TOPIC:

"Andrew":ojq96evh wrote: Google hasn't used URL's as their main parameter in the search algorithm for years. It's all about the page content now.[/quote:ojq96evh]
Well, whatever it is, something's wrong when we never show up in any search results.

I'm a complete Luddite in these matters, so please excuse any ignorance or offence I may have caused. I misunderstood what the TBN meant by Kilkenny, thought he meant the town not the county.

"Tube":3crjjunl wrote: Well, whatever it is, something's wrong when we never show up in any search results.[/quote:3crjjunl]

I haven't checked if beoir.org has it but a decent sitemap.xml should cure all those issues.

If the site's already being indexed by Google, as John says it is, a sitemap won't really improve its rankings. i.e. Google knows about the pages already, but doesn't consider them important enough to show them in search results (well they're probably there on page 20+).

A sitemap is handy where there are orphan pages, i.e. pages with no links to them from other pages on the site.

We used this guide[/url:2bjhc01t] (written by a former work colleague) for the last website I was involved with (a while back now) and we got onto page 1, sometimes we were number 1. He makes a living out of SEO now.

It would help if we could actually link to a search result. I'm not sure that it's possible on the platform used though.
Google loves links so when we link to a page, google picks up on it.

We can link to specific listings though.

Actually I think the real problem lies in the fact that beoir.org is just not popular enough to make it to the front page. Searching for almost any listing in a natural search brings up tripadvisor and all kinds of other massive site listings.
If I search for something new (too new to be reviewed by other sites) like The brew dock, we are number one but only a forum listing, not the directory listing.
In order to even see the directory listing I have to add the word beoir to the search. And the title that comes up (in position 3 for me) is: Beoir Directory - Entries and Categories beginning with "O" and this does not even have the brew dock listed. I think one of the sites has the word dock in it's address and that's what google picked up on.

Perhaps this discussion[/url:35r8461c] might help for the directory component? Even if it's only a minor thing.

Another thing we can do is to change it so we get friendly urls and not the php strings currently showing. For instance, this plugin[/url:35r8461c] if not used already. Are we already using SEF for the Joomla backend?

It also might be worthwhile splitting all this SEO stuff to a new discussion.

"Andrew":3qcprl21 wrote: That's because there is only one venue that does craft beer in Kilkenny town. [/quote:3qcprl21]

Our beers are in John Cleere's and The Pumphouse and [i:3qcprl21]I think[/i:3qcprl21] Metalman are in the Left Bank.

Sorry, we need to do some serious updating of our website...