Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hello Easigrassne,

The exact domain match is not a great strategy, although I've found it to still work. Perhaps you have heard that it's great shortcut. (it's not)

I would rather focus on keyword research, local citations analysis and opportunity discovery (that includes local business directories, partners, chamber of commerce, the good 'ol phone (asking for testimonials, referrals), etc).

And, I would optimize the blog (I noticed that is missing) and leverage social media to help spread the word. If you are new, it's somewhat easier to get started in social media vs. SEO, although both require content and keyword research and competitive thinking as strategic angles.

But before any of that - think about who your REAL audience is, unravel their demographics and speak to that in your copy and pages/content. Run some paid advertising to special offers from Facebook local as well.

Then, approach further by testing & offering special contests, giveaways, and allow people to share content from your blog. Don't be a "faceless" organization. Be & get personal. (read: helpful)

Make sure you have Google+ and all the local "places" set up in the search engines.

Hope that helps - writing fast now... dinner is served!

Cheers, Jon

Awesome Angie - glad that you are responding and taking it in.

1. Guest blogging is a good way to begin - for authority, trust, leadership (and links).

2. Yes, you need to promote more. Use social media to connect with leaders in the space. Retweet and "like" them, and provide useful information to your/their community.

3. GKWT is Google Keyword Tool - https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool

4) You can use http://www.usertesting.com/blog/pages/website-usability-test.php to test what people think. But, I can tell you that I was confused.

Cheers, and thanks for taking action!

• J

Hey Threebiz,

Introduction:

Having a sitemap (XML) is good for diagnostics and helping searching engines - to discover your content. It's something you should consider adding to your Google Webmasters Tools area as well. It will give you stats about pages it finds, and the index count, any errors, etc.

On point:

You shouldn't do this "addition" manually. For example, if you install one of the popular XML sitemap plugins for your WordPress (assumption made) installation - it will auto-create an entry for each new blog post - into the XML sitemap file in the root of your server.

One more thing:

If you have a highly trusted website - and a good organization of your links/navigation, etc - and that all pages are reachable by a link - a sitemap XML is just a bonus. Some will not even worry about it, just FYI.

Hope that helps! - Cheers, Jon

P.S.

On a related topic - some will go out and use a service like pingler.com to have your new blog "be discovered". It's something you might do on a brand new website, but not after that. No spamming!

Awesome, Nadejda! Cheers, Jon

Hey Sean,

20% is good. Actually, perhaps it's 50%. Or...?

See, this is not an important value as a "standalone" metric. But, this infographic from kissmetrics might help you:

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/bounce-rate/ (scroll down for industries)

Your keywords, pages in results (how relevant are they), competitors space, and type of site should be considered.

Hey,

It's likely you have a conflict in the theme - I see you are using http://www.artisteer.com for example. Don't know if that's the issue or the main one.

But when I have these issues, I would create a "vanilla' version and test the breadcrumb feature, and add plugins and themes back after you've verified it working. That way, you'll see when and what breaks it.

So - do this:

1. disable current theme, enable basic wp theme (that comes out-of-the-box)

2. deactivate all plugins

3. activate just the plugin that deals with breadcrumbs

4. test it

5. start adding plugins back

6. add the theme back

You may want to create a separate test domain for this if you can't "play" with your existing domain.

Finally - ask this - "Am I adding breadcrumbs for users or search engines benefit?" I often see folks adding breadcrumbs because they think it will help their SEO. Think about this: A 2-level depth structure in your website doesn't need it, for example. Plan out  your architecture/navigation first, make it "user friendly" - and don't use breadcrumbs as "patch-work" (that's what this feels like, but I have not checked your site)

Sorry for being so direct.

Cheers, Jon

Read up on localseoguide.com and use getlisted.org. But first, do some research. Type in your terms, either by using implicit or explicit searches.

Example:

Implicit search = "web design" (and using the auto geo/IP detection from Google and settings on your page)
Explicit search = "web design san diego", "web design san diego, ca"

If no local results are shown, still go thru getlisted.org - but you will focus more on SEO, or "hybrid" SEO, not pure Local SEO pack optimization.

Didn't see any local pack results for web design in san diego for example.

Local citations are important, for example (links). But, so are reviews and other factors. Learn about the local ranking and optimization factors from the annual survey reports: http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/ and what to focus on.

Watch the 50 minute local seo training video on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7hJzQd-ZdA

Enjoy!

Hey Angie!

This looks like an approach or thinking of "optimize for keywords/SEO" site/page only. There is no/little trust built here. The "Algo" doesn't respond well to it. Build more quality links, and expand your social influence, including Google+. Use the "piggyback" method for this: Find out who's trusted that you can follow and engage with, guest blog with, etc. (this takes time). Do this for your niche, not "everybody".

But, before that - (important) - what's the % conversion rate to sales? How many sales do you get per day/week/month? I would worry about figuring out your lifetime and/or average visitor value is (you probably don't know), and work different traffic strategies into the equation, not just SEO. Then, as traffic increases test pages (A/B) against keywords to pages match from your analytics, and tune towards sales.

The keywords you mention have very little traffic (exact match in Google KWT), and you would want to do a more complete kw research. I think you may be focusing too much on rankings here, it's not important.

Finally - the design and front page is cluttered. I don't know what I should be doing. Simplify.

Sorry to be so direct.

- JOn