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Rodney · April 7th, 2008

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	just that if you are not amazing at it, I think you can only go so far with it.

Don't think of it as a "skill" that you can be "amazing" at.

Just think of it as one thing to make sure that is taken care of on your website.

Like you wouldn't put up a website where all the images were broken. Or you wouldn't put up a website that loaded really slowly.

Similarly, you shouldn't put up a website that hasn't been optimized for the basic "search engine readiness".

It's not really something complicated at all. It's just one more thing to check off the "my website is ready for the internet" list.

You don't have to be "strong" at it. It's basically just a list of things to make sure your website has.

And of course, it's not going to be the only thing you should be doing to market/advertise your new website. It's only one slice of the overall marketing pie. But it's an important slice for an online ecommerce website.

Peace2TheRest · April 7th, 2008

Thanks for clarifying, I got the feel that SEO was some mystical thing that we all search for!

Like its the holy grail or something.

I can understand where everyone is coming from now.
I never ever claimed to be a computer whiz lol.....I am working hard at that though. Trying to get better with my computer skills.

The T Shirt Man · April 8th, 2008

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	WHOA. GUESS WHAT. YOU'RE DONE!! Ya, seriously, it is that easy. Sure, you can spend extra time tweaking keywords, links and things...

Thats just half the battle. On site optimisation is important, but offsite is also very important. Its critical to build links with relevant anchor text on good quality websites. Good quality websites being those with good PR, and are relevant to your site.

Nikeman · April 8th, 2008

I find the on-site stuff pretty standard and not that hard. It's also easier because it's an one time job. On the other off-site SEO should be done monthly and proper link building is harder to get. Good luck!

Peace2TheRest · April 8th, 2008

Not looking forward to it, but since I am not going to build my own site,

Do site builders that talk about doing SEO for you work?
Can you trust them?
Or since you know your demo better then anyone, should you lean it and do it all yourself??

goonatic · April 9th, 2008

When I hear the SEO experts speak, they seem to always talk about links first. Google tries to understand how important your site is based on the strength of links that go to your site. Do a google search of "funny t-shirts" The top site is bustedtees dot com. Why, because they have a strong link from collegehumor dot com. A while back collegehumor dot com was created and became popular source of college humor. So google considered it a source of funny things. So know google thinks bustedtees is a source of funny things. Many SEO experts suggest creating side sites that have relevant content as your other site. Blogs are good examples of these types of sites. Google apparently likes blogs because the content changes frequently. Once these sites become popular your main site which has links from them is know popular. This technique obviously takes time and effort.

Good luck,
Mark

p.s. note how I refrained from giving bustedtees any more links

Peace2TheRest · April 9th, 2008

So content and related popular links are what is most important??

When you 1st launch your site, what are the top 3 things to do first??

The T Shirt Man · April 10th, 2008

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	Do site builders that talk about doing SEO for you work?

Are you talking about getting someone else to do it (e.g. a 3rd party company who specialises in SEO? If so then yes they can work, but they may not. They tend to charge lots, and some promise things which they cannot gaurentee.

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	Can you trust them?

I wouldnt, but thats just me

If you do go down that road you could try seeing some examples of the sites they have done, contacting their webmasters for feedback.

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	Or since you know your demo better then anyone, should you lean it and do it all yourself??

For me this is the best idea. SEO is an ongoing thing, its not something you can do for a week and leave it forever. If you do it yourself you have more control, it costs less, and you learn as you go.

Quote:


	Many SEO experts suggest creating side sites that have relevant content as your other site. Blogs are good examples of these types of sites. Google apparently likes blogs because the content changes frequently. Once these sites become popular your main site which has links from them is know popular. This technique obviously takes time and effort.

Yes it certainly can help. But relevant links is just one factor. Another would be site age and the things that come with it.
e.g. you have your new t shirt blog and link it to your t shirt site, so your t shirt site has a relevant link, but there may not be links that go to the blog, so the link from the blog to the site is not worth much.
If instead you have a link to your t shirt site from a t shirt blog which has PR (pagerank) and has been around for a few years this is almost definatly going to be worth more.

Another good idea is having a google sitemap, it will make it easier for google to find your pages

Quote:


	When you 1st launch your site, what are the top 3 things to do first??

I couldnt say a top 3. The only thing i can advise is make sure your site is all ready before submitting to google or getting links. Then when all the on page stuff is done do offsite things like link building.

Rodney · April 10th, 2008

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	When you 1st launch your site, what are the top 3 things to do first??

1. Make your brand astounding.

2. Make your site search engine friendly.

3. Promote your site and brand/site.

Links are indeed important, but if you do number 1 and 3, then the links will come.

When the links come, if you haven't done number 2, you will be losing visitors and money.

Peace2TheRest · April 10th, 2008

I learn more on here about business and relevant life information then I learn all day in class. Too bad you need a degree for credibility. lol.

Thanks everyone that helps a lot.

qcumber · April 13th, 2008

How important?

56.9% traffic comes from search engines.
popular searches "t-shirt" of coz. It appears on the 1st page for anyone searching for T-shirt in Malaysia.
Marked improvement to translate an enquiry into a sale.

Very important for us! Below pic says it all.

Nikeman · April 22nd, 2008

I would add that traffic comming from the search engines is much more easy to convert than traffic from forums and this makes it more important, of course.

Xeon · April 22nd, 2008

Not that I have anything against SEO, but well, I must be doing it wrong cos' it never works for me.

Obviously, targeting the big keywords like "t-shirts" or even "funny t-shirts" is like trying to fish a needle out from the entire surface of the sun.

And yet, when I pick very specific keywords, I get 1 - 2 visit from that keyword per month, and no sales, obviously.

When I refer to the word "SEO", I'm talking about getting listed within the top 15 results in the big search engines for any important, popular keyword.

It seems when it comes to SEO, there's only 3 possibilities:

1) Those who can't achieve top 15 results (or even top 80) for top keywords and give up

2) Those who spend US$800 - US$5000 every now and then to pay experts to SEO their website

3) Those who buy books on SEO, become an active member in SEO forums, practice SEO non-stop (99% of their time learning SEO, 1% designing t-shirts)......spending 3 - 4 years to learn SEO and in the end, become so acquainted with SEO that when their t-shirt biz fails, they can simply switch careers to start their own SEO company (which is actually pretty profitable)

Just my 2-cents.

AustinJeff · April 22nd, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xeon


	When I refer to the word "SEO", I'm talking about getting listed within the top 15 results in the big search engines for any important, popular keyword. It seems when it comes to SEO, there's only 3 possibilities:

I believe Rodney has at least 2 sites in the top 15 on Google for "T-shirt," and I don't believe he falls into any of these categories.

Xeon · April 23rd, 2008

LOL, yeah, I tend to exaggerate my words, but then, if I had to pick one out of these 3 categories to fit him in, I would pick #3 as the closest to him.

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