SEO Tycoon

**connelly73** · 01-18-2010, 07:14 PM

Difficult to explain but my site http://www.guitarandsong.com is listed in google on the first page if I search in the google bar for 'guitar and song'.
Firstly is there a way to check where my site is ranked on google if I search for 'guitar tabs' or 'guitar songs' or guitar music etc...ie what page is it on or do I have to look through them all to find it.

Also how do i improve this for these search descriptions is this all down to key words and if so why if I search for 'guitar and song' is that different from 'guitar song'
Hope this makes sense.

**rolda hayes** · 04:19 AM

Firstly,

You're showing on page one as it is bringing up the most relevant site... "guitar and song" would not be normally something a user would search for??

Second - Don't bother about what page you appear on - IT MAY BE DIFFERENT FOR EVERY USER! just have a look at your stats to see how many users are looking at your site and judge things from there.

**connelly73** · 01-18-2010, 07:55 PM

So why is guitar songs so different from guitar and song.That is something people might search for (playing guitar and writing songs is what I do and I have in the passed looked this up) when the same keywords are in my site content?

**rolda hayes** · 01-19-2010, 04:29 AM

From the looks of it, your site hasn't been around that long. It will takes time to show up. and even then, may never get to the top of the results as there are loads of sites doing the same as you.

The phrase "guitar and song" is quite different to "playing guitar and writing songs"... so will show different results.

What I am basically trying to say is to stop focusing on the search results... It's a waste of time for anyone to do that.

Keep an eye on your stats and use that to find out what you need to improve on.

**connelly73** · 01-19-2010, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rolda hayes

From the looks of it, your site hasn't been around that long. It will takes time to show up. and even then, may never get to the top of the results as there are loads of sites doing the same as you.

The phrase "guitar and song" is quite different to "playing guitar and writing songs"... so will show different results.

What I am basically trying to say is to stop focusing on the search results... It's a waste of time for anyone to do that.

Keep an eye on your stats and use that to find out what you need to improve on.

Sorry but what you say does not make sense. Yes guitar and song is quite different but guitar songs isn't. I know there are lots like it but every subject has lots of sites about it. Why should I stop focusing on search results, is that not the point of SEO to get better ranking to ultimately get more traffic to your page. If I don't how do I get more traffic?

All I am asking is what is the significance of 'keywords' where do you put them on your site, why is one phrase high on Google but one without the word 'and' not, do you need to do them in a certain sequence, just a little bit of basic information would be helpful all these forums talk about keywords as being important but with no real information on what to do with the keywords. Do you just try and put them into the content of your site.

**rolda hayes** · 01-19-2010, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Yes guitar and song is quite different but guitar songs isn't.

Correct, but would a user really search for "guitar and song" ?

That does not make grammatical sense...

Search engines will try to find the most relevant site based on what you searched for (And I know Chris is NOT going to agree with this BUT...) your site domain is "guitarandsong" so it deems that to be more relevant.

As for what I said about not checking rankings:

What YOU see on a search results page is NOT necessarily what someone else is seeing. Loads of different factors come into play here that can alter the positions particular sites rank on them.

Quote:

is that not the point of SEO to get better ranking to ultimately get more traffic

nearly right...! the point of SEO is conversions... wherever it is to sell a product, get a comment or even to get a click through...

What I meant was stop wasting your precious time on obsessing about these things that you CAN'T control.

Use your stats to see increases in traffic to your site, see where your visitor have come from, what keywords they have used to get there... Use this information to improve what you have done and INCREASE your traffic.

Sure, we ALL occasionally have a little play in Google to see how we are doing, but you really should not become obsessed by it!

**connelly73** · 01-19-2010, 07:05 PM

Thanks for clearing that up wasn't aware that what I search for could be different to someone else. It just feel like a very long process to get traffic and I now know that it is.

When you talk about stats could you give me some pointers as to what tools, etc... I could use and what I'm looking for.

Thanks for all the help.

**rolda hayes** · 07:26 PM

No problem.

Personally, I use statcounter.com - your host should have their own version but I use this because all my sites can be seen in one place (a lot of them sell the same type of products and it helps to know which site is doing what!)

Traffic is a long process... there are NO quick routes.

As for you Keywords, try thing like changing;

"Review 1: The Peavey VYPYR 15 Watt Practice Amp" to something like,
"Peavey VYPYR 15 Watt Practice Amp review" ;

something that a genuine user (like me) would actually type into a search engine.

Look at one of the first posts I ever made here about SEO and you will see I was no different from how your feeling now...!

Give it time and stick with (this) forum and you will be fine!

BTW. just bought myself a new Yamaha CPX500, so will be using your site soon!

**connelly73** · 01-19-2010, 07:28 PM

Thanks will do. How is the guitar? I think that is the newer version of mine a Yamaha CPX8M. Really nice guitars.

Reading your post makes me feel a bit better. 'm not out to make money but I don't want to send lots of time on my site if no one visits. If I do get a lot of visitors I would then think of Google adsense or something.

**rolda hayes** · 01-19-2010, 07:44 PM

Well (personally) I think your doing a great job - a labour of love is sometimes better than going all out to make a fast buck!

Haven't played for a few years so my fingers have gone soft and it hurts again!
Oh how I miss hard fingertips!

Good luck with the site!

**jef** · 01-20-2010, 12:26 AM

You must check in google keyword tools and choose a relevant keyword for your'e sites...
choose a right and relevant keyword it's most important to increase and get a good PR ..

Thanks and hopefully helps

**chrishirst** · 01-20-2010, 04:45 AM

http://www.webmaster-talk.com/the-go...ed-search.html

5 Reasons Why Rankings Are A Poor Measure Of Success
http://searchengineland.com/080131-071244.php

**watchitmister** · 01-20-2010, 10:03 AM

Theres Chris with the infamous personalised search link..You can also see where the results would be without the personalized search. After you search there is something that says to the effect of "these results have been personalized, to view what the results would look like if they were not personalized click here" This will at least give you an idea. But I agree, you can keep track of have users visit your site for keywords and what position the keyword was with some software. There are some good free ones out there as well.

**chrishirst** · 01-20-2010, 11:17 AM

It will give you an idea of what you will see, it won't help with the fact that somebody else will be seing different results because they are viewing a different datacentre.

Regardless of "personalized results" or not is a pointless task. CHECK YOUR LOGS If you are getting useful traffic you have got it right.

**watchitmister** · 01-20-2010, 12:43 PM

Right I agree...some people dont know how to do that or want to reassure them by seeing the SERPS. I use to do the same thing, but now use other means

**connelly73** · 01-20-2010, 05:57 PM

Thanks guys some real help and advice. I see I have a lot to learn but know I must be in the right place. Well got some reading to do cheers.

**connelly73** · 01-20-2010, 06:20 PM

I have one more question and I feel a bit thick asking but I really am struggling to understand the keyword thing. For example the Google keyword tool, is that only for adwords as I don't advertise or have an adword account.

I have put my url into it and generated keyword ideas or put in phrases or words I think would be searched for to get another list of keywords etc... but after that I am unsure what to do with them? Is this only for adwords or does this have some use?

What does the advertiser competition mean or the local or global search sections mean?

Thanks hope I'm not being a pain.

**watchitmister** · 01-21-2010, 07:47 AM

the google keyword tool is primarily for adwords, but can be used to get ideas for keywords and how often a keyword is searched.

The competition in the keyword tool is for adwords competition. To find the competiton for a keyword in organic results I recommend using "allintitle:keyword"

The results of allintitle will give you a list of all the urls which have the keyword your researching in the title

**connelly73** · 01-21-2010, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by watchitmister

The results of allintitle will give you a list of all the urls which have the keyword your researching in the title

With this information then should I be looking for keywords that are not in many urls as to have less compitition or the most searched.

Thanks

**chrishirst** · 01-22-2010, 07:14 AM

An intitle:keyword or allintitle:keyphrase will return a more accurate figure of how many pages are more likely to deliberately targeted rather than the "accidentally optimised" for it.