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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: New Website |
| Author: | RichC |
| Date: | Thursday, 29th Jun 2006 13:03 |
| Views: | 334 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Job Boards | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=1820 |
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Bret,
The reason I guess why no one has replied yet is because it’s difficult to know where to start to answer your problem due to the number of factors involved.
The mere fact that you have a website doesn’t mean that it’s going to rank in Google for anything nor is it a given right that Google will list you anyway. You wont get a quick answer because there are just to many factors to consider but I will highlight and start you off with a dozen to think about that may help:-
1. Is your site well structured with easy navigation?
2. Can the bot follow / read your pages
3. Do you write own original content or is it all auto generated?
4. Are your pages static or dynamic?
5. Do you have a site map you could submit to Google site maps?
6. Is any other site linking to you yet?
7. What keywords are they linking to you with?
8. What kind of sites link to you?
9. Are you listed in Yahoo directory and submitted your site to DMOZ?
10. The sandbox is at least 9 mths (3 updates) up to about 18mths (6 updates) depending on your sector, then you start at the back working your way up over time, 7 months is very, very early days – age is important to ranking.
11. What keywords are you trying to rank for? How competitive are they?
12. Are your pages correctly titled? Are they different? Do you have good descriptions?
The list endless, but please consider that being a webmaster for a job related website is a full time job with long hours in its own right.
You are being naive if you think that all you need to do is knock together a 1000 page website and its going to rank. To put some perspective on this the keyword “Jobs” produces 250 million results in Google UK. So that’s 249,999,990 sites you need to beat to rank in the top ten on Google so that users will find you – what makes you think your site is better than all of those others?
At the end of the day I don’t want to sound rude as im genuinely trying to help and replying to you as no one else has the energy but from my side of the fence working in the recruitment job board industry I cant even start to describe my frustration at the amount of recruiters like you and individuals that think that all there is to a website is buying a good job script like the one “jobs in a box” offer for example, sticking it on the net with a few jobs and pages and by some miracle think its going to attract zillions of job seekers that are somehow going to pick this site out of 250 million others.
Web mastering requires 100% dedication, dedication, dedication – its not some sort of part time thing you play about with outside of your normal working day and in the job sector which is one of the largest commercial sectors on the net you need solid commitment to it, focused programming, solid server back up to cope with capacity and process speeds and solid financial backing or available capital to go the distance.
Good Luck
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: New Website |
| Author: | Craig Bines |
| Date: | Thursday, 29th Jun 2006 14:05 |
| Views: | 290 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Job Boards | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=1820 |
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Further to the comments regarding jobs in a box www.jobsinabox.net we also offer SEO as part of the package to none competitive industry sites..
We have proven ways to ensure we come top of all search results but this does take time and is not an overnight fix.
Yes we operate some of the leading job boards in the uk but we use the same technical ability for our clients that we use ourselves.
As rich correctly pointed out no one should think that by buying a web site that you will then just come top of the search results. Companies like ourself and rich and his team at redgoldfish who's site is also very well optermized have built our reputation on the provision of good SEO and have dedicated time, money and resources trying to find the mix that works.
Always remember is that when designing a site have the SEO part of the site as your main focus.
Ps hi rich hope things are going well
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: New Website |
| Author: | Bret |
| Date: | Friday, 30th Jun 2006 09:07 |
| Views: | 310 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Job Boards | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=1820 |
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Dear Rich,
Your Comment No10
"The sandbox is at least 9 mths (3 updates) up to about 18mths (6 updates) depending on your sector, then you start at the back working your way up over time, 7 months is very, very early days – age is important to ranking. "
I understand about the sandbox but what is meant by "upgrades" I have not come across this before and start from the back of where?
Many thanks for your earlier feedback
Bret.
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: New Website |
| Author: | RichC |
| Date: | Friday, 30th Jun 2006 14:37 |
| Views: | 309 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Job Boards | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=1820 |
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Hi Bret,
Google updates on average about once every quarter. Its an average. Longest period between an update has been about 5 months, so its not cast in stone.
Last major update which changed the index was in March and Google is currently updating the index again now which started a couple of days ago and will be finished i would guess shortly.
Also, Google as at today is updating Page Rank on tool bars which is another factor it takes into account when ranking pages. (it updates PR on an ongoing basis but you dont know what your sites PR is untill after a green bar update)
Whilst google makes some minor adjustments during the quarter to the index its normally fairly static - next major update might be October time.
As for your own pages in the Google ranking system depending on the keywords you are trying to hit, currently if its job related then chances are a 7 month old site wont rank for anything, once its out the sandbox you may start seeing pages in say position 2-300 in the SERPS working their way up to say 60-70 depending on how much work you put in and how competitive the keywords are.
You wont rank overnight in Google for competitive keywords, moreover, Google doesnt want you to rank quickly as they are in the business of selling traffic via adwords, not giving it away.
In order to rank your site high in the SERPS google needs to rate your site as an authority on the keywords selected. This means it has to value your site over the other sites you wish to beat in its SERPS.
Hope this helps clarify - Good Luck
Rich |
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: New Website |
| Author: | Bret |
| Date: | Friday, 30th Jun 2006 15:01 |
| Views: | 315 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Job Boards | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=1820 |
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Dear Rich,
We have had a google page rank of 2 for several months of our seven months since publishing.
We were doing very well with many of our keyword phrases being captured within the first 4 page listings on google many in the first and second page.
Pages were fully optimised (no tricks) all above board and by the book.
As of a few weeks ago we were doing very well but search engine traffic has dropped significantly it is picking up but very slowly. Could this be linked to the google updates.
I have been dedicating 24/7 on this and it is very disheartening when it all drops out with no real explanation.
Any tips to lift my dampened spirits?
Thanks for all your time.
Kind Regards
Bret.
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: New Website |
| Author: | Craig Bines |
| Date: | Friday, 30th Jun 2006 15:11 |
| Views: | 297 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Job Boards | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=1820 |
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You also need to remember the the online market has a trend with busy times throughout the year, Hitwise shows the industry traffic had taken a sharp dive for the past 12 weeks and is only now starting to pick up.
If you want i can show you this as this might give you some direction on how the industry trends effect traffic throughout the year.
Craig |
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: New Website |
| Author: | Bret |
| Date: | Tuesday, 4th Jul 2006 16:48 |
| Views: | 310 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Job Boards | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=1820 |
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Dear Craig / Rich,
With reference to my earlier string as we do not have anything to gauge ourselves against do you think we shall be happy with our efforts to date?
"We have had a google page rank of 2 for several months of our seven months since publishing.
We were doing very well with many of our keyword phrases being captured within the first 4 page listings on google many in the first and second page.
Pages were fully optimised (no tricks) all above board and by the book.
As of a few weeks ago we were doing very well but search engine traffic has dropped significantly it is picking up but very slowly. Could this be linked to the google updates. "
Just a yes or a no would be appreciated.
Kind Regards
Bret.
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: New Website |
| Author: | Craig Bines |
| Date: | Tuesday, 4th Jul 2006 16:57 |
| Views: | 293 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Job Boards | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=1820 |
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Yes it may well be but as a said in the past few months the online market has slowed down and is only again starting to grow. I would say this is the main reason you have seen your traffic drop if your rankings and optermization has not changed.
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: New Website |
| Author: | RichC |
| Date: | Tuesday, 4th Jul 2006 17:06 |
| Views: | 319 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Job Boards | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=1820 |
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Hi Bret,
Sorry for the delay in replying only i dont get chance to look in on ukrecruiter as often as i would like.
Google is still updating - we thought that the current phase had finished however we find that currently out of 72 data centres google have four different SERPS variations going on. So you need to give it a bit longer to settle down.
Also, by you confirming a site page rank of two indicates you need to secure more inbound links to increase your page rank level. If you havent already done so submit your site to dmoz.org and yahoo.com and try to find other sites in your sector to link back to you.
Without seeing your site or knowing what sector of recruitment you are involved in its difficult to be more specific but its got a good chance that your current traffic loss is due to the current moving data centres.
Good Luck |
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: New Website |
| Author: | Lee McCoy |
| Date: | Friday, 14th Jul 2006 09:48 |
| Views: | 318 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Job Boards | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=1820 |
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"Google updates on average about once every quarter. Its an average. Longest period between an update has been about 5 months, so its not cast in stone"
not entirely true.
it depends what you mean by update. Google updates its database on a continual basis. Virtually everyday new sites and pages go in.
it also updates it's algorythm less frequently (depends how much they mess it up). This can be every 3/4 months.
this algorythm not only determines where pages are ranked for a given keyword but also if they're ranked at all.
The concept is not necessarily have a site map, as they're as old hat as Ken Dodd. Make your site as easily navigable with javascript turned off in your web browser. Try it with your site. If you can find every concievable combination of page just by navigating (not "searching") then you've started in the right direction.
Next, use something like hitwise, inventory.uk.overture.com, "Good Keywords" then find out what your target audience is searching for. Where it matches what you offer make sure you have a page about it and those keywords top, middle and bottom of the page.
Also avoid affiliate links and content such as espotting/miva.
Rich's comments are a good start, but you need to go deeper.
Make sure site is worthy of being linked to, offer something different and don't just be a site that copies every other.
Lee |
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