Public Forums 71,145 posts

[ascotttutoring Friend ascotttutoringJoin date: January 2009Posts: 30Downloads:0Uploads:4 Thanks: 8]

#138024

Hello,

When you google ‘cnet’ for example, you will see in the search results, not only the website and link, but ALSO all of the site’s main categories, like:

Reviews
Televisions
Cell Phones
Digital Cameras

That all appear in the actual google search on the search engine? How can I do this for my site’s categories?!

[bytestor Friend bytestorJoin date: September 2007Posts: 78Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 8 Thanked: 7 times in 1 posts]

#290705

Well this is something got to be addressed with regards to SEO. You must have strong contents and key word targeted high quality contents and also a bit of seo can make your site categories appear in google like you ask….

[ascotttutoring Friend ascotttutoringJoin date: January 2009Posts: 30Downloads:0Uploads:4 Thanks: 8]

#290712

<em>@bytestor 111298 wrote:</em><blockquote>Well this is something got to be addressed with regards to SEO. You must have strong contents and key word targeted high quality contents and also a bit of seo can make your site categories appear in google like you ask….</blockquote>

Shazbunz! I was hoping there is some module / extension / plugin that could help expedite the search engine optimization process, since this is a very POWERFUL advantage in the rankings to have all of your site categories laid out.

[imsleepy Friend imsleepyJoin date: January 2009Posts: 451Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 94 Thanked: 45 times in 1 posts]

#290716

When you searched for cnet you searched for an actual company. Same will happen if you put in Staples or any other company name.

If you search for example USS Arizona you will find the first two listings are for National Park Service (my site is #4 on the list btw). But, you will notice that the NPS listings don’t show the categories you are looking for like cnet because you searched using key words. USS Arizona is not a company.

Now search NPS and you will find all of the categories again because you searched a company or business name.

Going back to your cnet example. Try putting in tech news. Cnet is at the top, but not with all of the categories listed. This is because we searched key words and not business name.

The trick is two-fold. The most important thing is getting found at all. You don’t want to be listed 40 pages back. No one will find you. Keep track of your statistics, keywords people are using to find you. Optimize your site. The second part is getting your business name known. Unless you are very lucky and your keywords also involve your business name, don’t count on the category listings. It takes a lot of time to get listed like that. You must be well known, good reputation and hundreds of thousands of sites linking to you from their site. Trading links will get you further up the list than you may realize. You might not feel like you want to advertise your competitors, but you need links from other sites to yours.

Content is key. If you don’t have content that involves your targeted keywords, you will not get found easily. Content is King.

Don’t forget the title of your page. Welcome to the Front Page, Home, About, Contact…. those won’t help you get found. Use page titles that are relevent to the content on each page. For instance, for the category Survivor Stories I use Survivor Stories :: Battleship USS Arizona BB-39 and Pearl Harbor Memorial :: USS Arizona Reunion Association. For the actual article I will use the name of the person for instance Jim Vlach :: Survivor Stories :: Battleship USS Arizona BB-39 and Pearl Harbor Memorial :: USS Arizona Reunion Association. That might seem like a mouthful, but it works. Many people will tell you that an extended title like that will cause Google to ignore you. Not true. As long as the title is relevent to the content, it will not be ignored. Google can detect titles and keywords that have nothing to do with content and then you will be overlooked in the search engine.

Hope this helps. SEO is my specialty. I have been at this for 12 years. Every site I have built is usually found on the first page, or second at the most, of a search using a wide variety of keywords. It takes time and effort to get the right combination of keywords and content. Don’t expect to get to the top the first time out unless you are very lucky.

1 user says Thank You to imsleepy for this useful post

1. ascotttutoring

[ascotttutoring Friend ascotttutoringJoin date: January 2009Posts: 30Downloads:0Uploads:4 Thanks: 8]

#290717

<em>@imsleepy 111312 wrote:</em><blockquote>When you searched for cnet you searched for an actual company. Same will happen if you put in Staples or any other company name.

If you search for example USS Arizona you will find the first two listings are for National Park Service (my site is #4 on the list btw). But, you will notice that the NPS listings don’t show the categories you are looking for like cnet because you searched using key words. USS Arizona is not a company.

Now search NPS and you will find all of the categories again because you searched a company or business name.

Going back to your cnet example. Try putting in tech news. Cnet is at the top, but not with all of the categories listed. This is because we searched key words and not business name.

The trick is two-fold. The most important thing is getting found at all. You don’t want to be listed 40 pages back. No one will find you. Keep track of your statistics, keywords people are using to find you. Optimize your site. The second part is getting your business name known. Unless you are very lucky and your keywords also involve your business name, don’t count on the category listings. It takes a lot of time to get listed like that. You must be well known, good reputation and hundreds of thousands of sites linking to you from their site. Trading links will get you further up the list than you may realize. You might not feel like you want to advertise your competitors, but you need links from other sites to yours.

Content is key. If you don’t have content that involves your targeted keywords, you will not get found easily. Content is King.

Don’t forget the title of your page. Welcome to the Front Page, Home, About, Contact…. those won’t help you get found. Use page titles that are relevent to the content on each page. For instance, for the category Survivor Stories I use Survivor Stories :: Battleship USS Arizona BB-39 and Pearl Harbor Memorial :: USS Arizona Reunion Association. For the actual article I will use the name of the person for instance Jim Vlach :: Survivor Stories :: Battleship USS Arizona BB-39 and Pearl Harbor Memorial :: USS Arizona Reunion Association. That might seem like a mouthful, but it works. Many people will tell you that an extended title like that will cause Google to ignore you. Not true. As long as the title is relevent to the content, it will not be ignored. Google can detect titles and keywords that have nothing to do with content and then you will be overlooked in the search engine.

Hope this helps. SEO is my specialty. I have been at this for 12 years. Every site I have built is usually found on the first page, or second at the most, of a search using a wide variety of keywords. It takes time and effort to get the right combination of keywords and content. Don’t expect to get to the top the first time out unless you are very lucky.</blockquote>

Thanks for the information. Could you tell me if a ‘Sitemap’ would help improve rankings / getting found by search engines?

Also, I am new to Search Engine Optimization and it is very important to my business. Can you recommend any sources or a few tips and tricks that are essential? There is an absolute information overload when it comes to SEO and I like the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Stupid Silly) principal.

[imsleepy Friend imsleepyJoin date: January 2009Posts: 451Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 94 Thanked: 45 times in 1 posts]

#290721

I have only peeked at Site Map. From what I could see, I don’t think it would hurt. Will it help? I don’t know.

I do know that some java script menus can hurt your rankings. When I am using one, I also include an HTML menu on the site. Pain to update, but will ensure your site is thoroughly spidered. I don’t know yet if that is possible with Joomla.

The one worry I have is that switching from HTML to Joomla site will hurt my rankings. Waiting to see how it works out.

I can’t really recommend any one source for learning SEO. There are many good ones out there. I did a quick Google search and looked at the first few sites listed. They seem pretty informative. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=seo+beginners

Good luck to you with SEO. If you have any questions I will be happy to help you out.

1 user says Thank You to imsleepy for this useful post

1. ascotttutoring

[Phill Moderator PhillJoin date: February 2014Posts: 7013Downloads:40Uploads:77 Thanks: 917 Thanked: 2206 times in 1818 posts]

#290732

I don’t know other opinions on this but while I was learning about SEO I used this plugin to help in the short term and it worked really well for me.

http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/site-management/seo-&-metadata/4102/details

1 user says Thank You to Phill for this useful post

1. imsleepy

[imsleepy Friend imsleepyJoin date: January 2009Posts: 451Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 94 Thanked: 45 times in 1 posts]

#290738

<em>@phill luckhurst 111332 wrote:</em><blockquote>I don’t know other opinions on this but while I was learning about SEO I used this plugin to help in the short term and it worked really well for me.

http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/site-management/seo-&-metadata/4102/details</blockquote>

Hi Phil,

Thanks for this!

I have been very concerned with how my rankings will be affected once I finish the transition from an HTML site to Joomla. Any “gadget” that has been proven to work on a Joomla site can’t hurt. I will definately give this a try along with the other optimizations I already use.

[mj1256 Friend mj1256Join date: June 2007Posts: 1473Downloads:10Uploads:35 Thanks: 84 Thanked: 225 times in 118 posts]

#290758

original question, they are called “SiteLinks”
<blockquote>When you google ‘cnet’ for example, you will see in the search results, not only the website and link, but ALSO all of the site’s main categories, like:

Reviews
Televisions
Cell Phones
Digital Cameras

That all appear in the actual google search on the search engine? How can I do this for my site’s categories?</blockquote>

you cannot do this, google only does this for sites that they feel are important. There is nothing you can do to achieve those sitelink listings other than to become important.

If you sign up for google webmaster tools, and you should for your indexing, you will find information on what you originally asked.

log into webmaster tools/Dashboard/links/sitelinks/

Here is what google says:
Sitelinks are additional links Google sometimes generates from site contents in order to help users navigate your site. Google generates these sitelinks periodically from your site’s contents.
Because we generate sitelinks dynamically, this list can change from time to time.
Google has not generated any sitelinks for your site. Sitelinks are completely automated, and we show them only if we think they’ll be useful to the user. If your site’s structure doesn’t allow our algorithms to find good sitelinks, or we don’t think that the sitelinks are relevant to the user’s query, we won’t show them. However, we are always working to improve how we find and display sitelinks.

so, its up to google and there is nothing you can do except to continue working on your website.

you can get and ask for more information on this subject at http://www.searchengineforums.com where I am a member of the staff.

[imsleepy Friend imsleepyJoin date: January 2009Posts: 451Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 94 Thanked: 45 times in 1 posts]

#291319

I just got a nice surprise… I have been thinking about your post and was curious so I put in our website name just to see what would come up and found this http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ussarizona.org We have those site links!

I guess you don’t have to be big business to get these… I work at my kitchen table and my father… the I B Nease mentioned works from his home office.

Didn’t get as lucky with my business name http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Naknek+Design+Studio it’s the 5th one down… but it does have a nice little link that says more results from nds.alaskabizcenter.com I don’t advertise the site though so I am not too disappointed.

Anyway, just wanted to share because I was thrilled to find out you don’t have to be Microsoft, cnet, Walmart or some other big business to get the links. Hang in there… now we know for sure it can happen for anyone! :p

[mj1256 Friend mj1256Join date: June 2007Posts: 1473Downloads:10Uploads:35 Thanks: 84 Thanked: 225 times in 118 posts]

#291390

congrats imsleepy, you have been deemed worthy by google.

its still too bad that we can’t do anything to get these listing, google makes the decision

[Phill Moderator PhillJoin date: February 2014Posts: 7013Downloads:40Uploads:77 Thanks: 917 Thanked: 2206 times in 1818 posts]

#291407

It is not fully true that google makes the decision, part of it is down to the way you structure your site and if you build the sitemap properly.

My old http://www.windsurf.me.uk site had the full directory but as soon as I built it with joomla 1.5 that was lost. I have an article somewhere on techniques used to get listed that way, i’ll have a hunt for it.

[imsleepy Friend imsleepyJoin date: January 2009Posts: 451Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 94 Thanked: 45 times in 1 posts]

#291408

<em>@phill luckhurst 112118 wrote:</em><blockquote>It is not fully true that google makes the decision, part of it is down to the way you structure your site and if you build the sitemap properly.

My old http://www.windsurf.me.uk site had the full directory but as soon as I built it with joomla 1.5 that was lost. I have an article somewhere on techniques used to get listed that way, i’ll have a hunt for it.</blockquote>

Ouch!! That is not good news! That has been one of my biggest worries about switching over to Joomla. Looking forward to your article.

[mj1256 Friend mj1256Join date: June 2007Posts: 1473Downloads:10Uploads:35 Thanks: 84 Thanked: 225 times in 118 posts]

#291439

sorry phill luckhurst, it has nothing at all to do with your sitemap. You lost your listings when you switched to joomla because your url’s changed, but….you will get these listings back when google reindexes and reranks your site against your compeditors. it can take up to two months for that to happen, but you will get those listings back.

also, even though your take this hit for switching to joomla, or any thing that changes your indexed URL’s, switching to joomla or another CMS is a good thing as part of the algo is the quality of the site architecture, database driven sites are deemed to have a better architecture than FP, DW, or sitebuilders. So in the short run you took a penalty, in the long run the change will help your site rank higher. Of course you need to enable all of the other SEO tools for joomla that you can and follow good optimization guidelines.

BTW: I have been a professional SEO for 12 years, I have insider information, and I am on the staff of
http://www.searchengineforums.com, the oldest and longest running SEO discussion forum on the net. 🙂

[Phill Moderator PhillJoin date: February 2014Posts: 7013Downloads:40Uploads:77 Thanks: 917 Thanked: 2206 times in 1818 posts]

#291441

Maybe I shouldn’t have used the term sitemap as that has different implications. More that your site has to be built in a way google’s system can actually understand for it to index properly. And yes, I agree that a CMS does a great job of this if you enable all the right seo stuff and build your site properly.

I wish I could find that article that google wrote, I have it in an email somewhere. It goes into great detail of what google actually look for. There is so much to SEO that I reckon you could spend years researching it all and by then it will have changed.

I know that currently I have a lot of work to do to optimize my sites SEO. For a start, I have been lazy and used a plugin that uses the first line of each article for meta rather than doing it properly. I just wanted to get the site back up quickly (after a catastrophic hacker related server failure). In time I shall do things properly.

Great site searchengineforums.com by the way

[Author]

Posts