Help me SEO my site

yutta

Greetings,

I have a site called www.prestocab.com - it's a way of ordering a taxi online via your computer or mobile phone.

I've been trying to SEO it by removing all the javascript into separate files and putting 'alt's on all the images. I've even started a blog! I've also been trying to make use of the <h1> tag. I have a robots.txt file and I have an xml sitemap.

I'm thinking that because my site is AJAX-enabled whereby just one page is downloaded and all pages are hidden (only appearing once the respective button is clicked), that it's not so good for google optimisation?

How can I tell if my site has been blacklisted by google? The reason I suspect this is because when you enter the keywords "order taxi online" my site is nowhere to be seen! I've clicked through about 50 pages of results and still can't find it.

Any other tips/tricks from some SEO experts is greatly appreciated.

MrPicante

Just ran a small report on your website - firstly you appear to have some duplicate titles - this needs attention. You also have some other onsite issues which need to be addressed 0 nothing serious just a little homework. However, your main issue is backlinking - you only have 8 links pointing to your website.

yutta

MrPicante wrote: »

Just ran a small report on your website - firstly you appear to have some duplicate titles - this needs attention. You also have some other onsite issues which need to be addressed 0 nothing serious just a little homework. However, your main issue is backlinking - you only have 8 links pointing to your website.

How did you do all this?!

Also, what's a duplicate title?

Many thanks,

MrPicante

No problem - you get some general onsite reports from woorank.com - just pop in your domain name. If you are serious about increasing your visibility on search you will need to run a proper audit (try signing up to seomoz) and making the necessary changes. A page title is exactly that - it tells search engines what that page should be about. You have the same title for all your pages. In addition to onsite - you will need to run keyword research and include a blog targetting your chosen terms.

Off-site - you are going to need a) a linkbuilding strategy a social media strategy C) content strategy, etc

Test, measure, analyze, conclude and reaction all over again. Maybe look into speaking to an seo expert.

I hope this has been helpful

yutta

Thanks guys for all the help. The site is now appearing on the rankings. "Order a cab online" seems to work, however "order a taxi online" doesn't... I'm working on adding in more <h1> and <h2> tags as well as adding more information to the blog. But you've been really a great help.

worc

yutta wrote: »

Thanks guys for all the help. The site is now appearing on the rankings. "Order a cab online" seems to work, however "order a taxi online" doesn't... I'm working on adding in more <h1> and <h2> tags as well as adding more information to the blog. But you've been really a great help.

If I was you I'd change your title to "Order a taxi or cab online | Ireland's Prestocab". I think you need the word "taxi" in your title more than cab - is there that much of a search market for "cab" in Ireland - wouldn't think so but I haven't looked into it. Don't know many Irish people who use the word "cab".

And get the ".ie" domain name for local SERPs!!

While I cannot guarantee anything there is a lot of correlational data that suggets you should have primary keywords closer to the left of your title with your business name to the farthest right to gain better placement in the SERPs.

Yes, correlation does not mean causation before it's stated.

I didn't go with this initially not fully believing it with a personal site I set up - but when I changed all my sites title tags to put the keywords on the left and website name on the right my SERP positions went up significantly.

While you've asked for SEO advice, some design adivce I'd give is to get yourself one nice big call to action on your website and a sub heading under your logo saying you're an Irish business.

Calls to action: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/13/call-to-action-buttons-examples-and-best-practices/

I'd also consider dropping the size of your logo and you're white space at the top too.

Nice idea - good luck with it.

Baidin

Hey man,

On your homepage switch the title from
PrestoCab | Order a Taxi Cab Online

to something like:

Order Taxi Online | Online Taxi Service | PrestoCab

Keywords first, always. Brand second.

You get 70 characters with titles, so use them to your advantage.

Also with <h1> and <h2> tags, get keywords in there to reinforce the relevance.

Your current <h1> on the homepage is hidden from view. Which is against Google's guidelines.

yutta

Baidin wrote: »

Hey man,

On your homepage switch the title from
PrestoCab | Order a Taxi Cab Online

to something like:

Order Taxi Online | Online Taxi Service | PrestoCab

Keywords first, always. Brand second.

You get 70 characters with titles, so use them to your advantage.

Also with <h1> and <h2> tags, get keywords in there to reinforce the relevance.

Your current <h1> on the homepage is hidden from view. Which is against Google's guidelines.

Hi thanks for the reply. The <h1> is hidden because it's the blog page - it appears once you click on "Blog". Do you reckon I could get blacklisted over this?

andywozhere

yutta wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply. The <h1> is hidden because it's the blog page - it appears once you click on "Blog". Do you reckon I could get blacklisted over this?

I wouldn't imagine you'd get blacklisted... but I don't reckon many people are searching for any of the terms in your <h1> tags. I'd say you'd want to put more relevant keywords in there... taxi for a start.

You should also get yourself a Google Webmaster account by the way. You should be able to get some good data there. Check out the Google SEO Guide too.

andywozhere

yutta wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply. The <h1> is hidden because it's the blog page - it appears once you click on "Blog". Do you reckon I could get blacklisted over this?

Sorry I just looked at your site again. Actually you probably are dicing with danger a bit by hiding your <h1> tags (previously I though you meant 'hidden' as being hidden within the text)... probably not a great idea. I can't see any advantage to you in hiding the Welcome to the PrestoCab blog! anyway; why not add a relevant and visible <h1> heading?

Baidin

yutta wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply. The <h1> is hidden because it's the blog page - it appears once you click on "Blog". Do you reckon I could get blacklisted over this?

Hidden text is against Google's rules, so you may get blacklisted - however it's usually large scale hidden text that gets punished.

Just move the <h1> tags. Put them around your main heading, where they are meant to be.

As Andywozhere says, the current <h1> serves no real benefit from a SEO point of view.