New to SEO

[kopythat]

Actually new to web design, but definately new to seo.....ive read and read and read and read.....I havent listed the site yet or even got it up and running, but i was wondering if someone could look at my site and tell me if meta's alt's a's and content would give me a good chance in the SE's. I know that purchasing will probably be neccasary for 1st page results...but i want to make sure the SEO is ready when i publish.....

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Derreck

http://home.cogeco.ca/~thill5/portfoliosmd.htm

[RonHollingsworth]

The page looks like it has a bunch of images, however it wasn't slow. I see you have plans for a site map that is good, just get the links on it. Why do you have the main header linked to a contact us page?

[kopythat]

i wasnt going to but i figured if you wanted to unleash, and it was linked to something, it would case the viewer to hit the link. Maybe i should link it to something else, or maybe not at all....all the graphics are very small files, i just wonder how it loads on a dial-up connection???ANyone have dialup?

[compar]

It is an attracrive looking site. That's the good news.

Now as to on-page stuff.

1. You title is bad. Don't ever waste this space with 'welcome'. Unless you are working strictly at branding your name, either get it out of the title or put it last. The title should begin with your most important keyword phrase. Try and use a couple or even three keyword phrase in the title. This is the most important on-page item.

2. There is some question about the value of meta tags. You have a whole bunch that are not necessary and I'd probably get rid of. You even have one that could hurt you. <meta name="revisit after" content="5 days">. Why would you want to restrict the bots visits to 5 days. What if they want to visit everyday? And if they want to take 10 days between visits this tag won't make any difference. Dump it and about 10 others.

But if you are going to write a 'description' meta tag, make it that. Write a one or two sentence description of your site. Some SEs use the description in the SERP listing. The description should tell what your site is about and why a potential viewer should visit.

3. It isn't clear to me what your keywords are. Have you done any keyword research? I say this in particular, because I think your alt tags are ineffective as anchor text.

4. You have content on the home page, but there is nothing there saying what you are doing or what you are selling. I think an introduction or mission statement is needed. You can't just lauch into what you have done. I know my inital impression was "what the hell is this all about". When you write this content break it up with several headings -- <h> tags -- and be sure to use your keywords in these headings.

5. Everything above has to do with on-page stuff. With a competitive market place like you are working in on-page stuff will never get you ranked by itself. You will need a lot -- probably 100s -- of backlinks using your keyword phrases as anchor text. Unfortunately you can't do much of this before the site is up and indexed.

[kopythat]

WOW great info

Please note that it is only the one page so far, as i am still working on the template and design of the site, so the index will have more information on the who where what and why im on the internet. i was just looking to see about the SEO of that page

as for the description :
<meta name="description" content="Sphere Media Designs is a professional web design firm, uniquely focused on delivering top level design, Internet marketing and promotional services at affordable prices.">
is there something wrong with that or should i maybe elaberate a little more?
as for keywords, i was under the impression the more the merrier? for example if im in north bay, make the keywords north , north bay, north bay ontario, - just to monopolize on any of the searches, i also read that you should use typos like "web desing, mraketing", but not real sure that that would work??

as for the <h> tags....i though it was better if you used <a> tags???

and as for the alt tags????? why would you say they are ineffective....would it because of the wording of them??

Derreck

[compar]

as for the <h> tags....i though it was better if you used <a> tags???

and as for the alt tags????? why would you say they are ineffective....would it because of the wording of them??

<a> tags and <h> tags have nothing to do with each other. Do some research. Scroll down this page until you come to Headings: H1 ... H6. I'm talking about headings used as headlines for text paragraphs or a text section of a document.

I think they are ineffective because they don't have keywords in them. That why I said that in the same section as I asked about keyword research.