google ups and downs

Having enjoyed good success in the SERPS - i discovered today that my google ranking has dropped suddenly on my index page. It seems to have occurred at the same time as there being hosting problems with surftown. I have fired off an email asking what has happened, but this is very frustrating as my hard work has been undone... i guess i will have to wait before my domain is trusted again. Maybe i should get back on with link building again after having taken a bit of a break...

Joomla

I've just finished watching a video over at itidiots.com giving a down to earth overview of joomla and its amazing features. definitely something to check out if you are interested in content management systems.

I now have to begin the hunt for an awesome looking template - i guess im looking for one that i can customise myself so it really ends up looking how i want it to. The thing is i think i will still need to create my individual sites to showcase the various things i do can and design, but for content systems Joomla is a winner.

Dmoz signs of life

google analytics in all its glory picked up someone from editors.dmoz accessing my site, which is great, i was expecting it to be another couple of months or so.

Traffic and bookings are pouring in which is really encouraging, if i had less commitments and a better pay offer, doing this full time could lead to incredible results im sure in terms of business turnover. My aim is to be in the top 3 for generic hadrian's wall searches and top on alot of other ones, and i want an average of 50 visitors a day, but thats pretty ambitious, i would be happy with 30 which is just under double what i'm getting at the moment.

So many things to do so little time. I need to consider starting a proper web page with a company name and a blog. I think i should probably do it in joomla, to take advantage of its CMS. I need to be thinking of a company name!

Im in the process of putting together a proposal for an architects firm, for their website and marketing package. I guess i did my first bit of consultancy work yesterday and i really enjoyed it, was a real buzz being an 'expert' and advising a highly successful business on their entire marketing plan!

patience

OK so i thought things would continue to move as quickly as they had the last few weeks in terms of rankings, but they've slowed down - by that i mean no moving or shaking in the last 3 days! I guess ive been so used to seeing my site rocket up the rankings that its frustrating to see it just sit now. I've added some useful links tho this week, so they should bump me up soon i hope - my new focus is going to be 'bed and breakfast hadrian's wall', ie a different word order as im not ranking so highly for that now.

My best of the web listing came through, but i still want dmoz to hurry up and list me, im sure its going to have a massive impact on my rankings, patience patience patience... urgh :(

Alt Tags

OK so alot of information you find on the web to do with SEO is antiquated which makes for annoying learning - why don't people put dates on their work? anyway i found this site on using ALT tags, i am unsure as to the value of changing them, but it certainly wont be a negative effect.

I started looking at this because i used this site keyworddensity.com and its helped explain a few things to me, mainly why i've dropped on the tantallon house search...

at it again

I'm taking a little break from the directory project today to have another crack at getting Tantallon House up the listings. After a lot of shuffling around the sight seems to have settled on the first page, 2nd from bottom which is great, but its still no top 3!!! i'm sure the difference in the number of clicks would be colossal. I have a few more directories to add the site too, as well as a few pending, so hopefully they should lead to a bump.

Worryingly, i overlooked the keyword tantallon house - its seems the site has lost its top 7 our of 10 spots to the tantallon bed and breakfast based in scotland which is unfortunate. i think i need to modify the site a bit as i have been so busy concentrating on getting hadrian's wall as the keyword i just presumed the keyword would be 'mine'.

So a slight change of direction is needed for the sight, also thinking ahead, i need to find out how many people use 'b&b' when searching, as im nowhere near the front page, something to work on i guess!

So since the 17th of August i've had 234 absolute unique visitors which i think is pretty impressive for a first time effort. Quite how many of them have turned into actual bookings is hard to tell to be honest, but there have been 6/7 enquiries via email which is encouraging.

I have launched another site northumberland bed and breakfast to try to improve results for those who search for northumberland as tantallon houseis on the border of Cumbria and Northumberland.

I now have similar results for Hadrian's Wall Bed and Breakfast in google, with and without the apostraphe which is great as it was beginning to bug me!