Open Site Explorer, which the statistics really make a difference search engine rankings?
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Phew, I think what he means is.. You should probably consider a re-design, that site is looking a little outdated, and confusing.
Even though that won't directly affect your rank, it certainly goes with the old saying, what's the point of traffic, if your readers don't like your design?
As for the ranking problem,
Your H1, H2, and Page Title need to be edited to be more tightly related to your keyword (your page title, and your H1 tag should be nothing but your keyword, that will help) unless your google analytics shows that you are getting a significant amount of traffic using the 'self catering' related phrases.
Also, your domain is .co.uk, and the seomoz tools are set to default google, not google.co.uk, so you should check using google.co.uk too.
Looks like your meta description could use some cleanup, but that won't affect your rank, just help more people click on your site.
Man, you should call an agency, you must have some Tech-SEO problems that I can't see.
It looks like your backlinks are beautiful.
Look at the seomoz recommended companies and call a few to see if they can help.
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Yes I think I do need a redesign the spinning banner is to make I'm going to go for static and simple
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Yes you're right I don't think the spinning advertised and is a good idea going to have been revamped.
On reflection I guess I'm happy with my search engine rankings , it's just that I seem to have better ratings than my competitors but slightly lower rankings bumanaging to keep above the fold for the main shot tail keywords and are clean up the on page and see what happens but thanks for the information.
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Alan,
I think that you have done a lot of work to build a web presence for your business. You have spent a lot of time focusing on "how to compete" and you have done well - especially for a self-educated person.
Perhaps your business would benefit if you took a break from "competing" and instead spend a few months focusing on two things: clarity and simplicity. And, if you make enormous improvements there you might find that they improve your ability to compete more than if you had spent the same amount of time working on advancing your rankings.
You don't care for the hostnetuk.com site... However, I think that you can learn simplicity and clarity from that site. Although the site has primitive design the service and products that they offer are exceptionally clear.
I see that the must have some relationship with whitbycottages.com and if they ever get that fixed and get smart about SEO they will quickly be much harder to beat.
Whityby-cottages.net is a very nice site with very professional appearance. However, their SEO sucks and their search function is crap. If they ever fix their SEO they are going to be very hard to beat.
I think that they are beating you because they have a very clear, very simple message.
I am guessing that your site has grown like some of mine. You start out with a simple purpose but success increases the scope of your purpose but greatly complicates the design of your website. So much that the focus becomes less sharp and clear.
Perhaps google is not clear about what you are trying to accomplish.
I am betting that your business will improve and your rankings will benefit if you start with a blank piece of paper and sketch a simple Homepage that is designed to very clearly and very simply communicate your purpose - without redundancy.
Then, once you have that, build that very simple page with very simple code that is better optimized for and more sharply focused on the search terms where you want to compete.
Your goal is to....
* clarify your message
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simplify your design
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focus on your keyword targets
The clearest, simplest message for your visitor could also be very clear and very simple for google to understand.
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Once you have that done for your homepage do the same for your interior pages.
Some of your interior pages have script problems that makes the right navigation flash constantly in Firefox - at least on my computer. This page as an example.....
http://www.endeavourcottage.co.uk/Whitby-Pet-Friendly/Whitby-Dog-Friendly.html
People are going to leave that page.
Do what you can to make these page very clear and very simple.
I think that you have nice large photos of the properties and generous descriptions. Keep that! But present it with minimal flash and distraction.
If people like your site they will tweet...
I am staying here!
They might link from a blog about their vacation... they might share with others. Do what you can to make the page that they link to a beautiful picture of their experience. They will then be much more likely to share, tweet, like, link.
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Cheers EGOL
You are totally on the button like you said with some of your websites this one developed a one holiday cottage website and transformed into a different beast. If I'd have been setting up a holiday letting business from scratch with my improving knowledge from particularly this website it would be a different domain name and the different look. I started off by putting one extra cottage on for a friend and then moving onto a second one and all of a sudden there are now eight different properties on what was originally one cottage for rent which was mine. And somewhere in the middle of that process I decided that it was a good business to get into while still keeping the mind-set of prominently featuring my own property for the obvious reasons.
This does make it confusing for people who don't know and don’t want to know the back story to the website; all they want to do is find the cottage which is suitable … etc. I kept my main navigation on the left-hand side for my old particular cottage throughout all the pages but this I think really adds to the confusion.
I absolutely agree I need to simplify the message of the website and except that even though my own particular property is the one I wish to rent the most, but except I've got to treat the navigation differently now that this is a letting agency so that each property is equal and clear.
I think allocate one section of the old website which includes the blog and keep that as a separate entity for people to move over to if they are interested from the main letting website and of course the pages that which are already ranking on Google etc. Will still bring in traffic from various subject searches like the history of Whitby.
You have made me realise that I need to have a complete rethink on the navigation keeping things totally simple and equal so that when Joe Blogs comes to look for a particular property they can navigate equally to whichever is more suitable to them maybe by the number of people that particular property sleeps etc.
It's time to spend some cash to get my web designer back on the job, stop working on the website myself when I'm not particularly good at it and let me focus on content and business.
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I understand how you added an extra cottage, then another and another. Some of my sites have grown that way.
If you want the best chance of ranking well, I encourage you to add even more cottages. I believe that google can tell the difference between a one-cottage-site and a multi-cottage-site and give the multis an advantage in the rankings.
However, I would make a big change to the design.
I would start from scratch. Make it simple, with a design that allows more cottages to be added.
If this was my site I would give Endeavour Cottage the premium listing. That would be done on the homepage with a single feature image at top of the page. That image would have a couple sentence caption that links into the details page for that cottage.
Below the big Endeavour feature I would have a table of other cottages. Each with a smaller photo, a shorter paragraph and a link into their detail page.
My homepage would be that simple. No repetition, no associated ads, no other topics to dilute your message.
Whitby Cottages. Pure. Simple. Clear.
The design would be simple, clear, clean, Spartan. The code would be simple, clear, clean, Spartan.
You can have lots of other information inside and link to WhitbyJet on interior pages, but I would not put links to them on the homepage until my rankings were dominant.
I personally avoid flashy, moving images. If your site visitors are older adults then they will not want distractions. Some of them have visual challenges. I can't read sites that have moving graphics. I have to cover that part of the screen with my hand or paper to read the adjacent text.
Other things that I would avoid are the huge amounts of information that you have in alt and title elements. Shoot arrows, not shotguns. Don't dilute.
Make the topic focus of this site razor sharp. Especially the homepage.
Use the redesign as an opportunity to improve and focus. Keep the designer under control so bells and whistles are not added.
Good luck!
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I actually didn't think the title tags and the alt tags were not performing at best especially the alt tags where I thought by including more information it would make it of interest etc but I can see your point and diluting the important keywords.
It's my top right now to redesign and I've already spoken to the web master is going to help me.
Homepage needs to re-design by priority.with a different mind set approach rather than one main cottage with other ones tagged on.... Making it clear instantly that this is a holiday letting website.
Equal visibility on the homepage with links to each property
Keeping the navigation simple and clear
Nothing moving or spinning
I got blinkered focusing on content trying to improve rankings and missing the mistakes with the fundamental structure of the site!
I've got the idea, new way of thinking and hopefully improve search engine rankings
I'll send you a little update in the future to let you know how things went...
Thank you EGOL
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Thanks to some recommendations by EGOL
http://www.endeavourcottage.co.uk/
I realise that my navigation purpose behind the website wasn't totally clear so I've cleaned up this old Dreamweaver website today.
Originally it was one cottage but now there are several I've made the homepage obvious it an agancy now and got rid of the cluster.
I am looking to responsive web design the mobiles but that this small site which doesn't use a lot of into reactive forms I think it's looking reasonably good even a mobiles now.
Cheers all
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Hello Alan,
Nice work! Those changes clearly communicate that you have multiple cottages. I think that your new design should increase bookings.
Here are a couple other things to think about....
Right now you have a great list of cottages down the left column. So, with that do you really need to list them three times in horizontal lists? If this was my site I would use that left column and get rid of the three horizontal lists. That will make your homepage and cottage pages a lot cleaner and lift the sales content up above the fold.
Also, you have a lot of vertical space dedicated to addthis social share. I think that they will still be effective if you shrink the size and place them in a different location. That will do a lot to unclutter the design and bring clarity to people who are looking for a cottage.
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Absolutely spot-on advice again EGOL
I've got to admit that I don't think design is my strength, or to rephrase it is definitely not
but as they always say it's in the detail and I recognised the advantage of your suggestions again as soon as you point them out.http://www.endeavourcottage.co.uk/
I've have removed the horizontal text links and put a simple banner at the top. I think tomorrow I'll put the social share buttons in the constantly side field smaller size at the bottom.
The whole site is much cleaner, easier to understand immediately. Potential customers don't have to start using brainpower to understand what's on offer where it is!
If I start to pull in more property owners it will need a more sophisticated site, but I'll be paying for that design and functionality becouse it is beyond my capabilities...
Best Alan
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