Thread

Hello all,
  I haven’t done any web design for almost nine years, and I just finished my first EE 2 site: http://www.steeltowntech.com. I still have some work to do, but it is workable at the moment, and I will be puting the finishing touches on this weekend. However, the world of SEO is a whole other area that I no longer know well enough. I was just hoping for some pointers to good resources before I just search for them and have to sift through which ones I should use.

On that note, is there a way to change the alt tags on images that are added in the EE control panel? Thanks all.

Lynda.com offers a couple of SEO courses that might help.  As for alt tags, you can modify the default settings in the File Upload Preferences (Tools, File Manager, File Upload Preferences, Edit (Upload Directory), Image Properties.

However, the world of SEO is a whole other area that I no longer know well enough.

SEO is mainly about having well-designed, relevant content. It’s not an EE issue per se. Is there some aspect of SEO you are thinking of? There are some plugins that help with some aspects of SEO, such as meta tags.

Thanks both of you. I was kind of looking for both some general information AND some specific info. The video class is great for the general help. What are the plugins you were thinking of?

I was thinking of Better Meta: http://expressionengine-addons.com/nsm-better-meta, but you can look search through lots of EE plugins at Devot:ee: http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/ee2/

Download the SEO Guide available on this site: [removed for dead link]

If you have a Bruce Clay office in your area I would suggest signing up to their one day training courses. They are a fantastic investment.

As for your current site. I think you will find some flaws when you look at your sites content subjectively before worrying about any technical considerations.

If I strip out the layout and look at your site, all your links refer as “read more”. If you made your subheadings into links the link terms “VOIP Phone Service” “Web Design” will pass relevance to the resulting page.

Secondly you seem to be missing your location details which would be an important factor in selecting a provider.

You will perform better and get a higher click through rate if you target your site around the terms “Cityname - IT and Telecommunications Consulting” Back this up with your Google local business listing. Make sure you list your primary product offering in your business name, Google Maps is not as sophisticated and will rank you higher for these terms. We have had a great improvement since updating our Google local business listing from “Fuse Digital” to “Fuse Digital - Website design & development”

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HMvW5WH3yscJ:www.steeltowntech.com/+http://www.steeltowntech.com/&hl=en&strip=1

Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide from Google.
http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en//webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
Download it (pdf file), very helpfull for your problem. GL

http://guides.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization

All good stuff so far. Thanks so much everyone!

I think for a great primer on SEO and other aspects of web marketing it is hard to beat what Search Engine News puts out each month.