domino Magic Special user 999 Posts |
Here's a couple of pointers:
1. DON'T hide your old text. If Google sees you're hiding text, for example black text on a black background, that can hurt your rankings. 2. You should learn about 301 redirects. This is an SEO friendly way to tell the search engines that the pages they have cached have changed. It points them to the new pages. For example about.html now points to about_portland_magician.html 3.Set up a Google site map. It's free and easy to do. This will also help Google see all the pages in your site. As long as your new content is as relevant as your current content and you're not going to over do it with Flash, then you should be fine and any drop will be minimal and short term. |
stempleton Inner circle 1443 Posts |
Domino Magic, how does hiding black text on black background hurt your rankings?
I'll be honest, I know NUUUUUTHING about SEO, but have considered doing this type of thing on my own website after seeing others do this. What's the Google result? |
Domino Magic Special user 999 Posts |
This is from Google:
Hiding text or links in your content can cause your site to be perceived as untrustworthy since it presents information to search engines differently than to visitors. Text (such as excessive keywords) can be hidden in several ways, including: * Using white text on a white background * Including text behind an image * Using CSS to hide text * Setting the font size to 0 http://www.google.com/support/webmasters......er=66353 My comments: This is/was a popular technique in the early days, especially for porn sites. As has been stated many times here, SEO isn't rocket science. The search engines want relevant content. Their business is being an effective search tool, which means returning relevant search results based on keyword searches. If you don't get what you're looking for, you will go to another search engine. So what does this have to do with hidden text? Well Google looks at hidden text and asks 'why are you hiding the text?' If it's relevant to your site, you shouldn't have to hide it. And that's the rub because many sites have used hidden text to drive traffic to their site and when you get there, you find it has nothing to do with what you were looking for. SEO basics: Don't have an all Flash site or even a Flash splash home page. Don't have one big image as your home page. Do have relevant content on your home page - relevant content means that the search words you want to be found for will appear in the text of the page. Have your title tag - the title of your page also include keywords The phrase Portland magician should be in the text of the home page, meta tags and well as the title. Don't just call your home page - Home. Title it John Smith Portland magician (very basic example) Get a Google site map set up. Spend about $20 and buy SEO for Dummies. Great book that will serve you well. SEO is more about common sense then it is technical. It's easy to understand. |
jackturk Elite user 463 Posts |
Lot's of good advice so far -- make sure to check out Google's guidelines for webmasters. They have a great help system in place that you should read and follow.
SEO should really be thought of as more of a journey than a destination. You should consider continuous work on your Search rankings as an ongoing element of your overall marketing efforts. --Jack
"59 Ways To Recession Proof Your Entertainment Business -- FREE!"
http://www.GetLeadsLikeCrazy.com "How To Make $25,000 a Year Doing Birthday Parties Part-Time" http://www.magicmarketingcenter.com/birthdayPT |
Domino Magic Special user 999 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-09-23 19:31, jackturk wrote: Nothing I can add to that except to say - Excellent Advice! |
MikeClay Special user Atlanta GA 761 Posts |
Yep Yep..
Defiantly a journey.. but yeah you don't just get in trouble you can actually BURN the domain (meaning that Google REMOVES it from the index) and as far as the world is concerned
its ok.. balloon dogs don't bite
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Domino Magic Special user 999 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-09-23 19:31, jackturk wrote: Here are some useful links: Matt Cutts: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ Matt Cutts is the head of Google's webspam team. There are a lot of Matt Cutts videos out there and they are worth watching. Google's Webmaster Central Blog: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/ Between these two blogs, you will start to understand a lot more about what's going on at Google. Also some myths may be shattered as well. For example, there are some uninformed people on this forum that think if you put the right keywords in your meta tags, then you will get to the top of Google. It's simply not true and that statement can be backed up by a post Google made on 9/21/09: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.c......tag.html Another thing you should understand about SEO is the difference between Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO. Black Hat techniques will get you booted off of Google. |
TheDean Inner circle Reno, Nevada 2164 Posts |
Ohhhhhhh nice!
The super simple, basic rule of search engines is to be able to ‘effectively’ return REAL (Current, Relevant) RESULTS for the search terms entered! (Give, Deliver what was asked for…) Anything that impedes that from happening (like FAKE or Forced Results) is NOT good for the search engines OR the 'searcher'. - Loose, Loose! So, if useless returns for a given search term come up, NO ONE WINS and Google and the other search engines want to STOP anything but credible, useful, relevant (and current) returns of the user/searcher or the search engine becomes useless. THAT is why the search engine experts work sooooo hard to kill bad search returns. Simplified anyway… Good stuff gang! Dean <><
Dean Hankey, *M.D. - The Dean of Success Solutions!
Serving & Supporting YOU and Your Success! "Book More Shows... Make More Money... SERVE MORE PEOPLE! - Not Necessarily In That Order…" (*Marketing Doctor) |
HypnotizeAmerica Veteran user 399 Posts |
I might of posted on your other thread (not sure) but if you are clueless about SEO I recommend this book:
SEO Straight Up: http://www.jessalynncoolbaugh.com/seo.htm I bought it and used to raise a friends Google ranking and help my own project. I am all thumbs when it comes to SEO but this thing took me by the hand and helped me out. Well worth the $15 and I don't get a dime for recommending it. Tim |
Christian & Katalina Elite user 407 Posts |
Richard,
To incorporate SEO on your website is no small task. There are a few things you can do at your level but for any kind of large scale operations, I would consult an expert in SEO. Before even tackling that question, you must ask yourself a few questions. 1. Am I going for a local, regional, or national market. 2. What kind of magic do you perform Birthday parties, corporate, comedy etc. 3. What is your target market? 4. What kind of lead capture are you looking to accomplish (if any) 5. How will you determine ROI 6. What is your budget. What “Domino Magic” was talking about is called black hat operations. These kinds of techniques can get you banned from Google (and others) search engines. These types of operations are considered cheating and Google’s attempts at SEO is to create a level playing field. There are many different types of “Black Hat” techniques that you must not use. Additionally, SEO strategies are constantly changing and morphing. Creating many inbound links can significantly improve your rankings but you will have to put in some time and work to accomplish this. A blog will also help you greatly. Down side you must work it and give it new content constantly otherwise it will not be of much use to you. Are you going to use Social Media? Linked-in, Facebook, Twitter? Again all of these tools can help you. Do you want a brochure site or a Web 2.0 site? This can easily go back to what is your budget. The days of a couple of easy SEO techniques are slipping away. Meta tags are becoming less and less important. Actually they are not a major factor any more. Jack and Domino Magic have both given you excellent information. I know you don’t want to lose your current rankings. As long as you don’t change your domain name you should not be hurt too much. But to really understand what you need to do, I would consult a local SEO expert. (This can be a challenge because like magic . . . everyone is a master) I really stress consulting on this because you can hurt yourself by doing the wrong thing and you can really help yourself by learning a few simple things. I would estimate that a consultation with a few tweaks to the website would only cost $500 or so. Hope this helps and good luck Christian
Milbourne Christopher Award for Mentalism 2011
The Annemann Award for Menatalism 2016 Author of "Protoplasm" Close-up Mentalism |
rtgreen Inner circle Portland, Oregon 1322 Posts |
Thanks everyone. This has been a lot of help.
The questions Christian asks are good ones. I appreciate it. Quote:
On 2009-09-30 11:06, Christian & Katalina wrote: For me, I am just pursuing a local market right now. My show is not at the level I feel comfortable charging for travel in addition to the show cost. Most of my business comes from Birthdays, but my birthday info is on a sub-page that I don't put out front. I also do some corporate walk-around and holiday parties. My belief is my birthdays come a lot from word of mouth and my corporate comes from the web site. My goal is to get more corporate. That is where I need to make most of my progress as a performer. Consequently, my target is corporate. Though I really need to set this in my mind. What I am really look for is massive amounts of performing time in front of adults as opposed to crowd control at kid's parties. (I like and am very good at kid parties, but I'm not growing as a performer like I would want.) I don't do any lead generation on the site. This is a glaring over-site on my part. I don't know why I wasn't thinking of it. ROI and budget are not that big of a concern for me on my web presence because the cost is low enough that a couple of shows covers the year. Though, split testing may be a way to improve the conversion rate on the site. I'm not 100% sure how to accomplish this. It would be really nice if I could somehow have my single domain name send the visitor to one of two landing pages. I could then tweak them over time to improve the results. Any one already doing this? I would love to know how. Thanks again for all the help guys and thanks for letting me brainstorm here. Richard |
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