Thread: How do you improve your chances of your site being found on Google?

As some of you know, I just got my own domain name for my AAC group through godaddy.com. http://autismambassadors.com/ The problem is, unless you actually know the name of my group, it doesn't come up on the search engines.

I'm using Wordpress as the program for my web page design. Under "All in One SEO" (I don't know what SEO even stands for) is a box labeled "Home Keywords." I was under the impression that's where you put what I was told as "tags" that enable others to find your site."

One of Keywords/Tags that I've used is "Autism Support Groups Phoenix AZ." So if someone types that into their search engine, my group should come up on that list, but it doesn't. Some of the sites that do are medical treatment centers that don't have support groups. So why are they showing up, but not me?

I'm to understand that some of this has to do with "reputation," which I understand to mean how many hits someone's site gets. Does this this mean the number of hits over a given period of time or since the site was 1st started? I am getting blitzed with spam because I allow anyone to post comments, but my spam filter & requirement that all comments be pre-approved by a moderate provide me a 2 layer defense against spammers that has prevented any of their comments from polluting my board. Nevertheless, do these failed spamming attempts count towards my sites “reputation?”

What more do I need to do for people to be able to find me?

It's not a simple thing. You can buy some SEO (search engine optimization) from Amazon, or Google for some tips. Simply put, Google attempts to put pages on the top of its list that it thinks people will want to see. They have some propriatary algortythms for this, but some of the things they are looking at:

• Content - Google pays much less attention to keywords in the SEO section, and more to the content of each page, and the keywords in those pages. Meaning, having "Autism support group" in the boady of the page, pages.
  
• Incoming links - the more sites that link to you, the higher your ranking. Supposedely, it means a lot more if those sites have similar content to yours -- related to autism in this case.

The two things you can do that would likely have the biggest impact on traffic, but will take some effort on your part, would be to:

1. Since your site is in Wordpress, post content regularly. Every time you post a new blog entry, it will 'ping' the search engines and tell them to come take a look. Posting articles regularly (2-5 times a week) will keep the engines coming back and show new content is being put on the site.
   
2. Here is the biggie, but it will take some effort. Every day, have a series of blogs and forums related to Autism that you visit and post on. Many blogs allow comments on articles, and more important, allow you to include a link to your website (they will often have name, email and website fields along with the comment box when leaving a comment) when you leave a comment. If you can find 15-30 blogs related to Autism, then every day you should visit them, and comment on one or two of their articles. This does two things. First, people reading your comments may visit your site if they like what you wrote. Second, that link back to your site is an incoming link from another site in Google's perspective. With forums, assuming the forum allows it, you can put a link to your site in your signature, and this will again allow people to go direct and aid your Google page rank. Again, it's important that the forums are autism related to help you in Google.

Bottom line, creating a website is easy. Getting people to visit it is very difficult. I've seen estimates as high, or higher, than 150,000 a day as the number of new domains registered every day. Not every one gets a new website, but the point is there are a LOT of new sites created every day, which creates a ton of clutter.

Go to other sites, and get ask to have a link made to your site. The more links you have, the more google reads your site as "relevent" during searches.

The name of the site itself is the biggest point.

Example. I have a business, and I had a domain name that was cute and said what I did, but then came across a person that simply said "put the name of your city in your domain." Now obviously this is different than your situation, but it might click something with you.

The point is, now when people in my state google for my service, my domain name is practically what they will be searching for... so its the first to pop up because it fits their search criteria.

So perhaps a domain name like "PheonixAutismSupportGroup.com"... or something similar so that when they type in google "Autism Support, Pheonix AZ"..your domain name hits that search precisely.

Originally Posted by Ravage!!!

Go to other sites, and get ask to have a link made to your site. The more links you have, the more google reads your site as "relevent" during searches.

The name of the site itself is the biggest point.

Example. I have a business, and I had a domain name that was cute and said what I did, but then came across a person that simply said "put the name of your city in your domain." Now obviously this is different than your situation, but it might click something with you.

The point is, now when people in my state google for my service, my domain name is practically what they will be searching for... so its the first to pop up because it fits their search criteria.

So perhaps a domain name like "PheonixAutismSupportGroup.com"... or something similar so that when they type in google "Autism Support, Pheonix AZ"..your domain name hits that search precisely.

Very good advice, especially on the domain name.

For instance, if you Google "Broncos Forum" or "Denver Broncos Forum", BF comes up first or second, almost exclusively because of the domain I chose.

On the other hand, if you search "Broncos Message Board" or "Denver Broncos Message Board" we can be anywhere from third, to off the first page (not sure exactly why it jumps around).

A lot of sites are willing to do link exchanges, so if you go to them and ask them to link to your site and that you will link to theirs, many will do so. Again, for maximum impact, the sites sharing links should be of the same type, in your case autism related.

Also, a bit time consuming, but another thing to help your rank is to right articles. There are a number of article sites out there where you can submit articles. Some are more stringent than others in terms of approving you, or your articles, but they typically allow you to put a single link in the article. Those articles not only appear on the articles site, but also sometimes show up on other sites who are looking for content (drawing a blank on the names of some of the articles sites, but if you think you would want to spend the time on that, I can dig some of the top ones up for you).

Originally Posted by Tned

Also, a bit time consuming, but another thing to help your rank is to right articles. There are a number of article sites out there where you can submit articles. Some are more stringent than others in terms of approving you, or your articles, but they typically allow you to put a single link in the article. Those articles not only appear on the articles site, but also sometimes show up on other sites who are looking for content (drawing a blank on the names of some of the articles sites, but if you think you would want to spend the time on that, I can dig some of the top ones up for you).

Good points there. Time consuming, but can well be worth the effort, especially early on.

Then, there is ALWAYS Facebook and Linkedin. Highly recommend those as well.

Great information. Thanks

SEO is a huge part of what I do at my job, and the advice here is spot on. The biggest thing as Tned said is to update your content regulary. Our biggest boosts in search engines comes from posting articles and making sure all of our content for our products is unique. Organic content is a big plus, especially with Google. Make sure you don't duplicate content from page to page, you will take hits for that.

I use Wordpress and Joomla for our blog sites for my company, and this is a good resource for Wordpress Search Engine Optimization: http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/

Thanks for all of the advice, I'll defiantly need help to implement a lot of it due to the fact I'm not that tech savvy.

1) Ravage!!! & Tned both talked about the importance of my domain name, but I've already have one. I'd have to check with godaddy to find out just how many domain names my subscription entitles me to. If I can have more than one, can I tie the domain name that Google is more likely to pick up to my current domain name so that whoever clicks on the new link to directed to my current site?

2) I've already, as a goodwill gesture, put the links to other sites on mine. I've been so busy working on my own site that I haven't got around to asking these other sites to reciprocate, but it’s defiantly been on my mind to do so.

Originally Posted by FanInAZ

Thanks for all of the advice, I'll defiantly need help to implement a lot of it due to the fact I'm not that tech savvy.

1) Ravage!!! & Tned both talked about the importance of my domain name, but I've already have one. I'd have to check with godaddy to find out just how many domain names my subscription entitles me to. If I can have more than one, can I tie the domain name that Google is more likely to pick up to my current domain name so that whoever clicks on the new link to directed to my current site?

yes!

Simply set it up so that when you click one link, it automatically sends you to the other domain. Its pretty easy to do.

This way you don't have to transfer any of the data you already have on your current web site.

Originally Posted by Ravage!!!

yes!

Simply set it up so that when you click one link, it automatically sends you to the other domain. Its pretty easy to do.

This way you don't have to transfer any of the data you already have on your current web site.

He doesn't want a second account, so it depends if his Godaddy account allows multiple domains. I haven't used Godaddy, I'm only familar with Cpanel accounts.

With Cpanel, they call it add on domains.

AZ if you put in a ticket with Godaddy, since they are a managed service, they might help you.

Originally Posted by Tned

He doesn't want a second account, so it depends if his Godaddy account allows multiple domains. I haven't used Godaddy, I'm only familar with Cpanel accounts.

With Cpanel, they call it add on domains.

AZ if you put in a ticket with Godaddy, since they are a managed service, they might help you.

Actually, I have someone else managing my site. He gave me a friend of a friend discount ($150 instead of $600-$800) and with the number of hours he's spent working with me, he probably averaging less than $20/hr. Might explain he's less than entirely enthusiastic the last time that I asked him for assistance. That's why I'm trying to figure this out on my own.

Originally Posted by FanInAZ

Actually, I have someone else managing my site. He gave me a friend of a friend discount ($150 instead of $600-$800) and with the number of hours he's spent working with me, he probably averaging less than $20/hr. Might explain he's less than entirely enthusiastic the last time that I asked him for assistance. That's why I'm trying to figure this out on my own.

Well, he would have to be doing a BUNCH for $600-800, and $150 (assuming for the year), not too bad, depending on what it includes and what he's doing. Does that include your hosting, or just him setting up your Wordpress and stuff?

Originally Posted by Tned

Well, he would have to be doing a BUNCH for $600-800, and $150 (assuming for the year), not too bad, depending on what it includes and what he's doing. Does that include your hosting, or just him setting up your Wordpress and stuff?

Yes to both.

I kow this thread is old but..

In word press make sure SEF url's are turned on in all in one SEO.
You might have to add to the .htaccess file to get the search rngine friendly urls going.

Make an article name it your key word. Use the keyword 3 to 5 times in the article. Use a phone number if it's location based keyword.

Make a site map

Submit sitemap to google

Look for you on the lead page of google soon for a soft keyword like yours.

Once onsite work is done work offsite by putting your exact keyword in your sig and link to your blog and post everywhere that allows a sig with a link. The exact keyword each time.