Advice Please - www.chocohouse.co.uk

[dreed]

I have had my web site running for a couple of years now. www.chocohouse.co.uk
I have been playing around with SEO trying to get more traffic, but each time I think I've gotten somewhere things seem to go in reverse. Choco House comes up on the 1st page of Google, but product keywords do not. I thought I’d cracked it over the weekend, as my keywords where suddenly appearing on the 1st page of Google (with ref to my site) - handmade cookies, milk chocolate cookies etc. But when I checked again yesterday, my site seems to have gone when searching on keywords. I am trying to build some relevant reciprocal links..... I don’t suppose somebody could have a look and tell me where I’m going wrong. I would really like to get some traffic to the site, and some sales would be nice too CheersI have had my web site running for a couple of years now. Cheers

[glitzybits]

Hi Im no expert, but think your site is lacking content, would be nice to see some info on things like how you began making chocs and why. sorry, not much help

Steve

[dan1el]

when you check your site for keywords make sure you are not logged into Google, this will give you false rating (due to customized search results), use a rank checker tool to keep an eye on your performance for keywords targeting such as SEOMOZ Rank checker.

I wouldn't go after reciprocal links as Google will see this as a business deal (you link to me & I will link to you) you should be going after quality inbound links from high authority website, with out linking back to them. What Google what's to see is that there are other sites out there talking about you. You could send emails asking sites if they would like to feature you on their site, ask them if you can write an article,tips/tricks (with a link back to your site of course) you really have to use your imagination when it comes to getting links to your site, but it's well worth it, one high-authority back link is worth many crappy links or reciprocal links. Don't be tempted to buy links, the big G will punish you for this.

I would have a good look at your Meta titles & descriptions, I was looking at this page here.... http://www.chocohouse.co.uk/chocolat...-min-100g.html has a short description and not 100% sure the title is very keyword friendly.

You might be better of with buying SEO software to help give you an idea of keywords to use, this will also score your page for optimization and give you tips on how to improve it. Others on here might be able to offer suggestions on which software to use, I think IBP is a popular one.

[glitzybits]

Hi daniel,
sound advice and well worth following I know its not as good as IPB but there are some pretty good free ones out there such as http://www.keyworddensity.com/ which allows you to check yours and a competitors, also use http://www.seomoz.org/tools again there are some free options

best of luck

[dreed]

Cheers, I'll have a look at the keyword sites. Funny you should mentioned been logged onto google, as I was when checking my keywords. I'll also work on the content, meta tiltes and links etc.

[dan1el]

Also work on your product descriptions, there should be much more content there! not just for the search engines but for the users as well.

[dreed]

Hi,

Yep I was looking at them over the weekend, I'm working on some new ones.

Cheers

[Joanne_UK]

You have to decide which keywords are worth working on first. Is the keyword "Choco House" really important? Because there is less than 10 search/month for that keyword according to google adwords keyword tool. Try to search for keywords with high monthly search but low competition as they will be easier to SEO and bring more quickly to the first page on google. Obviously the keywords will have to be related to your products..ohh and your cookies looks very nice!!

[Joanne_UK]

tip:
chocolate chip cookies = 5400 searches/month
Handmade cookies = 36 searches/month

So it's quite obvious which keyword you should target(chocolate chip cookies) here and after having a look, the competition for that keyword is low.
Make sure you have a category like this : www.chocohouse.co.uk/chocolate-chips-cookies.html
There is a lot of other stuff but as I said researching the correct keywords to use is the first (and ver important) step.

peanut butter cookies= 5400 searches/month ...low competition...maybe consider making this flavour available on your website? (with url www.chocohouse.co.uk/peanut-butter-cookies.html)

[dreed]

cats renamed

[Joanne_UK]

I don't want to pretend to be an expert...I only started working on the SEO of my website after an intensive 2 days course with a SEO Expert.
So far my keyword (2 words keyword) went from page 12 to now page 5 and I am not finished working on it as I have to try and optimise all the products in the category that I am doing the SEO on. I have also not started working on links to my page yet, so the change is only from content and meta tags and changing other pages in the category.
If you use the following tool : http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html
Put the URL for that category (chocolate chip cookies) and look a the data. Actually if you look at "Phrases 3" section your keyword has a good Density (2.17%) and Prominence (82.85%). Density should be between 3 and 5% so try to get it more close to 3% and prominence should be between 65 to 75% so yours is a little bit too high.
Also all your other 3 words are too strong : chocolate chip cookie with a density of 5.43% is competing with your important keyword...keep all the other 3 words at the lowest density and prominence possible so they do not compete with your main keyword.

I know it is difficult to write about cookies but you will also need more content on that category ..maybe have a look at what I have done on my website (on the amber jewellery section).
I am currently making more changes because by adding new prroducts it changes my density and prominence of my keyword (amber jewellery) so I will probably have to write more text under my amber products. Also have a look at my products pages(not finished them yet so look at the Amber Bracelet item no ESNRMOB) notice that on the product page I only use my keyword as a link back to my category. There is a lot more to it (2 full days of learning the basics!)

[Joanne_UK]

sorry I meant try to get it close to 4% (density)