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Its not a thing I spend many work hours on, its more just a thing that interests me.

Interesting answer.

As myself and the other top 3 sell quality big name brands (big in the UK horse world anyway) we can't really do the SALE SALE SALE selling style as you will get dropped as a stockist if you do. But then again just because you sell the good stuff doesn't mean you are making more money.

Other than the constant sale and the title tag we have most of the same components just in a different style. Sale info, Free Delivery are all on our site. I think the sale could be more in your face. Is it just the more subdued style on my site that you think is letting it down?

On another note this is the top 3 for the term Horse Rugs, who would you say is the best and why? Other than the fact that the top rank is always the best.

1st - http://www.derbyhouse.co.uk/Equestrian/Horse/Horse+Rugs/

2nd - http://www.rideaway.co.uk/horses-rugs/

3rd - http://www.robinsonsequestrian.com/horse-clothing/rugs.html

I find it very interesting trying to work out why each site wins for a specific term. I don't know enough yet to be able to pin point what I think its causing what. Really enjoying learning though.

Unlimited budget would be very helpful.

I know this is not helpful for you but free adwords would make life much better and a high end marketing team combined with full stats of all my competitors.

I see where you're coming from but no I avoid site like that at every turn. It may just be me but i find the style crass and the site ugly. but then again my taste is not what im selling so im happy to take your comments on board.

On that note what would you change on my own site?

i like the email and phone number at the top however our site is responsive and putting them in the header causes spacing issues on smaller screens. I could just drop them on mobile etc.

I found similar results on MOZ pro and in almost all metrics we win yet google does not agree.

Page speed could be the issue. i have been aware for about a year that our site is slow. We are working on this however our current CMs is working way beyond what it was designed for and is struggling. we have a new system under construction which should solve the issue however its still 6 months away.

How much of an issue is page speed? Could it be keeping my site down in a big way?

thanks ill look into that.

I feel my site is not to bad. Needs more work and could be better but what site could not, However i'm bamboozled by some of the sites that are out ranking me on key terms.

e.g. Horse Rugs

http://www.fasttackdirect.co.uk/products-1-122/Horse_Clothing/HORSE_RUG_SALE.html ranking 8th

http://www.centralsaddlery.co.uk/horse/horse-rugs/ not ranking in first 10 pages

I dont expect my site (the later) to rank well as its not up there with the bigger players in our industry yet however I can't see why a page like the one i mentioned is ranking so well when as far as i can see its not as well optimized and has very little content.

This is not me ranting about it or whining about why i'm not top etc. I just can't work it out and would love sombody to explain the reasons for this? The only thing i can think of is that they have more category with the words "Horse Rugs" in them. Other than that i'm stumped!

Ideas on a postcard please!

In my experience no.

You just have to take the time and go to each site and asses it for yourself. Its no fun but worth doing.

I should have worded the question differently. More the future of search rather than a specific update.

Moz shows that to our root domain we have 34 domains and 4595 total links. We have been working on content for 6 months and i'm pretty happy with the results. We have a content creation system and the quality just keeps getting better so its all ticking along nicely. I could put more time/money but I feel we are ahead of the pack by a mile in our market. I think Point 2) of your solutions is the way to go as I feel we are just lagging way way behind links wise. So much so that our content just is not bubbling up.

Many of our competitors have 1000's of domains (lots of crap ones I may add) and i think we are just too far behind to ignore it and do the "build it they will come" method.

i'm a massive fan of content driven SEO, however i do wonder where the line should be drawn and where an amount of link building and network making needs to be done to get the content out.

As things move on will links be worth less as recent updates including the hummingbird update are moving further and further in the direction of content and social signals being the important.

On the other hand good links are becoming so hard to find, that may make them become more important than ever.

I'm trying to split my time up between content creation and link building/PR. which area should be focused on most. we have more quality content than we do quality links. our link profile is good but far to small. any suggestions what to focus on?

Thanks for the info. You have confirmed my thoughts on this.

Their really is no place left to get an easy link is there. Even earning them is proving epicly hard.

Are Press Realise sites still worth getting a link from.

if so what are the best ones to go for.

I agree with chris.

It's called a title tag for a reason. the best seo in my book is to use things for the purpose they were designed. By all means optimise but adding content to a title will only dilute your seo and waste your time.

I have been trying to sort out my google plus, gmail and YouTube accounts fr a good few weeks. The more I try to organise things the worse things get. I am pretty sure it's just a google cock up and it is probably not your fault.

This is a thing I have been thinking of myself. More for a bit of fun and to see how it is done.

I would keep them on my main domain but make them content based landing pages that are helpfull to users in their own right. No need to hide them then. This may not work in all cases but in my site it works well.

not 100% sure what you are after with your hidden button but I would stay away from all forms of hiding stuff. Tends to be a bit grey hat.  If you could clarify it may help me understand what you mean.

I was hoping for a yes it's X and if you do Y etc answer.

However I expected the answer you gave.

My competetors are pretty crap when it comes to seo and sem however they have massive brand awareness in inch sector. They get high direct traffic making it hard to beat them. However I hope to have everyone's share not just my fair share! however its easy to plan, not so easy to do.

Theire really is no exact answers in this industry.

What i mean by this is:

If i have a 1000 page ecommerce site that has say 10 pages of good quality content (1% good content) and a competitive site that has 100 pages of good content (10% good content) and another that has 500 (50%). if they are all almost the same in every other way the 50% content site would win hands down. however this is not always possible to have so much good content on some types of site.

The question is:

• Is there a min percentage to aim for?
• Also is there a similar min rate of content production to aim for.
• Is their a kind of tipping point to get past that google will think they are doing things right i should keep an eye on them!

We have seen a massive drop in traffic this year and i am contemplation using banner ads to try to increase sales and also to help with marketing. the problem is i know nothing about doing this. I have used it in the past but to limited success and i was just stabbing in the dark.

I have a few questions.

• Am i better to target keywords related to the product or to the people who may buy my products?
• Is it better for direct sales or brand awareness?
• What kind of ROI can i expect if i get it working well?
• Is it better to pay for the big keywords or pic all the low hanging fruit?
• Does it work?
• Should i employ an expert, are they worth it?

Any insights into the world of PPc would be a massive help.

I own centralsaddlery.co.uk and I have been hit by the same issues. We have been working on content and video work. I have also been getting rid of all my dead products. cleaning house!

I have added category descriptions, up graded product descriptions, improved blog plus found gust expert bloggers, added a tips and advice section containing articles and videos, I have hired an actor to make product, category and informational videos and I have also added brand descriptions. I hope all of this will have an effect but as yet 6 months on I have had no increase. Costs have rocketed and the site is much better and improving on moz yet no sign of google liking us more.

Im not sure this will below you but hopefully it will let you know your not alone.