Hoping someone could take some time to give me some feedback / advice. Thanks!
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Hi Rick,
We really think what you're doing here is tremendous - thanks for sharing this with the community and letting us try to help out.
After taking a quick look at the terms you're targeting, and reading some of the suggestions here in the responses, I looked at your backlink profile - downloading the data from Open Site Explorer, you get a very quick picture of what your backlink profile looks like.
You have 149 external followed links pointing at your domain. The vast majority of the anchor text is your site's name or some form of it. Very few of the links actually point to your site using the keywords you mentioned you would like to target. That's why building an awesome page all about downs syndrome, with great information, will also help you, so that you can go out and try to acquire some links with targeted anchor text for your terms you want to rank for. I'm attaching a word cloud (created by wordle.net) which gives you a very clear picture of the relative breakdown of your backlink anchor text profile. You can barely make out the word syndrome, and it's very small compared to your brand name. Keyword rich anchor text sends strong signals to Google that your site is relevant and authoritative for the various terms you are targeting and that it should rank for what you are trying to target.
The obvious caveat is that building up your backlink profile with targeted anchor text should go hand in hand with improving the content on your site and providing great resources for people looking for info about downs syndrome, which you already said you and your wife are working on.
I wish you guys the best of luck!
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Thanks for your help, I've been doing many of the items you have suggested, and am aware of where I am for several of my key words. I struggle with how to use a lot of the data included in google analytics and webmaster tools. I see how the data, but not sure how to use it to my advantage.
Regarding subcategories, from the information I have seen online seemed to suggest its better not to use subcategories so I have stayed away from doing so. Do you think it hurts SEO? As someone else mentioned, no one really knows what "Noah's Minute" is, and although it helped brand my site (which I like) it seems like the 'branding" doesn't really help if no one knows what it means, if that makes sense. (That's just what I'm thinking, I could be wrong.)
We have already created what I think is some really creative and helpful content like our new parent guide (http://noahsdad.com/new-parent-guide/) and our what is down syndrome post (including a crazy awesome picture of what my son's dan (And other's with Down syndrome) DNA looks like (http://noahsdad.com/down-syndrome/)
I can list tons of other posts on there that I've gotten great feedback on. With my wife being a pediatrician we are able to write medically accurate information that has some authority to it which is another area that really makes us unique.
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Hey thanks so much for taking the time to take a look at my site. I really appreciate it. Thank you also for the kind words, it's very motivating (and encouraging!)
I'm aware of my issue with the anchor text with my back links....but I can't really figure out any good ways to create links with the anchor text I really need. When people link to me they usually say things like "Here's a great site about Down syndrome - Noahsdad.com" or something to that effect.
I leave comments on many blogs about down syndrome and i"ll often add a link and anchor text for some of those keywords..but I can only write so many comments..and I'm not even sure how useful it is since so many more people are linking to my site with the site name.
Another issue is that the items people search for, and the respectful way to say and write things are different. For instance many people search for "Down's syndrome" (some research will show lots of searches for this and not a lot of competition in this area..so my first thought was to try to use this to my "advantage" to capture some of those searches since I think our site would help them..) But...anyone that knowns anything about Down syndrome knows that the correct way to say and spell it is "Down syndrome" there is no 's. I could tell you the reasons for that if you would like..but just trust me
One of the first thing a new parent of a child born with Down syndrome (and most news websites, blogs, etc) knows is that it's not "downs", "downs syndrome" or "down's syndrome") it's "Down syndrome." But..people who are searching for this info and perhaps haven't had their child yet, but prenatal testing shows that their child may be born with Down syndrome don't..so they search for the incorrect terms...a lot!So I can't really title anything or use anchor text with that because it's not " correct" and will make me look like I don't know what I'm talking about...if that makes sense.
Also people search for "down syndrome facts" and "downs syndrome facts" a lot. I rank around 37 for "down syndrome facts" right now..which is pretty good for me a guy like me...
But...it's hard for me to add anchor text with that phrase because the correct way to say it is, "facts about people with Down syndrome" --but once again people don't know that...so they don't search for it.So that is a bit of what I'm running into. Not to mention I feel like I've read so much over the last 6 months and have heard many different opinions I sort of gotten overwhelmed. There is so much info, and it seems like everyone tells you something different that conflicts with everyone else. So you can start to feel like you'll never 'get it" and you get unmotivated.
However, I could share a 100 or more email messages we have gotten from people who have found our website and it would bring you tears...those emails tell me I've got to keep going..and learning..and trying. So I do.
I really appreciate you taking the time to help me, and for your kind words, they mean more to me than you know. I"m humble and open to any advice / feedback / suggestions, and I'd appreciate any feedback on the road bumps I mentioned above.
Humbly,
Rick Smith
(Noahs Dad)
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I've found that the SEO community here is very giving. Rand in particular has answered several of my emails and requests personally. It appears that he will be helping you out, so I don't think I can much here. It's amazing what simply reaching out and asking for help will do for you.
It also appears that this page, which is now public, does not link to your site. So hopefully with permission of Rand and the community, here is a little contribution to your cause: Down syndrome families
Hope that helps. Looking forward to seeing your cause move forward.
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Hey thanks so much!
And you are very correct...they are VERY kind and giving!
By the way are all the forums public? I wasn't sure how that worked. You mentioned it's 'now public.' Did something happen to make it public?
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Thanks for sharing your story, Rick. My wife and I lost our first pregnancy due to Turner's Syndrome, so I'm painfully familiar with how random the genetic lottery can be. I'm happy to say we have a healthy, happy 17-month-old girl now. I'm glad to hear Noah is doing well, and I'm heartened to hear how proactive the doctors are being.
First off, I'd just like to say that you're doing a lot right. You have a well-designed site with great content, a good core structure, and many of the important features of a modern site/blog. The wide world of SEO can be overwhelming, but it's rare that you need to tackle it all at once.
I think it's great to be thinking proactively about categorizing your content, and it's ok to let that evolve organically as your needs are clear. Categorizing the videos certainly makes sense.
At this point, though, given that your basic structure is good and you've got a lot of content, the social and link-building aspects are probably equally or more important. You have one tremendous tool at your disposal - sincere passion that can connect you to an audience. Your own outreach efforts, interactions with other parents, discussion boards, communities, etc. will go a LONG way. As you build relationships, links will start building themselves.
One thing that wasn't clear to me until I fully read your post and dug into the site was that your wife is a pediatrician. The "Mom MD" just read like a cute category name to me (no offense intended - that was just my first impression). This fact, IMO, adds a lot of credibility to what you're doing, and makes this more than a personal blog. I'd make this clear, especially on the About page and at the top of the Mom MD section.
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Hi Rick,
Regarding this being public, the public Q&A forums recently had just the question visible to anyone, with it being two weeks before the answers were visible to everyone. This recently changed so that the answers are immediately viewable to everyone. That's likely what Thomas is referring to, that he noticed it's public for everyone (correct me if I'm wrong Thomas).
Welcome to the community Rick, I'm really happy that you're here.
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Bingo Kerri. It's now public for everyone.
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Rick,
hats off to what you are doing! I can understand you closely due to two reasons: My wife had a mis-carriage (we have a 17 month healthy baby now), so I can feel ya. Secondly, I am a victim of a problem too (which I would not like to mention/discuss here. after all its an SEO forum :)) ), and I myself go about helping other people come out of it whenever I get a chance. Adding a blog for the same is an idea I just conceptualized. Thanks to you.
Back to SEO, if your ultimate aim is not to earn money out of your blog, then I suggest continue to do what you are doing... i.e.. right from your heart. Small changes in the technique will help you boost traffic, which seems to be your ultimate goal... i.e helping out more and more people.
- Use google adwords tool and find similar keywords that people are searching for this syndrome. Deliberately try to use them in your posts/articles as much as you can without losing the originality and 'feel' of the article.
- Categorizing your posts and videos is not a bad option. It will be better if the category names are some of the keywords that you have searched for above using the google tool.
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Give relevant description for each video, possibly using the keywords you are targeting.
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Don't market keywords with wrong spellings. That will not do good, especially since search engines correct spellings these days.
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Add a forum to the site. let people join in and jump into discussions. This will result in more traffic, and auto generation of content. Most of the times this content will be keyword rich.
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A suggestion from design point of view (I am a designer myself) : Black is hard. Make the website more whiter, more neater with loads of breathing space. People will love reading it all the more.
Hope it helps.
Thanks,
KS__
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Awesome website. Thanks for doing something wonderful like this.
My little 2 cents: I posted a link to your blog post about the Ryan video on my Facebook page and our company's FB page.
The pictures/avatars/thumbnails available for the link didn't match the video. There were about 20 available: one said ProPhoto Theme, some were blank.
Since your site is probably going viral
adding a custom pic might be worthwhile on pages like that. Picture worth a thousand words and all. hthI'm off to Tweet about it.
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Thanks for all the great info everyone!
Quick question, does anyone know how to tell Facebook what picture to show when someone shares your site?
Thanks!
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Hey Rick,
You should add this tag to your header in the html -
There is more info about this here -
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph/
They write: og:image - An image URL which should represent your object within the graph. The image must be at least 50px by 50px and have a maximum aspect ratio of 3:1. We support PNG, JPEG and GIF formats. You may include multiple og:image tags to associate multiple images with your page.
Hope this helps - let me know if you have issues with implementation
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Since it goes to your page, you could edit it, then underneath the profile image it should say, edit thumbnail.
You could put your website along the bottom of the profile pic, then the share button would have your url.
You can also make your site's name clickable under your About Section in Facebook. Those are for the visitors that enter through Facebook.
I see you're into video, too. There is a cool optimization channel called VidiSEO you may want to check out if you get a chance.
Great site!
Jared
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Do what you want to, i just think!!
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Really admire the work you are doing here. I will obviously not be able to assist to anywhere near the level as Rand but please pop me a PM or grab me on skype if you feel you would benefit from a couple of links from any of my sites... I would be privileged to provide them and would also be honored to let you guest post on any of my blogs should you wish to - I am only a message away.
Good luck!
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Things like this make me proud about the Moz community!!
Great job Rick!!
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Awesome job Rick. PM me if you need any help with anything.
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Wow, this is really awesome guide for me, as I'm also working on the blog-type website of NWS. Thanks for sharing it.
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