Homepage Optimization Questions for Google

Hi,

I am trying to optimize http://flowersandgo.com for high page rank in Google for the keyword 'Florist'. Would anyone care to comment on any of my assumptions:-

(a) I should ideally have the word 'Florist' in my URL

(b) The 'Florist' Keyword should feature highly in the META Keywords section (currently 5 times or 3.2% density).

(c) 'Florist' should appear early on in the keywords list

(d) 'Florist' Should feature highly in my Meta Description

(e) I have 473 words in the body of the home page and 17 recurrances of the word 'Florist' - possibly too many words and references to 'Florist'

(f) The first sentence of the body text is the top menu bar, this contains 'Florist' and therefore is OK

(g) We should have lots of same site and outbound links

(h) I should use IMG ALT attributes for all images
(i) Its OK to use hidden IMG ALT attributes for clear images.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.


Kind Regards,

Paul

Your thoughts seem to be right, however, (and take this with a grain of salt because i am certainly no expert), i think the term Florist might be way too general to ever hope for a high ranking. Maybe you would do much better with a two-word keyword phrase that is not quite so general. just my thoughts...

Thanks for your input. I am building links to other sites at present, hoping that this will also make a difference, maybe I should optimize for Florist UK or UK florist..

Cheers.

dazzlindonna is right 'Florist' is highly competitive...

try 'online florists UK' also an excellent one would be 'Fresh-Cut Tulips from online florists' 'Florists Wedding Bouqets'

excellent suggestions... I would definetely specify the country, as this will get you more traffic. People do search for specific things like what was suggested, and also for localitys

zen

Paul,

All folks responding to your post have made excellent suggestions and with the single search term "florist" bringing back approx. 1,730,000 results it would be nearly impossible for your PR2 site with no high PR3 or greater inbounds showing up using Google's link: search function.... to capture that phrase at this point in the life of your site...

I can give you some very specific advice and information on how to create more interest in your site, generate more traffic, aim towards eventually doing well with the search phrase "florist" but I belive I should share this with you at the PM level..

One thing to consider for your site and its current situation is to optimize for multiple keyword phrases that bring folks to the site with various broad market segment entry points.

I worked last year for six months helping a U.S. florist bring his web property into prominence and it shows up in the top 5 for all the primary keyword phrases that I did SEO work for... all of it aimed directly at Google...the site sees about 1500 uniques per day, on average and spiked to 3500 per day during the Valentines Day crunch 2003...I haven't worked on the site for 5 months and all my work of last year is still, "today", reaping some great benefits for these folks...

I would be glad to share some of my experience..


Best Regards,
Dennis Caffey
TrafficLabs.com