Search Engine Optimisation

[Forest]

Hi, I have my own photography website which does not seem to appear when I search on Google.  I have put in copy on most of the sections and photos and keywords as well.  The keywords have been put in to match words in the copy, all lower case and with commas inbetween but with no gaps.  Is this the right way to do it?  I do not know whether for some reason I am being blacklisted for google spamming.  Are there any other pointers that I should be aware of?  I know this is probably a bit too broad a question but I am in need of help.  A simple search for photographers in my location should show me but it does not.

with thanks in advance

Forest

[hawkbit]

Hi Forest,
SEO is a complex subject when it comes to getting the highest possible ranking compared with your competitors. However getting a ranking at all is not too difficult. What you have done, assuming you've used photographers, your location and anything else you've tried to search for in you descriptions, keywords and page titles, then its difficult to see from your query what the problem is. Getting listed on search engines does take a while and it's best to only submit once and then be patient. Repeated submission of the same site over a short period of time can be counter productive and result in not getting listed at all.

Assuming you submitted your site to search engines more than a couple of months ago I would need to have a look at your web site before offering any more advice. If you don't want to put your URL on this public forum at this stage then send it to me in a private message.

[Forest]

Thank you for your response Hawkbit, hopefully you have got the details you required now. 

I think the may problem stem from my domain hosts who point rather than forward (or the other way round) to my website developers.  I am not paying much for my domain reg. and am probalbly getting what I am paying for!  I have looked into hosting but do not know how this works or how I make sure my emails still work etc.

Thank you for your time so far and I will appreciate any other pointers you may have on this/these issues.

regards

Forest

[hawkbit]

Hi Forest,
Now I've had chance to have a good look at your web site I can see what the problem is. You are using a service that provides "URL cloaking" or a similar name. This allows you to "park" your domain name at another web site (usually one with an undesirable or unwanted URL) but still have your preferred domain name showing in the address bar when people visit you. Initially this sounds like a good idea, but unfortunately it results in the problem you have - no search engine ranking.

Your "cloaking" company has created a one page web site consisting of a single frame and pointed your prefered domain name at it. They have then loaded your actual web site, with the uninformative URL, into this frame. This creates the illusion that you are using your prefered URL and hides the other one. Frames in themselves are not very search engine friendly, but when used in this way the net result is that search engines only see a one page web site with no content and a single link to a different web site! The clue to this is that the URL in the address bar stays the same for all the different pages in your site. You can also try clicking on View on the Menu Bar of your browser and then selecting Source. This will show the source script that creates your page and is what a search engine "sees". You will see it is quite short with just references to frames in it and a link to your real web site. Since your real web site refers to a different domain the search engine treats it like a link to another web site and not as part of yours.

At best your site might be indexed by search engines at the non-prefered domain. Unfortunately cloaking is used by spammers to deceive search engines and most search engines have now ruled it a violation of their guidelines. Hence an 'obvious' search does not bring up your site.

Domain parking using cloaking is a cheap and cheerful technique for personal websites and the like. For business use where Search Engine Optimisation is important the only solution is to get proper web hosting for your site.