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Hi everybody

I'm wondering how long I should wait for improvements in the Google positioning of my "career plan" page (SEOMoz term targeting rated A, 16 July 2010). This page doesn't appear on the first 7 pages of Google. By contrast, halfway down the first page of Google is a D rated competitor.

When I look at this page on my site, the Google toolbar says it "does not rank page" (ie it's grey).

Do these facts in combination mean Google doesn't see my "career plan" page at all (and if so, what's the most likely problem?) or is it just being a bit slow to pick it up, please?

Yours hopefully

Linda

The type of business you do could lend itself to a feature in your regional / local media. We're in the silly season now when journalists are desperate for space-fillers (especially space-fillers providing scope for pretty pictures - eg happy hedgehogs,dragonflies, before and after gardenscapes, etc).

You could also offer your services as a columnist (the ecological garden through the year; is there anything ecological that kills off lily beetles, etc). Insist on the media publishing your web site and company details along with each article. Keep the clippings and use them online and in your printed marketing blurb.

Are you the next Alan Titmarsh????

I agree with Mary et al about the horrors and inconvenience of an early morning start. Virtual networking groups are much more user friendly!

It is nice to be able to put a face and voice to someone you might work with in future, though.

But pity the poor sods who do the calling. Most of them only do the job because it's that or the dole.

Congratulations and good luck for next year, Mary.

I'm not sure about this but I think some local councils deliberately made money by selling the addresses on their electoral rolls to mailing companies; after an outcry from individuals and the local press, they stopped the practice.

Is there any point speaking to the Registrar's office to investigate what action (if any) they themselves take to prevent personal details being harvested by mailing companies? Eg I think on some web sites you can't copy a page though you can view it (which effectively means it's more hassle than it's worth to transfer addresses onto your list).

Best wishes Linda

Hi MRB

I'm able to look at the HTML aspect of my site as well as the "Visual" one but don't understand HTML, let alone .css. I did a quick check to find out what a .css file is and now suspect this is a (technical) step too far for me. So I shall concentrate initially on the stuff I do know how to do, recognising it's unlikely to be enough to put me in contention for the keywords I'm after.

Is it possible to keep the layout a human being sees exactly the same while changing the .css files a computer sees, plse? And would it be regarded as "black hat" tactics to do this, if it is feasible?

What I'd dearly love to do if practical, ethical and affordable would be to place extra H1text in very small font and in the same colour as the "margin" to the "Individual Services" part of my site, to pick up the keywords career, job, work mentioned in the body of this page.

Thanks again for advice. Best wishes Linda

Just a quick and enormously grateful "thank you" to you all. I'm still working through and implementing the advice you've given me - there's still a lot more for me to do.

I thought a bit more detail on the work done to date might help others making a similar journey to me and protect them from making my mistakes.

I'm optimising for 3 keyword phrases on each "proper" page of the site (having been told there was no point in trying for a larger number) and one keyword phrase on each blog entry. Almost all keyword phrases used relate to only one page of the site.

The blog items are largely chosen for their career-related keyword potential - adding to the blogs is the easiest way for a novice to "expand" her site. I've found that using the keyword phrase at the very start of the title of the blog item seems to improve its placing on Google.

I'd assumed I simply wouldn't be able to compete for the huge UK search volume items. Having looked at the evidence (my competitors have PR7 and include government sites so are well-funded and staffed by SEO experts, whereas my site is PR5 and I'm an amateur), I still think the competition's too stiff. However, I'm going to try, with a page I can't otherwise make work (in SEO terms) for me.

My "Individual Services" page repeats the keywords career, job and work so I've now used these words in my title tags etc and will be linking back to this page with suitable blog items and external links. I tried changing H1 (???) but discovered this mucked up the look of the site, so changed it back.

As regards the lower volume keyword phrases, I think there should be some progress at some time with them but don't know when. A PR5 site halfway down Google page 1 has a D SEomoz rating for career planning, my site's now got an A rating for it and an A+ for career plan - I think it's hopeful.

Have started to look at the tools and forums you've recommended, but am only in the earliest stages of this activity.

Thanks again for all your help.

Best wishes

Linda

Hi MRB and Tomsk

Thanks for your answers, both are very helpful to me.

Tomsk, you've stopped me wasting time chasing false targets. Instinctively, I'd thought there would be a very close relationship between the SEOmoz rating and the Google page positioning, now I know it's a much looser relationship.

I'll carry on trying to do the best I can but will stop getting hung up on whether the term targeting has improved by minute amounts.

MRB, I thought <10 meant "less than 10" but wasn't sure, being a bit confused by the format. Now I know what < 10 means, it seems to me I can ignore these stats most of the time because the Google Analytics visitor information is more useful. Phew!!

Thanks again and all best wishes for the weekend.

Linda

If anyone could help with any part of the original 2 questions - or point me to a Google forum that might assist, I'd be extremely grateful.

Yours hopefully .....

OK it's my computer causing the hassle (again!!!).