[Ball Fish]

Any SEO guru's in here?
I own my domain but for just starting out I redirect it to my cafe press store.
I have a couple questions.
Can this shun spiders from finding it? Using the redirect.
I'm going to add some meta info in the actual cafepress store html.
Should I submit my domain name to SE's or the url of my cafepress store?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks
Randy

 

[Rodney]

Sometimes a redirect can hurt your search engine rankings if the search engines think that the same content is in both places (at the domain name and at the redirected site).

Usually, if you have other sites linking to you, you won't need to submit your site to the search engines, but if you are going to submit your site, then you should submit your cafepress store.

If you ever decide on building up a separate website at your domain (which could be a good idea), you should then use your domain name when submitting to search engines or having people link to you.

If you are advertising in offline media (print ads, radio, business cards, flyers,etc), then you'll want to use your domain name since it is easier to type in and remember.

Search engines will still find your site if you use a redirect

 

[Ball Fish]

Thanks Rodney

Can I ask 1 more for you or anyone knowing.
I notice my cafe code says:
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

Does this mean my page won't get indexed in SE's

 

[Rodney]

Does this mean my page won't get indexed in SE's

Just the opposite

"index" tells the search engines that it's OK to index that page.

"follow" tells the search engines that it's OK to follow the links on that page and index the links that they find.

Lots more good information can be found here:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769

 

[hostingdiva]

I'm going to add some meta info in the actual cafepress store html.

Generally you do not want to use redirects because most search engines will consider it duplicate content and so will list the main site - cafepress.

Meta tags are not necessary to add. Top search engines (google especially) tend not to use meta tags anymore because people abused them... listing Britney Spears in their meta tags when their website was about something else.. just because that name was getting a lot of hits .

What IS necessary is A LOT of text. The more the better... particularly on your home page... which in this case would be your CafePress front page. I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with how you can layout your CafePress section but if you can add more text to that initial page - that would be your best option.

You may want to read this page:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34434&query=meta+tags&topic=0&type=f

Should I submit my domain name to SE's or the url of my cafepress store?

For site submission - check this out:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34397&topic=8523

 

[dub3325]

What about making a custom home page with all the necessary info (news, feature products....etc) with a navigation bar leading to your cafepress store. So it does not get redirected automatically.

Wonder if that'd work out better?

 

[Rodney]

Wonder if that'd work out better?

Yes, I think that would probably work out better. Having a separate site to promote your cafepress store is a good thing

 

[Shirt_Off_My_Bak]

Sometimes a redirect can hurt your search engine rankings if the search engines think that the same content is in both places (at the domain name and at the redirected site).

Regarding duplicate content, what about the following scenario: Two domains, both with the same interior content but completely different home pages. I ask because my partner has designed a site with very little text on the home page and for now does not want to change. The marketing for the product initially will not require it to be searchable; however, it is certainly a product that would benefit from SEO.

If we put up a second site that is SEO friendly (the domains are similar, in fact they are alternate spellings) will Google et al consider this to be some sort of violation of their rules? Or if this is a violation, could the one site request not to be spidered, would that solve the problem?

 

[Rodney]

If you request one site not to be spidered, that would probably solve the problem.

Otherwise it sounds like it would definitely be a duplicate content situation.

 

[Ball Fish]

What about making a custom home page with all the necessary info (news, feature products....etc) with a navigation bar leading to your cafepress store.

I did think about that route but decided I wanted product to be in full view right away. I was thinking say someone followed a link - if they went to my custom home page with nav bar to my products there is a slight chance they may say oh someones selling something and not follow that nav/link.
With product right off domain they may say hmm that's funny or interesting and proceed to purchase or roam.

I wanted it to be real simple. No xtra clicking.