Can't Crack Google - Need Advice!

[chesa7]

I have been doing a lot of work on on-page optimization and building text anchored back links and we are getting good results in Yahoo and MSN, in fact we are on their first page of results for a number of our keywords. Meanwhile, it is like we don't exist in Google -- we do not show up in their results anywhere. I'm really stuck -- I don't know what I am doing or not doing that is causing this. We are obviously doing something right to get good results on the other search engines, but can't find our way into Google's results. Does anyone have any insight on this -- I just don't know where to go with this?

any insight greatly appreciated!
Laura

[bdorland]

Hey Laura, I did a 30-second review of your Google index status (site:chesapeakebaygiftbaskets.com, found 382 indexed pages) and noticed a few things, but a more in-depth analysis will probably identify other things. Here's what I noticed right off the bat:

1. Title tags need work - Realize that you will probably always rank well for "chesapeake bay gift baskets", so you should use your title tags to specify other important keywords on which each of your pages focus.

2. Meta Descriptions - It looks like you're using the same description text for about 90% of your pages. This certainly isn't helping you any.

3. Your site and database structure aren't search engine friendly - Lots that could be done here, but would require a significant effort.

I think you'd find that getting a professional SEO involved would really get things moving.

Hope that helps...

[davidchamberlai]

I am working on some of the same things if you check out google sitemaps they will give you pointers and tell you what type of errors you have on your pages

[spencer]

Showing up in Google results is not easy especially for new sites.

[khaty]

submit your sitemap to google here's webmaster tools from google. Hope this can help you http://www.google.com.ph/webmasters/tour/tour1.html

[bonciutoma]

I would like to add two more things to the one stated so far :
- you could install a component to you CMS that will change links to a frienfly way as if you would have an html website
- another component that you might wanna add is the one that lets you specify a title for each page. At the moment your main title is shown on all the pages and after that the title of that page : you should fix that
- description must be different on any page and should contain the keywords targeted to that page

Good ranking DOESN'T equals good conversion. I only focus my efforts on Google since is the first search engine in volume searches. The second one is Youtube : so you might think of creating a channel there and present your products. Tag it well and I think you'll get some traffic there.

You should also consider other different methods to promote your website : blog, social media, forums.

[ktaylor310]

We are obviously doing something right to get good results on the other search engines

Not necessarily true... From my experience, Yahoo still responds to spammed keywords while Google is trying their hardest to weed them out. Not only does Google not put weight on keywords crammed into the bottom of the page, it does not like them.

Welcome to Chesapeake Bay Gift Baskets! We carry an extensive line of gift baskets to choose from or we can create a unique custom gift basket just for you - either way, we are committed to helping you find the perfect gift for any occasion. All of our gift baskets are made using the very finest gourmet ingredients including our popular Chocolate Gift Baskets, Coffee and Tea Gift Baskets, Wine Gift Baskets, Organic Gift Baskets, Gourmet Gift Baskets and our signature line of Bay Bounty Gift Baskets. We also offer a large selection of Baby Gift Baskets and beautiful Spa Gift Baskets. Whatever the occasion - a holiday, anniversary, thank you, corporate gift, housewarming, get well, sympathy, birthday - or just thinking of someone special, we have just the right gift basket for you. When shop with us, you will always enjoy the finest selection, highest quality and best value available in every gift basket we design, without exception. We hope you enjoy shopping with us!

I agree w/Brody that you are much better off working on your title & description tags. That will absolutely help you in Google, while the overuse of keywords may actually be harming you.

[SBMarketingGuy]

I would suggest targeting long tail keywords within you niche, "low hanging fruit" so to speak.

You should also try using www.xml-sitemaps.com to create your site maps.

Have your HTML validated through W3C tool so that you'll get an idea of any syntax errors. You can check how your site stacks up to others with nichewatch.com. From there you can figure out what keywords are less competitors and try targeting those first. You'll also know what your competitors are doing that's making them rank really high.

Don't forget to leverage sites like HubPages.com and (to a lesser extent) WetPaint to get some incoming links.

-SBMG

[chesa7]

Thank you all for your input -- I very much appreciate you taking the time to look at this for me!

Laura