Comments on Website Please

[casualcottage]

Hello,
I have just started using statcounter and I love it, but now I see how many people I am losing! :cry: I would appreciate any comments from a buyer's viewpoint. I aim mostly for the "shabby chic" crowd and am amazed sometimes that I can't get a look by Google, especially when I see so many sites ranked that don't seem to be relevant. I try to only have quality links to and from sites that appeal to the same buyers.

www.casualcottage.com

Thanks!
Marilyn

[motorwatchercounter]

Hi Casualcottage,

Very pretty site. Not my cup of tea but it would be popular in the UK as we are being bombarded on TV with antique and auction sites at the moment. Maybe you could get a contact in the UK for that "quaint English, imported stock".

You have the basics with the titles, description and keywords in place. Have a look at the following sites which have tools to show you what you may be able to do get you up the search engine rankings.

http://www.webit21.com/keyword-checker-tool.htm

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/keyword-analysis-tool.shtml?

These are both easy to use and have some good advice as well as free analysis. One thing you will learn is that the site is not keyword "rich". Try using alt tags on each image to show a description of each object to increase these. The first link above will explain.

[Proteus]

am amazed sometimes that I can't get a look by Google, especially when I see so many sites ranked that don't seem to be relevant.

I guess the difference between those 'not relevant sites' and your home page is the content, there is not "food for the spider!" in your home page... see what the spider got from you:

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:iX251hxOD4EJ:www.casualcottage.com/+&hl=en&lr=&strip=1

My suggestions:

add a title to your pictures.
change the position of your navigation bar from your right to your left.
Add real content.
and erase the next spam:

<title>Casual Cottage - shabby/cottage chic antiques, flea market
finds, totes, pillows, candles and more.</title>
<meta name="keywords"
content="shabby chic, cottage chic, nightlights, night lights, pillows, patchwork pillows, cottage pillows, totes, candles, teacup candles, antiques, hand painted, handpainted, flea market finds, signs,">
<meta name="description"
content="Shabby/cottage chic pillows, totes, candles, antiques, sachets, handpainted items, flea market finds for the cottage chic home.">
<meta name="revisit-after" content="30 Days">
<meta name="Description"
content="Shabby/Cottage chic assessories for the home.">
<meta name="Keywords"
content="shabby chic, cottage chic, handpainted, hand painted, pillows,totes, sachets, candles, teacup candles, antiques, flea market finds, bird baths, home decor, decor,">

Why I consider this is spam (and I guess google spider too)?

Because what these tags are saying is something like this:

"Hi google spider, welcome to my page!
In this page you will find information about Shabby/cottage chic pillows, totes, candles, antiques, sachets, handpainted items, flea market finds for the cottage chic home.

Also please pay attention in the next words that I think are important to me: shabby chic, cottage chic, nightlights, night lights, pillows, patchwork pillows, cottage pillows, totes, candles, teacup candles, antiques, hand painted, handpainted, flea market finds and signs.

Please google spider, come to my page every 30 days, because you will find about Shabby/Cottage chic assessories for the home.

And I expect you to read carefully the next words, which are important to me: shabby chic, cottage chic, handpainted, hand painted, pillows,totes, sachets, candles, teacup candles, antiques, flea market finds, bird baths, home decor, decor.

Love,
M*** K*** "

(interpreted and edited by me...)

Well, after you promised all this food to the spider, guess what?... There is no food! (content!).

Hope this helps

-Proteus.

P.S. I got to write an article about this... :wink:

PSS I was wondering, is your home page a redirect from .www.casualcottage.com
to
.www.casualcottage.com/shabbychic.html ??

Why?...

PSSS. Nice items listed in your website... :wink:

[Sabrina]

Very lovely site and very appealing. :D

I clicked on this link and found it to be broken http://www.casualcottage.citymax.com/totes.html

[Arne]

It's something wierd with the site. I tried to open it in Internet Explorer and Mozilla. After a very long time, I could see some content in Mozilla but nothing in IE and the server was still loading.

The most of the content gets visual in IE only after I hit the stop button. But some of it was still not visual in either IE or Mozilla, same part was missing in the bottom.

Why is the front page named "shabbychic.html" insted of the normal "index.html"? As I understand this site is a "service" from a company that promise you to have a "professional website within minutes" with no knowledge of website design or HTML. The "index.html" file is in their control.

I have seen a lot of them over the years, and I don't understand why people still use this kind of "service". Endeed even harder to understand when companies doing their commersial sites that way. It's imossible to make a good (by all aspects) site with their tools. Visualy it sometime acceptable, if it loads in the browser, in one browser. But does it work in all other aspects, for search engines, visitors with different browsers etc. etc.? Very unusual! Validates? Never!

Sorry if I'm sound hard and hurt anybody, but I want to be honest :)

[Nomad]

<html>
<head>
<title>Shabby Chic Home Decor </title>
<meta name="keywords" content="shabby chic, cottage chic, nightlights, night lights, pillows, patchwork pillows, totes, candles, teacup candles, antiques, hand painted, ">
<meta name="description" content="Shabby/cottage chic accessories for your home.">
<Title>http://http://www.casualcottage.com/page/page/1146238.htm</Title>
<META Name="revisit-after" Content="30 Days">
<META Name="Description" Content="Shabby/Cottage chic assessories for the home.">
<META Name="Keywords" Content="shabby chic, cottage chic, handpainted, hand painted, pillows,totes, sachets, candles, teacup candles, antiques, flea market finds, bird baths, home decor, decor,">

All of that is wrong! Sorry really nice site but that is why you are not listing in enginges. The bot's are taking a look and :eek: I'm of can't read that mess...

Replace it with this

<html>
<head>
<title>Place your page title here</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<meta content="General" name="Rating" />
<meta content="index,follow" name="Robots" />
<meta content="casualcottage.com" name="Author" />
<meta content="2004-casualcottage.com" name="Copyright" />
<meta content="casualcottage.com" name="Designer" />
<meta content="30" name="revisit" />
<meta content="keywords here"
name="keywords" />
<meta content="Description here"
name="description" />
</head>

That will at least fix your page head problem.

Quick guide on correct head tag layout.

<html> opens the html document
<head> opens the head
<title></title> opens/closes title - this is placed first
<meta tag for charset>
<meta tag for keywords>
<meta tag for description>
</head>


Now I've left out the extra meta tags but they can be placed any where between the charset meta tag and the keywords meta tag. If you use an offline css document that will implicitly follow the charset meta tag.

Thats it, as simple as that and it will save you a lot of time and energy and MONEY! Apart from being in a bad mood from it not working as you would like it to.

All in all a very nice site though

Nomad


*Note* Replacement code is to xhtml 1.1 standard hence the '/' implicily closing the tags

[trackerm]

Hi :)

Your site looks pretty but I was a bit confronted by the term "Shabby". Maybe in your part of the world it means different to my part:

"shab·by ( P ) Pronunciation Key (shb)
adj. shab·bi·er, shab·bi·est

Showing signs of wear and tear; threadbare or worn-out: shabby furniture.
Dilapidated or deteriorated in condition, especially through neglect; seedy: a shabby little park.
Wearing threadbare clothing.
Despicable; mean: a shabby trick.
Not generous or just; unfair: shabby treatment.
Of mediocre or substandard quality: a shabby performance. "

I would like to have 'casual' stuff in my home, but not sure I want 'shabby' stuff. So you may need to hone that word, or feeling, a bit better. Or explain that 'shabby' doesn't mean 'shabby'! :)
Also you state all orders over $50 are shipped free. I'm in Australia. Does that still apply? I think you may need to clarify that too.

All the best :)

[webado]

Mark, the full term is really "shabby chic" - and it's been coined already :)

Yes, the site looks cozy, all lace and pretty things for the boudoir. Nothing shabby there :)

[trackerm]

Oooops sorry... I am so un-trendy :)

[billsart]

Not to Shabby :razz:

[activewebs]

Hi Guys
Marilyn , your guest book has been hijaked , check Jan 7TH :mad:

Rich

[jonra01]

There are a few things you could do that should help you in the search engines. For one thing, there is not a lot of text on most pages. The search engine bots only read text so that is what you need to get indexed. You could add a short page description at the top of every page. You should also add page titles as header tags <h1>,etc... to the content area styled with css. You could also add text in the left column on longer pages. Be sure to work in as many of the keywords that you want the search engines to use in their index. You should also fine-tune your page titles - the ones in meta tag. These are not as good as they could be. For instance, one says simply 'Candles'. This would be more effective if it read something like 'Candles to match your Shabby Chic decor'.

[natureart]

I like your layout. But you should make the table smaller or elongate your banner. I have a pink block at the end of your title banner. You should also consider changing the content background from the white to the pink in your banner, and maybe remove the special effect of changing pages. You may also benefit from moving the newsletter from the bottom of the content to the bottom of the menu, and maybe lightening the pink.
I agree with the others on using the word Shabby. You should be using Vintage, Antique, or even Classic English Cottage Style.

[jonra01]

I notice that most of the answers that are negative about the use of the word shabby are from non-US users. Perhaps they don't realize how big the 'Shabby Chic' movement was in the US. It was extremely popular 4-5 years ago. The woman who was the main proponent of the style had her own show on the Style Network which is a cable channel here in the States. It's use is almost mandatory for this type of product. A search on ebay for the term shabby chic in home and garden returns 2300+ items.

[Brisguy52]

At least remove the lines in red below :-

<!-- Goliath7 --->

<html>
<head>
<title>Casual Cottage Style Living </title>
<meta name="keywords" content="cottage style, cottage style decor, cottage living, romantic cottage, romantic home, cottage chic, romantic decor, shabby chic, rag quilts, totes, porcelain teasets, romantic lighting, romantic chandeliers, handpainted decor, handpainted, hand painted decor, hand painted porcelain">
<meta name="description" content="Beautiful accessories for your shabby chic, cottage chic or romantic cottage style home.">
<head>
<title>Casual Cottage Style Living</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<meta content="General" name="Rating" />
<meta content="index,follow" name="Robots" />
<meta content="casualcottage.com" name="Author" />
<meta content="2004-casualcottage.com" name="Copyright" />
<meta content="casualcottage.com" name="Designer" />
<meta content="30" name="revisit" />
<meta content="flea market finds, cottage style decor, romantic cottage, romantic home, cottage chic, shabby chic, vintage chic, romantic chandeliers, gifts, cottage decor, rag quilts, porcelain teasets, accessories, lamps, lighting,"
name="keywords" />
<meta content="Romantic cottage style accessories for you and your home"
name="description" />
</head>

[casualcottage]

Hi Guys
Marilyn , your guest book has been hijaked , check Jan 7TH :mad:

Rich
Thanks. I have finally had to remove it entirely from the website. Everytime I deleted those posts, they were added back the next day! I guess some people just don't have enough to do with their lives.

[casualcottage]

There are a few things you could do that should help you in the search engines. For one thing, there is not a lot of text on most pages. The search engine bots only read text so that is what you need to get indexed. You could add a short page description at the top of every page. You should also add page titles as header tags <h1>,etc... to the content area styled with css. You could also add text in the left column on longer pages. Be sure to work in as many of the keywords that you want the search engines to use in their index. You should also fine-tune your page titles - the ones in meta tag. These are not as good as they could be. For instance, one says simply 'Candles'. This would be more effective if it read something like 'Candles to match your Shabby Chic decor'.
Thank you so much for the feedback. My site is hosted by Citymax and I am somewhat limited in certain changes, such as the left hand column, but can do several of the other changes. I appreciate your comments.

[webado]

Oops, a type in the menu:

Romantic Cottage Style

[casualcottage]

Oops, a type in the menu:
Thanks Christina....I actually just saw that this morning!

[webado]

I "love" seeing my own typos when reporting somebody else's :lol:

[allclear]

I've found that google like dashes between words i.e.

http://www.casualcottage.com/fleamarketfinds.html

should be

/flea-market-finds.html

Google ignores dashes and treats as spaces. (never use underscores!)
Also easier to read.

On your links when you hover over them can you add pop up boxes containing relevant keywords (not sure what their technical name is!)?

Just the one links page.? Could do with a few? Keep each page restricted to 25 links and split into categories. Often my link pages get found by the search engines becasue they're often very key word rich!

When exchanging links vary the text in the link i.e. don't use the same text "casual cottage" because this will then be the only term you will be found under. Try and vary using keywords you want to be found under i.e romantic chandaliers or porcelain tea sets etc

[billsart]

is this true about no underscores and why?

[jonra01]

According to what I've read on this subject google indexes words that have underscores in them i.e. $_SERVER which is used in php. Because of this indexing they treat a word like 'my_page' as if it was a single word. Their algorythm breaks words at dashes into separate words. So a filename like 'my_page.html' gets indexed just as it is written. On the other hand, 'my-page.com' gets indexed as 'my-page.com' and as 'my page.com'

[allclear]

Yes this can be verified if you search for debt-consolidation in google it searches for debt consolidation but if you search for debt_consolidation it searches for debt_consolidation!

Hence why dashes in domain names may not be a bad thing!

[webado]

You cannot have underscores in domain names, but you can have hyphens. So there's no choice there.

File names and directory names can have both hyphens and underscores.

My previous infrmation was that both hyphens and underscores are replaced by blanks unless the search string is put inside quotes.

[jonra01]

My previous infrmation was that both hyphens and underscores are replaced by blanks unless the search string is put inside quotes.
I think I said that on this forum. That was before I learned it wasn't true. I'm allowed to be wrong once in awhile. :)

[webado]

I think I said that on this forum. That was before I learned it wasn't true. I'm allowed to be wrong once in awhile. :)
Aw, and I have to quote you on exactly that :lol: