Help with seo

darreny · 13 Dec 2015 at 12:07

I've tried doing a Google adwords and fb campaign but not getting the traffic I want for conversions and tbh it is quite expensive. The one benefit Google adwords has given me is which keywords gain the most impressions. So is it still possible to get to the top of Google concentrating on a single keyword for each product page?

Any feedback on the site would be great. I don't have a lot of products because they're handmade by me and don't know if that's the problem?

http://www.peakchoppingboards.co.uk

sb89 · 14 Dec 2015 at 11:03

Not really to do with seo (at least I don't think so) but going to http://peakchoppingboards.co.uk/ doesn't redirect to http://www.peakchoppingboards.co.uk/. Might be worth getting that sorted?

markeh · 14 Dec 2015 at 11:35

Well, I'll open with your homepage has no title tag.

antijoke · 14 Dec 2015 at 13:02

sb89 said:
Not really to do with seo (at least I don't think so) but going to http://peakchoppingboards.co.uk/ doesn't redirect to http://www.peakchoppingboards.co.uk/. Might be worth getting that sorted?

To solve this you just need to add an @ a record to your servers/hosting IP address.

markeh · 14 Dec 2015 at 13:28

anticonscience said:
To solve this you just need to add an @ a record to your servers/hosting IP address.

Just to expand on this, you already have an @ record, this is pointing to: 188.65.113.193. You need to get this pointed to (what I can only assume judging by your DNS record) your shopify hosting IP address, which you've already kinda done with the www, but as that's a cname you'll need an IP address off the tech support guys at the shopify hosting place.

Writing the above, you're best off just emailing them and asking what you need to do to set this up.

By the way, this is not really going to help with your SEO. It'll make your site easier to find for those of us who know how domains works though...

Etheco · 14 Dec 2015 at 14:00

markeh said:
Well, I'll open with your homepage has no title tag.

This, This, This!

darreny · 14 Dec 2015 at 18:29

Thanks for the advice. How difficult is it to get in the top 5

Ewaf · 14 Dec 2015 at 22:41

For what keyword? Looking purely at the generic 'chopping board', you won't get anywhere near the top 5, ever.

Google your desired keywords (in incognito tab to avoid personalised search), and look who's ranking. For 'chopping board' you're looking at argos, John Lewis, amazon, lakeland, ikea, Debenhams, all who have bottomless marketing budgets.

Unfortunately there's an ever growing emphasis on huge brands within Google, screwing over many smaller companies. I'm would defo explore paid search, especially Facebook ads, but pay someone who knows what they're doing if you can.

Maybe try looking for influential food / cooking bloggers, offer to send them a freebie in return for a review, it could do wonders for your brand.

darreny · 15 Dec 2015 at 00:15

I've dropped the price quite a lot to try and boost sales for Christmas so paid ads aren't really feasible as I just end up paying for clicks that don't lead to conversions as a lot of people view them as too expensive. My paid ad for keyword maple chopping board was served 715 times with just 9 clicks, I'm on page 3 for that

Russinating · 15 Dec 2015 at 09:24

Don't forget SEO is only part of it; what are visitors going to do when they do actually click through (and potentially cost you money in the process)?

There's nothing particularly 'wrong' with your website but equally it does look like a basic blog template, quick to setup, and doesn't provide much confidence that you're a genuine, trustable seller, imo.

Combined with errors tied to more traditional SEO like no page title makes it look like an errornous or Chinese duplicate website or something.

A friend has just set up this little business: www.uptonbridgefarm.com. Although not massively different (which is good for you!) there's still a massive improvement. This is where content comes in. Assuming you make all these boards then where are the photos of you, and you at work? This all adds to the reassurance as well as justification of the price tag.

If you were selling something cheaper that would be ok to an extent but the current website doesn't match the products, which is very high end; you're the same price as one of John Lewis's most expensive chopping boards.

roccles · 15 Dec 2015 at 10:27

I would look at getting product reviews/paid ads on high traffic relevant sites rather than trying to to get a top 5 on Google.

Maybe a site like Good HouseKeeping as the visitors to these sites will have an interest in the sort of item you are selling. I wonder how many people are actively searching for a top end chopping board but may be more tempted when they read reviews.

Example

Link

darreny · 15 Dec 2015 at 13:57

Russinating said:
Don't forget SEO is only part of it; what are visitors going to do when they do actually click through (and potentially cost you money in the process)?

There's nothing particularly 'wrong' with your website but equally it does look like a basic blog template, quick to setup, and doesn't provide much confidence that you're a genuine, trustable seller, imo.

Combined with errors tied to more traditional SEO like no page title makes it look like an errornous or Chinese duplicate website or something.

A friend has just set up this little business: www.uptonbridgefarm.com. Although not massively different (which is good for you!) there's still a massive improvement. This is where content comes in. Assuming you make all these boards then where are the photos of you, and you at work? This all adds to the reassurance as well as justification of the price tag.

If you were selling something cheaper that would be ok to an extent but the current website doesn't match the products, which is very high end; you're the same price as one of John Lewis's most expensive chopping boards.

Thanks for the input, i did have photos of me working on the homepage but maybe an error on my part was they were not in the slider, my bounce rate for not going any further than the homepage was very high and my thinking for this was anyone viewing from a mobile would not be having a good experience so i removed them and that improved the bounce rate. I did do a 'how i make my chopping boards' photographed step by step.

I have targeted foodies on fb ads but maybe i need to do more social networking. is it considered a bad backlink if i post on food pages on fb with any offers i have?

darreny · 15 Dec 2015 at 14:20

the title tag was a mistake on my part. did it wrong and never spotteds it

Etheco · 16 Dec 2015 at 08:29

SEO Wise, Like stated above your never get top ranking for "chopping boards" but you should really push locally first more and target local keywords to get your brand out there.

Do you attend local craft stalls etc, This is a great way to get your name out locally, get a stall some nice looking flyers and get shouting about your brand, And people that buy from craft events prefer more custom/handmade works so its your target audience.

shadowmatt · 17 Dec 2015 at 12:29

You need to do targeted advertising. Anything else for £99 a chopping board and you are wasting money.

The website needs more text, but also the correct text. You need to squeeze the keywords you are seeing as popular into the text on the site. It needs doing in a way which doesn't look obvious but also reads well. Don't duplicate the same text on different pages.

It does need photos. Don't worry so much about mobile. Make sure your jpg compression is around 90% ( test for quality / artefacts ). Make the images around 1000px wide at mode. On mobile with retina screens thats at most 500px wide in size / dpi.

The logo needs redoing, its compressed to hell.

Remove T&C's from the top menu, its useless there and a boring page.

You should also list on eBay and Amazon to widen your market.

The blog needs work. Where all the pictures of a craftsman making these etc...? People buying a £99 chopping board want to be sold it on quality, uniqueness etc...

Take a look at Apple, TAG etc... how they discuss picking materials, their qualities and how they make their products.

Change things like 'Contact Me' to 'Contact' to make the company seem less like a one man operation. Sell the craft.

Do you use any time of antibacterial varnish / coating? That would be a nice selling point.

You probably need a few cheaper products to capture those who think £99 is too much. What could you do to widen the range? Make a slimmer one?

You should probably push the peak district more, include at least a couple of shots of nice looking area etc...

When shooting the pro cuts, for large shots on homepage, blog etc... arrange nice colourful foods on board, chopped etc... Make them look vibrant and in use. Stick to product shots for individual item shop page.

It might be an idea to give each board a brand name, something simple but adds to overall idea of quality.

Ewaf · 18 Dec 2015 at 12:05

shadowmatt's advice is bang on in my opinion. Your angle here is artisan, hand made, premium quality. Show behind the scenes videos and pictures of the process.

Check out this video about a knife maker:

https://vimeo.com/31455885

You'll struggle to make anything of this quality without paying, but people really buy into this stuff, you need to show why your chopping boards cost 100 quid.

darreny · 19 Dec 2015 at 12:00

Lots of good comments and ideas to build on here. I thought the contact me gave it more of a personal touch?